Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[Road Guy]

do you have rooms with an outlet tied into a switch?

 

[mudpuppy]

One extension cord plugged into one outlet should not cause two different circuit breakers to trip...no matter how much current it's drawing.  It sounds like you might have some double-wired circuits (i.e., circuits fed from 2 breakers).

I'm thinking maybe he has some sort of loose connection somewhere, and perhaps his extension cord energized the "dead" side of this loose connection from a different leg than the "live" side, resulting in 240 V over the loose connection--just enough to cause it to arc across and trip the breaker.

If the arc caused the loose connection to weld itself back together, that could explain why the fan is running even after the cord is unplugged.

@jeb6294 do you know if the breakers that tripped were on the same leg or opposite legs?

 

[blybrook PE]

It may also be possible that he had (has) a bad breaker and backfeeding it reset the internal configuration temporarily. It may be worth swapping the two breakers that tripped as well. Or pull them both out and see if the fans are still running, there's some frankenwire going on.

 

[jeb6294]

I believe the bedrooms upstairs had light switches that went to outlets rather than ceiling fixtures. The Frankenstein-cord was pugged in to one of those so I could get juice to the outlet with no power by flipping the switch rather than plugging it in.

The two breakers that tripped are next to each other and were the two directly below the one I’m guessing does the ceiling fans. Those breakers took out most of the remaining outlets on that side of the house.

I’ve been assuming the ceiling fans and outlets with no power are on their own breaker...while flipping breakers the other night, there was one that didn’t seem to shut anything else off...but I want to flip it and see if the, now working, ceiling fans go off. That I can verify what breaker they’re on. My plan at this point is to verify what breaker the ceiling fans are on, shut that breaker off and start replacing any receptacle in the house with no power going to it. Yeah, I’d be replacing outlets that don’t need it, but they’re only $0.40 apiece.

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

So our dog escaped our yard by going under the fence (we're assuming not at the gate). So boyfriend got stuff from Petco to fill the holes in at the bottom of our chain link fence [https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/dig-defence-25-pack-animal-barrier]

But there are sections of our fence that we can't use this on due to rocks. He used rebar in one small area next to the house [fence panel is maybe 2ft long]. We don't have enough rebar to fix the other area [plus that area is visible to our neighbors who have a small child]. So he's thinking metal tent stakes. Any one got some that they can recommend? I'm in charge of this since I'm "the camper" [except I hammock and have UL tent stakes for my rain fly] 

 

[Road Guy]

^- if you have a ranching type store near you (murdocks, tractor supply) they sell long metal tent stakes for field fences I beleive?

I spent some time revisiting my low spot / drainage issue that I thought ( a few years ago) was due to a broken sprinkler line, but have since learned its just a low spot that doesnt drain out of the yard -  Its not near as wet since I am not over watering it but its still too damp for anything to grow here ( this is a bad spot on the fence that I really want a tree to help not see my neighbors)

3 summers ago it looked like this- 



Strangely enough this was just due to over watering the back yard (after exhausting replacement of all sprinkler lines)

I took some post hole diggers on Saturday and found some ground water down around 2 feet in this area. Went out 25 and 50 ft from the main problem and no ground water, so I think its just not being able to "move on"  & Its a small amount, but I think its just enough to saturate this one part of my yard..

I dont want to have to pump it but I had a section of 6 IN PVC that I put in the ground (I drilled holes in it and surrounded it with crush n run)  - came back in about an hour and there was several more inches of water in the PVC pipe - Got me thinking, since we have desert like sun in the summer could I put a few of these in and basically drain this via evaporation?

We got a big & rare rain storm last night so the pipe is about half full - but I was going to see if I could install a few more of these and try and drain the ground upward?  Am I smoking crack?  I put this one in a little low, they sell some nice looking caps for these that are vented nicely (intended to let water in) - I was going to put some mesh to keep the mosquito out..

Plan B would be just to put some tomatoes or something here that likes water





Before the rain there was water at the bottom of this pipe, maybe just a few inches in the pipe. Pipe is 24 IN - its more than half full now

 

[Supe]

So our dog escaped our yard by going under the fence (we're assuming not at the gate). So boyfriend got stuff from Petco to fill the holes in at the bottom of our chain link fence [https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/dig-defence-25-pack-animal-barrier]

But there are sections of our fence that we can't use this on due to rocks. He used rebar in one small area next to the house [fence panel is maybe 2ft long]. We don't have enough rebar to fix the other area [plus that area is visible to our neighbors who have a small child]. So he's thinking metal tent stakes. Any one got some that they can recommend? I'm in charge of this since I'm "the camper" [except I hammock and have UL tent stakes for my rain fly] 

Consider chicken wire/rabbit fence.  If you fold it at the bottom, that also stops them from digging at the fence line.  

 

[Road Guy]

seems like I always ponder doing this this time of year but looking at whole house fans - Seems like a no brainer here in Denver since we dont really run the AC until July but there seem to be two options, one $300 and one $1200 - anyone got any intel on the more expensive one?  maybe it puts a smaller hole in your ceiling?

$300 one:

$1200 one:

So we ended up getting this installed yesterday,  Wife ended up finding someone to put it in, probably a good idea since it needed 4 new roof vents installed. But man what a huge benefit on day 1.  

its about the same noise as a new dishwasher - but it even sucks air from the basement, which is cooler than the rest of the house.  Not sure if it will be as effective in August over AC but I wish I had done this a while back.  The house was warm from having the doors and windows open during the install and within just a minute it was cool after turning it on.

The only thing it is missing is some type of remote so I can turn it off from downstairs.

Weird thing is the kid who installed it had a ME degree from Co Mines. said he just couldn't stand working a desk job..

 

[Supe]

So where in the house is the inlet duct?

 

[Road Guy]

its in the hall way right above where the stairs land.  Its also the place where all the heat ends up in the summer so thats also a good place to get rid of it at.  Ill grab a pic.

 

[Road Guy]

 

[Supe]

I think I need to talk to my HVAC guys about that next time they're out here.  We have similar issues that forces us to have to turn the AC on in like, late February.

 

[Road Guy]

The actual model we had installed is the QuietCool Trident Pro 7.0 - it was right at $2K installed, including the extra holes in my roof..

Even in August when its desert hot here, once the sun goes down it cools off, so I am really hoping to get some bang for it this summer - our AC unit is way undersized, but we only use it 2 months a year so It didnt make sense to spend $6500 on a new AC system (i hope anwyways)

 

[jeb6294]

Wonder how much electric that would use vs an electric heat pump. I’m a cheapskate so I’d look into one, but the problem is that it so daggone humid here. Half the time when we start kicking the A/C on it isn’t because the house is so hot but cause it’s so sticky.

I will say, years ago when my aunt and uncle lived in the area they had one (the standard whole house fan, not the fancy one) and they were fine in a house with no A/C.

 

[Road Guy]

I dont know if this would work below a certain latitude line - i.e. in Atlanta i would just pay the AC Bill because it would just be running in hot wet air all the time..

We had a heat pump put in the basement in my old house in Atlanta btw and it must be a little more because that required dedicated breakers and this just tapped into an outlet.  Hopefully it will just save the wal mart ghetto look of us putting those fans in the windows to try and circulate some air!

 

[MA_PE]

I dont know if this would work below a certain latitude line - i.e. in Atlanta i would just pay the AC Bill because it would just be running in hot wet air all the time..

We had a heat pump put in the basement in my old house in Atlanta btw and it must be a little more because that required dedicated breakers and this just tapped into an outlet.  Hopefully it will just save the wal mart ghetto look of us putting those fans in the windows to try and circulate some air!

I resemble that remark.  We have 3 window acs and one through the wall.  I typically run the the 4 pedestal fans as opposed to the ACs 

 

[jeb6294]

From what I understand, a heat pump is nothing but a giant heat exchanger that replaces an outside condenser. In summer it provides cooling and in winter it reverses and does heat. I guess they're supposed to be really efficient because it's basically just the electricity to circulate the puron and run the fan. The caveat is that they're not great for extremes, i.e. cooling isn't enough if you live somewhere that gets really hot for extended periods and the heating needs help from super-inefficient electric coils if the temps get below freezing.

I guess I should add an addendum and admit that we also added a window A/C in our bedroom upstairs. The programmable thermostat jacks the temp up overnight and then we crank up the window A/C and stick a fan in the door. It actually does a pretty good job of keeping the upstairs pretty cool.

 

[mudpuppy]

From what I understand, a heat pump is nothing but a giant heat exchanger that replaces an outside condenser. In summer it provides cooling and in winter it reverses and does heat. I guess they're supposed to be really efficient because it's basically just the electricity to circulate the puron and run the fan. The caveat is that they're not great for extremes, i.e. cooling isn't enough if you live somewhere that gets really hot for extended periods and the heating needs help from super-inefficient electric coils if the temps get below freezing.

Heat pumps are pretty common down south. My wife had one in south Georgia, and my dad had one in southern Arizona.  In their cases they're air to air heat pumps, so basically just like A/C in the summer, that reverses in the winter.  My wife's would do fine for heat until it got down into the 20s outside, which is only a couple times a year down there.  Then the backup heat kicks in (resistance heat strips, which use a huge amount of energy.)  Since we're cheap we just opened the breaker to the heat strips and would suffer the cooler temperatures.

They're becoming more popular up north too.  My boss got central A/C installed a couple years ago and went with a heat pump since the added cost wasn't much.  It runs in heat mode until the outside temperature drops below a set point (I think it's around 40 degrees or so) and below that the furnace kicks on.  This gives the efficiency of the heat pump at milder temperatures but still able to keep up with the heating needs when it gets really cold.

I have a georthermal heat pump.  In concept it's the same as the air-air heat pumps except the heat sink/source is water instead of air.  Mine is an open loop, so it pulls from the well and dumps it outside.  Since the groundwater temperature doesn't change from season to season, it's a lot more efficient in the winter than an air-to-air.  Supposedly it's around 300 to 400% efficient (e.g. for every BTU of electricity to run the compressor you move 3-4 BTU in/out of the house.)  With the current price of electricity it's about the same cost as heating with propane, but back when propane was expensive the heat pump was much cheaper to run.

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

we have a heat pump in So. ME. 

we had a decently mild winter this year but we still had it set to 72F and i was in layers.

for perspective, last winter, used the oil furnace and it was set to 62-64F. 

and the heat pump is only for the 1st floor. so the basement is unheated. and the bedrooms are over the uninsulated/unheated garage/basement. made for very cold feet. 

 

[Road Guy]

we put heat pumps in the basements of our houses in atlanta. They seemed to work well for an area where you dont really need as much "juice" - normally the basement would be warm in winter and cool in the summer, but if you just needed a little bit to keep the air circulating and comfy it worked well.

Conversely here in Colorado we have a gas wood stove and that is our primary heat source in the winter, it really does most the entire house - We still have the Heat kick in but mostly we set the fan to run to distribute the hot air from the stove, which is much cheaper than running the actual gas heat. (plus it looks cool)