Equipment Crew- Part IV

[Domicron]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

[RestoringTally]

On 6/26/1990 Phoenix hit the current record of 122°. I was in college taking a summer school class and drove home about 2:00 PM in my Jeep CJ7 with just a bikini top. Sitting at red lights with the heat coming off the pavement was brutal.

My biggest concern this week are brownouts as the power grid gets stressed. The area I work in downtown gets hit with these quite often during the summer.

I was working at the Palo Verde power plant in 1983. I remember riding my motorcycle in Phoenix in June. It was hot, and I say that as someone who had last worked in South Florida before coming to Arizona. The asphalt had melted in places. I turned at an intersection, hit the melted asphalt, and went into a slide as if I was on ice. I was flung off my bike and did a perfect landing on my back. I stuck to the asphalt -- I didn't slide. Ruined my t-shirt. I credit weightlifting to my survival with no injury.

PS: The bike did not hit anything. I got back on and rode it home.

[Stasher1]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

I wish. The family and I got back from a chitty vacation in Nowheresville, VA last night and the wife had to fly out a few hours ago for business. So much for my Father's Day plans.

The boys and I wound getting Subway for supper, and I'm going to attempt to catch up on the last couple episodes of Fear the Walking Dead.

How 'bout you?

[KBKB]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

I took it easy today. I caught a cold while I was on vacation and am still not completely over it.

[70chevellegsp]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

Had a nice day with my wife, mom, dad, and youngest daughter. My oldest left yesterday with her fiancé for home in VA. But.....she was nice enough to make me a homemade cherry pie before she left.

[Bench905]

I went to a commercial gym for the 2nd time in many years. Then did yardwork including trying to soft wash my siding with a new power washer + foam cannon. It was very successful on the gym garage's north side...mildly successful on the north side of the house. I think I need to tweak the chemicals next time.

[thejosef]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

Thanks Dom. Happy Father's Day to all you guys. Hope it was a good one.

I had a great father's day with my almost 3 year old son, who is very interested in playing catch, all of a sudden. Best of all, I got to start moving into my new home gym. I started "installing" horse stall mats.. Little advice: make sure the baseboards are tall enough for mats to slide under. One was slightly too low and it was quite a battle. Lol. Anyways, we are moving back in this weekend after 10 months. House looks great. I hope to have the gym usable in about 2 weeks.. I feel guilty working on it when I have lots of small house details to finish up, so it's taking a back seat for now. Hopefully in a week or so I can finish the flooring and start moving the rack and weights in..



Total space is about 7.5' x 18'. Tight, but it'll have to do.

[Synthetickiller]

It's coming together!
A bar gun rack under that light against the wall would look sick if you don't have anything else going there... Better yet, get some dumbbells to place below it.

Really weird question, but is the light bulb a flood light or is the picture making it look like one?
I'm still figuring out lighting options & everything I'm doing is surface mount. I'm trying to get an idea of light spread.

[Domicron]

I wish. The family and I got back from a chitty vacation in Nowheresville, VA last night and the wife had to fly out a few hours ago for business. So much for my Father's Day plans.

The boys and I wound getting Subway for supper, and I'm going to attempt to catch up on the last couple episodes of Fear the Walking Dead.

How 'bout you?

lol getting home is such a relief after a ****ty vacation...so there's that at least.

I got breakfast with the family and then had to work a long day (as usual) so it was about as good as i could expect. didn't buy myself anything extravagant, but right now that's a plus

I took it easy today. I caught a cold while I was on vacation and am still not completely over it.

sucks to hear, hope you get over it soon. seems like a blown vacation is kind of a theme lately...

Had a nice day with my wife, mom, dad, and youngest daughter. My oldest left yesterday with her fiancé for home in VA. But.....she was nice enough to make me a homemade cherry pie before she left.

that's gotta be a weird feeling...i only have a 20 month old son, but once someone mentioned to my wife about their kids moving out and my wife almost started crying lol...them women-hormones are silly things...

I went to a commercial gym for the 2nd time in many years. Then did yardwork including trying to soft wash my siding with a new power washer + foam cannon. It was very successful on the gym garage's north side...mildly successful on the north side of the house. I think I need to tweak the chemicals next time.

my BIL cleans his siding from time to time...i'll never understand it; isn't that what rain is for?

Thanks Dom. Happy Father's Day to all you guys. Hope it was a good one.

I had a great father's day with my almost 3 year old son, who is very interested in playing catch, all of a sudden. Best of all, I got to start moving into my new home gym. I started "installing" horse stall mats.. Little advice: make sure the baseboards are tall enough for mats to slide under. One was slightly too low and it was quite a battle. Lol. Anyways, we are moving back in this weekend after 10 months. House looks great. I hope to have the gym usable in about 2 weeks.. I feel guilty working on it when I have lots of small house details to finish up, so it's taking a back seat for now. Hopefully in a week or so I can finish the flooring and start moving the rack and weights in..

[img]http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4201/35404617195_260b55fbae_z.jpg[img]

Total space is about 7.5' x 18'. Tight, but it'll have to do.

my son is only 20 months old and he's hilariously fun lately. he's put pen marks on 1 couch (the nicest one, of course), a chair at the dinner table and my wife's laptop bag. he's babbling incessantly and won't stop running around all over the place. we took him to the public pool on Saturday and he was having the time of his life...

so jealous you have a new gym to setup; it's annoying sometimes but so much fun putting together a setup

[thejosef]

It's coming together!
A bar gun rack under that light against the wall would look sick if you don't have anything else going there... Better yet, get some dumbbells to place below it.

Really weird question, but is the light bulb a flood light or is the picture making it look like one?
I'm still figuring out lighting options & everything I'm doing is surface mount. I'm trying to get an idea of light spread.

Thanks! An American flag might end up under there, or maybe a large dry erase board.. It's just a hair too small to put bars comfortably without putting holes in the sheetrock. Especially once I add a Duffalo one day.

I wish I knew more on that light. All I know is it's an LED enclosed unit, and I can't change the bulb. Electrician said it wouldn't be an issue b/c they were rated to last for something like 30 years under normal use. I have three of those in the room and it is plenty bright enough. I put a dimmer switch, so too bright was fine.

[BIgOrange865]

Happy Belated Father's day to all. Had the typical holiday weekend which involved seeing everyone on both sides of the family. I drove around 150 miles yesterday to visit in-laws and didn't get to do the one thing I wanted was to watch the final round of the US Open.

However, I did spend plenty of time with my kids and play t-ball. Also my wife and I found out her sister is expecting their first child. My wife was a little emotional last night at the prospect of us never having any more children. HOROMONE's and women sheeesh.

[keyboardworkout]

11:30 AM, 105 and the brownouts have started. Our email servers sit at an offsite location that has no power.

[cwcmac]

Happy Fathers day to all the fathers in here, anyone got any fun plans?

I ended up going to my relatives for a fathers day celebration for my father and the same for my wife's side. Seemed I was celebrating our fathers but didn't get to do anything with my kids that we planned.

[cwcmac]

It's coming together!
A bar gun rack under that light against the wall would look sick if you don't have anything else going there... Better yet, get some dumbbells to place below it.

That's exactly what I did with the window in my garage and it works perfectly however I don't think I'm quite the barbell whore that thejosef is. The Rogie 6 bar rack is surprisingly compact

[Bench905]

my BIL cleans his siding from time to time...i'll never understand it; isn't that what rain is for?

It might be regional - but in the Northeast, the north side of the house looks like crap. Dirt, mildew, etc.

[thejosef]

That's exactly what I did with the window in my garage and it works perfectly however I don't think I'm quite the barbell whore that thejosef is. The Rogie 6 bar rack is surprisingly compact

I'll take that as a compliment! Lol

[Domicron]

11:30 AM, 105 and the brownouts have started. Our email servers sit at an offsite location that has no power.

We had a brief storm that knocked out power while i was at a friends house on Saturday night. we ended up playing hearts at their house for awhile with the light from a couple cell phones, lol. luckily my neighborhood wasn't affected. they got theirs back up at 3:30 AM, others haven't been so lucky, though it should be mostly back by now.

I ended up going to my relatives for a fathers day celebration for my father and the same for my wife's side. Seemed I was celebrating our fathers but didn't get to do anything with my kids that we planned.

always seems that mothers day goes as planned, but fathers day rarely does, lol...

It might be regional - but in the Northeast, the north side of the house looks like crap. Dirt, mildew, etc.

maybe it has to do with the large body of water to your east? for us it's less of an issue on any particular side of the house. it does get dirty from time to time, but i was mostly joking about being too lazy...

[urbanlifter]

My wife did the same thing recently, the siding starts to get a green hue after a little while and needs power washed off.

Looks really nice when clean, we try to do it at least once a year.

[thejosef]

My wife did the same thing recently, the siding starts to get a green hue after a little while and needs power washed off.

Looks really nice when clean, we try to do it at least once a year.

So I used to just use some Clorox outdoor solution in a pump sprayer or a pressure wash soap with pressure washer and it worked fine, but didn't seem to last. Last go round I used Jomax (in whatever mix they recommended on the bottle) and it seemed to last a good bit longer before the mildew look came back..

[Synthetickiller]

11:30 AM, 105 and the brownouts have started. Our email servers sit at an offsite location that has no power.

Is geothermal cooling a thing in AZ?
I looked into it here, but the cost is astronomical & finding competent installers became a nightmare. It would take 20+ years to break even (I don't expect my ACs to last past 15 years), in this climate. I'd suspect that there, it would pay for itself very quickly, especially if there's a ton of bedrock and not earth like here.

Also, what's the deal w/ solar there?
I've seen some fairly cheap setups that would handle running an AC during the day. (thinking 4.5kw)

So I used to just use some Clorox outdoor solution in a pump sprayer or a pressure wash soap with pressure washer and it worked fine, but didn't seem to last. Last go round I used Jomax (in whatever mix they recommended on the bottle) and it seemed to last a good bit longer before the mildew look came back..

The north side of the house I'm building has mold so thick, it looks like paint, lol. I'll post a pick when I have a chance.
I will have to look into Jomax.

[keyboardworkout]

Is geothermal cooling a thing in AZ?
I looked into it here, but the cost is astronomical & finding competent installers became a nightmare. It would take 20+ years to break even (I don't expect my ACs to last past 15 years), in this climate. I'd suspect that there, it would pay for itself very quickly, especially if there's a ton of bedrock and not earth like here.

Also, what's the deal w/ solar there?
I've seen some fairly cheap setups that would handle running an AC during the day. (thinking 4.5kw)

Never heard anything about geothermal here. We do have the largest nuke plant in the country.

Solar is pretty popular here but I still don't think the industry would survive without .gov subsidies. They ended net metering last year which probably hurt the industry.

[Synthetickiller]

Never heard anything about geothermal here. We do have the largest nuke plant in the country.

Solar is pretty popular here but I still don't think the industry would survive without .gov subsidies. They ended net metering last year which probably hurt the industry.

If you understand what geothermal is, I'm not trying to step on your toes at all. If you don't, it's not a power source. It's a HVAC tech that pumps heat into or out of the ground, depending upon your needs. I would think it would be really useful in a desert climate.

[AttyGuy]

11:30 AM, 105 and the brownouts have started. Our email servers sit at an offsite location that has no power.

Sounds like poor continuity planning...

[Domicron]

If you understand what geothermal is, I'm not trying to step on your toes at all. If you don't, it's not a power source. It's a HVAC tech that pumps heat into or out of the ground, depending upon your needs. I would think it would be really useful in a desert climate.

[img]http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~jpm55/AE390/A5/geocool.gif[img]

i'm curious how well geothermal works in the extreme climate areas like Arizona and Alaska. I'll look into it when my current system gives out (hopefully not for many years, i only had it installed a few years ago). I like that the piping is relatively long lasting, and that the interior components are less expensive to repair/replace than an air compressor/furnace, but what happens when the piping does give out? how fast can it be repaired and heating/cooling restored?

[Synthetickiller]

i'm curious how well geothermal works in the extreme climate areas like Arizona and Alaska. I'll look into it when my current system gives out (hopefully not for many years, i only had it installed a few years ago). I like that the piping is relatively long lasting, and that the interior components are less expensive to repair/replace than an air compressor/furnace, but what happens when the piping does give out? how fast can it be repaired and heating/cooling restored?

It's expensive. I was looking at $70k for the house I'm building... It's not like it's double the price, but it's 20 years to pay it off. It wouldn't be that much for a smaller home, but still about 1/3 more than you'd pay for a variable speed HVAC unit.

I read a forum post from someone in Minnesota where they used a lake as the "radiator" to pull heat from (instead of the ground). The guy said it was -30F. The deepest part of the lake he used was 40F & kept the house at 68F w/o ever turning on the heat. Insulation matters more than the HVAC solution, but to keep a house at that temp while pulling heat from a 40 degree lake is just incredible.

Geo is best in extreme climates. It works everywhere, but if you have bedrock, you can pull/drop more heat depending on your needs. Here, where temperature fluctuations are small compared to most other posters, you really never make your money back. In the middle of the country, up north near Canada (basically dead center of North America) or desert/sub-arid climates where temps change quick & hit extremes, I'd strongly consider Geo. Where you are, Don, I'm not really sure. I'll get back to this point in a minute...

While certain things, like a water pump are easy to diagnose & fix, while not costing a lot ( a plumber can do the work in that regard), the everything else is much more expensive. Part wait times can be 2 to 4 weeks, vs 1 week or less with conventional HVAC parts in supply houses. Geo is amazing, but in no way ubiquitous, so you pay through the nose for parts. It was cheaper for me to hvac 3 HVAC units, plus the exterior compressors/radiators, along with ducting that the cost of the just the 3 systems I'd have bought. I was going to dig & lay pipe (That's a cost I did not consider), along with the price to run duct work, along with the cost of the ducting.

The pipe should not "wear out." I'd give it 100+ years, assuming nothing actively damages it. Whenever it fails, you must dig it up, if you have a horizontal loop, or drill & run new pipe if you dig wells.

I really wouldn't trust people who aren't familiar with geothermal to repair one. There are significant differences & they wouldn't understand how the units work.


So, if you needed a new unit and the choice was a Geothermal HVAC or a variable speed unit + foam insulation, I'd go w/ the latter. Creating a vapor barrier, effectively stopping heat transfer trumps a more efficient unit that is constantly battling heat transfer in a leaky house. Ideally, Geo + foam is perfect, but it's out of reach of most people & not cost effective. Better insulation trumps better hvac.



Variable rate compressors are giving geo a run for their money. There's minisplits that have EER ratings of 33... the best Geo units, using an open loop in a lake, are lower 40s. At one point, you hit diminishing returns. By the time you need a new hvac, EER ratings should approach, if not match Geo for conventional air to air systems. Air to air cooling using variable speed refrigerant flow is just incredible. There are now hvac units that dump heat into your water heater first, then dump it outside to be removed from the house. Geothermal also does this, but it just makes the cost higher. Geothermal options like hydronic (water to water) where the heat removed or pulled into the house can heat your floors is really nice, but that can be set up separately as a stand alone option. You'll eventually see conventional HVAC tech do the same thing. Air to air units already can run in reverse & pull heat from the air in the winter (within reason). The units I have can do that. My units are "only" 20 seer, but according to everyone I've spoken to who've seen foamed homes, my bills should be minor at best. Time will tell...

[AttyGuy]

Thanks Dom. Happy Father's Day to all you guys. Hope it was a good one.

I had a great father's day with my almost 3 year old son, who is very interested in playing catch, all of a sudden. Best of all, I got to start moving into my new home gym. I started "installing" horse stall mats.. Little advice: make sure the baseboards are tall enough for mats to slide under. One was slightly too low and it was quite a battle. Lol. Anyways, we are moving back in this weekend after 10 months. House looks great. I hope to have the gym usable in about 2 weeks.. I feel guilty working on it when I have lots of small house details to finish up, so it's taking a back seat for now. Hopefully in a week or so I can finish the flooring and start moving the rack and weights in..



Total space is about 7.5' x 18'. Tight, but it'll have to do.

18'? So, you could run three 6' mats end-to-end and cut the second row down to 3'6".

[keyboardworkout]

If you understand what geothermal is, I'm not trying to step on your toes at all.

I guess I don't know what it is. I thought it was power from hot springs.

Looks like our high today was 118 with 7% humidity. Might be warner tomorrow.

[vhd16]

My understanding is that geo thermal HVAC system is better suited for severe colder climates than hotter climates. Yes, the air below the ground is usually above freezing point while the above ground temps are below freezing point. The difference is usually < 10 degrees but that is enough.

The MN case is perfect example. We,in our house have separate unit and duct connected to the HVAC to get in the fresh air. The outlet for this is under the ground ( At least based what I am told) . But it is not being operated. Some day I need to talk to my HVAC contractor to make it active. I did speak to him few years ago but never followed up. There is not enough expertise to go around with that stuff.

If it was suited for hotter climates, all those GULF/rich Arab states would have gone for it irrespective of when they are going to break even.

For severe hotter climates, Solar is way too go if you don't want to relay on tranditonal power sources. Nuclear is one of the if not cleanest power sources but then ppl talk about waste.

Keyboard,
As per your e-mail server, guess, that location is your primary one not the Disaster recovery(DR) site . If that is your DR site then you guys have some serious issues to address.

If it is not DR site then you need a DR site aka business continuity plan or contingency plans whatever it is called now a days.

[cwcmac]

18'? So, you could run three 6' mats end-to-end and cut the second row down to 3'6".

Or two rolls of rolled rubber flooring at 18 feet length. Would need to cut 6" off one but there would only be one seam that would be barely noticeable and it's be a lot easier to install

[thejosef]

18'? So, you could run three 6' mats end-to-end and cut the second row down to 3'6".

That was an option. I'm trying to eliminate having a seam under my rack (as much as possible), so I opted to run them the other way. I'll just have a small 1'6" strip along the top that won't really get in the way. If you check out the "temp home gym" in my sig, that'll be the approximate layout. I've had 10 months to plan, so I hope it all works out.. Lol.