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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2613 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 28, 2022

Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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It Liiiiiives

Mini split commission and testing went great. HVAC guy confirmed I'd done the flaring and such right, and that the general install looked professional. He tried to undercharge (only $150 for hours of work), so it felt good to throw a bunch of extra cash at him. With luck the utility rebate will cover the entire cost of the unit+commissioning. Strongly recommend the DIY+HVAC-guy route.

It's incredibly quiet and can switch between hot and chilled air in minutes. Hopefully I've sized it reasonably well for the space, erring on undersizing due to the mild local climate, limited turndown ratio, and my backup wood heat. Am interested in getting some measuring gear to test the practical efficiency this winter. Working pressures in heating mode are ridiculous for r410a, but the rebate was use it or lose it, and I didn't have time to wait for propane/butane refrigerant to reach the budget market.

For my location this is an ideal setup. More on that plus plenty of energy policy culture war in a future post. Which may be delayed by the whole "potentially losing my entire C:\ drive" business.

My sister has radiant heat for in the winter and mini splits for the summer. She loves that in the fall, she can use her mini splits to heat her house on the days it’s needed, and wait to fire the boiler up until winter has fully arrived.

Yes! I used to spend a lot of time with my fire burning and the windows open in october, which was a lot of wasted effort cutting and hauling the damn stuff. And getting below freezing is a cold snap here, so with any luck fires are going to be a few-weeks-a-year thing now.

Been focused entirely on winter heating for the post, I hadn't even considered the value of "three season" use for cooling and shoulder season work.

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