Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[Road Guy]

so back to the original ******* problem!

I stripped the insulation blanket off the "hot water heater" and there isn't anything external that would allow me to adjust anything. actually the only thing I see that I can touch is the pressure release valve? I removed a few outer panels but that didn't reveal anything?

I will grab some photos next time I am in the basement..  Were doing our basement this spring so I may just have them put in the tankless "hot water heater" and be done with this..

 

[MA_PE]

so back to the original ******* problem!

I stripped the insulation blanket off the "hot water heater" and there isn't anything external that would allow me to adjust anything. actually the only thing I see that I can touch is the pressure release valve? I removed a few outer panels but that didn't reveal anything?

I will grab some photos next time I am in the basement..  Were doing our basement this spring so I may just have them put in the tankless "hot water heater" and be done with this..

Is this in fact a separate hot water heater?  Gas or electric?  There must be some controls where the power goes to the heater.

 

[Ship Wreck PE]

It might be a basement still.

 

[jeb6294]

There's gotta be something external on the tank where the gas line ties in.  It's been several years, but my old house had a gas water heater and it had a little box where the gas line tied in that was basically a regulator/pilot light/thermostat.

 

[Dleg]

I was inspired by this thread to install a new bathroom fan / light in our second bathroom this weekend.  The old fan sounded it was trying to take off at the airport, but it moved virtually no air.  The kids could take a shower, and even an hour later the bathroom would still be steamy with the fan droning away.  So I headed down to Home Depot and picked up a NuTone 80 cfm, 0.8 Sone fan / light combo, mostly because it was the quietest-rated "medium" fan on display.  It took me about 3 hours of actual work to install, but about 6 hours of my Sunday including Youtube research to get my courage up, two trips to Home Depot and clean up, since I made a fricking mess sawing out the larger opening in the ceiling that it required.  I also installed an occupancy sensor switch for the light, and a timer switch for the fan, which added another 30 minutes or so.

The new fan is way quieter than the old one and moves plenty of air for the size of the bathroom (about 60 square feet, so 1.3 cfm/sf).  I "tested" it yesterday and it was extremely satisfying.  The old fan had become disconnected from the duct, too, so I guess I should be glad it didn't move much air, because otherwise I hate to think of what might be going on up in my attic after 6 months of extreme cold...

The occupancy sensor on the light seems to work well, but I haven't tried disappearing behind the shower curtain yet to see if it shuts off when showering.  It is sensitive enough to not shut off when on the throne for more than the one-minute time out I programmed...  The timer switch on the fan is a bit of a compromise.  I wanted to get a humidity sensing switch but I chickened out, after reading a few reviews of those things being tricky to set up and adjust.  I figured the timer is simple enough and I didn't want to deal with constantly adjusting something, but I'd like to hear if anyone else has any experience with them.

 

[Road Guy]

so is the timer based on a motion sensor? i.e. someone walks in, fan and light kick on?

My bathrooms were all wired so that anytime the lights are on the fart fans are on, which is kind of annoying sometimes, but maybe for the greater good..

Oh & to update my "hot" water heater issue,  I took off the insulation wrap for the 3rd time and found a perfectly sized square sticker on the back of the unit, the previous owner had placed one of those "service schedule" stickers directly over the compartment that housed the thermostat. Maybe for them that's how they found it but the way the sticker was placed you couldn't really tell there was a panel there (it was only maybe 4" X 4") so found that and adjusted the setting in between Hot and Very Hot..

It also helped that I looked during the day time when I could see a little better and not when it was pitch black out and 2 40 watt bulbs "lighting" the basement..

 

[Dleg]

Nope, two separate switches - the motion sensor is for the light only, and is programmed (by me) to shut off 1 minute after it senses no one is there anymore.  the off timer can be adjusted, though, maybe up to 45 min?  So maybe that would work for a fan, too.  The fan is on a separate timer switch that turns on with a push, and can be adjusted with a set of side buttons to provide time-to-off intervals of 5 min up to 60 min, or set to just be on all the time.  If you push the button again after turning it on, it turns off, so in that way you can defeat the timer.  

 

[Supe]

the previous owner had placed one of those "service schedule" stickers directly over the compartment that housed the thermostat

I'm betting the guys who did the plumbing put it there on purpose, thinking "these dipshits won't be able to adjust the water heater.  This will make them call us to "fix" it so we can charge them."

 

[P-E]

It might be a basement still.

Yes, does your water have a vodka taste?

 

[knight1fox3]

Operation "Improve KF Home Efficiency" is nearly complete. Done so far:

• Most lighting changed to LED (even under-cabinet puck lights and my 4ft tube lights) with the exception of the backyard flood. The LED flood replacement just can't quite put out the same amount light (w/o a complete retrofit).
  
• All faucets changed and added H2O efficient shower heads
  
• All windows replaced with the exception of the patio door (planned for this year)
  
• New high efficiency 2-stage furnace installed with Aprilaire humidification system (Nest controlled)
  
• Nest fire & CO protection system installed
  

Phew.....

 

[snickerd3]

new driveway and back patio are our home improvement plans this year.  the 30+ yr old concrete is literally crumbling and in many places sunk leaning towards the house so when it rains it puddles/flows near the house.  

 

[Supe]

Need to decide what to do with my driveway.  Have a lot of rust stains from leaking batteries and grinding dust.  Toss up between ardex resurfacing, or playing with muriatic acid followed by a pressure wash.  

 

[kevo_55]

I need to have my driveway resealed this year. I'm also looking at getting an upgrade with my electrical service.

 

[Dleg]

I need a new electrical panel and some re-wiring of circuits in my house.  I have no idea what the original builder was thinking, but there are some screwy circuits in my house, and the panel is so full I can't do anything about it.  I feel like I probably should use an electrician for that work, but a part of me thinks I could do it myself: most of the wiring is Romex and easily accessible in the crawlspace.  I'm mostly afraid I'll do something not to code and then not be able to pass a home inspection when it's time to sell.

 

[kevo_55]

^^ I don't know about AK but in MN you can do all of your own wiring but if you want to hook a circuit up to the box, you need a licensed electrician.

 

[mudpuppy]

I need a new electrical panel and some re-wiring of circuits in my house.  I have no idea what the original builder was thinking, but there are some screwy circuits in my house, and the panel is so full I can't do anything about it.  I feel like I probably should use an electrician for that work, but a part of me thinks I could do it myself: most of the wiring is Romex and easily accessible in the crawlspace.  I'm mostly afraid I'll do something not to code and then not be able to pass a home inspection when it's time to sell.

Replacing the main panel can open a big can of worms.  In order to replace the panel, you have to pull the meter.  The utility should be the one to pull the meter, and they might want to see an inspector's sign-off before they reinstall the meter (I know my utility (which is also my employer) requires that).  That means you're going to have to pull a permit, which means you'd better get your code book out and make sure everything you do is correct, or you're going to be sitting there with no electricity for as long as it takes you to fix everything the inspector wants.

But if you don't want to replace your main panel and just want to install a new sub-panel, you might be able to do that yourself depending on your local codes.

I was in this situation a couple years ago.  In my case the meter socket went bad.  To replace the meter socket you have to have the utility disconnect at the weatherhead, and again, they required a sign off from an inspector to reconnect.  My service cable was so old (cloth insulated) that I doubt an inspector would approve it, so it also had to be replaced.  Then it turns out they don't even offer 65 A services any more, so my main panel had to be replaced.  It probably would have taken me several days to do this work myself, meantime with no electricity.  So I hired an electrician, which ended up only being $1000 for the new service and a new 100 A panel (with permit) and was all done in a day.

 

[Dleg]

That's not bad.  My main disconnect/main breaker is located at my service entrance, and needs replacement - as I found out when I added a simple little transfer switch for my boiler last year.  I shut off the main breaker to do the work, and when I turned it back on, I had no power.  My neighbor is a retired lineman, and I called him over to take a look.  He switched it on and off a couple of times, moving it slowly, and finally got it to engage and turn the power back on.  That kind of worried me...

Yeah, I will probably not mess with this myself.  I thought about adding a sub panel, but I like the thought of replacing with a right-sized, new panel.  But you're right, there's too much that can go wrong and leave me without power for several days while i try to correct stuff (or worse).

 

[Road Guy]

I don't mess with 220.

I had a large sub panel put in when I did my basement and adding breakers and running the new lines to the breakers in the box was pretty straightforward.

Maybe you can get someone to install the new panel and hook up the 220 but then you could run all the breakers and wires and such yourself? it just takes some patience...

 

[Dleg]

Yeah, I am not intimidated at all about running the new Romex and/or modifying circuits in the crawlspace, or hooking them up to a new sub-panel.  I think I know enough of the relevant Code to do that properly.  But seriously, the number of outlets and lights on some of my circuits is way beyond anything I thought was OK by Code.  I think this was done by the original contractor to accommodate some special owner requests for multiple woodworking equipment circuits in the garage (3 separate circuits in addition to the garage lighting / openers), and oddball stuff like a fishpond, hot tub, and sauna that are no longer there, but whose circuits were re-purposed for an addition to the kitchen and master bedroom.  I have something like 3 separate circuits for my master bedroom, and 4 or 5 for my kitchen, while the garage, lower bath, and kitchen lights are all on one shared circuit (with a GFCI in the garage that took my inspector forever to find), and the lights and outlets in the rest of my shared living space are all on one circuit.  

 

[Road Guy]

did you get an inspection when you bought your house? (not that those are really worth much)  If you are not having breakers constantly trip its probably ok.  I don't think they leave much room in the panel these days, I've got like two open spots in mine.

for what its worth when I was getting basement quotes for my current house, the cheapest price for installing a sub panel was $2K.  I think that's just the crazy Denver market, I only paid $500 bucks for adding a sub panel at my Atlanta house (but that was me basically doing the wiring as mentioned above)