Home Improvement & Repair

Grand Potentate said:
Might want to get an electrician. Do you have a whole home surge protector installed? You get a lot of blackouts and brownouts there?
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All of a sudden, the door would close, stay shut for a second, then re-open half way. I cleaned the sensors and the issue persisted. There is apparently limiter where I can adjust, but I can't seem to locate it on the main motor. So now I have been manually closing and opening the door; annoying not a big deal. Let's see what warranty people send and what they can do to fix.
 
so many problems with the house. feels like cursed.....

The glassplate in the microwave just cracked and broke. wtf
 
Pauly Chase said:
All of a sudden, the door would close, stay shut for a second, then re-open half way. I cleaned the sensors and the issue persisted. There is apparently limiter where I can adjust, but I can't seem to locate it on the main motor. So now I have been manually closing and opening the door; annoying not a big deal. Let's see what warranty people send and what they can do to fix.
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Do you have the manual?
 
Grand Potentate said:
Do you have the manual?
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So the belt pulley basically is worn out. The unit is from 2008 and the belt has reached its life expectancy. The company will replace the belt. As much as the horror stories I have read about home warranties, they are handy.

Hopefully nothing breaks for a little while. I can just see my driveway gate being next.

Anyone knows anything about Ring system. It's already pre-installed, just nee to activate.
 
Pauly Chase said:
how easy is to set up? also is the data being stored somewhere. feels like amazon be collecting personal data
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Oh they’re collecting EVERYTHING. If that’s your concern then you shouldn’t have any of their products, or google products, in your home.
 
Just started looking into solar panels for the house. Looks like it would take about 7 years to break-even, depending on rates we would sell and buy power at during the day. It would also give us some independence during the next big outtage from ice or hurricanes since the Texas grid is so bad.
 
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Dropbear said:
Just started looking into solar panels for the house. Looks like it would take about 7 years to break-even, depending on rates we would sell and buy power at during the day. It would also give us some independence during the next big outrage from ice or hurricanes since the Texas grid is so bad.
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Unless the hurricane rips them off of your roof.
 
Dropbear said:
Just started looking into solar panels for the house. Looks like it would take about 7 years to break-even, depending on rates we would sell and buy power at during the day. It would also give us some independence during the next big outtage from ice or hurricanes since the Texas grid is so bad.
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I've got solar. a pretty big array of panels facing north with no shading. The max output to grid allowed here is 5kwh(?)

Input payment has just dropped to .06c. I predict it will soon go to zero. Too many panels on Oz and not enough capacity to input into the grid - (some streets around me they wont take any inputs) as you know the grid was constructed to deliver to households/businesses not take input.


The trick is to use your own power as much as possible, so when sun is out use, wash machine, dishwash, dryer, heaters. On a cold sunny day i turn all RCAC heaters (x 4) on during middle of day to warm house up. Hot water is a Heat Pump and I set it to run between 11am - and 2pm - when sun is out most days. Have never run out of Hot Water.
Summer cooling is ok as it coincides with peak heat/peak sun.

I assume its the same over there as here - you cant use solar when the grid is down - unless you have special - a bit expensive - set ups - they don't want idiots like you feeding power into the grid when some poor sod is up the line working on a "dead" wire.


Also - ( Disclaimer:: I'm not Texas weather or power expert in case you didn't know) but when there's ice, storms or hurricanes there's likely to be 2/5ths of SFA sun to power solar.

Again to don't know about over there but here in Godzone - batteries don't stack up financially
 
^

I’m less interested in the whole selling back thing - I don’t trust our power companies enough to believe they will still be buying back power in a few years, but it might be a nice offset while it lasts.

This summer our monthly bill went up to $200 because the AC is running hard all day - an added cost to the new hybrid work from home culture. Knocking out that daytime AC cost with solar would be the main benefit.

Hopefully we could still use our own solar power when the rest of the grid is down? The alternative is natural gas generators - which are expensive, need regular maintenance and would take up most of the space in my little front yard.

I just ran some basic numbers and batteries don’t seem to be worth it here either. As for the panels, it seems like something that might pay-off due to tax credits and other benefits

Once the storm passes, we have weeks of sunny skies and black grids. Hurricane Ike lasted about six hours and knocked out power at my in-laws house for over three weeks - in the middle of a record hot and humid summer. All the food in the fridge was rotting and the air felt like breathing boiling water after a day.
 
Unless you have installed special isolator switches or some such you cant run your solar when grid is down.

Batteries are like coloured wrist bands for causes - make you feel good, let others know you are virtuous but don't make much difference.

Here people who get outages use diesel or petrol small generators - but then you have to set up special wiring to run house off them.

Hacks - bottle gas BBQ for cooking, Small camping fridges that run off ute or bottled gas. Cold showers. Open fire if your house is old enough.
 
Here you go - Oz group - but pretty big and useful - I know FB search is shit but if you search the threads most info your asking about is in that group - there's more than a few septics (wink) on the group

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I'm not sure but I seem to remember that an isolator switch or whatever they call them to run house when grid is down might cost near $2,000 on a $7,000 solar set up.
 
fxh said:
I'm not sure but I seem to remember that an isolator switch or whatever they call them to run house when grid is down might cost near $2,000 on a $7,000 solar set up.
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Might be cheaper to just not sell back power to the grid and have an ‘in only’ system, if that’s possible?
 
Dropbear said:
Hopefully we could still use our own solar power when the rest of the grid is down?
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I think you can, but everything needs to run primarily through your own battery system. Those systems can also buy from and sell to the grid depending on conditions and prices.

e. here you usually pay about twice what you get
 
güero said:
I think you can, but everything needs to run primarily through your own battery system. Those systems can also buy from and sell to the grid depending on conditions and prices.

e. here you usually pay about twice what you get
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We looked at it when you could still get the grants here. The returns appeared moderate with well over a decade for you to cover the costs of the initial investment with the grant. Wasn't sure on the lifetime of the solar panels itself, so decided to wait and see. And still waiting.
 
who makes good quality kitchen and bath faucets? i'm sick to fucking death of these shitty ass Moen faucets that I have to completely tear down to replace the cartridges on. fuck Moen.

doghouse doghouse you have a line on this?
 
Grand Potentate said:
who makes good quality kitchen and bath faucets? i'm sick to fucking death of these shitty ass Moen faucets that I have to completely tear down to replace the cartridges on. fuck Moen.

doghouse doghouse you have a line on this?
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Man they are all shitty these days. I have a Delta Ashton in my kitchen, I think it's gotten two cartridges over the years.

I do have some Grohe up in my bathroom that's been rock solid but that shit is $$$
 
doghouse said:
Man they are all shitty these days. I have a Delta Ashton in my kitchen, I think it's gotten two cartridges over the years.
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funny enough I have the same model here. its had two cartridges and needed a completely handle and ball joint replacement. now its dripping and squeaking when i open and close the handle.

I was thinking Kohler but they seem to be going the way of Moen from what I read online. I just want something that has better quality cartridges and is easy to replace them on.
 
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