Recent content by electrolyte

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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Some of the worst mosquitos that I have experiences were after a rain at Cape Henlopen State Park (Delaware shore). It rained and they were upon us. Some, maybe most, mosquito species diapause (go dormant) as eggs ready to hatch and others as pupae ready to emerge as adults. Water, sometimes...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    LOL that's the problem with common names for living things. Black flies are tiny, but larger than no-see-ums.
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    I've seen that done, but it seems rare, like a return in every room. It is expensive and most people probably won't appreciate how much better the system works when set up that way.
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Depends on where in the North. I grew up in central New York (Chenango County). Further Southeast on the coastal plane, you get ticks, mosquitos, and even chiggers. Further North, in the 'dacks, they have black flies and they really hurt*. We had none of that because the Summers were pretty...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Ain't that the truth. Trouble is, most of the building codes were written for more temperate conditions. Please see: https://buildingscience.com/sites/default/files/migrate/pdf/BSI-015_Top_Ten_South.pdf
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    What I see is fan off with compressor off as you say, but I have mostly seen that they turn on the fan periodically to stir up the air so they can better sense the current air temp and find the appropriate time to cycle again. That should allow drying before growth can happen. If I am shutting...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Poppy, I remember seeing those doorway fans from time to time. Note that there is a safety advantage to an "official" powered jump duct of some sort. They will, almost certainly, have a fuse to shut them off in the case of a fire. I offered the duct info because constant blower was mentioned...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    This is generally not a good idea. First, when cooling, when the compressor shuts off in single speed systems, you will re-evaporate lots of water back into the air. Second, even new duct systems can leak a lot, up to 5% is a pretty good figure, I think. The more you run the fan, the more air...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Will in-wall jump ducts help? They are often used in super-insulated homes with one few mini splits. You can use blowers for them although they are often used as passive returns to facilitate return air from rooms with no return. They can be installed in two ways. You can open a stud space...
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    Master thread for disasters and generators.

    That used to be true, over a generation ago. It used to be that while getting a post-secondary degree people learned to think and solve problems. That was pretty much the extent of it. Now, people expect to graduate with specialized job skills. That means that we've turned these institutions...
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    Master thread for disasters and generators.

    I have questions. Just to be clear, the previous unit was also an inverter model? A lot of the noise from portable gensets comes from the generator section. Is this part of the gensets quieter on the inverter models? I do not think I have ever had the opportunity to make any observations at...
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    guide me on a battery tester

    I am not adding much by saying that if you have a bunch of different battery types, you can make your own tester with a breadboard, some resistors and a voltmeter or two (or more likely a multimeter. You may need a specific resistor for each battery type, but that is not a big deal for even a...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    Cool metal roofs do help, most of the time a lot depending on what kind of construction. But they should be a good deal with almost any kind of home roof system. You do need some slope. Years ago, the Florida Solar energy center produced a lot of very good data comparing roofing. They have...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    In the olden days, every room had a supply and return. That is best, but costs a lot. Yes, badly sized ducts and duct leaks cause pressurization or depressurization and turn your air handler into a power vent forcing out conditioned air, and maybe worse, sucking in humid outdoor air where...
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    excessive heat, how do you protect your house during a heat wave?

    I would be very surprised if some areas where swamp coolers were popular are not now falling away either due to prohibition in building codes or by the expense of ever scarcer water. I lived in Tucson for three years and I agree with J-L D. for comfort except for Monsoon season when humidity...
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