Ignore (EOM)

[hey,littlecobra]

Earl.

Ron, surely that poster was not intended for me, even tho' the post was? (kidding, kidding)

hey, tru. start posting!!!

Earl, have your wife come visit a week, and bring all her stuff!

Bernie. Went to the site for Knott's. Next years' date not set??

The third weekend in April is National Scrapbook Weekend for me. I'd hate to miss that.... What a decision....

gotta go!

K

[Ron61]

Kristen,

No, the poster wasn't meant for you. I just happened to have it handy and was going to put it in a post and it came in that one. I am still searching for a good one to put in for you. Haven't covered the zoos yet.

Ron

[4RE KLR]

Good grief you folks are cooking around here I need to visit more often. It takes a few mins to catch up on reading the post.


Earl,
Try changing the filters. A lot of the time when an a/c is not cooling properly it is due to the filters not being clean. If that is not the problem then your a/c units outside are getting too hot to recover the house temp. You need to get a water hose and wash the units down. They collect dust in the coils and this stops the effieciencty and the production process. It would not hurt to plant somthing green beside the unit (not too colse) that would shield the units from heat this time of year. If you wash the units be sure to turn off the breaker to avoid possile shock. They should be protected from that but since I can't look at your units it would be safer to power them down. Nothing special to do on start up just turn them back on, even if they are wet.

I wash mine down everyweek this time of year and change the sprinkler system heads by the units to wet them down in the afternoon. It is all done by automatically.


Kristen,
I don't know if you ever saw our big home in Keller, but I PROMISE you I can cool your house down and do it effeciently. The largest electric bill we ever had was @ $188.00 for the month if I remember right. I do know we never had one over $200.00. I can hang icesickles in your house if you want them, promise!!! One thing I did in all my years in construction was I studied very hard on building an effiecent home.

Bernie,
The formation is really done live. They did that at an airshow here several years ago, the news carried it for days. The pilots even said they were concerned because they were so close in the letter "A". Is there any room left in Aussie land? Isn't fuel real expensive over there?

[EarlsflyinCobra]

Thanks Steve....Yea I keep checking the filters every few weeks, but I did not think about the wetting down...I will try it...


"In life you are given two ends, one to think with and the other to sit on. Your success in life depends on which end you use most. Heads you win, tails you lose."

Conrad Burns

[trularin]

I didn't realize I was in a race, but I do have to work.

You are well past me now, I guess.

[Ron61]

Steve,

I don't have a huge air conditioning uint as my house is small, but I change the filter on the air mover about every two weeks. Some times it is pretty dirty and others it isn't, but they are cheap. Where the heat pump unit sits out back, I have a big white tarp that used to be the cover for my car port that collapsed in the snow a few years ago. As the sun shines right on the unit from the minute it clears the mountains in the East until it goes behind them in the West, I was wetting it down and trying to figure a way to shade it some. I finally thought about that big tarp and got some tall fence posts that I could set in the ground back from it a ways and hung the tarp around them. I left plenty of room for the air flow and it seems to have helped quite a bit. I am thinking about trying to get some tubing that I can put over the top and spread the tarp across that and leave the sides open for about 3 feet up from the ground as that would stop all the sun from hitting it. Does this sound like a feasable plan to you?

Ron

[4RE KLR]

Yes, but remember that most a/c units need to breath from the top. The air comes in the side and circulates out the top. So be sure and leave adiquite space for the hot air to get out.

Shade is the best thing you can do for your units. That and keeping them clean. If you wash the condensor (the outside unit) and make sure it is clean and the air will circulate well you can go in the house a notice the difference the same day. Set a sprinkler on top of it. I know that sounds stupid but believe me it will make a difference. I am not telling you to spend 800.00 a month in water bills. Just keep it cool and clean as possible. What ever it takes.

Remember, most a/c units are designed to only cool down your home 20* below the outside temp. The newer ones will literally put a frost in the air but that is by design as well. If your unit is more than ten years old I recommend that you consider replaceing it. It will not be as efficient as it should be and it cannot perform the way the new ones do. I would wait and do it in the winter if you can because they have year end sales and winter sales just like everyone else does. You will be surprised at how much you can save by doing it in the winter.

I reccommend Trane 19i unitsthey replced the 1800 series about two years ago and they are wonderfull. They are @ 18 seer varible speed units, that are worth their weight in cold air.
The second units I would reccomd is American Standard. These are made in the same plant by the same people as the Trane units buit they are less expensive. You should look for variable speed unitsand anything above 16 SEER. (SEER= Seasonal Energy Effiency Rating)

[4RE KLR]

Hey do you guys er ah and kristen get too much Spam?

I found this web site the otherday. www.spambully.com If you download their free 14 day trial version you can bounce back the spam to the sender. They will get a message stateing that your email address is no longer valid and they (most) will take you off the list. After the first day you may have to go to the options menu and put the bounce / punish bar back into your tool bar but it is a piece of cake. After the trial period it cost @15.00 or so to purchase. I have had it a few days and my spam is almost non-existant anymore.

Check it out www.spambully.com

[Ron61]

Steve,

Thanks for the information. My heat pump is a Trane and is a few years old but it has the electronic circuit packs and such in it. I have a contract with the company that installed it and they come out twice a year and do a full service, plus if I have a problem I get serviced before others with no contracts. I have always washed the sides of it down and tried to spray the water through the slits into the coils inside and the service man told me I was doing good as they are never dirty. I didn't know about the 20 degree thing. On a 117 degree day mine will bring the house down to around 77 degrees, so I guess it is working ok. I have one of those point and shoot digital thermometers that reads about 4 degrees to high and I use it to check the air from the riegisters on the hottest and most humid days and it stays about the same. Maybe a degree or two variation at most. I didn't know about setting a sprinkler on top. Will one of the little ones that have the two arms that whirl around do it or do I need a different type? The shadething I knew about but was just trying to figure out how to do it easy. I think I will just put up a couple of the fence posts and then string the tarp between them as they will block the sun from it and I can keep them about 10 to 12 feet from the unit. Also won't have to mow in that area maybe.

Thanks,

Ron

[4RE KLR]

yea that sounds good

Your system is new enough to not worry about then. Do you know what SEER it is?

If your inside ambient air is 77* then yours is working ok, for a 117* day. By those numbers I would guess you have a single speed unith that is about 10 opr 12 SEER. That is what most a/c units are. The higher the SEER rating and the varibale speed units are what you are looking for.

The key being variable speed. What that is basically is just what it sounds like. There are two compressors in the outside units. One runs most all the time and the other one (the largeone) kicks in and cools down when the smaller ones "needs help" You would think that with it running all the time that your electric bill would be higher but it is actually less.

Think about this for a second. Most standard units run for a while then shut off (right). Then as the inside air heats back up the unit comes back on and cools down the house, right....... WRONG

Here is why. When your a/c is running before it came get cold air inside your house in has to cool down the air duct lines that are more than likely in your 145 165* attic. The attic air will heat up the air inside your ducts and when the units come on you the coold air will push all that super heated air into your home. Now the vents for the most part are put on your cielings so you will never know this. But stand in front of a grill and feel the hot aor that comes out when the unit comes on. Ron , you can point your thermomitor (sp) at the grill and see first hand the difference.

Then when your unit shout off it leaves all that cold ait you paid for in the attice ducts to get superheated again. It is a vicious cycle.

Now on varible speed units the smaller unit runs all the time, for the most part. Keeping the cold air you paid for coming into your house where it is needed. When the air gets warmer the larger compressor kicks in and cools it back down. This cycle will run for a lot less time that your standard single speed units run so, you are saving money by keep the hot air out of your ducts in the first place.

This is the short version of what all takes place. It would take me all day to ttpe what actually happens. But it does work and it is very cost effective. A variable speed unit will add about $850.00-$900.00 to the cost of a five ton unit. Most a/c units are three to threee and a half ton units.

As for the sprinkler. If you have an automatic sprinkler just point a head at the unit. it does not take much water at all.

[Ron61]

Steve,

Yes, mine is just the single speed and the air conditioner guy spent quite a while explaining a lot of that stuff to me. I know the pipes in the attic have super hot air after a while, which is why I keep mine running more than most people. My pipes are well insulated and I have attic fans, but it still gets to hot to breathe up there. I don't have an automatic sprinkler system as I never got around to putting it in after my Mother passed on. And now I won't water because I don't want to have to mow in the summer. But I have a couple of small whirley type sprinklers and that is why I asked you if one of them would work. Should the water hit the sides of the unit or just go out around it so the air passes through it? I talked to them a month or so ago when they were doing the service about a newer unit and he told me that right now I would just be wasting money. I believe mine is a 3 ton unit but it may be 3 1/2.

My whole house is electric and the largest electric bill I have ever had was a few Summers ago when we had three straight weeks of temperatures in the 115 to 119 range and only cooled down into the mid 80s at night. I just went back and looked at my records and that bill was right at $297 dollars for the month. I have triple insulation in my house and even the garage is insulated.

Ron

[flipper35]

Steve, based on the description you gave it doesn't sound like much advantage if we build in the midwest since the ductwork is under the floor and not in the attic. Is there still an advantage even though the ductwork is interior temperatures?

[4RE KLR]

Well yes, there is but for a different reason.

The problem with the undefloor units is they tend to get moldy and import that into the house. There are of coarse remidies for that as well that are very inexpenseive. You will want to make sure your outside vents do not get closed up so the air can circulate, even in the winter.

As for the varible speed units yes there is still an advantage there as well. The air will always heat up in the ducts if the air stops moving. There is no way around it. If you are sitting in your house and the ceiling fan is on you feel the "breeze moving". Now turn off the fan and it will "feel" hotter immediately although it will take a bit for the actual temp to rise the "feel" is immediate. Same way with the air in the ducts, when it stops moving the "feel" or comfort is compromised.

When I first put these systems in a home I was very surprised myself to see just how well they work. When we put the same type system in our own home I found that previously I had to set the t-stats at @ 72-74*at night in order to be comfortable. After the new type variable speed units went in we raised the t-stats (3) to 80*and still had to crawl under the covers at night. It was increadibly comfortable believe it or not.

If you listen to the weatherman tell his story in the summertime he will mention "it feels like it is _____* outside today". The reason he is telling us that is because we do not realize what the correct temperatures are any longer. When we were kids 80* really was not that bad, right. We have gotten used to the a/c in our everyday lives so that same 80* now sometimes "feels" like it is 85-88*

You can take and old house and turn on the a/c and set the temp at 80*. Put in some high circulation fans and be very comfortable on a 100+* day. If you don't believe me just go outside then come back in. 80* its cool, right. The problem comes into play when our body gets used to that inside 80* temp.

Of coarse I am taking into consideration that all you know the windows need to be properly sealed and so forth. The a/c uniots themselves are a small part of the overall package of "efficiency". Yes you can cool the house down but you will need some other things to make it efficient cooling. The units I am speaking about do not use excessive amounts of energy, just the opposite is true. They just will work better in conjunction with other things. Do you need these other things for it to work, no.

Ron,
Any sprinkler will do just get the unit wet on the inside and on the coils. If i remember from a picture that Mike took of your alien the a/c is in the back yard facing the sun so a sunshield will be great. Just set the sprinkler about five ir six feet away and turn it on. The water will need to get into the side of the unit and the fans will pull it into the center areas. The water acts as a cooling agent itself as it passes over the coils. Remember the old watercoolers. The fan pulled the air past a wet mesh material and emmitted a comfortable breeze. Well the same thing stands true here. The water will cool down the freon in the lines and the a/c units will not have to work as hard to accomplish the smae objective, cold air. It is really a simple solution that our fathers used, we have just forgotten about it. It works on a/c units just like it did on the water coolers.

FYI: Please be sure that your units are in good working order before putting the water to them I would hate it if someone git hurt because they were not graounded properly. The newer units are required to be grounded by code. But I can't look at everyones units to see for myself. You guys are smart enought to build and own 50 -60 70 thousand dollor cars so you should be smart enough to check for a ground. If not Please contact a local electrician to come and check for you.


Interestingly enough the same hold true in the winter. When the air stops moving in the ducts they will tend to cool off from the outside air. So when the units come back on they pump that cold air into the house. So when you upgrade to the varible speed condensors (outside units) look into upgrading the furnaces as well (inside units). Yu should be able to do bith for the numbers i told you above (per unit) It may sound expensive but the electric company will give you rebates on the upgrades (sometimes) and the savings last for the lifetime of the units. 10-20years or so....

[hey,littlecobra]

boring..... out to dinner with the man in trouble.....

K

[flipper35]

So the air handler blows at a lazy speed just to keep the air moving a bit eh?

[trularin]

I have one brake working!!! Ya HOOOOOO.

Sounds like a lot for something so simple, but I have battled the rear disc thing for a couple of years.

[hey,littlecobra]

ymmm. tilapia... walnut crusted.... yada yada....

ordered the kids a pizza.... gotta go get moody boy at bday party at 10. bummer. guess I'll go scrapbook til then.

Brent. what in the world did that say??? air handler, blower, slow speed what????



tru. so good for you. I don't know why the brake thing is such a long project, but it must be a drag compared to the $hitt! paint job on my tires. I am soooo pissed. the paint is peeling off on the right side. I knew it would, but..... the left side looks marginally better. not much. not peeling, but has yellowed. They did not yellow with Gary at all. No peeling, either. After a year, they were just starting to crack a bit.
The hot is back. too hot to take cobra on date. oh well. next time.

so. regarding 'sex life' with middle age. what is normal??? i'm afraid to ask....

Are we middle aged?? I hate to think that..... He has reading glasses. I don't. he has grey hair. I don't. (well, we'll consider that an "I don't know answer")
I guess things just aren't they way they used to be.... After 40, I guess nature takes over, and the 'need' to procreate must diminish...... that's ok... don't answer......

frustrating, I guess, to just wonder what is going on!!!!

Do guys 'use it all up' by 40???? Am I treading in deep water here??

ok. nevermind. (as gilda would say.)

Tooooddddd!!!!! nookie nookie!!!

gotta go!!!

K

[EarlsflyinCobra]

CG, Desperate Housewife, Drag Queen, etc., etc. you are one "WILD" woman............................he-he

The wife just brought me a 7&7 so strong it takes the hair off your tounge as it goes down....hmmmmmmmm, could she be trying to get me tipsy so she can take advantage of me?????

At least the clouds and rain mist has kept the heat down some tonight and the AC is able to keep the house cooler.

I been up since 350 am and with this 7&7 triple or quadtruple I'm feeling a fair buzzzzzzzzzz....guess its time to head for bed.

Goood night alllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hey,littlecobra]

go for it Earl. Somebody got to.....

Desperate, I'll say....

[BMK]

4RE KLR

If the pilots flew in formation thats a real credit to them.. I thought it may have been computer run in the aircraft.

Yes there's plenty of room out here in Australia and the fuel is expensive at $1.10 - $1.12 a litre. That's a little over $4.00 for your US gallon I think.

House heating is via gas wall furnace in the main house. There's a reverse cycle air conditioning unit in the lounge areas.