Just incase you run across it, avoid Ultraloq. It seemed like a good deal with wifi, fingerprint read and keypad but after living with it I’m pretty frustrated. The reader stopped working after a couple months and the deadbolt motor isn’t strong enough to open if there is any friction with the door jamb. Apparently these problems aren’t unique to me so anything else posted here is a better choice.
Oh yeah I think that came out after I got mine. The fingerprint scanner is cool. But it seemed like they advertised it for like back/side doors, idk why 🤷
Sorry I took so long work took over for a little bit, but I finally found some time to check every bolt on the door and found one that was both a different size and loose! Tightening it solved the problem, thank you so much again :)
If you have (or know someone who has) dogs? Get some excrement. Burying it in the mole hills tells them a predator is there and to burrow away. There used to be moles where I live, but bringing in dogs have moved them out of the area. The yard has been mole free for years.
Depending on where you live, another alternative is flushing them out. Use a hose and flood the entrances which also makes them move away. However, with water shortages in a lot of places, I'd recommend the first option.
Cats also work wonders. The cat doesn’t even need to hunt them, just being present is enough to drive them off. We had an indoor outdoor cat who didn’t hunt but just wandering around the yard drove away the moles. Now that that cat is gone, they are back.
I’m on mobile and tbh don’t have time to dig into this too much, but I think you would do well to calculate the point of optimum efficiency for your specific scenario. I am in a similar scenario and hope to put together a spreadsheet that I could share if it doesn’t already exist elsewhere, but here is what I would do:
Find out if your heat pump IOM specifies the minimum ambient temperature before electric auxiliary heat kicks in (sometimes called “em heat” or emergen heat). Electric heat will always be the most expensive source of heat, so you should use oil heat when temperatures drop below that.
Look up the peak electric rate (in $/kW-hr) for your utility company. Use this to calculate the cost, per hour, to run your heat pump in all temperatures tabulated in your link. This will tell you how expensive it is to run your heat pump in a worst-case scenario.
Calculate the cost to run your boiler, per hour. This is where you will have to do your own homework on efficiency of your boiler, rate of consumption, and cost of oil in your location. Hard to say if the boiler will run at full capacity or part load, but most are capable of running between 20-100% of nameplate capacity (5:1 turn-down). Summarize your findings into a coat to run your boiler per hour.
When the answer for #2 exceeds the answer for #3, you’ve identified your switch point! Note that this relies on a number of assumptions, like that the heat pump is running full capacity.
Ah, ok, good point. In my install, I did not opt to have them wire and install electric auxiliary heating strips for my unit, and the boiler & aqua coil is I believe being controlled by a control system that makes the unit think the boiler is a heating strip. 17 F is about the coldest it got in my climate last winter, so I guess that’s a good starting point.
So it seems my Heat pump alone would run at 4.2 kW for 31,800 Btu. at 17F. My blended electric rate is about $.12/kwH, so about $.5/hr to run.
For my house, I believe the load calculation would be that I need about 48,000 Btu to effectively heat. Our boiler runs at 0.75 gal/hr max, and heating oil was $4.69/gallon last winter, so the boiler would still need to run at ~20-25% of capacity(assuming it’s a linear curve) at 17F to reach that btu number based on 138,500btu/gal x 0.75gal/hr x 0.8(not so sure on efficiency) x 20% capacity = 16,620 btu, which I believe at 0.75gal/hr x 0.2 = 0.15gal/hr would be ~$0.72/hr. So that would give me a total cost of ~$1.2/hr for 48,420 btu.
Without a heat pump, I guess I would solely be burning oil, so that would need to be about 57-60% load, so 138,500btu/gal x 0.75gal/hr x 0.8 x .6=49,860btu, which I believe at 0.75gal/hr x 0.6 = 0.45gal/hr would be ~$2.1/hr.
It seems like based on my electric rates and the values from that heat pump, it should offset roughly half of my heating oil usage at the 4.2 kW electric consumption assuming the boiler has some sort of ability to modulate oil in take.
I have a wee small one, it does the job well enough for my needs! It doesn’t feel as premium as a shed but as a safe place to chuck the lawnmower/strimmer, it’s grand.
One thing to note though if it’s floored, be mindful of ventilation since the metal doesn’t breathe like wood does.
A helped a friend put one up, he bought it from a proper shed place. It was super simple but we did not do a concrete slab we used paving tiles. It was great, eventually we put sound proofing in there and he turned it into a mini recording studio. Bigger than the small bedroom lol. It was far from soundproof but it didn’t annoy the neighbours.
I remember there was a leak in the roof after building it but we just waited to see where water came in then went crazy with mastik. After a while all the holes were plugged and it was water tight.
For garden use is solid, if expect it to last a decade or more. But the sheet metal was only a couple of mm so if you throw a sharp tool into the side or will dent and possibly rip. The walls were not designed to hang heavy equipment but the roof crossbar seemed solid.
Pressure reducing valve. Typically found directly after the water meter to reduce high municipal water pressure to reasonable residential water pressures.
Same for Harbor Freight. Great tools for light duty use, but if you’re doing big jobs frequently, spring for something better.
I’ve had a HF drill since 2005 and it only recently died. It can probably be fixed since it seems the trigger just wore out, but I got 18 years of use from it for like $15.
There are 2 schools of thought, and both are situationally relevant.
Buy the 2nd last tool you will ever need.
IE, buy light duty. If it breaks and you’ve been using it a lot, you will likely know what features you want, how much to spend etc on the replacement. At which point you buy a more suitable tool.
Buy once, cry once.
If you are spending $200 on a tool, and the $300 is better, maybe just buy the $300 one.
Certainly more applicable to when you already use similar tools, and you need another.
Definitely don’t use JB weld, and I think you should be able to do it without replacing the box.
Regular electrical boxes are usually 6-32 size screws, ceiling fan boxes usually 8-32. If the holes are stripped, especially with plastic boxes, a lot of times you can get away with using the next size up (either 8-32 or 10-32) and forcibly screwing them in. They will cut new threads in the soft plastic/metal of the box, and you’ll be good to go. This is how most electricians would handle it without replacing the box.
If you want to do a cleaner, less hacky job, you can get a set of drill-taps, like this:
You can usually find them in the electrical section of your big-box home improvement store of choice. Just use the next size up and get some appropriate screws.
Start with the gasket. I replaced one in my Kohler toilet. Easy and cheap. You have to remove the cylinder to replace it, so you’ll have the opportunity to inspect it for damage.
The twisted chain was 100% the issue. I’m so amazed that you were able to catch that in that shitty video I uploaded above. Thanks again so much for your sharp eye!
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