I realize my purposes do not represent a large portion of the population, but I really appreciate aas, aaas and 9 volts that I’ve bought here in bulk in the past. I am in a paranormal research group, go ahead and laugh, and I’m the tech team leader. I use so many batteries. We put in new batteries at the beginning of every group that enters a site. I do have a good selection of rechargeable batteries, but I always need throwaways. (I’m a skeptic, btw. I have been doing this for 30 years and mostly do it because I want to help people be comfortable and feel safe in their own homes. Houses make weird weird sounds.)
@ChompyGator Sorry I had to laugh although it sounds like your purpose is to disprove there are “ghosts” so the gullible don’t move out of their homes. Sounds like you found a problem to solve and thus have a business because of it.
Several years ago I lived for a year down the street from a decaying, but impressively beautifully (in its day) Victorian house used in a Ghost Busters episode. The college kid giving tours around halloween (she had a big mouth too as she said the owners cleared about $25,000 giving those tours - although likely they needed that to heat and cool the place and keep it from falling apart with them in it) accidentally blew it on a few “ghost” tricks used.
A bluetooth ghost detector triggered by cell phones (as someone on my tour accidentally did and the kid told her to put her phone away as it messed up the “ghost” sensor - as the tour leader had an app open on her phone and I guess was going to light the thing up herself - I happened to be standing next to her and saw that). Then we had the B&W “old” photo of the ghost where they needed to photoshop the spotlight reflection in a glass container as that gave away how they staged that photo. And of course the moving shelf item when you “said certain words” where I was the last to leave the room and found the loose floor board that moved it…
Yup. No ghosts there. But certainly a likely needed source of income for the family who owned that house. And they did a fantastic job of decorating for halloween. Drew hundreds to trick or treat on my street because of that house. This was the year of the kid who ran into the street and yelled - “this house has fidget spinners!!!” - than you meh. I had bought a number of light up ones. Street looked like it was covered in giant multi colored fire flies. If it wasn’t for the fact that it had started raining pretty hard I would have run out early and then only had candy.
@OnionSoup But you’d need to build it above the arctic circle so that if your power goes out you know you can always get charge out of your house. Right @shahnm?
Ebay has some fair rechargeable lithium 9v if you’re interested. They aren’t super cheap, but personally I feel they are worth it, and are functioning well for me: 9v Batts
Right now CVS has a 48 pack of alkalines, CVS brand but not their regular ones, either AAA or AA, for $12.99, made in china. It is not with their other batteries, it is with the time limited stuff in the center of the store. It is in a “box” shape container, not a hanging blister pack.
Decided to put Engergizer Lithium 9V batteries in the smoke/carbon monoxide detectors in my house because I am getting too old to climb up on ladders to replace them and they start to beep either when you are going to bed or in the middle of the night. Hopefully they will last a long time given the cost.
@Felton10 I mean they have to be replaced every 10 year’s. If that is your goal you might as well buy the sealed battery ones. Battery and sensor are fucked… Train walter
@Felton10@unksol Also, if you step to the sealed ones, might as well get a combo unit, with CO detection, since the CO sensor is limited lifetime anyway.
@Felton10@kevinrs smoke detectors usually say 10 years max. CO detectors can be 5-10. Sealed battery ones obviously use the better sensors but none of them are designed to be left up there forever. The sensors do degrade over time.
CO sensor does not matter if you have no gas appliances. It would make no sense to have gas for a lot of people down south although they might be wishing for some cheap heat this week
@Felton10@kevinrs@unksol
You clearly haven’t heard the southern phrase “cooking with gas”. And the tons of LPG and LNG that come in from the Louisiana and Texas gulf to supply the rest of the country.
@Felton10@kevinrs@mike808 more the utility fees on the gas make it more expensive than electric for cooking/water heating sometimes. In summer. I suppose that also depends on your electricity costs. So some new homes down that way don’t even run gas lines I hear. Gas pulls its weight hard when you need heat in winter and once you have it you should use it for everything you can. I prefer cooking with gas. Little miffed the previous owners bough an electric dryer that came with the house instead of gas
@kevinrs@mike808@unksol Actually what our newly constructed house has re gas is confusing to say least. Has gas cooktop (first one we had in 45 years-thought it would be an issue but not bad at all), gas for dryer, tankless hot water heater, and and gas line for grill. But alias has heat pump for heating rather than gas heat which even in Florida is better.
My electric bill in my new house is around $ 125 a month. Was over $400 initially in my previous house-combination of 12 foot (rather than 10 foot) ceilings, ineffective A/C (rather than a two stage unit) and a pool pump that ran 8 hours a day (which added any where from 75 to 100 a month).
@Felton10@kevinrs@mike808 so technically all those applications are cheaper with gas. Home heating is the weird part. If you have gas already go all in. In general
The weird part is state related where you get charged $20 in the summer for usinging $2 of gas. Cause fees to pay for the pipeline.
But no big deal in winter when it’s 0 out and you need they gas which is so much cheeper
@Felton10@kevinrs@unksol
Technically, they’re not “cheaper”. There are environmental costs that don’t appear on your bill, but are paid by the planet an every living thing on it.
@kevinrs@mike808@unksol I’m sure the heat pump was cheaper than a heating (gas) A/C (electric) system. You wouldn’t believe some of the corners that were cut in our house to save money vs things that came standard in our previous house.
And this is in a house costing over half a million dollars.
@Felton10@kevinrs@mike808@unksol Our house is all-electric, except for a gas island cook-top (my wife and I prefer gas there for the instant heat and finer control). But natural gas is not an option out in the sticks, so we use propane for the cook-top. A 25 gal tank lasts about 18-20 months, and I have two tanks so I always have a full backup.
Our most recent electric bill (for January) was $110. But it was pretty mild weather, plus we live in the land of PNW hydro-power and an electric PUD with a rate of only $0.0719/KWH. The highest monthly bill I can recall, back when the kids lived here and there were five of us in the house, was something under $200 one unusually cold winter.
They are actually cheaper/better. Most US power plants are moving to natural gas. Because of cost. That means a power plant burns natural gas. Still cleaner than coal. To make electricity. This is an inefficient way to transfer energy. There are loses in the system because its burning fuel to create heat to create steam to spin a turbine to create electric.
It is much more efficient to pipe the gas to the place it will be burned in a 95% efficient furnace
@Felton10@kevinrs@macromeh@mike808 well… Yea once a gas pipeline is not available you are in a whole different thing. Propane is not NG. Then it’s do we prefer cooking with gas and what is installing the tank going to cost and will it be cheaper in the long run. What’s the service to fill up the tank… And after you do the math is this worth it.
Obviously your senario where you have it cause you like it. Off a grill sized tank.
Different then putting a 500 gallon tank in the yard
@kevinrs@mike808@unksol We moved into one of the first developments that far north in Maryland back in 1976 that had a heat pump. They weren’t designed for houses that far north and we said WTF-there is cold air coming out of the ducts. But when it really got cold and the heat pump could not draw enough heat out of the outside air to heat the house then the emergency (element) heat went on and that is when it really became costly. And to make matters worse, heat pump technology was in its infancy back then.
Its gotten much better, but nothing beats gas heat as we found out.
@unksol And there’s the rub. The distribution infrastructure. That, and it’s still fossil fuel sourced and less efficient than coal, so even more carbon will be dumped into the atmosphere. The rush to LNG is from fracking (which yields more LNG than crude) and US strategic energy policy and the industry moving away from middle-eastern energy dependence after 9/11.
The real challenge for humans in this century is energy storage and distribution between generation and use.
@Felton10@kevinrs@mike808 yeah in the north. Nothing wrong with heat pumps I’d def want one of in the range that supports one on a new house but that’s A low percentage of houses
@Felton10@kevinrs@mike808@unksol Our heat pump is geothermal sourced, so it extracts/dumps heat from/to the ground. 6-8 feet down, the ground stays right around 50-55F year round. We have ~600 feet of line buried that circulates fluid through the heat pump. Works great. The ground-source option added about 50% to the cost of the heat pump installation (vs. conventional air-sourced), but there was a significant subsidy from the electric PUD to offset the extra cost. In 22 years of use, we haven’t regretted the choice.
@Felton10 I had a heat pump in coastal VA. It would freeze when it was in the 20’s due to ice build up on the outside. They don’t do well in that kind of weather even when they switch to all electric heat.
@Felton10@kevinrs@macromeh@mike808 yes I forgot to mention the geothermal bit. They is the way to go when putting in a new system if you can.
The air source ones are meh depending on local temps but you get the savings on a ground source system. They cost quite a bit more though. If building a new house I would probably do that. But the current house… Use it till it breaks
Natural gas is better than coal that is why we have stopped making coal plants.
Agree nuclear would have been far better for the environment than coal or NG. However the “better” part is just on the environmental side effects. The energy density of coal is higher than NG, pound for pound. It’s the other stuff in coal that’s nasty for the earth. NG is easier and cleaner (meaning more completely into CO2 and H2O) to burn, but it is still burning hydrocarbon fossil fuels. You have to burn more NG to get the same energy output as coal.
The switch was because the economics and politics (geo and enviro) finally killed “big coal”. The people of West Virginia were swindled by the great grifter, 45. Coal was and still is never going to come back. They sold their votes for nothing.
@mike808 we should have made a hard shift to nuclear power a long time ago but bad info causes people to be… Dumb. That is the obvious solution but we still can’t get MSRs or other reactors off the ground that burn waste cause of all the misinformation. We can’t even use the national storage depot cause people are whiners
@Kidsandliz Ours was a double wammy-really cold weather in the winter and the new “technology”-made for a lot of visits from the heating/AC company and a lot of cold spots in the house.
Fast forward to Florida where the heating/AC unit is hanging from the ceiling in the garage-so you have to climb up on a ladder to change the filter. Great for old farts.
Next and current house-the heat pump unit is stuffed in a closet in the utility room. In less than 14 months have had 4 clogging drains calls so far-they had to install a pump to help the water drain.
@Felton10 Personally I hate heat pumps. I also hate those motel heaters which is what I currently have (just one to heat all rooms so a good 10 degree difference between the room with the heater in it and the other room and bathroom). Be interesting to see if it has problems when it drops to 23 tonight. As it is when the hot air isn’t coming out you can feel the cold air blowing through all the opening to the outside. I like radiators best. And you can sit on them (if they have a cover) when you are cold. The heat lasts a long time after the hot water shuts off…
@Felton10@Kidsandliz a proper ground source heat pump system is really just about where/how you get the heat. Technically what you chose to do with the heat is a separate part. You could do radiant under floor heating. or room radiators. Most seem to be standard forced air cause that’s cheapest and air source cause again cheap. Putting in that ground loop is not cheap
@unksol I got the nest protect wired, came with AA lithiums for backup. Was able to replace the 1985 hardwired detector the house was built with. Not Zwave, but a nice detector
@kevinrs I have no desire or need to replace the hardwired detectors. I consider them superior. But it’s kind of annoying you can’t get one with zwave or zigbee when they need replaced. I haven’t done any smart home stuff but it’s weird it doesn’t exist.
I can always put a zwaze relay or two on the hardwired line if I want it it’s just weird no one offers something so simple. They market it as a substitute instead of an addition.
I suppose I should clarify the rechargeable 9v are working better than all previous attemps at it and no chirps. Since I can recharge them I’m happy so far. Obviously if you don’t have a charger… Different story
@macromeh I have had them in for I think a year plus. They started whining… Checked every one in the system and the rechargeables with a multimeter all showed above voltage still. It was a bad high life alkaline in the system I didn’t replace.
Not saying these our bullet proof but they have behaved better than other 9v used.
These are hardwired detectors where the 9v is only a backup.
There are lithium 9v and other options if needed
I think I’m going to buy a second set to fill the one that failed with an alkaline and it i ever need to rotate some through. Where else do you use 9V
I would still prefer detectors be AA and some are
I would not say to trust them in battery only detectors. Again these a hardwired and even if the power went out I can’t imagine all like 7 of them would fail at onc
Just go with the sealed units. 10 years and replace. Instead of annual 9V replacement.
CO units are only needed if you have gas appliances.
Also, CO is heavier than air, so you’ll be dead from CO poisoning long before thr house fills up to the ceiling with it and sets off your combo detector.
If you need a CO detector, you would be best served by getting a separate CO detector (sealed battery) and put it under your bed or nightstand on the floor near where you sleep.
@mike808 That CO is heavier than air is a common myth. I have no idea why, it should be obvious just from the periodic table/highschool but it persists. It’s actually slightly lighter. And regaurdless it doesn’t settle or rise. There not really a better place to place them so built into the fire alarm is fine.
I have a kiddie at wall outlet height, a combo hardwired downstairs so everything alerts, and a 10 year sealed upstairs. But that’s because I primarily heat with the gas fireplace cause I spend most of the time in that room. And don’t want to heat the whole house.
They are deployed outside the bedrooms although I off course turn the fireplace off at night
@unksol TIL. I guess that’s what I get for getting my (non) life-saving home safety tips from Fox & Friends.
I do believe in putting the sensors 1) where you are, and 2) where the CO source would be if there were a problem.
Maybe it’s from the years of “visual aids” for this silent, odorless threat being demonstrated on TV using readily available dry ice and water. Because the dry ice is so much colder than the ambient air temperature, during sublimation, it “sinks”, filling up the container and overflowing. This is how every low-budget “witches cauldron” or “spooky ground-covering fog” effect we’ve all seen is done.
So it makes sense that people believe CO behaves like the adapted-for-TV demonstrations they see on TV, forgettting they’ve been, well, adapted for TV. I used to be one of them, so thanks, @unskol.
@mike808 well CO2 which is dry ice would be heavier. Plus denser with the cold. But it’s still a normal part of air No idea who started the CO myth but it keeps spreading. It’s one of those weird myths that doesn’t activily cause harm cause the point is have a CO detector. And it works. So. Meh.
Radon is the heavier than air one to test for but you don’t usually buy an alarm for that. You can get an active sensors but it’s more a you have it or you don’t
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the manfactures of the ground level CO sensors started it when someone else first made a combo unit
@mike808@unksol We were able to sleep in our basement while the rest of the house was airing out from a carbon monoxide leak on the coldest day of the year. At that time we had the main heater on the ground floor and a smaller one for the basement. The main one is the one that developed the problem. Of course both were shut off because gas to the house had to be shut off so I think I slept in about 2-3 layers of clothes and 2-3 blankets. We had a small space heater but that didn’t heat very far out.
@mike808@msklzannie I like to sleep in the 50s in winter and have my feet/arms out. I’m not sure the basement gets much below that… I run hot and have been told that is good when snuggling…I’m sure I’d have to up that quite a bit if I had a woman… Or keep it low so she needed to be close lol
@unksol It was either single-digits or negative outside (January in Iowa) and got quite chilly in the unfinished basement (cement walls and floors) and the rest of the house (windows were opened to air it out). This took place 10 years ago give or take.
@unksol Or she dumps you for someone that will make their home welcoming to her by making it nice and warm to demonstrate they care about her comfort over their own. /jk
@msklzannie this is a walkout but it holds temp well…northern Indiana. Of course never tried leaving every thing open in February. That would be unpleasant
Given the “quality” of some of the past offerings, paying more is a good idea for smoke alarm batteries.
/image Lucas 530433
@narfcake The Lucas batteries have been working fine for me. Though I have to admit I bought them mostly for the joke.
It should go without saying, but…
/image refrigerator
I realize my purposes do not represent a large portion of the population, but I really appreciate aas, aaas and 9 volts that I’ve bought here in bulk in the past. I am in a paranormal research group, go ahead and laugh, and I’m the tech team leader. I use so many batteries. We put in new batteries at the beginning of every group that enters a site. I do have a good selection of rechargeable batteries, but I always need throwaways. (I’m a skeptic, btw. I have been doing this for 30 years and mostly do it because I want to help people be comfortable and feel safe in their own homes. Houses make weird weird sounds.)
@ChompyGator That’s interesting!
@ChompyGator do you have a website?
@haydesigner Nope! Sorry.
@ChompyGator How often do you find lowe level CO2 poisoning? So many things I’ve read called hauntings could be related to that.
@Fuzzalini That’s CO(1)
@ChompyGator Sorry I had to laugh although it sounds like your purpose is to disprove there are “ghosts” so the gullible don’t move out of their homes. Sounds like you found a problem to solve and thus have a business because of it.
Several years ago I lived for a year down the street from a decaying, but impressively beautifully (in its day) Victorian house used in a Ghost Busters episode. The college kid giving tours around halloween (she had a big mouth too as she said the owners cleared about $25,000 giving those tours - although likely they needed that to heat and cool the place and keep it from falling apart with them in it) accidentally blew it on a few “ghost” tricks used.
A bluetooth ghost detector triggered by cell phones (as someone on my tour accidentally did and the kid told her to put her phone away as it messed up the “ghost” sensor - as the tour leader had an app open on her phone and I guess was going to light the thing up herself - I happened to be standing next to her and saw that). Then we had the B&W “old” photo of the ghost where they needed to photoshop the spotlight reflection in a glass container as that gave away how they staged that photo. And of course the moving shelf item when you “said certain words” where I was the last to leave the room and found the loose floor board that moved it…
Yup. No ghosts there. But certainly a likely needed source of income for the family who owned that house. And they did a fantastic job of decorating for halloween. Drew hundreds to trick or treat on my street because of that house. This was the year of the kid who ran into the street and yelled - “this house has fidget spinners!!!” - than you meh. I had bought a number of light up ones. Street looked like it was covered in giant multi colored fire flies. If it wasn’t for the fact that it had started raining pretty hard I would have run out early and then only had candy.
Yes, bring on the batteries - AA, AAA, & 9v would all be appreciated … & purchased.
If you could snap AA’s together like lego bricks, I could build myself a new house out of the AA’s I have in surplus.
@OnionSoup But you’d need to build it above the arctic circle so that if your power goes out you know you can always get charge out of your house. Right @shahnm?
Ebay has some fair rechargeable lithium 9v if you’re interested. They aren’t super cheap, but personally I feel they are worth it, and are functioning well for me:
9v Batts
Right now CVS has a 48 pack of alkalines, CVS brand but not their regular ones, either AAA or AA, for $12.99, made in china. It is not with their other batteries, it is with the time limited stuff in the center of the store. It is in a “box” shape container, not a hanging blister pack.
Decided to put Engergizer Lithium 9V batteries in the smoke/carbon monoxide detectors in my house because I am getting too old to climb up on ladders to replace them and they start to beep either when you are going to bed or in the middle of the night. Hopefully they will last a long time given the cost.
@Felton10 I mean they have to be replaced every 10 year’s. If that is your goal you might as well buy the sealed battery ones. Battery and sensor are fucked… Train walter
I know I know he doesn’t fly
@Felton10 @unksol Also, if you step to the sealed ones, might as well get a combo unit, with CO detection, since the CO sensor is limited lifetime anyway.
@Felton10 @kevinrs smoke detectors usually say 10 years max. CO detectors can be 5-10. Sealed battery ones obviously use the better sensors but none of them are designed to be left up there forever. The sensors do degrade over time.
CO sensor does not matter if you have no gas appliances. It would make no sense to have gas for a lot of people down south although they might be wishing for some cheap heat this week
@Felton10 @kevinrs @unksol
You clearly haven’t heard the southern phrase “cooking with gas”. And the tons of LPG and LNG that come in from the Louisiana and Texas gulf to supply the rest of the country.
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 more the utility fees on the gas make it more expensive than electric for cooking/water heating sometimes. In summer. I suppose that also depends on your electricity costs. So some new homes down that way don’t even run gas lines I hear. Gas pulls its weight hard when you need heat in winter and once you have it you should use it for everything you can. I prefer cooking with gas. Little miffed the previous owners bough an electric dryer that came with the house instead of gas
@kevinrs @mike808 @unksol Actually what our newly constructed house has re gas is confusing to say least. Has gas cooktop (first one we had in 45 years-thought it would be an issue but not bad at all), gas for dryer, tankless hot water heater, and and gas line for grill. But alias has heat pump for heating rather than gas heat which even in Florida is better.
My electric bill in my new house is around $ 125 a month. Was over $400 initially in my previous house-combination of 12 foot (rather than 10 foot) ceilings, ineffective A/C (rather than a two stage unit) and a pool pump that ran 8 hours a day (which added any where from 75 to 100 a month).
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 so technically all those applications are cheaper with gas. Home heating is the weird part. If you have gas already go all in. In general
The weird part is state related where you get charged $20 in the summer for usinging $2 of gas. Cause fees to pay for the pipeline.
But no big deal in winter when it’s 0 out and you need they gas which is so much cheeper
@Felton10 @kevinrs @unksol
Technically, they’re not “cheaper”. There are environmental costs that don’t appear on your bill, but are paid by the planet an every living thing on it.
@kevinrs @mike808 @unksol I’m sure the heat pump was cheaper than a heating (gas) A/C (electric) system. You wouldn’t believe some of the corners that were cut in our house to save money vs things that came standard in our previous house.
And this is in a house costing over half a million dollars.
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 damn walters got bling
But once you go heat pump i would think full electric
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 @unksol Our house is all-electric, except for a gas island cook-top (my wife and I prefer gas there for the instant heat and finer control). But natural gas is not an option out in the sticks, so we use propane for the cook-top. A 25 gal tank lasts about 18-20 months, and I have two tanks so I always have a full backup.
Our most recent electric bill (for January) was $110. But it was pretty mild weather, plus we live in the land of PNW hydro-power and an electric PUD with a rate of only $0.0719/KWH. The highest monthly bill I can recall, back when the kids lived here and there were five of us in the house, was something under $200 one unusually cold winter.
@mike808
They are actually cheaper/better. Most US power plants are moving to natural gas. Because of cost. That means a power plant burns natural gas. Still cleaner than coal. To make electricity. This is an inefficient way to transfer energy. There are loses in the system because its burning fuel to create heat to create steam to spin a turbine to create electric.
It is much more efficient to pipe the gas to the place it will be burned in a 95% efficient furnace
As long as that infrastructure is th3re
@Felton10 @kevinrs @macromeh @mike808 well… Yea once a gas pipeline is not available you are in a whole different thing. Propane is not NG. Then it’s do we prefer cooking with gas and what is installing the tank going to cost and will it be cheaper in the long run. What’s the service to fill up the tank… And after you do the math is this worth it.
Obviously your senario where you have it cause you like it. Off a grill sized tank.
Different then putting a 500 gallon tank in the yard
@kevinrs @mike808 @unksol We moved into one of the first developments that far north in Maryland back in 1976 that had a heat pump. They weren’t designed for houses that far north and we said WTF-there is cold air coming out of the ducts. But when it really got cold and the heat pump could not draw enough heat out of the outside air to heat the house then the emergency (element) heat went on and that is when it really became costly. And to make matters worse, heat pump technology was in its infancy back then.
Its gotten much better, but nothing beats gas heat as we found out.
@unksol And there’s the rub. The distribution infrastructure. That, and it’s still fossil fuel sourced and less efficient than coal, so even more carbon will be dumped into the atmosphere. The rush to LNG is from fracking (which yields more LNG than crude) and US strategic energy policy and the industry moving away from middle-eastern energy dependence after 9/11.
The real challenge for humans in this century is energy storage and distribution between generation and use.
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 yeah in the north. Nothing wrong with heat pumps I’d def want one of in the range that supports one on a new house but that’s A low percentage of houses
@mike808 Natural gas is better than coal that is why we have stopped making coal plants. Should have been nucueler 70 years ago but different issue
@Felton10 @kevinrs @mike808 @unksol Our heat pump is geothermal sourced, so it extracts/dumps heat from/to the ground. 6-8 feet down, the ground stays right around 50-55F year round. We have ~600 feet of line buried that circulates fluid through the heat pump. Works great. The ground-source option added about 50% to the cost of the heat pump installation (vs. conventional air-sourced), but there was a significant subsidy from the electric PUD to offset the extra cost. In 22 years of use, we haven’t regretted the choice.
@Felton10 I had a heat pump in coastal VA. It would freeze when it was in the 20’s due to ice build up on the outside. They don’t do well in that kind of weather even when they switch to all electric heat.
@Felton10 @kevinrs @macromeh @mike808 yes I forgot to mention the geothermal bit. They is the way to go when putting in a new system if you can.
The air source ones are meh depending on local temps but you get the savings on a ground source system. They cost quite a bit more though. If building a new house I would probably do that. But the current house… Use it till it breaks
@unksol
Agree nuclear would have been far better for the environment than coal or NG. However the “better” part is just on the environmental side effects. The energy density of coal is higher than NG, pound for pound. It’s the other stuff in coal that’s nasty for the earth. NG is easier and cleaner (meaning more completely into CO2 and H2O) to burn, but it is still burning hydrocarbon fossil fuels. You have to burn more NG to get the same energy output as coal.
The switch was because the economics and politics (geo and enviro) finally killed “big coal”. The people of West Virginia were swindled by the great grifter, 45. Coal was and still is never going to come back. They sold their votes for nothing.
@mike808 we should have made a hard shift to nuclear power a long time ago but bad info causes people to be… Dumb. That is the obvious solution but we still can’t get MSRs or other reactors off the ground that burn waste cause of all the misinformation. We can’t even use the national storage depot cause people are whiners
@Kidsandliz Ours was a double wammy-really cold weather in the winter and the new “technology”-made for a lot of visits from the heating/AC company and a lot of cold spots in the house.
Fast forward to Florida where the heating/AC unit is hanging from the ceiling in the garage-so you have to climb up on a ladder to change the filter. Great for old farts.
Next and current house-the heat pump unit is stuffed in a closet in the utility room. In less than 14 months have had 4 clogging drains calls so far-they had to install a pump to help the water drain.
@Felton10 Personally I hate heat pumps. I also hate those motel heaters which is what I currently have (just one to heat all rooms so a good 10 degree difference between the room with the heater in it and the other room and bathroom). Be interesting to see if it has problems when it drops to 23 tonight. As it is when the hot air isn’t coming out you can feel the cold air blowing through all the opening to the outside. I like radiators best. And you can sit on them (if they have a cover) when you are cold. The heat lasts a long time after the hot water shuts off…
@Felton10 @Kidsandliz a proper ground source heat pump system is really just about where/how you get the heat. Technically what you chose to do with the heat is a separate part. You could do radiant under floor heating. or room radiators. Most seem to be standard forced air cause that’s cheapest and air source cause again cheap. Putting in that ground loop is not cheap
@Felton10 @unksol Cheap is what was done (forced air) - rentals.
These are expensive and I’m only using them in 9v hardwired smoke detectors but they seem to work better than lithium
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Rechargeable-Batteries-200mAh-4-Pack/dp/B07PHCSNZ2/
It’s super annoying you can’t get a hardwired smoke detector with zwave… Nevermind one that uses AAs as backups
{VMod edit: cleaned up the URL.}
@unksol I got the nest protect wired, came with AA lithiums for backup. Was able to replace the 1985 hardwired detector the house was built with. Not Zwave, but a nice detector
@kevinrs I have no desire or need to replace the hardwired detectors. I consider them superior. But it’s kind of annoying you can’t get one with zwave or zigbee when they need replaced. I haven’t done any smart home stuff but it’s weird it doesn’t exist.
I can always put a zwaze relay or two on the hardwired line if I want it it’s just weird no one offers something so simple. They market it as a substitute instead of an addition.
I suppose I should clarify the rechargeable 9v are working better than all previous attemps at it and no chirps. Since I can recharge them I’m happy so far. Obviously if you don’t have a charger… Different story
@unksol Do you have a double set of rechargeable batteries or do you have to climb up to the smoke detectors twice to recharge/replace batteries?
@macromeh I have had them in for I think a year plus. They started whining… Checked every one in the system and the rechargeables with a multimeter all showed above voltage still. It was a bad high life alkaline in the system I didn’t replace.
Not saying these our bullet proof but they have behaved better than other 9v used.
These are hardwired detectors where the 9v is only a backup.
There are lithium 9v and other options if needed
I think I’m going to buy a second set to fill the one that failed with an alkaline and it i ever need to rotate some through. Where else do you use 9V
I would still prefer detectors be AA and some are
I would not say to trust them in battery only detectors. Again these a hardwired and even if the power went out I can’t imagine all like 7 of them would fail at onc
@unksol
Hmm, I think my stud finder uses a 9V, and my shooting chronograph, so - yeah - not many things besides the smoke detectors these days.
Just go with the sealed units. 10 years and replace. Instead of annual 9V replacement.
CO units are only needed if you have gas appliances.
Also, CO is heavier than air, so you’ll be dead from CO poisoning long before thr house fills up to the ceiling with it and sets off your combo detector.
If you need a CO detector, you would be best served by getting a separate CO detector (sealed battery) and put it under your bed or nightstand on the floor near where you sleep.
@mike808 That CO is heavier than air is a common myth. I have no idea why, it should be obvious just from the periodic table/highschool but it persists. It’s actually slightly lighter. And regaurdless it doesn’t settle or rise. There not really a better place to place them so built into the fire alarm is fine.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467911002903
I have a kiddie at wall outlet height, a combo hardwired downstairs so everything alerts, and a 10 year sealed upstairs. But that’s because I primarily heat with the gas fireplace cause I spend most of the time in that room. And don’t want to heat the whole house.
They are deployed outside the bedrooms although I off course turn the fireplace off at night
@unksol TIL. I guess that’s what I get for getting my (non) life-saving home safety tips from Fox & Friends.
I do believe in putting the sensors 1) where you are, and 2) where the CO source would be if there were a problem.
Maybe it’s from the years of “visual aids” for this silent, odorless threat being demonstrated on TV using readily available dry ice and water. Because the dry ice is so much colder than the ambient air temperature, during sublimation, it “sinks”, filling up the container and overflowing. This is how every low-budget “witches cauldron” or “spooky ground-covering fog” effect we’ve all seen is done.
So it makes sense that people believe CO behaves like the adapted-for-TV demonstrations they see on TV, forgettting they’ve been, well, adapted for TV. I used to be one of them, so thanks, @unskol.
@mike808 well CO2 which is dry ice would be heavier. Plus denser with the cold. But it’s still a normal part of air No idea who started the CO myth but it keeps spreading. It’s one of those weird myths that doesn’t activily cause harm cause the point is have a CO detector. And it works. So. Meh.
Radon is the heavier than air one to test for but you don’t usually buy an alarm for that. You can get an active sensors but it’s more a you have it or you don’t
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the manfactures of the ground level CO sensors started it when someone else first made a combo unit
@mike808 @unksol We were able to sleep in our basement while the rest of the house was airing out from a carbon monoxide leak on the coldest day of the year. At that time we had the main heater on the ground floor and a smaller one for the basement. The main one is the one that developed the problem. Of course both were shut off because gas to the house had to be shut off so I think I slept in about 2-3 layers of clothes and 2-3 blankets. We had a small space heater but that didn’t heat very far out.
TL;DR: carbon monoxide doesn’t sink
@mike808 @msklzannie I like to sleep in the 50s in winter and have my feet/arms out. I’m not sure the basement gets much below that… I run hot and have been told that is good when snuggling…I’m sure I’d have to up that quite a bit if I had a woman… Or keep it low so she needed to be close lol
@unksol It was either single-digits or negative outside (January in Iowa) and got quite chilly in the unfinished basement (cement walls and floors) and the rest of the house (windows were opened to air it out). This took place 10 years ago give or take.
@unksol Or she dumps you for someone that will make their home welcoming to her by making it nice and warm to demonstrate they care about her comfort over their own. /jk
@msklzannie this is a walkout but it holds temp well…northern Indiana. Of course never tried leaving every thing open in February. That would be unpleasant
@mike808 I would welcome that woman and gladly turn up the temp.
I mean not to 80 but I could compromise to 65 or 70.
My temp scheme only works for me alone.
But just for the record I can only take so much clothing off
I obviously want my wife to get to the same level
@mike808 plus if she’s cold and I’m hot. Thermodynamics. Snuggling time to distribute heat
@unksol Lucky for you, you have a built-in temperature probe.