The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread XXXIV

[rah]

LED bulbs also reduce cooling costs.

 

[warpus]

Good tip! I should upgrade more, I have about half of my bulbs changed over to LED

 

[Takhisis]

You know, in the summer you could simply do more outdoor activities and worry less about the heat. That's my solution.

 

[BenitoChavez]

Yes but outdoors has the sun and the sun makes things hot. Plus sunburn is a thing. And bugs, I don't like bugs. It's a dangerous business going out your door, Tak. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet there's knowing what might happen.

 

[warpus]

You know, in the summer you could simply do more outdoor activities and worry less about the heat. That's my solution.

If I turn off the AC during the day, it will take a loooooong time to get the house cool enough to be able to sleep in at night. Right now we're going through a heat wave, so we can't just open our windows at night, as it's really humid. So the windows need to be closed, and the system needs many hours to cool down the house before midnight or so. So during the day it needs to be on. I've programmed it to stay off as long as possible, but it usually kicks in around noon-2pmish every day... I tried 4pm once, and it was way too late, it didn't have enough time to cool down for midnight

 

[The_J]

I meant that it sounds familiar. Either it's an imitation or was imitated by someone else. Also, the one I remember didn't use those vocals; it was all instrument.

Somehow a part reminds me of greensleeves,

(maybe not the best vid, but I don't know who wrote it, there are too many videos with this name on Youtube, and so I cannot quickly find a better one)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My roommate owns a dog and is a dog walker, so there's always at least 1 dog around. I was quoted $159 for the duct cleaning, and a lot of resources online I've been reading say you should do it every couple years. It hasn't been done in 25 so I figure I might as well do it. A lot of the vent openings are also in the ground, so it's possible stuff has been falling in there. I also had mice once, so maybe they were in there too and dragged stuff into the vents? I dunno but if it helps even a bit IMO it will be worht it

They also want to clean my furnace and I told them I'd get back to them about that. They are quoting me $80 for that IIRC. They also want to do another thing.. I think cleaning the ducts with chemicals? To get rid of mold or other similar things? I told them I won't need that part done ($60 IIRC)

What mice leave behind are mouse droppings. Breathe in enough of that, and your lungs will be compromised. Depending on what kind of mice they were, hantavirus is a risk, and people have died from that.

My advice is to make sure there are no mouse droppings in your ducts, and if it costs extra, just realize that your lungs will thank you. And since your lungs are critical for your high-altitude hiking vacations, isn't it worth it? That $60 extra could make a huge difference down the line.

I also have another fan on the way (small one, $28, designed for air circulation, pretty powerful for its size) and a new spinny fanny thingy that hangs on the ceiling. I will hang that up in the hallway upstairs.

Just make sure you don't put a fan near the water dishes for any dogs that live in your home. I learned not to do this because I was using the dining room ceiling fan in another apartment I lived in, and running the fan meant that the cats' drinking water was evaporating. Since my cats have their food and water in the kitchen (I shudder at people who put the food and water next to the litter box), I had to stop using the fan.

 

[Takhisis]

Yes but outdoors has the sun and the sun makes things hot. Plus sunburn is a thing. And bugs, I don't like bugs. It's a dangerous business going out your door, Tak. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet there's knowing what might happen.

You can get hot and sunburnt indoors.

I assume you meant that there's no knowing what might happen… next summer I'll try it again and I'll be able to give you an on-the-spot account.

If I turn off the AC during the day, it will take a loooooong time to get the house cool enough to be able to sleep in at night. Right now we're going through a heat wave, so we can't just open our windows at night, as it's really humid. So the windows need to be closed, and the system needs many hours to cool down the house before midnight or so. So during the day it needs to be on. I've programmed it to stay off as long as possible, but it usually kicks in around noon-2pmish every day... I tried 4pm once, and it was way too late, it didn't have enough time to cool down for midnight

You leave your AC on during the day? Stop that. Our environment is screwed up enough as it is.

 

[Cutlass]

My roommate owns a dog and is a dog walker, so there's always at least 1 dog around. I was quoted $159 for the duct cleaning, and a lot of resources online I've been reading say you should do it every couple years. It hasn't been done in 25 so I figure I might as well do it. A lot of the vent openings are also in the ground, so it's possible stuff has been falling in there. I also had mice once, so maybe they were in there too and dragged stuff into the vents? I dunno but if it helps even a bit IMO it will be worht it

They also want to clean my furnace and I told them I'd get back to them about that. They are quoting me $80 for that IIRC. They also want to do another thing.. I think cleaning the ducts with chemicals? To get rid of mold or other similar things? I told them I won't need that part done ($60 IIRC)

I also have another fan on the way (small one, $28, designed for air circulation, pretty powerful for its size) and a new spinny fanny thingy that hangs on the ceiling. I will hang that up in the hallway upstairs.

I don't want to pay so much for cooling my house each month, so I'm willing to invest a bit and make things more efficient. Next on my list is to clean out my closet and check out the attic, and look into insulating it better. I also want to get some windows tinted

Do you know to replace the filter on the furnace every year?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Do you know to replace the filter on the furnace every year?

The replacing of the filter every year is not very precise. What actually matters is the run time of the unit and the amount of contamination that is being filtered out. If he has a good thermostat and a good app on his phone it is keeping track of actual run time and letting him know more precisely when the filter should need to be changed. If he has a really good unit it will monitor differential pressure across the filter and let him know when it actually does need to be changed.

Extraneous changing of filters overtaxes landfills. Get green.

 

[warpus]

I am actually right now using filters that need to be changed every 3 months or so. Probably more frequently here, because there is a dog that sheds. I just replaced it yesterday actually, and the old one was quite dusty. I'm not sure if it had much of an impact on the temperatures in here, but I think there is a slight improvement. All within error margin tho really

Before this there was a filter there that you just cleaned.. but I almost never did that and it is like 25 years old now (probably), so I bought a pack of throw away ones about a year ago. This is the last one, so I have to get new ones soon

You leave your AC on during the day? Stop that. Our environment is screwed up enough as it is.

Everybody here has their AC on during the day (in the summer). They're not always running, but they're on. And when it's hot and humid enough (like during this heat wave) you keep your window closed and leave the AC on overnight (set to some decent enough temperature, so it's not always running)

If you didn't leave your AC on during the day on a day like today, the whole house would get really humid and sticky inside, and it would take hours for the AC to fill the house with nice feeling air again. By the time that happened it would be morning again

That's just the sort of life you can expect when you live with very large lakes all around you

 

[Takhisis]

Maybe we have different expectations… this is a very humid zone as well and the heat alone can be just as bad, if not worse. But then some people here seem to be as dependent on AC as you are up there, and I find myself wondering the same regarding their behaviour. Especially bus drivers who expect the interior of their buses to be 15 degrees cooler than the outside. Which, I think, might be not to your taste either.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Dry heat is easier to stand than humid heat. With dry heat I can go find a sprinkler and stand in it. With humid heat it sometimes feels like drowning above ground.

 

[Takhisis]

Oh, believe me, I know.


Question time (I've just had an erratic thought while washing my hands): When is sand a tougher surface to hit? Dry or wet?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Oh, believe me, I know.


Question time (I've just had an erratic thought while washing my hands): When is sand a tougher surface to hit? Dry or wet?

Clarify. You mean like if you fall and land on it? Or something else?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Both can be hard-packed, so it depends on what kind of sand.

I remember the most glorious soft black sand at the lake where we had a cabin. It was really soft, no matter if it was wet or dry.

Of course this meant it was no good for building castles, but then I wasn't really into that back then.

 

[Takhisis]

Clarify. You mean like if you fall and land on it? Or something else?

To fall and land on or to be crushed against (say, by a car) or dropped pnto (which would count as fall and land on). Either way it would be at quite some speed.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

To fall and land on or to be crushed against (say, by a car) or dropped pnto (which would count as fall and land on). Either way it would be at quite some speed.

If you hit it with any substantial velocity I don't think it will make much difference.

 

[Cutlass]

To fall and land on or to be crushed against (say, by a car) or dropped pnto (which would count as fall and land on). Either way it would be at quite some speed.

It's not the wet or the dry, it's the compact. Daytona became a car racing venue because they drove on the beach. You try to drive on the Sahara, you'll get noplace. Sand should be course grained and compacted to be hardest. Fine grained and wind blown to be softest.

 

[civvver]

LED bulbs also reduce cooling costs.

That's just an added benefit. The real purpose of switching to leds is they last 10 years so you don't have to change those damn burned out bulbs, especially when you have high ceilings and are short like me and have to lug a ladder around to change them.

The replacing of the filter every year is not very precise. What actually matters is the run time of the unit and the amount of contamination that is being filtered out. If he has a good thermostat and a good app on his phone it is keeping track of actual run time and letting him know more precisely when the filter should need to be changed. If he has a really good unit it will monitor differential pressure across the filter and let him know when it actually does need to be changed.

Extraneous changing of filters overtaxes landfills. Get green.

I'm not sure how an app would know the contamination level in his house. Just look at the filter, if it's visually dirty, change it. Usually it's every 3 months for cheaper ones. If landfills really bother you get one you can clean and reuse.