This weeks preps check-in
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I finished putting LED bulbs in my house. I did a few several months ago, but I just finished the whole house this weekend.
I replaced every incandescent bulb with LEDs on the property last year except for what I use for heating such as chicken pens etc...
Switching to LED isn’t so expensive now. Just three years ago I saw single lamps going for 30.00. Now you can get some for 2 or 3 dollars. We do a lot of commercial plaza lighting and some of the larger lights can be 600.00 for a whole new fixture head on a pole light. The retrofit kits we install are about 300. Still expensive, but they pay for themselves quickly with both energy and maintenance savings. I just like the fact that I don’t have to change a light bulb at home very often anymore, espechially the hard to reach ones. If considering going solar then switching to LED is a must. There is a decent selection of 12 volt LED out there now too, so you wouldn’t even need to use an inverter for lighting.
I am not sure how much savings I will get, but I am looking forward to not changing bulbs. It’s not hard to do, but just annoying when they go out.
I have a couple of three way lamps. I put a regular LED bulb in them. I hope they work out okay.
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I've been using compact florescents since the 1990s. Back when I started using them they had a replaceable U tube that plugged into a base and were much larger than now. I had problems with the A/C at one time and I started using them mainly as a way as to not generate so much heat from lighting to help the A/C keep the house cool. I never really liked them that much, and in some fixtures they were a pain in the butt because they got hot and burned out. And in places where I had a globe, they often didn't fit so I had to run them without the globe.
But I like these new LEDs, and now that the prices are down that's all I buy. Same form factor as the incandescents so they fit all the fixtures and don't get as hot as the compact florescents. Plus you don't have to call a Hazmat team when you want to throw them away.
But I like these new LEDs, and now that the prices are down that's all I buy. Same form factor as the incandescents so they fit all the fixtures and don't get as hot as the compact florescents. Plus you don't have to call a Hazmat team when you want to throw them away.
In my shop and garages I have 4 feet florescent tubes, I replaced the old tubes with 4 feet LED tubes. So far they haven't been affected by the cold, on the box it states 40 year life, 6 year warranty, the LED tube replaces the T8 and T12 tubes.
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My wife is a little (lot) spoiled and is used to nice things. But she is starting to consider a less costly style of fixtures for most of the house. She won't give in when it comes to the kitchen or her bathroom though.
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Are you using ballast bypass tubes? If so, how hard was it to rewire? I've got a bad ballast in one of my shop fixtures and rather than replace the ballast, I'd rather go to LED replacement tubes.
You can go either way, I purchased tubes that can be used with the existing ballast and tubes where I disconnected the ballast, right now I'm using tubes that have the ballast disconnected, they have two different tubes that should state 'with existing ballast' or 'without ballast'
It was easy, I just took the ballast out of the loop and direct wired the ends.
I strongly recommend using the ballast bypass tubes. The old ballast will still pull electricity and is another part that can fail. Getting rid of it just makes sense. As far as lasting six years, we’ll, in the real world they don’t always, but still last really well compared to fluorescent. They do start in cold though better than anything else. I use them in freezers with no problems.
There are wiring directions printed in the directions. It’s pretty simple.
The only problem is where you have a dimmer on the fixture, then you have to get ones that say dimmable. Three or 4 way circuits make no difference with them.
I’ve been working on the master bedroom for a while now. I actually may finish it before I die.... anyways, it is slowly progressing. I’m using the additional storage as my excuse to say this is prepping. Might be a stretch but it’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I opened a packet of my seeds from the freezer to plant this year so thought it would be wise to order some more to replace them. I ordered these from amazon about three days ago. They arrived and were shredded by the post office. There was an apology note from them, but no offer to replace or anything. I contacted the supplier through amazon and they said they would re ship a new order immediately. They didn’t even want the two damaged packs back. The packs are ok but the Mylar pouches were trashed, so I will use these seeds first I guess. I really love amazon! The company is puriTEST. I can’t say enough good about them. I’ve planted these seeds for a couple years now and had great success.
I like puritest seeds, I had fairly good luck with them and survival essentials, survival essentials comes in an ammo can, I keep all of them in a freezer.
I started roasting a Boston butt yesterday afternoon in the oven. After a while I noticed the meat thermometer wasn’t to 180 yet. So thirty more mins, still not, and another thirty, still not. I finally figured out that the oven wasn’t getting to the temp it said it was at. So, I used the broil option off and on until I finally cooked dinner 3 hrs late, but got through it at least. Today I went and got a new gas range. I also got the threaded pipe and fittings to supply the propane to it. I hope to have it working sometime tomorrow. I have been planning to switch the water heater and stove to gas for a while now but didn’t have the heart to change perfectly working appliances. This was enough to at least get one off the list. I’m hoping to have all the large energy users switched to gas soon so I have a chance of solar being able to cover the rest.
Ya ever think about a propane tankless water heater? Ours runs on 110 volts and doesn’t use any energy if you’re not using hot water....
That’s what I will install befor long. I put one in my sons house and it’s worked perfectly. One other small benefit is it will free up the space where the large tank is now to make a new closet. My main motivation is energy independence if the grid goes down. Propane isn’t perfect but is more reliable than the grid in my opinion.
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Monday morning I had to go in to work for a few hours to finish things out before hunny had his surgery Tuesday morning. When I got off went over to Grannys because she had a 3:30 appointment at her doctors office and since it was close to 6 pm just went thru a drive thru to get her something for dinner. Couldn't get a hold of HIM who was supposed to show up that evening to look after granny the two days we were to be gone. So called his wife. She says oh yeah I was about to call you. . . He got sick last night and went to the doctors today. He has the flu and won't be coming. . . Another added stress. So much for me getting granny help the first week home. Scrambled and asked our friend who was feeding our livestock and dogs to add granny to his already busy schedule. It pays to have some really great friends.
Tuesday morning was up at 2 so I could feed and was out the door by 3:30 am. He needed to be at the BIG city hospital by 5:30 for surgery to start at 7:30. Surgery went very well and the doctor seems to think he got all the cancer and was able to leave the nerve bundle intact. That's a big Blessing. Hunny didn't get out of recovery until almost 5 pm yesterday. Not much rest at the hospital and was finally released at 3:30 this afternoon. We are scheduled to go in on the 19th to have another scan and will make another appointment tomorrow to have his catheter removed sometime next week hopefully.
I am just glad to be back home for now. Tomorrow night I will start back to work after evening feeding, getting hunny his dinner and taking granny hers. Pretty exhausted right now so going to bed soon. Just need to start a load of clothes.
Tuesday morning was up at 2 so I could feed and was out the door by 3:30 am. He needed to be at the BIG city hospital by 5:30 for surgery to start at 7:30. Surgery went very well and the doctor seems to think he got all the cancer and was able to leave the nerve bundle intact. That's a big Blessing. Hunny didn't get out of recovery until almost 5 pm yesterday. Not much rest at the hospital and was finally released at 3:30 this afternoon. We are scheduled to go in on the 19th to have another scan and will make another appointment tomorrow to have his catheter removed sometime next week hopefully.
I am just glad to be back home for now. Tomorrow night I will start back to work after evening feeding, getting hunny his dinner and taking granny hers. Pretty exhausted right now so going to bed soon. Just need to start a load of clothes.
That sounds good, but exhausting! Hopefully things will be getting better now! Make sure you take some timeout for yourself if at all possible, and best wishes for everyone!
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I’m so glad the surgery went well Danil. I am sure you are both relieved and worn out. Seriously, don’t forget to take care of yourself too. If you end up sick right now then you will all be hurting.
I got the new stove hooked up and ready today. I reworked the gas line on the back of the house and made a junction to add the tankless water heater line too. I changed the orifices in the stove to propane and had to add a 110v line for the stove too. What I thought was a three hour job ended up taking all day! Well worth it though, I’ve not only wanted to cook on gas for a while but the grid independence is really what I’ve been working towards. Once I change the water heater to gas as well then I won’t need much electricity other than the air conditioning. I ran out of daylight though so will have to pressure test the gas lines tomorrow. Had to break out the George Forman grill tonight to cook a chicken breast. Good, but am missing my stove...
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Now you just need to learn to gasify wood.
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I installed a tankless propane water heater in the cabin. This model doesn't need AC power, instead it uses 2 D cell batteries for the ignitor. The batteries last about a year. I've been very pleased with this heater so far. I'm going to use a tankless water heater in the new house too, only this one will be connected to AC power.
The tankless water heaters are the way to go, my oldest one has been going strong since 2003. I have 3 of them installed in the house (2 bathrooms and kitchen) and still cheaper to run than one gas water heater tank and diffidently cheaper than electric tanks.
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No thanks on the tankless. Every experience I've had with them has been bad. And my sister is ruing the day they put a big expensive one in their house. Biggest mistake they ever made.
My sons is able to keep up with all the faucets and shower running at once. It’s just been over a year so far but no hiccups as of yet. I mainly want to get off Electric dependence. (Ironic since I’m an electrician). Kind of sucks as I just replaced my electric heater not long ago.... either way, just freeing up more storage space almost makes it worth it!
Like I mentioned above, the oldest tankless is 2003 and the newest is 2013/14, I never had an issue with them. The biggest problem that I've seen with the tankless are with people on chlorinated city water where people that installed them didn't pre-filter the water to remove the chlorination plus the calcium from hard water which would require a water softener.
