June Banter 2021

[George BM]

Happy 9 year anniversary to you all! 

[mappy]

7 hours ago, George BM said:

Happy 9 year anniversary to you all! 

I'm still annoyed that the good part of the derecho missed me at the time. 

[H2O]

11 minutes ago, mappy said:

I'm still annoyed that the good part of the derecho missed me at the time. 

I'm still surprised I didn't lose any trees that night.  Holy hell the winds were some of the worst I've even experienced.

[BlizzardNole]

This WTOP article about DC's heat islands says that "...on Tuesday, when temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90s, parts of the city like Rock Creek Park were actually in the 70s."  

Wow, I thought woods could drop air temps by up to 9 degrees, but this much?

DC Heat Islands

[SnowenOutThere]

11 hours ago, George BM said:

Happy 9 year anniversary to you all! 

I was asleep

[EastCoast NPZ]

52 minutes ago, BlizzardNole said:

This WTOP article about DC's heat islands says that "...on Tuesday, when temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90s, parts of the city like Rock Creek Park were actually in the 70s."  

Wow, I thought woods could drop air temps by up to 9 degrees, but this much?

DC Heat Islands

Interesting article.

However, I dont find heat waves in late June "extraordinarily unusual".  Ridiculous statement.

[Stormfly]

12 hours ago, RDM said:

Nie on impossible to find a regular ole manual these days.  Only a handful of vehicles have them.  Another dying trend, like cursive writing.  

I'm old school.  Don't like automatics, ABS, traction control.  Could you imagine the kids growing up today driving an old farm truck in the snow? 

And yes the derecho missed us too.  Just a ho hum thunderstorm here not even severe.  Lightning was nice but mostly south of us where it was very strobe-like.

[Interstate]

7 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

I'm old school.  Don't like automatics, ABS, traction control.  Could you imagine the kids growing up today driving an old farm truck in the snow? 

And yes the derecho missed us too.  Just a ho hum thunderstorm here not even severe.  Lightning was nice but mostly south of us where it was very strobe-like.

I am glad it missed us... I didn't want to be without power for a week.

[Stormfly]

Yes being without power especially if you don't have a standby generator is bad in sweltering heat!

I remember when I was 13 we had a bad one and didn't have power for a week and could hear chainsaws in the distance for cleanup.  All I wanted to do is work on it too.  Later that year in fact I did, it was firewood heaven.  Falling, limbing, bucking, splitting and stacking.  10+ cords for the heating season.  Doing that keeps you young.  Up to a point.  Now if it's above 75 especially with humidity I only run a power saw if I have to.  Winter won't come fast enough!  There's nothing like splitting oak logs on the eve of Thanksgiving.  Unless it's in the 60s.

[dailylurker]

1 hour ago, SnowenOutThere said:

I was asleep

I was standing in my yard near all kinds of trees. I had to see it. I had to experience it. Boy did I lol. It went from silent to a distant roar. The roar got louder and louder until I could hear the sound of trees breaking. Sounded like a roar with shotguns going off at the same time. I stood there frozen with fascination as I experience the raw power of nature. I suddenly felt really humbled as fear kicked in. I started running towards my house when suddenly I heard that shotgun sound about 100 feet from me. Out of the darkness came a giant maple tree across my driveway as I was running past it. It missed me by 20 feet. I made it to my covered patio area and stopped to look back and see the tree that fell. When I stuck my head out the top of a 100' oak tree landed two feet from me. It was the best storm by far that I've ever seen. We had a gust to 81 and I was outside dodging falling trees. It was the experience of a lifetime. 

[BlizzardNole]

1 hour ago, EastCoast NPZ said:

Interesting article.

However, I dont find heat waves in late June "extraordinarily unusual".  Ridiculous statement.

Gotta agree with you there.  Our average high through much of July is 89/90 so I don't get why they count "90-degree days" which are basically average.  I'd count 95-degree days.

[GramaxRefugee]

2 hours ago, SnowenOutThere said:

I was asleep

After checking radar for the previous couple hours, I knew better than to go to sleep. But, living at a low elevation, I did not get the gusts that Daily did. Nor the damage. 

Didn't really lose power at first, so next day I took our portable generator over to my elderly parent's house in HoCo. Then, came home late in the day to find that BGE had shut us off anyway, and we stayed out for 5 days along with everyone else. 

[NorthArlington101]

This is a poor afternoon to have a B-meet…

[H2O]

This is a poor afternoon to have to cut grass

[mappy]

This a poor afternoon to play softball

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Hell, it's just a poor afternoon, period!  Belching heat...bleahhhhh!

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

9 minutes ago, mappy said:

This a poor afternoon to play softball

No fun playing softball in very hot weather for sure!  I played on an alumni league for many years (a lot of fun!).  There were a couple of times in mid July that we had Saturday double-headers when it was upper 90s to 100 or so, with full sun and no real clouds.  Yuck.  I play outfield, and took a bottle of water out there with me each inning.  Unfortunately one of the teams we played had a lot of big hitters (and we sucked anyhow)...which meant those of us in the outfield were running a lot!  At least we had a tent set up at the bench to stand under during our at-bats.

[Stormfly]

28 minutes ago, H2O said:

This is a poor afternoon to have to cut grass

It's not bad on a ZTR mowing at 10+ mph in open areas.

Running string trimmers, walk behinds or clearing saws?  No thanks!

[dailylurker]

5 minutes ago, Stormfly said:

It's not bad on a ZTR mowing at 10+ mph in open areas.

Running string trimmers, walk behinds or clearing saws?  No thanks!

My saws get put up in about April and don't get cranked up again until October. That's if nothing crazy happens of course. A hurricane or severe thunderstorm has brought them out.

[Stormfly]

Yeah I'm basically in emergency mode LOL!

[mappy]

23 minutes ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

No fun playing softball in very hot weather for sure!  I played on an alumni league for many years (a lot of fun!).  There were a couple of times in mid July that we had Saturday double-headers when it was upper 90s to 100 or so, with full sun and no real clouds.  Yuck.  I play outfield, and took a bottle of water out there with me each inning.  Unfortunately one of the teams we played had a lot of big hitters (and we sucked anyhow)...which meant those of us in the outfield were running a lot!  At least we had a tent set up at the bench to stand under during our at-bats.

Yeah, its going to be gross. I'm still nursing a sore backside following my run-in with a baserunner almost two weeks ago, so not even sure how much I will play. Oh well. 

[Stormfly]

3 minutes ago, mappy said:

Yeah, its going to be gross. I'm still nursing a sore backside following my run-in with a baserunner almost two weeks ago, so not even sure how much I will play. Oh well. 

Portable swamp cooler!

[RDM]

1 hour ago, Stormfly said:

Portable swamp cooler!

Those work great in dry climate.  Worthless with our dew points around here.  Many houses in west Texas have "Central AC" based on a swamp cooler.  IE:  Centrally located box on the roof that draws in ambient air over water wicking down various substances.  They work pretty well when it is dry.  

Same in the Middle East.  Used units just like in the picture a lot in Kuwait, Baghdad and Afghanistan, when it was dry.  When the winds blew in from the Gulf and brought the humidity, it would become intolerable in a matter of 30 minutes and even the fan on its own didn't help a lot.  The humidity was so bad that a cell phone taken outside would instantly condense the moisture on the outside of the phone.  Same for glasses - impossible to use until l the surface temperature adjusted to outside ambient temps.  A cell phone taken outside from inside an air conditioned building left a wet spot in your pants pocket that looked like you'd pissed yourself.  Nearly everyone uses external phone holders to avoid the embarrassment.  

[Kmlwx]

3 minutes ago, coolio said:

 

I'm like you. I have a unit the cools the downstairs fine, but am supplementing the top with window units.

I can take this to another thread, but I am considering 2 a/c units for the top and bottom floors. This would require reduct work, which is high$$$.  OR I can do a ductless unit upstairs. I want to say that a ductless unit would be $5K. And reduct work would be around $20K, with the 2 units and new furnace.

My main a/c unit is very old and requires new freeon every 2-3 years. So that will go when I do an upgrade. Any thoughts?

@coolio - replying over here. I've heard GREAT things about mini splits (ductless). But from what I've heard they can be even more expensive than that. Haven't done a ton of research, though. Reduct work sounds like such a pain. This house was built in the 60s and it was sort of the "fixer-upper" of the neighborhood. There is like a single vent that gets any air movement on the top floor (and it's a bathroom!). 

[coolio]

1 minute ago, Kmlwx said:

@coolio - replying over here. I've heard GREAT things about mini splits (ductless). But from what I've heard they can be even more expensive than that. Haven't done a ton of research, though. Reduct work sounds like such a pain. This house was built in the 60s and it was sort of the "fixer-upper" of the neighborhood. There is like a single vent that gets any air movement on the top floor (and it's a bathroom!). 

You may be right on the ductless price. I saw something about them 4-5 years ago and thought great idea! But haven't researched.

[toolsheds]

23 minutes ago, coolio said:

You may be right on the ductless price. I saw something about them 4-5 years ago and thought great idea! But haven't researched.

My MIL built onto our house about 6 years ago.  She added two of the Mitsubishi units (ne for each room) which connect to a single outside unit and does a good job in both summer and winter.  I think the total cost for everything was about 6K. 

[CAPE]

8 hours ago, Kmlwx said:

@coolio - replying over here. I've heard GREAT things about mini splits (ductless). But from what I've heard they can be even more expensive than that. Haven't done a ton of research, though. Reduct work sounds like such a pain. This house was built in the 60s and it was sort of the "fixer-upper" of the neighborhood. There is like a single vent that gets any air movement on the top floor (and it's a bathroom!). 

Keep your window AC unit. This stuff will solve your bug problem. Apply it around that window. Leaves an invisible residue that will last a month or more outside. Being in the woods, this is a must have for me. I spray it around the perimeter of the house, on door sills etc. Kills everything. No odor. Can use it indoors too.

https://www.domyown.com/suspend-sc-p-40.html

[Kmlwx]

1 hour ago, CAPE said:

Keep your window AC unit. This stuff will solve your bug problem. Apply it around that window. Leaves an invisible residue that will last a month or more outside. Being in the woods, this is a must have for me. I spray it around the perimeter of the house, on door sills etc. Kills everything. No odor. Can use it indoors too.

https://www.domyown.com/suspend-sc-p-40.html

I've used it! I actually have used Cyonara 9.7 for years as well. Seems to work well against the spiders and crawling - but the wasps always find a way through. They do die off within a day or so of entering - but a day is a while to have a wasp flying around. 

[Stormfly]

14 hours ago, RDM said:

Those work great in dry climate.  Worthless with our dew points around here.  Many houses in west Texas have "Central AC" based on a swamp cooler.  IE:  Centrally located box on the roof that draws in ambient air over water wicking down various substances.  They work pretty well when it is dry.  

Same in the Middle East.  Used units just like in the picture a lot in Kuwait, Baghdad and Afghanistan, when it was dry.  When the winds blew in from the Gulf and brought the humidity, it would become intolerable in a matter of 30 minutes and even the fan on its own didn't help a lot.  The humidity was so bad that a cell phone taken outside would instantly condense the moisture on the outside of the phone.  Same for glasses - impossible to use until l the surface temperature adjusted to outside ambient temps.  A cell phone taken outside from inside an air conditioned building left a wet spot in your pants pocket that looked like you'd pissed yourself.  Nearly everyone uses external phone holders to avoid the embarrassment.  

Yes they don't work well with our wet bulbs BUT the fan itself provides great sideline relief!  And on days where it's HOT with sub 70 dewpoints it still is effective at cooling people down!

But in arid climes, absolutely it will feel like a 10 ton coldwave unit without the need for a water hookup and three phase power!

RE: Window units...

Get rid of them when convenient.  Noisy, super inefficient, ugly, and yes you will have pest issues.

Minisplit is the way to go.  You can install yourself if you're handy.  Except perhaps electrical.  Once you experience the quiet of a minisplit there is no going back.  Plus being a heat pump they have the ability to heat the space as well with much better efficacy than an electric resistance heater.  Their balance point is typically much lower than a central heat pump too so unless it's in the single digits to 0F you can still heat with them.  There are some units preserving 90% capacity at -20F but those are more costly and at that point you're looking at a multizone system that would replace your central unit.

[CAPE]

42 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

I've used it! I actually have used Cyonara 9.7 for years as well. Seems to work well against the spiders and crawling - but the wasps always find a way through. They do die off within a day or so of entering - but a day is a while to have a wasp flying around. 

I get wasps inside from time to time, but never this time of year when they have active nests. It's usually the overwintering ones and I see them in the house mostly in the early Spring. Killed quite a few in the house over the years and never been stung. They are more aggressive this time of year while nests are active. If you have nests on that side of the house, hit them with some wasp spray. If you kill them, they won't come (in).