The Home Ownership Thread

[jbarwick]

900sq ft of 3/4” white oak going in next week. And since I know the question will come…of course wood

 

[SixOhNine]

White oak?

 

[imatlas]

White oak?
View attachment 2292567

Like the good Communist I am, I went with red oak.

 

[double00]

Like the good Communist consumerist stooge I am, I went with red oak.

ftfy

 

[sugarbutch]

We have in-floor radiant heat. Coincidentally my employer at the time it was being installed was exploring a product segment which led to my being given a few Nest thermostats to test out. I was eager to set up heating schedules and all that jazz, but quickly learned that the ramp time of the system was hours, not minutes. I eventually gave up and now our fancy programmable thermostats sit at one temperature all the time. If it's too warm at night, I just crack the window because even if I turn off the heat entirely, our bedroom won't cool down before it's time to get up.

 

[imatlas]

ftfy

SMFC

 

[brokencycle]

I installed an ecobee with 2 remote temp/occupancy sensors the other day. Mostly to get more data and figure out what's going on with the HVAC in this house.

I like to sleep cold...but we have a heat pump system which prefers constant temps and doesn't like big swings. And unfortunately the master bedroom seems like the warmest room in the house...and the house is well insulated enough that it takes a while for temps to fall off once the heat stops.
View attachment 2292417

Top section is heater (orange) and fan (gray) operation. Mid-section is occupancy sensors, bottom is temp sensors.

The master is consistently warmer and takes longer to drop temp at night. Then the heat pump works basically full time for a couple hours to get temps back up. When I first set it up, I used our old settings and let it drop a degree or two further at night and it would actually kick in the emergency heat to get the heat up faster...definitely don't want that.

I'm kinda surprised. Master is south facing, but it has 2 windows and a double-glass door with weather stripping that probably needs to be replaced...I thought it was going to be a zone of heat loss.

Going to add a couple more sensors and explore a bit more, but I think I'm just going to have to embrace the "set it and forget it" aspect of a heat pump and switch to lighter weight bedding...

Is this true? Our house uses a heat pump, and I let temps swing fairly far - eg at night, it gets down to 64 in winter. Sure, the aux heat is more expensive to run, but is that less efficient than keeping the temp constant (also in winter, the aux heat would come on even if it needed to warm the house a single degree). We get an energy use graph that compares us to neighbors, and we're consistently in the lowest 10% of energy users.

Although I am looking into garage heating options (which I suppose is also a futile waste of energy). Mostly because:

1) I want to be able to warm it up (not room temp, but take the chill off) to work on bikes/skis/cars in there.
2) I have stuff in there that I don't want to freeze and I don't want to store inside the house. It seems to stay above freezing when temps outside stay in the 20s, but I'm not sure that will hold if it gets colder so a low thermostat would help.
3) my office is over the garage, so warming the garage a bit should reduce the temp differential between the office and rest of the house.

Garage is insulated (although the sealing on the garage doors and side access door could be improved), but it is also pretty big. I've been experimenting and I believe a 120v 1500w space heater would be enough to keep it from freezing, but isn't really enough to bump the temp up noticably if you want to work.

So I probably want a 5,000 or 7,500W garage heater. Would need a new 240v circuit--there is a 240v car charging outlet, but it isn't in a good spot for a heater. Plus rig it up with a contactor and transformer and run wires so it can be controlled by a real thermostat.

A mini-split might be a good option, except I have zero need for cooling and I'd need to oversize it as I really only need it to operate when outside air temps are past the point where heat pump efficiency drops off fast.

The garage door, unless it is insulated, is ~R-0, so it is only marginally better than a 120 square foot open hole (assuming a 2 car door).

 

[Texasmade]

SMFC

Shaking my fat cock?

 

[otc]

Is this true? Our house uses a heat pump, and I let temps swing fairly far - eg at night, it gets down to 64 in winter. Sure, the aux heat is more expensive to run, but is that less efficient than keeping the temp constant (also in winter, the aux heat would come on even if it needed to warm the house a single degree). We get an energy use graph that compares us to neighbors, and we're consistently in the lowest 10% of energy users.



The garage door, unless it is insulated, is ~R-0, so it is only marginally better than a 120 square foot open hole (assuming a 2 car door).

Everything I read says heat pumps are “set it and forget it”. The air they output is way less hot than the air you get from a furnace so it takes them a long time to correct.

New heat pumps should work fine maintaining comfortable temps down to pretty low exterior temps (ecobee’s default minimum compressor temp is laughably high…it would be calling for aux heat all winter), but if they need to make a change they have to work hard.

The recent Technology Connections video about furnace/heat pump sizing in Chicago was really interesting.

As for the garage, it has two single car doors and they are insulated.

But an insulated door is just styrofoam filled panels so I doubt it has a great R value. The single pane windows can’t help either so I’m doing to try putting some of that film on them.

I might also invest in some of those wavy door tracks that squeeze the door tight against (upgraded) seals when it is closed.

 

[Piobaire]

Houses warp the mind. There's really something to be said for high density rental housing.

 

[SixOhNine]

Home ownership sucks. And on a related note, stucco is terrible. Expensive, and terrible.

 

[brokencycle]

Everything I read says heat pumps are “set it and forget it”. The air they output is way less hot than the air you get from a furnace so it takes them a long time to correct.

New heat pumps should work fine maintaining comfortable temps down to pretty low exterior temps (ecobee’s default minimum compressor temp is laughably high…it would be calling for aux heat all winter), but if they need to make a change they have to work hard.

The recent Technology Connections video about furnace/heat pump sizing in Chicago was really interesting.

As for the garage, it has two single car doors and they are insulated.

But an insulated door is just styrofoam filled panels so I doubt it has a great R value. The single pane windows can’t help either so I’m doing to try putting some of that film on them.

I might also invest in some of those wavy door tracks that squeeze the door tight against (upgraded) seals when it is closed.

I agree they don't put out the same amount of hot air, so I guess it is how you define efficiency: speed to change temperature or amount of energy used. I think it is less energy overall to let the temp fall and then heat when you want, but I haven't seen an analysis one way or the other.

 

[Black Lotus]

Home ownership sucks.

Interesting that most renters hype up the dream of owning a home, but when they become one, they hate it.

 

[SixOhNine]

Interesting that most renters hype up the dream of owning a home, but when they become one, they hate it.

The grass is always greener on the other side, right? Except once you're the one maintaining the grass, you realize how sh!tty upkeep is.

 

[Gibonius]

Everybody hates their landlord; it's just when you own, you're the landlord and you hate yourself.