What did you do today? 2019 version.

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Wimpy, I know, but when you are old, you should not brave the weather to die of heat stroke.

Sounds reasonable to me!

I took down the two decorative shutters that were screwed to the side of the garage, these being mounted on the vinyl siding and wood underlayment, I can easily put them back. At the moment they are freshly painted and drying on a couple of sawhorses in the basement. I even painted the heads of the mounting screws so they wouldn't stick out visually when put back.

The other pair mounted on the brick front, show very little discoloration apparently since they never get any direct sunlight and we're debating whether to paint them at all. I probably will, but there's no rush about it.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Wimpy, I know, but when you are old, you should not brave the weather to die of heat stroke.

It all boils down to old people having more common sense than everyone else.

Like this afternoon- I went out on my kayak. Nice day, lots of younger people in boats, tubes and other flotation things. Clouds started rolling in and thunder. I came back home. Everyone else is still out there in a thunderstorm. Not safe IMO. I’ll go back out when the weather is ok.

It seems to me that the older one gets, the less risk he or she takes with their lives. That’s a good thing. Too bad that most younger people do not have this sense of self preservation.

[Gumby]

Worked in my garden early, before the heat. Then, bottled 5 gallons of ale that I put in the fermenter right before we went to Maine two weeks ago. Mowed part of the lawn. Going back out to the garden this evening.

[GalaxyBoy]

This morning I made peach jam with local fruit, mopped the kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms then after grilling dogs for lunch I transferred an IPA that was dry hopping to a clean fermenter so I could cold-crash it, but before I could do that I had to bottle the last of a stout I had in one of the kegs to make space in the kegerator. Then lots of cleanup.

Point is, after more than two years of ER, there is still no chance of getting bored and going back to work.

[Music Lover]

Just finished two hot days building a double garage at my brother's place. Yesterday 4 of us framed it and put the trusses up. Today we installed the wall and roof sheathing but quit by early afternoon as it was getting too hot (100F with humidex today) and we had no shade.

Of course, there is still a lot to do...build soffits, install doors and windows, shingle, etc.

[Ready-4-ER-at-14]

Went to a new dance place this afternoon and was pleased to find about 20 people I know well there.
I hardly ever go to new places and most every day already has the activities I want and can handle.
Even stranger was the fact that I had gone to a different new dance place last night and found maybe a dozen people I knew there as well and it ls maybe a five minute drive from home..

[Chuckanut]

I had a croissant to celebrate Bastille Day. Viva La France!!![emoji632]

[Breedlove]

Did my early morning walk only about one mile . I have cleared a fence line around my property. Nice to walk it and notice nature . But have to watch out for snakes this year. I have killed 2 Copperheads !
Came in got a drink of water , went back out and cleaned my A/C unit . I bought some compressor cleaner at HD . Shut the A/C down sprayed the A/C with foam cleaner then washed it with water . I did it a second time for good looks !. It is already getting hot outside this might be it outside today . It is 84 with 90 percent humidity right now .

[NW-Bound]

Woke my wife up early today, in order to make a walk before it gets too hot. Temperature was 90F.

Left the house at 6AM, back at 6:30. Near the end of the walk, the sun got higher, and the wife was miserable.

She's OK now, in the backyard and tending to her plants.

[NW-Bound]

Y'all may wonder what we are doing in the heat at the metropolitan home instead of being up at the high elevation home.

My wife cannot tear away from her plants, and I want to watch over my solar battery storage system. It will be a long way until I have the solar system all monitored by a computer system to safeguard against component malfunction and to activate a total shutdown for safety.

[Breedlove]

I wish I could get all my Elec . on Solar . I am not skilled on how I would do it . I see stores all over Houston selling systems . I am scared of buying something I can't work on . last month electric bill was 89.00 with the spa running. We are on rural elec. and get a senior discount . But the sun is FREE !

[NW-Bound]

It is not easy nor cheap to be off-grid. And where it is really hot in the summer and you need the AC even at night, or where it is cold and cloudy and you do not have enough sunlight, you will need more panels than you have room, unless you are in the countryside. And then, battery for storage is even more expensive than solar panels.

I am generating only 1/3 of what I use, but save 1/2 of the electricity cost because I try to use the generated power during peak hours, when the price is 3x the off-peak price.

I am doing this for fun (I was an engineer), even though the payback is somewhere between 10 and 20 years. I may not live long enough to see it, but then, I am doing it to keep busy, not for the money.

PS. Being 100% off grid is like growing all of your food. Obviously, it has to be done where the condition is just right. And it may not be cost effective.

[NW-Bound]

OK, just one more post about this just to satisfy some people's curiosity about the cost, and what it entails.

Here's a prepackaged system with capability similar to mine, except that mine has twice the battery storage. I designed and assembled my system from a hodge-podge of components, with some homebuilt subsystems, and it took a long time to design, install, and then tune everything to work optimally. This is a multi-year project.

Buy one of these kits, then you can be sure to have something that works. What I am doing is similar to people building a motorhome out of a schoolbus.

https://www.solar-electric.com/skybo...d-kit-002.html

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound ....What I am doing is similar to people building a motorhome out of a schoolbus. ...

I was thinking more like assembling a desktop personal computer with components.

[NW-Bound]

It depends on what level you go to.

If you buy the kit that I provided the link to, then install it, it is still a lot more work than assembling a PC. Remember that you have to mount the solar panels, install all the components, and wire them up, then wire to your home circuits.

What I do is more like back in the day of CP/M machines, when people built their computer by mounting chips into boards. And the boards had wire-wrapped IC sockets.

They certainly did not manufacture the chips themselves, but it involved more than building PCs now. People in those days also wrote their own bootloader.

[Ronstar]

Just ended 72 hours without AC. HVAC guy replaced a capacitor in the AC unit and all is well. My TV bunker in the basement never got warmer than 72 even though I was circulating air through the house for 3 days. Upstairs got up to 84. Each day high temp was about 90-92. Lows around 72. Good thing it is fixed. Thursday's high is supposed to be 96.

[NW-Bound]

Ah, if you knew it was the capacitor, you could have replaced it yourself.

Anyway, 72 deg is cold for me. Even 76 is too much, and almost causes a thermal shock when I venture outside in 110+F to do something.

[Walt34]

Tweaked the hinges on two interior doors. One I had "fixed" before but when I wasn't looking it sneakily went back to it's old ways and began to wander from where it was last set. I broke out the trusty knuckle bender tool and made the adjustment to the bottom hinge. This time I fixed it for good. I think.

The other one has been a "problem door" since about the day after the warranty ran out on the house. A simple hinge bending adjustment wasn't enough, at least not with the knuckle bender tool, so I resorted to using shims under the bottom hinge to move it out a bit. I had ordered the shims at the same time as the knuckle bender but hadn't used them until now. They're plastic and of course fall out when you try to place them. I used a bit of rubber cement to just hold them in place until I could tighten the hinge plate.

It's too hot, and forecast to get even hotter, to do anything outside.

[jpz62]

DW and I spent the day tiling our new shower. Very tedious work today but we are happy with the results. Continue tomorrow......

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Ah, if you knew it was the capacitor, you could have replaced it yourself. Anyway, 72 deg is cold for me. Even 76 is too much, and almost causes a thermal shock when I venture outside in 110+F to do something.

Yep. I watched the hvac guy swap out the capacitor- easy. I just don’t have the electronics brainpower to diagnose the problem.

As to thermal shock - 110+ would do it for me. I was getting a little wobbly when I left az at 100.