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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jan 16, 2019 - 07:13pm PT
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Ruppell and Jim, you guys put your fingers right on it. They conspire!
Try landing two 18" return airs into a into a furnace plenum on a contemporary house when the homeowners don't even want to see door hinges.
I had to pull the drywall off of ceiling because the HVAC contractor had two many turns in our whole house fan- it wouldn't pass HERS testing until we straightened out the ducting.
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ruppell
climber
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Jan 16, 2019 - 07:17pm PT
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I've said this before but it's so true.
Every really good engineer and architect I have ever worked with has had time as a carpenter prior to getting a degree. Every shitty one(there are many) has only spent time in school.
Seeing how a building goes together makes one much more aware of, well, how a building goes together. lol
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Jan 17, 2019 - 05:56am PT
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This hits close to home.
Charlie Johnson ,a good friend,a RIT Architect,my towns CEO and owner of Paradox Design,passed away this summer.
He had Cohlen cancer and worked till the last day of his life. He was 59.
Charlie worked in the carpentry trade to pay for his education in the early 80’s.
He designed my current and previous homes. He had a great sense of spaces.
A true passion for HVAC applications. The first person to coach me towards radiant heat ,Ng fueled and geothermal. He did not know much of Solar and it’s applications ,but ,was very inquisitive about.
I did over 60 projects with Charlie.
You are right Ruppell,Great Architects should always have had to work as a carpenter.
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jan 17, 2019 - 07:30am PT
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Manual D isn’t a big deal. Most homes back to the 60’s meet it for heating. AC can be more difficult to retro, but with modern insulation, windows and a variable speed blower, it’s not going to be a big cost adder. No ginormous ducts unless you hire some savage who just makes guesses and assumptions about everything. IMO the energy codes are what good builders have been or should already be doing. Can’t speak to the solar aspects, that part is new. I don’t believe the hot water preheat is worth cost and the complexity.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jan 17, 2019 - 09:59am PT
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Wilbeer, those all have classic lines. He clearly had a keen focus on the roof design and nice finishes.
JLP- The solar preheat is a breeze. One glazed panel on the roof with a supply to an insulated 50 gallon storage tank (basically a water heater without a burner), then a supply from the tank to the tankless water heater. It's pretty standard for the tankless to have a thermostatic sensor for the water coming into the unit. On a warm day the tankless won't even turn on. This all works off the water pressure coming into the house.
I suppose one tricky part will be if the code (and it will) calls for an anti scald device if the solar heater gets the water above 150 degrees.
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ruppell
climber
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Jan 17, 2019 - 10:19am PT
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This all works off the water pressure coming into the house.
While the pre-heat system is plumbed from the storage tank to the water heater it needs it's own re-circ pump. The water would just sit without it in the tank and cool since there is no draw on the system except on demand(ie using the kitchen sink).
It was a big thing back in the late 60's to early 70's. My house had a pre-heat system that I removed when we bought it. The cost of running that pump was less energy efficient than my modern 95% efficiency water heater acting alone. Plus I needed the space that 100G tank was taking up.
The more times change or something like that. lol
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jan 17, 2019 - 10:32am PT
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It was a big thing back in the late 60's to early 70's. My house had a pre-heat system that I removed when we bought it. The cost of running that pump was less energy efficient than my modern 95% efficiency water heater acting alone. Plus I needed the space that 100G tank was taking up. That's exactly it, same here. I think Carter had a tax incentive and lot of these systems went in - then have been torn out over the years as people contemplate the costs of maintaining them and what else they can do with the space that storage tank occupies. The real savings over a year compared to a modern water heater might buy you a meal at Taco Bell, certainly not a new pump and the labor to install it.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jan 17, 2019 - 11:26am PT
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The storage tank is directly inline with the panel and the tankless heater. The tankless water heaters are most efficient without a circ pump. Although some have an internal circ pump, requiring a loop to the furthest hot fixture. A circ pump kind of defeats the whole purpose of heating water "on demand". The old school circ pump on a copper system sucks. Lots of 90's creating wear spots and additional length to the runs. Pinhole leaks will be an issue at some point.
We do use the tankless heaters with the internal circ on occasion but I advocate for a tankless with the hot water running to a centralized manifold which then supplies each fixture with a dedicated hot. This system works with pex. The water system can run more like a crow flies, minimizing wait time, saves energy and wear and tear on the unit.
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otisdog
Social climber
Sierra Madre, Ca.
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Jan 17, 2019 - 01:36pm PT
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Contractor - What brand of tankless do you recommend? Thanks!
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Jan 17, 2019 - 01:42pm PT
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I have worked with Bosch electric tankless and Rheem ng/lp ,both are decent quality.
You need a lot of Solar to run electric,especially OTG.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jan 17, 2019 - 02:08pm PT
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Odog, if someone is going to incessantly complain about waiting for hot water then go Navien with the internal circ pump. Heads-up, this would be a problematic option if retrofitting a tankless heater without a recirc loop in the existing plumbing system to the furthest fixture.
If you don't have a recirc loop or not too worried about waiting for hot water, then I would go with a Rinnai.
If it's new construction and you have the option for PEX Plumbing with the manifold system I described in the post above, I would consider this option.
The recirc pump essentially shoots a squirt of hot water through the system every time the hot supply water drops to about a 115 degrees. This wastes energy and puts wear and tear on the unit.
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
but to scared to climb them anymore
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Jan 17, 2019 - 05:01pm PT
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Threw this little table together. Hard part was getting the 850 lb walnut burl out of the hole I dug around it and then across the river! Haha, if I had known what it was going to take to get the darn thing off the island it would still be there.
I did manage to "taco" my tail gate when I lowered the burl with the tractor.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Jan 17, 2019 - 05:59pm PT
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Burley!
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Jan 17, 2019 - 06:13pm PT
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Dude..!!!
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zBrown
Ice climber
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Jan 17, 2019 - 06:22pm PT
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I thoroughly enjoyed Birds of Honduras
-Alfred Hitchcock
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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Jan 17, 2019 - 09:40pm PT
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I wanted to give my router-sled a test drive so I hacked a couple feet off of a 16' slab and whipped up a top for an old restaurant table base I had kicking around. The old weathered end of the slab is away from the camera. It's a bit rough but still cool. I used minwax spar for the finish.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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Jan 18, 2019 - 08:19am PT
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I'm going to do a four foot coffee table next and then the countertops. Lots of countertops here and I have another sixteen footer. Beetle kill sucks for the trees but gives woodworkers great gifts.
Here you can see the cracks and knots better. I didn't fill any cracks. There is a bug hole at the front and a pitch pocket at the rear that I filled with epoxy. I think they call it "rustic". I'm just lazy.
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Republic, WA
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Jan 19, 2019 - 08:47am PT
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I mentioned earlier in the thread that my cheap-ass Harbor Freight table saw quit. It was the brushes. They are not easy to find. I ended up getting some that were close in size and made them fit. They fit better than the originals and that saw works better than before. In the meantime I scored an old Craftsman 8" tabletop saw built in the fifties. It was rusty and dirty and in pieces. After about thirty hours of work removing rust and grime all it needed was some paint and some new pulleys and a link belt. I'm waiting for a new 8" blade. Here it is:
The new pulleys are machined and run true and the link belt runs smooth. Very little vibration. This saw purrs.
This is my next resto project. A 12" contractors saw I got from Herr Grossman.
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WBraun
climber
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Jan 19, 2019 - 08:52am PT
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Wayno
That turquoise colored adjustable belt is expensive, right?
I saw it in a store and wanted to buy for my drill press but whoa its expensive.
I see a lot of people getting them though ....
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