|
Yay kitty pics!!
|
#
?
Dec 24, 2021 22:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 05:08 |
|
|
Welcome back!
|
|
#
?
Dec 24, 2021 23:09
|
|
|
Welcome back dude! You ready for snowpocalypse and massive blackouts this week?
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2021 01:51
|
|
|
I've got a wood burning stove and an unlimited supply of firewood, infinite freshwater, and 8 years experience driving through winter in the North-East, I'm as ready as can be. Not to mention plenty of blankets and three furry heat pumps that run on bio-fuel. Speaking of firewood, I lost three Alders in the storms this winter, unfortunately they missed the house.  I missed this place, it's good to be home, summers here are perfect, but it's not too shabby in the winter either.  Also my mortgage is officially 1/2 the price of a decent single bedroom apartment in this area now.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2021 08:30
|
|
|
quote:unfortunately they missed the house. Deck looks nice, so does that headboard. Have fun relaxing in the snow on your break from sub life.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2021 10:11
|
|
|
tangy yet delightful posted:Thought I mis-read this at first and then I remembered what thread I was in. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 02:49
|
|
|
If a tree fell and hit the kitchen, while leaving the deck miraculously unscathed.... I paid for my arrogance in my previous post, I almost got stranded on a sidewalk, with some chains and a lot of danger I made it home from work. The heat pump is keeping the house at 62F, but it's running literally constantly and blowing lukewarm air, I kinda wish I could just force it to use the 6kW emergency heat strip, I don't know why the resistance heater function has to be so bizarre and inaccessible (I'm pretty sure it's a function of delta-T between thermostat setpoint and actual temperature, which is what made me think it was broken and stuck on when I was testing the system) Wood burning stove is at max, and the kitchen's still just warm, not sweltering like usual, I'm unsure if that's due to exceptionally cold weather, or the air handler sucking hot air in via the cold air returns, or poorly seasoned wood that's frozen solid. E:   
Elviscat fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Dec 27, 2021 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 08:55
|
|
|
Does that stove retain any heat at all? It looks kind of puny.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 10:56
|
|
|
Someone educate me, I thought heat pumps were not used in areas that got cold enough for snow? I had never seen one until I left the Midwest (and the technology still confuses me, despite me now owning one).
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 12:23
|
|
|
Slugworth posted:Someone educate me, I thought heat pumps were not used in areas that got cold enough for snow? I had never seen one until I left the Midwest (and the technology still confuses me, despite me now owning one). They are common here in Finland and neighboring countries. Heat pump is too generic a word, but I assume you are talking air heat pumps. But my answer remains the same for that, they work down to -15C or so here, getting less efficient as the temperature drops. Newer pumps push this figure down further and are more effective. Now ground source heat pumps, they work against for instance, the ground water table, which is always the same temp year round. I have a 130m borehole that my heat pump extracts heat from with a loop of brine. Some people dig the loop down nearer the ground and lay it all over the garden instead. Some people run the loop down on the bottom of a nearby lake.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 12:45
|
|
|
Yeah you can get models that work down to -25c according to the ad copy at least. I should get mine cleaned, don't know if it has ever been done.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 16:23
|
|
|
Slugworth posted:Someone educate me, I thought heat pumps were not used in areas that got cold enough for snow? I had never seen one until I left the Midwest (and the technology still confuses me, despite me now owning one). You can supplement them with an electric heating element too, to cover the coldest of days. If the system works well for 9 months and just needs a boost in the winter. That's what we had on a project in Boulder CO. I would like to get one now, and combine it with rooftop solar to reduce my energy usage from the grid and get away from gas. It's a complete reversal of how I felt before I knew about heat pumps.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 16:26
|
|
|
Slugworth posted:Someone educate me, I thought heat pumps were not used in areas that got cold enough for snow? I had never seen one until I left the Midwest (and the technology still confuses me, despite me now owning one). You know how AC works by compressing some gas into a liquid outside (which makes it hot, a fan then dumps that heat. Run your air compressor and touch the tank, it will be warm.), then pipes it into your indoor condenser where it lets it suddenly expand into a gas (which makes it cold, ever notice how a spray can gets cold as you use it?) the forced air unit then pushes that coldness into your house. Well what if you ran the system in reverse? Now the gas compresses into a liquid, and they let it expand outside. That expansion is colder than the outdoor ambient air temperature (-26.3C for R134a). Blow a fan of 0C snowy air over it and you've just gained 26.3C in temperature. Now start compressing that gas back into a liquid indoors... It fucks with my head every time too, but it's the phase change of the gas that is creating delta-T that you can capture heat from, not just fans blowing air around.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 16:57
|
|
|
Another analogy I've seen is that a heatpump basically works like a refrigerator, except in reverse. I understand the fundamentals, but it still feels like magic to me. I tangentially know people up in Maine where it gets wicked cold in winter with heatpumps, and they seem to be satisfied with them. One caveat I do know of is that your insulation really needs to be up to scratch. Heat or air leaks really tank the efficiency, much like how a fridge doesn't work well if you leave the door open.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 17:38
|
|
|
organburner posted:Does that stove retain any heat at all? It looks kind of puny. It's not too bad, it actually has a huge fire box, if I close the flue to minimum it'll still have a good bed of embers and the kitchen will be warm in the morning. Slugworth posted:Someone educate me, I thought heat pumps were not used in areas that got cold enough for snow? I had never seen one until I left the Midwest (and the technology still confuses me, despite me now owning one). It rarely gets below freezing here, and mine is set up to basically become a big resistive heater on days it gets too cold, I need to put a power monitor of some sort on it so I can see if it's using that feature. It's hitting record lows here right now, which is exciting because my pipes are now frozen.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 18:58
|
|
|
Classy poo poo, I hope the pipes unfreeze soon.  My family made me a little retrospective timeline of this spring's insane rush to the finish for Christmas, there's some cool photos that I haven't shared in there, it also shows the insane amount of help they gave me (and the like 30 pounds I gained)          Kitties appreciate the extra deep windowsills, from this morning. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2021 23:06
|
|
|
I bought lever type hardware for all my doors, because I prefer how it looks and feels. Tonight this little poo poo made me pay for that asthetic decision by learning how to open them, she's also the reason all my cabinets are permanently open. She's lucky she's so cute.  Heat pump is a solid block of ice, every few hours the outside bit makes terrible noises while it reverses the phase change to defrost the evaporator outside, it's marginally effective and seems to manage to defrost about 30% of the coil area it's still running almost constantly, and I wonder if running on resistive heat alone would be more efficient.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 07:53
|
|
|
Yeah lever handles have that disadvantage, we had a cat who learned the same, and left the back door open when it was -30 outside once. How cold is it where you are for the heat pump to have such problems? Elviscat posted:It's not too bad, it actually has a huge fire box, if I close the flue to minimum it'll still have a good bed of embers and the kitchen will be warm in the morning. What it ought to have is some thermal mass. We have this superb little wood heater in Finland called the Porin-Matti, it's like a hybrid between a heavy masonry heater and a steel wood burner. It gives both quick radiant warmth but has like 200-300kg of concrete inside it that retains the heat for a slow release over several hours. Great little heaters, highly effective burn too, achieved like 86% in the 1940s. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Dec 31, 2021 |
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 08:05
|
|
|
She also pulled the tablecloth she was on in that photo off like 15 minutes later. It's been in the low to mid 20's here (-7 to -2C) here, part of the problem, I think, is I mounted the outside unit (evaporator in heat mode) in the roof's drip line, giving it extra moisture to deal with.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 08:12
|
|
|
Yeah that's your problem. The one I've been running every winter since 2018 in New England as our main source of heat hasn't frozen once because it's under the front porch, which has a roof over it. Not even a thin layer of ice.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 08:21
|
|
|
I'll have to build it a cute little roof when it warms up above freezing. The Sherwin Williams alkyd enamel I chose for the mount is holding up well, I'm pleased with that choice, I was initially concerned because it stays gummy for awhile, but it seems rock hard now.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 08:25
|
|
|
Elviscat posted:I'll have to build it a cute little roof when it warms up above freezing. Oh yeah, preventing snow from actually piling up directly on the unit is a pretty important thing for keeping it actually functional. Just be careful not to enclose it too much, as that'll hurt its efficiency by impeding air flow.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 10:28
|
|
|
A few places here sell ready made "enclosures" for the outside units, but building one seems easy enough.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 14:28
|
|
|
Elviscat posted:She also pulled the tablecloth she was on in that photo off like 15 minutes later. Until you can solve this problem I would switch it to resistive 100% of the time. You're just working your unit for no benefit.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 18:33
|
|
|
Elviscat posted:I bought lever type hardware for all my doors, because I prefer how it looks and feels. I installed a lever handle on the door between the kitchen and the garage, mostly to make taking laundry in and out easier. New doggo figured it out by jumping on the door. rear end in a top hat.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 19:10
|
|
|
I had to increase the size of the magnets holding a cabinet door closed because one cat became strong enough to open the old one after a couple years. Little dude has been working out. I can't imagine the chaos if I had levers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2021 21:02
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Until you can solve this problem I would switch it to resistive 100% of the time. You're just working your unit for no benefit. That's a good idea.  4.5kW wasn't enough resistive, it's barely keeping up with heat losses. Most of my heat is going out the attic, which is expected, I'll have to get that sealed up and better insulated by next winter, high 30's all this week so shouldn't be so bad.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2022 20:09
|
|
|
Oh sweet, I think the well pump froze overnight and destroyed the motor, it's hot to the touch and appears bound, that's $1,500 out for no reason.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2022 20:25
|
|
|
I figured that turning the heat pump on yesterday would be fine, given the 40 degree Temps and what not yesterday. Nope.     
Elviscat fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Jan 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2022 09:41
|
|
|
Sorry to hear that your well pump is, well, not well. Glad to see the cat is, though. What's the plan with the heat pump, then?
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2022 13:13
|
|
|
I fixed the well pump, it was just a bad starting cap, I had an appropriately sized one laying around from when I thought the 30 gallon air compressor had a bad one (I unthinkingly plugged it into the 100' 14ga extension cord I had the pancake that had just broken plugged into earlier, and it wouldn't start due to voltage drop, lol.) Well company I bought the new pump from has fantastic customer service, and it was super easy to cancel the order with them. Plan for the heat pump? Long term I'm gonna build a little roof over it, probably put some trellis up to hide it too. Short term solution is to just run resistive heat, that mother is frozen solid even after 3 days with no below freezing temps. It'd be easy if my girlfriend hadn't moved in here, the heat works fantastically well keeping the house at 55, but she won't stand for that so I have to crank it up to the mid 60's, where it really struggles. I have two weeks off work starting tomorrow, so I'll probably get right on that I'm going to spend two weeks snowboarding, riding dirt bikes and drinking I did get the TV mounted, man these things have gotten good the last few years, streaming, casting, everything works seamlessly, so much better than my girlfriend's older one, I forgot to run the wires for the speakers in the wall when it was open, so now I need to wait until I move on to the bathroom to set my sound system up :maddowns:  This is Boots, the pesky little door-opener, she has to run around to every window in the house to see what's out of each of them. Rosie also knows how to open doors, but is too lazy to do so, which is good, because she has a desire to roam outside the house.  E: speaking of things that have improved, these 4" LED "cans" (flushmount LEDs) are amazing, installation is miles better than traditional 6" recessed cans, beam pattern is amazing, color temperature is excellent and selectable, dimmers take them from 100% illumination to night-lighting levels with no problems, I didn't really plan lighting well based on "I used to be an electrician, I'll figure it out" but it turned out world class anyway, it's the third thing anyone who comes over comments on, after the deck and the floating stairs, which are real show stoppers. Elviscat fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Jan 6, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2022 07:22
|
|
|
Which wafers did you get? I've got a bunch of the ones from home depot in my old house but I can't remember the part number. I think they're pretty great too. On the heat pump if you need a hand holding stuff up while you screw it to the house lemme know, I'm actually in Port Orchard right now until we get our RV fully ready for life and I need to hit Lowes in the next day or 3 anyways. Once you have the roof over it I bet if you shut it off for a few days (or even better, put it in cool mode, start a fire, and thereby use your woodstove to melt the ice) while it's nice this weekend you can just lift the rest of that slab of ice off and be done with it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 6, 2022 11:00
|
|
|
I'll be alright, the torrential rain is clearing it off pretty good right now. I wanted to invite you over for dinner sometime, but omicron is loving raging through both my girlfriend's and my places of work, so that'll probably have to wait. Hopefully we don't get snow like that again soon, but I don't think we'll get that lucky.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2022 00:55
|
|
|
Any time dude, if the rain ever stops (holy poo poo it is absolutely bucketing right now) we could do an outside grill thing or something and not worry about covid that way. Allegedly the next 3 days are nice but who knows if that'll be true, and there will be a decent breeze Saturday also. We're all fully boosted as well.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2022 09:16
|
|
|
My girlfriend forced me to suspend the moratorium in house work to build some hipster storage stuff in the closet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2022 00:56
|
|
|
I don't know why my eye gravitated towards the genX storage system on the right instead of the gastropub coatrack, but it did. How's it secured to the ceiling? I've seen people do all kinds of interesting stuff for that, especially when the mounting feet they chose don't line up with anything structural... Guessing you planned for that though.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 07:38
|
|
|
God, those racks are my bane. Every so often they inexplicably become popular and we get a horde of idiots descending on the store complaining that our plumbing supplies are built for, you know, plumbing, rather than for making their coat rack construction easier.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 11:02
|
|
|
Leaving the sticker on really gives it that continental feel.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 18:52
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:God, those racks are my bane. Every so often they inexplicably become popular and we get a horde of idiots descending on the store complaining that our plumbing supplies are built for, you know, plumbing, rather than for making their coat rack construction easier. The black iron fittings selection at my local Lowes suggests it's the #1 use for black iron pipe these days. 2 2" #12 screws in each foot are in the joist, the other two are in the ship lathe right next to it, it's load tested to 250...er 260ish pounds. (The ceiling in the closet doesn't have a level drop ceiling below it like the rest of the first floor)  It was more meant as a fun project my GF and I could do together, we got to break out the ol' Amazon Special pipe threader and she got to use the 12" miter saw again, we had a good time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 21:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 05:08 |
|
|
Elviscat posted:The black iron fittings selection at my local Lowes suggests it's the #1 use for black iron pipe these days. Here black iron pipe is usually used for central water heating since, being deoxygenated, the water doesn't need galvanized pipe to avoid corroding the hell out of them. And the problem is that, yes, everyone wants to use the black pipe for it, but of course the only "foot" fittings we have are in galvanized iron.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2022 22:14
|
|