hydroacetylene
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User ID: 128
hydroacetylene
2d ago
American self defense law usually allows lethal force when murder isn't the single most likely outcome. You are allowed to shoot your mugger or carjacker in a lot of states, even if in practice they just want your wallet/keys. Texas allows lethal force against a retreating burglar in some circumstances.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Are you sure this isn't just toxoplasma, where johnny the cop stabber being shot during an attempted armed robbery arouses no controversy, and only borderline cases become noted?
hydroacetylene
3d ago
Hydro's HVAC for homeowners- tinker tuesday seems like a good place to start posting things you know well which might be helpful. So here goes:
-Repairs homeowners can and probably should do themselves off of youtube:
Capacitors, to start with. If the fan on your outside unit runs, but the AC is blowing warm, there's an 80-90% chance it's the capacitor. You can get capacitors on Amazon for about 10% of what a company will charge you, so it's worth trying that before calling someone. Capacitors on hand for a year or two probably won't go bad, although ten years in your garage might. It's possible to test a capacitor but the tool to do it with costs significantly more than a capacitor itself- if you're a homeowner with one or two units, buying a digital multimeter that reads microfarads isn't really worth it. You need a capacitor with the same microfarad rating(this is sometimes abbreviated UF because the scientific symbol for micro looks like a U, and it's clear enough in context to not worry about it), and a volt rating at least that of the voltage on the circuit- for a residential AC system in the US, that's 240 or better. Yes, capacitors rated for three hundred or six hundred or whatever will work.
You can also replace thermostats yourself easily- but I would recommend changing the batteries and testing the unit by jumping the circuit out first. There's a universal color code for what thermostat wire controls what. If you have a tiny screwdriver you can just move the wire of the color you want to test over to the same spot as red, and if it still doesn't come on, you have a deeper problem. If it comes on, it's a thermostat issue(change the batteries before you buy a new one).
If the inside unit comes on, but nothing on the condenser does, either you need a new thermostat wire(depends on your comfort running wires) or a new contactor. If you're comfortable changing an outlet you can change a contactor- you might need to go to multiple home depots, or visit an AC supply house(they'll sell to homeowners but they won't accept returns unless you have a wholesale account), but just flip the breaker, take a picture, and redo the wiring. They're usually obviously damaged when they're bad.
Homeowners probably don't need to be messing with freon. For one, it's unlikely to save you much money when you take into account economies of scale, tool costs, etc. Most of the time, when I have to work on something internal maintenance guys couldn't fix, it's overcharged- motteizeans might be smarter overall, but they have more field-specific knowledge and experience.
-Maintenance
You should change the air filters whenever they get dirty. There is no rule of thumb for this, if you clean endlessly or if you are a cat hoarder who chainsmokes inside will change the answer. Hypoallergenic filters choke the unit out from working right, and dollar store translucent filters don't do anything- use a happy medium of filters. Likewise you should keep the drain off the evaporator clear; pour bleach down it once or twice a year and blow it out or use a snake if there's an issue. It's a gravity drain that ties into a sink(usually a bathroom sink), works just like anything else that drains to a p-trap. You should also clean the outside of your condenser unit; make sure you can see through the condenser coil with a flashlight. Most homeowners can just use a hose. If it was on a restaurant roof next to a vent hood on the other hand...
Speaking of condensers, keep dogs from peeing on them. If you have male dogs and you're getting a new unit, make them elevate the condenser off the ground somehow. If you're stuck with what you've got, you're probably going to need some kind of fencing.
-Dealing with contractors
If you live in the USA there is no reliable way to get a residential service tech who isn't paid on commission, unless you happen to know about the company. Smaller companies are less likely all other things being equal, but even with a one man show you should always get a second opinion when an HVAC contractor tells you to change your unit. The rumors you've heard about private equity buyouts and techs with sales quotas are 100% true and it's getting worse. HVAC guys that don't want to be primarily salesmen get out of residential as quickly as possible- residential techs get paid a pittance per hour and have an awful seasonal variation, if they don't like a commission structure they leave-, and the economic case for bosses is overwhelming. A residential company makes fifty-sixty percent profit on AC changeouts, even after accounting for labor, toolcosts, trucks, etc- and the tickets are big. You do not need a new system because of a change in freon regulations. I assume no motteizean is that gullible but you don't. You can also top up a 410a system with R32, although lots of companies don't want to do this. If you have an older air conditioner and it runs off R22, ask about using MO99 before scrapping the whole thing- it works 90% as well in the same system. Again, lots of companies don't want to do this, and if they're competently run they have more work than they can do.
If your compressor is out see about getting a compressor changed under warranty. Compressors have special extended warranties that last longer than the rest of the unit, although you'll still need to pay for labor. This will annoy the company doing it though, because the profit margin isn't very good. You might get marginally better service if you're white and visibly MAGA and/or have a large family(assuming you pay the bills yourself), sob stories and displays of Christianity will be assumed to be fake.
Lots of motteizeans are engineers. Engineers are notorious for trying to diagnose their AC themselves and concluding the board isn't sending power to the blower motor. This is because there's a safety switch on the unit's access panel to cut power to the blower if it's off- every brand is a bit different but you should be able to find it once you know to look.
If you make a diagnosis on a major component you probably won't be able to order parts yourself- supplyhouses will happily sell capacitors, small electrical switches, etc for cash and claim it's for 'general mechanical' or 'goes on an air compressor', but they're less willing to do so on a big ticket item. Manufacturers will never sell to a homeowner. Most service companies will insist on diagnosing these items themselves rather than just ordering them for you- this is partly moneygrubbing, but mostly because they have to deal with the lowest common denominator.
Some people want to put a commercial air conditioner on their house. Just stop; it won't fit on a residential building, you're going to need to redo at least one outside wall to make it work, and you're probably going to have to run three phase power to it, and it just goes on and on. You can totally use commercial fridges/freezers in your house, they're just probably not exactly what you're looking for. When it comes to bigger units than recommended for your house this is probably going to mess up your humidity, but system sizing runs off guidelines not hard and fast rules. It is often worth paying for a better brand, it is rarely worth paying for higher efficiency.
-If your son/nephew wants to go into the trade
First it's a lot of driving. A clean and existent driving record is absolutely required for employment- and most entry level jobs will drug test besides(jobs asking for experience might not). Women very rarely make it, and those who do are either a) butch lesbians or b) lying about being HVAC techs. This is partly due to sexism but mostly due to the intense physical and time demands of entry level HVAC jobs. You really do have to pay your dues to get a good job in this field; expect to make a mild premium over working at mcdonalds, with worse hours, for your first year at a minimum. If you have health problems you also won't make it. You will note that I did not say probably; the physical demands are very front loaded.
Bosses are computer illiterate, so if you apply online you need to call someone at the office to followup. There's an EPA license for handling refrigerant- you have to take the multiple choice exam in person(either through some industry connected company or through community college), but self-studying for it is fine. The official study guide is pretty easy to get. I assume there's a private version and a bunch of youtube videos that do a perfectly fine job of covering the material. It's not a hard test. Depending on your state there might also be a registration requirement with a state regulatory board- in most states this is just a certification that you have paid the fee. Both are things a boss will expect you to show up with on the first day, alongside a drivers license, steel toed boots, and an ability to work. A past record of holding down a job, especially but not necessarily one with tools, will help. It's probably better to go to tech school after having worked at least a little bit, but lots of guys start by going to school and then get a job, so whatever. Different companies have different ideas about what's a 'good' tech school, my two cents is make sure they have a good lab and then pick the cheapest unless you know somebody in the industry locally. If your boss likes you he'll give you time off to go to school, but it probably won't be paid.
HVAC bosses are generally able to not be racist. Lots of their subordinates are not. If a young man is black/hispanic/asian he'll face extra barriers- but plenty succeed despite them. There's enough of a shortage of HVAC techs that existing workers don't particularly want to block out new applicants, though.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
I mean to be fair, even a metapedia article on Abraham Lincoln will be basically factual information, because factually accurate biographies of historical figures is a solved problem. Maybe it'll have some section about judeo-masonic links with citations from an Islamic apologist but it'll be more factual than an AI summary.
AI likes to just make shit up randomly.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
My headcanon is that clones tried a lot less hard to kill popular jedi commanders, and that 'yeah, he must've been dead' was because of that.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
They were wizard cops. Having Jedi do actual combat was pretty common from what we know of them.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
I mean to be clear, the Jedi really do act like pompous jackasses. They happen to be correct, but they have plenty of bad press from being douchebags.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
But the clones had no reason to believe that chancellor palpatine was part of the witch coven. As far as they knew, the witch coven was defeated and the Jedi immediately attempted to overthrow the republic by declaring the chancellor to be a surviving member.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
The Jedi were never pacificists, were they? They were always magical special forces but had been used to being used as swat.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
The government being shut down doesn't hurt republicans, they're getting what they want.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
The senate wasn't a legislative body and the republic was destroyed by a political yo-yo driven by the lack of checks and balances.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
What about Obama threatening to simply mint money to pay for things?
Indeed, this would have been an equivalent if he'd actually done it.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
My understanding is that drug running boats are designed differently from a boat that would be used for other civilian purpose- they're semisubmersible cargo vessels, introducing mechanical complexity that requires a bigger crew than 'pilot, navigator, relief shifts, maybe a cook'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco-submarine
That is... not a fishing vessel. I'd also point out that an organization that can run a submarine R&D program and build it's own shipyards is one which is not going away- a lot of first worlders think of Latin American cartels as big gangs, but the crips ain't doing that. An organization that designs and builds submersible stealth oceangoing cargo ships to carry narcotics into the first world is big enough to justify a lot more force than some guys in a rowboat trying to make a drop in a wildlife refuge nobody ever goes to.
hydroacetylene
3d ago
Normies would rather be loud and boring than silent and boring.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
It was passed by congress.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
Yes. Changing tax policy is a pretty strong brightline on bypassing congress.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
Resistancelib boomers and shrieking fascism hysterics are by and large different people, with the latter covering their faces and the former expecting a hybrid regime, not the sort of thing that carries out purges and white terrors. Trump's shutdown behavior is actual evidence for the resistancelib boomer idea.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
Obama did... not run a noninterventionist foreign policy. Nor was there a major move away from neoliberal economics until very recently.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
Define 'authoritarian'. Because Trump is ruling by decree outside of the normal separation of powers. Like that is literally what he's doing, yes Obama did some stuff along the same lines, but he didn't invent new taxes wholesale.
That being said, I don't really mind the rest of the constitution being treated like 'shall not be infringed'.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
TBH, Trump unilaterally spending money and changing taxation policies without congressional authorization, that's a big escalation from anything Obama(who was not a good actor and did a lot to centralize power under the president) did or anything Trump did that was supposedly creeping authoritarianism.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
So, it needs to be said- Trump is factually ruling by decree right now, in a way that previous government shutdowns- under both Trump and other presidents- did not see. The statement 'Trump is a dictator' is perhaps an exaggeration, but it is not unhinged.
Now this is resistancelib ranting, yes. But it isn't totally unfounded, even if their chain of cause and effect are wrong. Trump is ruling by decree and a lot of his action during the shutdown is flatly unconstitutional/illegal.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
They seem to wear skinny jeans or, like, actual pajamas?
hydroacetylene
4d ago
In an American political context, ‘replacement level politicians’ get the margin their party gets on average in that particular district- for example, Ted Cruz is exactly replacement level, he gets the average margin for a statewide Republican in Texas. A negative value over replacement candidate gets less than a typical member of the same party would get in their district- Bob Menendez, the now imprisoned former senator from New Jersey, was notorious for underperforming other statewide democrats.
The highest value over replacement candidate right now is probably Susan Collins, the republican senator from Maine.
hydroacetylene
4d ago
DFW, going by existing trends.
Well yeah, because they have higher rates of crime, self defense claims are more likely to be against blacks. This doesn't in itself mean anything.
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