@f00l Probably not much. After all he is a very smart man, who knows a lot about science. More than the scientists do, really. Just don’t ask him what it is he knows. You’ll find out more on Tuesday.
@awk Actually, my heat pump works really good. I top it off with a squirt of R22 every couple years, keep the coils CLEAN and have replaced the contactor. Not bad for 20+ year old system.
ps… repeat: keep the inside & outside coils clean…
I have a gas fireplace, heat pump, and a Vornado space heater (I got from meh) for the master suite because the previous two never seem to keep me warm on the coldest nights.
Oil. When we bought the house twenty years ago I had only lived in gas or electric houses. So when we got a huge snowfall, the heat died. Two feet outside and the damn boiler would not fire.
Consult interwebz. “Make sure vent pipe is clear.” Mmkay.
What vent pipe? Huh? After TWELVE HOURS of digging through snow I found it on the upstairs deck under a foot of ice. After I cleared it and got the heat going again, I called and expressed my displeasure to the builder (who sold us the house) for putting the top of the vent pipe flush with the deck.
It was at that moment that I decided that one day, I would run the clock out in the Caribbean.
@Kidsandliz True, but having experienced both winter and summer blackouts, I think I prefer summer ones. They both suck, but at least I won’t be worried about exploding pipes.
We have three propane fireplaces (one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and one downstairs) and two mini-splits (living room and bedroom). The mini-splits are the A/C in the summer. The back rooms downstairs don’t have heat so we have a couple space heaters for them.
Nothing but those little old electric wall heaters, and a few space heaters, in a house with literally zero insulation. I usually give up on heating my room and just crank up my electric blanket. The wall heaters turn themselves on when it gets to 20°F but it almost never gets below 10°F outside.
You could not pay me to live somewhere with subzero winters.
I just got a great deal on a new thermostat for $5 that automatically switches from heat to cool depending on the temperature. Great for these Florida “winters” where the heat might need to kick on for 5 minutes twice during the night, but then I need a.c. during the warmest part of the day because the temperature range swings so wildly.
My furnace runs on propane, natural gas isn’t available on my street and I didn’t want oil. My propane tank is buried in the back yard so you don’t know it’s there. It runs my gas stove/oven too.
I’m one of those lucky people who got a geothermal unit that somebody else installed. 2009 housing crash was beautiful for a first-time homebuyer who’d actually saved some for a down payment. (I know, nearly unheard of!)
Almost 19 years with our geothermal heat pump and, after some initial teething pains, it has been great. Low 20’sF and 6" of snow outside right now and still sucking heat from the ground to keep the house at a comfortable 68F. I recently replaced our old conventional electric water heater with a hybrid heat pump model, and it seems to be working out great, too.
@narfcake Ah, that sux. We did pretty well, but did have the double pane windows leak, lose their seal, then cloud up so you couldn’t see through them and have to replace them all. That was a bummer because I moved out here for the view, but we upgraded to triple pane and they’re much warmer! The seller had been trying FSBO since 2006 and didn’t list with a realtor until 2008, so since it was on the market so long and the market crashed, we got it for about 35% of 2006 appraised value.
All that to say, the best tip I can give is don’t try FSBO when you live on a dead-end road in the country.
@IWUJackson Hah! Big ouch for the seller, but a big win for you. If they were moving to another house, though, it’s not all bad - the crash was proportional, so they would’ve been paying less for their new house too.
FWIW, I will say that a leaky double-pane is still better than the leaky single pane my house still had! My house came with other issues – some still present – but it has “good bones”.
@narfcake Don’t you just love real estate agents and their sweetheart connections to the home inspectors. “Everything is just fine,” they say. Until the ink is almost dry and the money has been distributed. Then everything is not fine.
@accelerator No connections involved here, though; I was fully responsible for finding the inspector and taking it from there. As it was a REO, it was pretty much a take-it-or-leave-it anyway; beyond any lender and/or code mandated items, the bank wanted zero responsibility for any repairs – so of course the selling agent went ballistic after the home inspection report came back and I had my agent write an addendum.
“I said no addendums!”
“Did you even read it?”
(pauses) … “Oh. Wait. This … covers us.”
“Exactly.”
“Well okay, I’ll make sure it gets through, then. Thank you!”
Reason - by the time I was in contract, the newest listings were already $20+k higher than my accepted price. I wasn’t going to let a few thousand in repairs kill the transaction, so it was written that “buyer has obtained home inspection and assumes responsibility for all faults reported.”
I’m a fan of home inspections, and I paid for one for the home I currently have, not because I thought it would alter the price, but because I wanted to make sure there weren’t things that were unfixable. After looking at any number of lovely homes that just didn’t spark my interest, I realized that I wanted a project, and told the realtor that I was looking for a “fixer-upper” (and no, that did NOT make her happy).
I bought a house that needed me. I redid most of the electrical, and some of the plumbing. One of the bathrooms was redone entirely. I had the horrid popcorn ceiling in the upstairs removed, and took out the fireplace. Yep, that’s what I said. It was one of those things that was meant to have an insert (whoever thought that up should die a thousand deaths). There’s just a nice wall where it used to be, and it makes me happy.
I bought my home in June, 2006. I quit remodeling a few years ago. I’d hit a point where I was content. I still am.
These best thing about water or steam radiators is getting to set your coffee or tea mug on them. Kept them just about right for a long afternoon of sipping. I miss that. Also miss the noise. ☄️
“Mr. Buddy” portable heater. Works like a charm. When the tiny propane tank runs out it turns itself off. Toasty until then! We’re in south central Florida, and it gets really cold (as in under 70°) about 10 days a year.
@moondrake
One of my grandparents’ homes had that sort of heating. When visiting them, after running around like mad in the cold, we used to love to come in and sit on the grate while my Grandad turned up the heat all the way for us and my Grandmother made us hot chocolate, which she loved doing.
@f00l All my winter shoes and boots have that pattern melted onto them. When it’s really going just stepping on it in passing will melt your shoes. My house was built in 1912, so it’s 105 this year.
A heat pump, a wood stove and a propane gas fireplace.
It gets cold here.
The laws of physics, mostly.
@Mehsturbator Mostly?
@awk trump science
@Kidsandliz
How much Trump could Science Trump if Science could Trump Trump?
@f00l Probably not much. After all he is a very smart man, who knows a lot about science. More than the scientists do, really. Just don’t ask him what it is he knows. You’ll find out more on Tuesday.
@Mehsturbator
Two-fer Trump Tuesdays?
@f00l Fuck no!
@Mehsturbator get a life azzwipe.
Gas here, but I haven’t had to use mine. A couple extra layers of t-shirts and I’m good.
@narfcake
/youtube "California Dreaming"
@f00l I’m in So Cal and it’s cold here. Raining like a f#@k.
@Fuzzalini
Copied from Florida response:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/your-home-heating-is-powered-by#58790238cb3fe10b58a22660
@f00l Ok, so maybe not as cold as you’re used to, but for us, 54F is freaking cold.
@Fuzzalini
I’ve spent time in Florida. People would wear sweaters when it got down to 65F out of nostalgia.
And you could get a notable sunburn during a brief time outdoors in January, without the assistance of high altitudes and snow reflection.
Heat pump, an amazing technology which can efficiently bring a house from a chilly 65° to a balmy 67° in mere days.
@awk Actually, my heat pump works really good. I top it off with a squirt of R22 every couple years, keep the coils CLEAN and have replaced the contactor. Not bad for 20+ year old system.
ps… repeat: keep the inside & outside coils clean…
I picked gas because that’s what we’re using right now, but I can flip a switch and be using #2 heating oil.
I have a gas fireplace, heat pump, and a Vornado space heater (I got from meh) for the master suite because the previous two never seem to keep me warm on the coldest nights.
Oil. When we bought the house twenty years ago I had only lived in gas or electric houses. So when we got a huge snowfall, the heat died. Two feet outside and the damn boiler would not fire.
Consult interwebz. “Make sure vent pipe is clear.” Mmkay.
What vent pipe? Huh? After TWELVE HOURS of digging through snow I found it on the upstairs deck under a foot of ice. After I cleared it and got the heat going again, I called and expressed my displeasure to the builder (who sold us the house) for putting the top of the vent pipe flush with the deck.
It was at that moment that I decided that one day, I would run the clock out in the Caribbean.
@droopus yeah hurricanes will be fun and no a/c for days because of that
@Kidsandliz True, but having experienced both winter and summer blackouts, I think I prefer summer ones. They both suck, but at least I won’t be worried about exploding pipes.
We have three propane fireplaces (one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and one downstairs) and two mini-splits (living room and bedroom). The mini-splits are the A/C in the summer. The back rooms downstairs don’t have heat so we have a couple space heaters for them.
Nothing but those little old electric wall heaters, and a few space heaters, in a house with literally zero insulation. I usually give up on heating my room and just crank up my electric blanket. The wall heaters turn themselves on when it gets to 20°F but it almost never gets below 10°F outside.
You could not pay me to live somewhere with subzero winters.
I just got a great deal on a new thermostat for $5 that automatically switches from heat to cool depending on the temperature. Great for these Florida “winters” where the heat might need to kick on for 5 minutes twice during the night, but then I need a.c. during the warmest part of the day because the temperature range swings so wildly.
We have a small nuclear reactor in a kitchen cupboard. It’s quiet and seems to work well. Except the colder it gets outside, the darker our tan gets.
My furnace runs on propane, natural gas isn’t available on my street and I didn’t want oil. My propane tank is buried in the back yard so you don’t know it’s there. It runs my gas stove/oven too.
Love.
No love for propane (and propane accessories!)?
/giphy Hank Hill
Geothermal, so technically electricity I suppose. There was no “water” option.
I’m one of those lucky people who got a geothermal unit that somebody else installed. 2009 housing crash was beautiful for a first-time homebuyer who’d actually saved some for a down payment. (I know, nearly unheard of!)
@IWUJackson I was also a FTHB in 2009. Alas, my house came with a broken furnace, a broken A/C, and a broken water main instead.
Almost 19 years with our geothermal heat pump and, after some initial teething pains, it has been great. Low 20’sF and 6" of snow outside right now and still sucking heat from the ground to keep the house at a comfortable 68F. I recently replaced our old conventional electric water heater with a hybrid heat pump model, and it seems to be working out great, too.
@narfcake Ah, that sux. We did pretty well, but did have the double pane windows leak, lose their seal, then cloud up so you couldn’t see through them and have to replace them all. That was a bummer because I moved out here for the view, but we upgraded to triple pane and they’re much warmer! The seller had been trying FSBO since 2006 and didn’t list with a realtor until 2008, so since it was on the market so long and the market crashed, we got it for about 35% of 2006 appraised value.
All that to say, the best tip I can give is don’t try FSBO when you live on a dead-end road in the country.
@IWUJackson Hah! Big ouch for the seller, but a big win for you. If they were moving to another house, though, it’s not all bad - the crash was proportional, so they would’ve been paying less for their new house too.
FWIW, I will say that a leaky double-pane is still better than the leaky single pane my house still had! My house came with other issues – some still present – but it has “good bones”.
@narfcake Don’t you just love real estate agents and their sweetheart connections to the home inspectors. “Everything is just fine,” they say. Until the ink is almost dry and the money has been distributed. Then everything is not fine.
@accelerator No connections involved here, though; I was fully responsible for finding the inspector and taking it from there. As it was a REO, it was pretty much a take-it-or-leave-it anyway; beyond any lender and/or code mandated items, the bank wanted zero responsibility for any repairs – so of course the selling agent went ballistic after the home inspection report came back and I had my agent write an addendum.
“I said no addendums!”
“Did you even read it?”
(pauses) … “Oh. Wait. This … covers us.”
“Exactly.”
“Well okay, I’ll make sure it gets through, then. Thank you!”
Reason - by the time I was in contract, the newest listings were already $20+k higher than my accepted price. I wasn’t going to let a few thousand in repairs kill the transaction, so it was written that “buyer has obtained home inspection and assumes responsibility for all faults reported.”
I’m a fan of home inspections, and I paid for one for the home I currently have, not because I thought it would alter the price, but because I wanted to make sure there weren’t things that were unfixable. After looking at any number of lovely homes that just didn’t spark my interest, I realized that I wanted a project, and told the realtor that I was looking for a “fixer-upper” (and no, that did NOT make her happy).
I bought a house that needed me. I redid most of the electrical, and some of the plumbing. One of the bathrooms was redone entirely. I had the horrid popcorn ceiling in the upstairs removed, and took out the fireplace. Yep, that’s what I said. It was one of those things that was meant to have an insert (whoever thought that up should die a thousand deaths). There’s just a nice wall where it used to be, and it makes me happy.
I bought my home in June, 2006. I quit remodeling a few years ago. I’d hit a point where I was content. I still am.
My apartment building has steam heat, but I think the boiler is an oil one.
@sanspoint Great. Now I have an ear worm.
/youtube Steam Heat
@Shrdlu
There are worse ear worms. I will not mention any of them tho.
@sanspoint
These best thing about water or steam radiators is getting to set your coffee or tea mug on them. Kept them just about right for a long afternoon of sipping. I miss that. Also miss the noise. ☄️
Alexa! I just say “Alexa, set the first floor to 65 degrees” and shazam, she does it. Works for the second floor, too.
“Mr. Buddy” portable heater. Works like a charm. When the tiny propane tank runs out it turns itself off. Toasty until then! We’re in south central Florida, and it gets really cold (as in under 70°) about 10 days a year.
@zebrabus
We feel your pain.
@zebrabus rough life, buddy
@zebrabus I feel that in upcountry Maui too!
Where I live now, pretty much everybody has natural gas, including me. My parents’ house has electric. There’s no gas option available there.
@ninjaemilee I, too, have “natural gas”, but nobody’s hooking that up to my furnace!
Wood fireplace/stove with a blower. Free heat! Gather/cut my own wood. Gas furnace as a backup with the thermostat set low.
Hope and dreams
A 50 or 60 year old gas heater in the floor. Only need it about half the days for 3 months each year, and I don’t run it at night.
@moondrake
One of my grandparents’ homes had that sort of heating. When visiting them, after running around like mad in the cold, we used to love to come in and sit on the grate while my Grandad turned up the heat all the way for us and my Grandmother made us hot chocolate, which she loved doing.
@f00l All my winter shoes and boots have that pattern melted onto them. When it’s really going just stepping on it in passing will melt your shoes. My house was built in 1912, so it’s 105 this year.