This is the house I lived in for 37 years in Florida. The red minivan is mine. The entire neighborhood is flooded as there is a drainage canal behind the house that I was standing in when I took this picture. When a serious rainstorm comes the drainage canal not only doesn't work, but the overflow from the everglades flows back up the canal and floods the neighborhood. This happened once or twice a year and anytime a hurricane or tropical storm dropped several inches of rain in the 'glades. Flood insurance was subsidized and cheap $150 / year.
Despite the flooding, the mailman ran his route.
Here, I have had the creek overflow and flood much of the back yard, but no water has gotten into the house.....yet.
Despite the flooding, the mailman ran his route.
Here, I have had the creek overflow and flood much of the back yard, but no water has gotten into the house.....yet.
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George -- I think we are getting used to it. I had our gutters reinforced last summer as the verocity of the rain up here in CLE is beyond historical
Is that a Mercury Comet?
I haven't seen one of those since, since, since... the early 80s... wow...
Yes, that's a 1977 Mercury Comet. The homeowner's boyfriend was a Ford fanatic. It started up and drove after the water subsided. The brakes took a while to dry out. The cars with bags over their heads are all 1960's Mustang convertibles. The two grey covers house an immaculate 1964 original restoration and a 1968 daily driver. There was also a 1970 mustang in a state of partial disassembly out of the picture to my right. The car under the blue bag is my 1966 convertible.
Oddly all the Mustangs were clean and water free inside after the storm, but the green 1999 Pontiac Sunfire convertible hiding behind the minivan was flooded despite being shielded from most of the wind and rain. Water ran out of the car when I opened the door. That car was such a POS that we only put 4000 miles on it in the two years we had it, because it was always at the dealership dead. We traded it in on a used 1999 Mustang convertible which went trouble free for 9 years until I sold it.
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Using metal boxes?
Most stuff I see nowadays is a blue plastic box, they don't ground the box at all.
Most stuff I see nowadays is a blue plastic box, they don't ground the box at all.
Metal buildings almost exclusively use metal and Armorlite around here. Some will go to EMT. Boxes can mount directly to the steel structure, and the purlins can be used as cable trays. The shop could have used a hybrid approach, but it was easier just to be consistent. And once you get used to doing it that way you won’t go back to NM-B and plastic - ever. Far too easy to rip the plastic jacket off - up in a hot attic. The conductors in NM are rated 90C, but that plastic jacket gets gooey. You see that stuff up in attic spaces, running every which way, with 15 pieces bundled, stretched tight to save inches - and have to walk across it. You wonder about it’s long term safety. With the anchoring requirements of AC, you actually have to think about where you are running what. You end up with something serviceable, should it ever need it. Steel boxes will typically contain a small fire or short well - and self extinguish. Should a real fire break out in the attic, metal jacket cable will buy TIME before the electrical system fails.
Yeah, the stuff is more expensive. But in the grand scheme of things it’s just not that much. If you were to hire an electrician, it would turn a $12,000 job to a $23,000 job between the retail-on-retail pricing and the extra labor (it IS more time consuming). But doing all this myself it might add up to $1500 extra.
Yeah, the stuff is more expensive. But in the grand scheme of things it’s just not that much. If you were to hire an electrician, it would turn a $12,000 job to a $23,000 job between the retail-on-retail pricing and the extra labor (it IS more time consuming). But doing all this myself it might add up to $1500 extra.
Around our area, metal electrical boxes are much cheaper, since they are locally produced vs the plastic versions, so we used all metal boxes in our build. I did discover that Siemens breakers in Canada are different than the US versions. During Covid breakers were in scarce supply, we bought a quad breaker off amazon and it would not fit our distribution panel, had to send it back
Those “Quad” breakers are typically for mains in the GE residential panels.
Around here, the branch circuit breakers for GE (ABB), Siemens, and Squared D Homeline are all interchangeable. The mains are NOT. Except those half size GE’s which don’t fit anything except some of theirs. Not all GE panels will even even take them. Square D’s commercial stuff has always been different, and there are two different Eatons.
Everybody want to use the plastic boxes (and NM) because it goes in fast. Blow and go. No terminations required at the boxes. Slap in a couple staples and holler “Next”. Need a 5 gang box for that many switches? No problem here it is…. By the time I need more than 3 switches in a location they end up on separate zones anyway and not on the same breaker. So I need 2 metal boxes.
Around here, the branch circuit breakers for GE (ABB), Siemens, and Squared D Homeline are all interchangeable. The mains are NOT. Except those half size GE’s which don’t fit anything except some of theirs. Not all GE panels will even even take them. Square D’s commercial stuff has always been different, and there are two different Eatons.
Everybody want to use the plastic boxes (and NM) because it goes in fast. Blow and go. No terminations required at the boxes. Slap in a couple staples and holler “Next”. Need a 5 gang box for that many switches? No problem here it is…. By the time I need more than 3 switches in a location they end up on separate zones anyway and not on the same breaker. So I need 2 metal boxes.
It is now c-c-c-COLD in the electronics shop. Too bad there are still too many clothes racks in my way. But enough space to do some power supply load testing. Got some new acquisitions from Antek to power the “biggest tube amps ever” - they now have 120/480V industrial control transformers up to 4kVA….
I did promise my wife that I’d finish the house before building any more amplifiers, but hanging dummy loads off a power supply to measure sag, and adding turns to transformers isn’t really “building an amplifier ”. Just a necessary step before you do.
That upstairs room in the house got framed some time ago. About a months worth of wiring so far. So far just pulling cable. I’ll be out of cable this week and need to get more. There are about 10 more circuits to pull.
I did promise my wife that I’d finish the house before building any more amplifiers, but hanging dummy loads off a power supply to measure sag, and adding turns to transformers isn’t really “building an amplifier ”. Just a necessary step before you do.
That upstairs room in the house got framed some time ago. About a months worth of wiring so far. So far just pulling cable. I’ll be out of cable this week and need to get more. There are about 10 more circuits to pull.
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That "room" in the picture?
Here in California we're supposed to have two points of egress... meaning a room needs at least two doors or a door and a window...
I guess that's classified as "storage"?
Does your property tax reflect the difference?
Also, you pulled your own Romex? 15A then? 14 gauge? I had 20A capable Romex (10 gauge for the kitchen, computer closet, audio/video homeruns... and 12 gauge elsewhere) put in my house and it took two guys to pull that. Even though most of the circuits have 15A breakers. At the time I figured it was cheap enough to do.
Hey, I wanna see the glamour pictures of the panel... That's the garage huh? 100A?
Three ton AC?
Do you have a drain for the mini split?
I was at the Home Depot the other way... did the orange buckets get smaller?
Here in California we're supposed to have two points of egress... meaning a room needs at least two doors or a door and a window...
I guess that's classified as "storage"?
Does your property tax reflect the difference?
Also, you pulled your own Romex? 15A then? 14 gauge? I had 20A capable Romex (10 gauge for the kitchen, computer closet, audio/video homeruns... and 12 gauge elsewhere) put in my house and it took two guys to pull that. Even though most of the circuits have 15A breakers. At the time I figured it was cheap enough to do.
Hey, I wanna see the glamour pictures of the panel... That's the garage huh? 100A?
Three ton AC?
Do you have a drain for the mini split?
I was at the Home Depot the other way... did the orange buckets get smaller?
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That upstairs “room” is just storage. Only a 6 foot ceiling - at the peak. I only had partial downstairs framing in and hadn’t gotten to the vaulted ceiling in the living/kitchen yet the last time property tax was assessed. I don’t even think they went inside - they could clearly see it wasn’t finished yet.
It’s not Romex - it’s all Armorlite, with the exception of a couple 240V runs in EMT. It was cheaper than 1” FMC. Most 120V circuits are #12 - including lighting. Dedicated “amplifier” outlets will go #10. The rest of the “AV” and computer outlets all feed back to a UPS. The only things that draw any real power are the amplifiers. No fancy TV and no gaming computers.
That’s the house panel (200A). It’s got 3 240V circuits hooked up - Range outlet, with my distro plugged into it, Dryer and water heater circuits have the temporary AC units plugged into them. And two temporary 15A lighting circuits for the porch lights. When I get all the switches and outlets put in, then I can tie all the cables to the panel. I’ll have to kill the main, so they will all get done in the same afternoon.
The shop panel has been posted before. It’s pretty - courtesy of me using two ground bars. It’s a 200A panel too, but fed off a 125A breaker at the main service entrance. House gets fed off the main lugs to get the full 200A. It has two ground bars in it too. That lets me have the neutrals on BOTH SIDES to keep it from becoming a rats nest.
That shop mini split is a 1.5 ton. Could have gotten away with much less for cooling. The inverter units dial back as needed, so there isn’t any real harm in oversizing. And it gives me a bigger heat pump for when it gets to be 10 degrees outside in the winter. Make that just barely big enough and it will spend all its time in the defrost cycle. No possibility of gas backup in the shop. It has a drain hose - it came with a cheap plastic hose that will probably dissolve from UV light after a year. So I ran it through a piece of 3/4” liquid-tight electrical conduit. I dare THAT to leak inside the wall……
3 ton? Not if I can help it. I want a 4 ton dual inverter type in the house. With gas backup.
It’s not Romex - it’s all Armorlite, with the exception of a couple 240V runs in EMT. It was cheaper than 1” FMC. Most 120V circuits are #12 - including lighting. Dedicated “amplifier” outlets will go #10. The rest of the “AV” and computer outlets all feed back to a UPS. The only things that draw any real power are the amplifiers. No fancy TV and no gaming computers.
That’s the house panel (200A). It’s got 3 240V circuits hooked up - Range outlet, with my distro plugged into it, Dryer and water heater circuits have the temporary AC units plugged into them. And two temporary 15A lighting circuits for the porch lights. When I get all the switches and outlets put in, then I can tie all the cables to the panel. I’ll have to kill the main, so they will all get done in the same afternoon.
The shop panel has been posted before. It’s pretty - courtesy of me using two ground bars. It’s a 200A panel too, but fed off a 125A breaker at the main service entrance. House gets fed off the main lugs to get the full 200A. It has two ground bars in it too. That lets me have the neutrals on BOTH SIDES to keep it from becoming a rats nest.
That shop mini split is a 1.5 ton. Could have gotten away with much less for cooling. The inverter units dial back as needed, so there isn’t any real harm in oversizing. And it gives me a bigger heat pump for when it gets to be 10 degrees outside in the winter. Make that just barely big enough and it will spend all its time in the defrost cycle. No possibility of gas backup in the shop. It has a drain hose - it came with a cheap plastic hose that will probably dissolve from UV light after a year. So I ran it through a piece of 3/4” liquid-tight electrical conduit. I dare THAT to leak inside the wall……
3 ton? Not if I can help it. I want a 4 ton dual inverter type in the house. With gas backup.
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I meant three tons in the shop.
Chez moi we went with seven tons, five zones. Overkill. but of course.
Our power is 48 cents per KwH. It's precious California power, you see.
Nice storage room.
Can't wait to see more pictures.
Can't you get propane?
Chez moi we went with seven tons, five zones. Overkill. but of course.
Our power is 48 cents per KwH. It's precious California power, you see.
Nice storage room.
Can't wait to see more pictures.
Can't you get propane?
I might need 3 tons total in the shop - if I add another 1.5 ton for the wood shop later. Sawdust isn’t good for air handlers, though. The electronics shop part is only 500 square feet.
48c per kWh - what are they using to generate it? Dilithium?
I can get propane, and plan to for the house. But getting the line to the back end of the shop isn’t possible. I’d have to have a 2nd tank - and the delivery driver would want to kill me any time he goes to fill it with the obstacle course he’d have to go through. The shop just has to be electric. The heat pump will supposedly “run” down to -5F.
The house will run dual fuel. When it gets too cold, just switch to gas. Another benefit is when power lines go down in the ice storms, the air handler can be run off the generator. The shop will just get cold if that happens. It went down to 12 above last winter, with a week in the 20’s and it never got below 40 in that electronics shop. With no heat at all. The heat pump will probably keep me above 60 even in that nonsense. And probably won’t freeze all my electrolytic caps even if power is out a couple days. But we are going to want 68 or better in the house no matter what happens.
48c per kWh - what are they using to generate it? Dilithium?
I can get propane, and plan to for the house. But getting the line to the back end of the shop isn’t possible. I’d have to have a 2nd tank - and the delivery driver would want to kill me any time he goes to fill it with the obstacle course he’d have to go through. The shop just has to be electric. The heat pump will supposedly “run” down to -5F.
The house will run dual fuel. When it gets too cold, just switch to gas. Another benefit is when power lines go down in the ice storms, the air handler can be run off the generator. The shop will just get cold if that happens. It went down to 12 above last winter, with a week in the 20’s and it never got below 40 in that electronics shop. With no heat at all. The heat pump will probably keep me above 60 even in that nonsense. And probably won’t freeze all my electrolytic caps even if power is out a couple days. But we are going to want 68 or better in the house no matter what happens.
In our monthly bill, there's about 100 bucks for Climate Change BS. I kid you not. Somebody is getting rich.. Al Gore lives in California..
Then they are shutting down our two nuke plants... 4.4Gw... planning on using windmills I guess. The truth is that we are importing our power for the nuke plants in AZ and hydro from the PNW. So, with taxes, "transportation", the profit other states are making, the money into all kinds of crazy programs... well, dilithium would be cheaper.
Of course, they don't let the power utilities clean the brush under the power lines.. so we get fires and the insurance costs are beyond sky high.
We have people living in a small urban city telling the rest of the state how to live.
Then we got the water bill..
Our luck is that living near the Coast and with our dry weather we don't need to run the AC that much. Those are pretty cold temps... I don't think I could live with that. I'd have to go on vacation to Hawai'i in the winter.
Oh, this being DIY Audio... let's just hope they don't pass regulations to force all of us to run 50 wpc class D amps... They might make class A illegal.. just as I have to ship the halogen bulbs for my kitchen's Vent A Hood to the State of Washington because I can't get them shipped here in California.
And replaceable battery powered smoke detectors too.... Illegal in CA. The right hand wants to encourage recycling and the left hand says we can not be trusted to replace the batteries so we can only buy expensive "five year" jobbies that are thrown away when the non replaceable battery runs out.
Crazy, eh?
Oh well, let's not get too political because I'm sort of pissed off. Our utilities are getting more expensive than our mortgage...
Nice buildings.
It'll be fun when you get it all working and you plug the stereo into your new set up. Just remember to have a rug in place... when I first fired up the stereo in our new living room it wasn't quite furnished and I detected a "clap echo".... that was scary until I remembered that my calculations spec'd a really big Arabian rug... Phew...
Then they are shutting down our two nuke plants... 4.4Gw... planning on using windmills I guess. The truth is that we are importing our power for the nuke plants in AZ and hydro from the PNW. So, with taxes, "transportation", the profit other states are making, the money into all kinds of crazy programs... well, dilithium would be cheaper.
Of course, they don't let the power utilities clean the brush under the power lines.. so we get fires and the insurance costs are beyond sky high.
We have people living in a small urban city telling the rest of the state how to live.
Then we got the water bill..
Our luck is that living near the Coast and with our dry weather we don't need to run the AC that much. Those are pretty cold temps... I don't think I could live with that. I'd have to go on vacation to Hawai'i in the winter.
Oh, this being DIY Audio... let's just hope they don't pass regulations to force all of us to run 50 wpc class D amps... They might make class A illegal.. just as I have to ship the halogen bulbs for my kitchen's Vent A Hood to the State of Washington because I can't get them shipped here in California.
And replaceable battery powered smoke detectors too.... Illegal in CA. The right hand wants to encourage recycling and the left hand says we can not be trusted to replace the batteries so we can only buy expensive "five year" jobbies that are thrown away when the non replaceable battery runs out.
Crazy, eh?
Oh well, let's not get too political because I'm sort of pissed off. Our utilities are getting more expensive than our mortgage...
Nice buildings.
It'll be fun when you get it all working and you plug the stereo into your new set up. Just remember to have a rug in place... when I first fired up the stereo in our new living room it wasn't quite furnished and I detected a "clap echo".... that was scary until I remembered that my calculations spec'd a really big Arabian rug... Phew...
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