Mad Mike
Well-known member
Happens all the time at work. Naptha, Xylene or acetone can fix that.
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Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
Or a magic eraser & isopropyl. Less stink.
That all makes sense. I had similar logic but applied the opposite way. I would only turn on the gas heater (250K) when we wanted to use the pool but that meant some days where it was supposed to be rainy and turned out nice, the pool wasn't up to temp (1 to 2 degrees per hour rise). A few years ago when we bought the house, heater was ~$1-2/hr. It was $4-5/hr this year and going up 23% on July 1. Heating up the pool was starting to become a real expense. With the smaller heater, I will leave it at a temperature and let heater run at off-peak times. It should be cheaper seasonally (assuming that off-peak time is enough to keep pool warm) and the pool will always be warm.
If 50K isn't making me happy, I can add another 50K heater and still be hundreds cheaper than a 100K heat pump. If you want fast heat, they go up to about 140K but upfront cost is starting to get pretty high (~double a 250 nat gas) and I'm not sure economics work out. Power requirements also start climbing (over 40 amps). My pool sub-panel only has 60A. Many of the larger ones are also basically crap A/C's that hammer away and drive everyone nuts with compressor noise.
EDIT:
I didn't know they made gas heaters that small. Seems to be the worst attributes of every system in that package.
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Acetone! Unless the surface of the whiteboard is soft plastic. Try isopropyl alcohol first though.
I know nothing about this but are solar heater boxes not worth the effort? I’m thinking of loops of black coloured pipe that run in black boxes with glass fronts usually on a roof that absorbs heat and slowly heat water that’s pumped through them? Same thing as solar camp showers. Wouldn’t imagine they would do much but if you get a degree or 2 rise in temp that might be significant savings.
They can work if you have a good area to place them (ideally unobstructed facing south on the roof). Disadvantages are you need to run the pump pretty hard during peak rates to circulate enough water through the array. Only a few degrees rise. Need to reconfigure valves if you run pump at night or when it's cool or your solar collector becomes a radiator. Automatic valves would be ideal but drive up the cost substantially. Friends have one and it seems to help. They have a single speed pump and their summer electric bills suck. They dont reconfigure valves so they probably lose most of the benefit.
Honestly, we need the heater most at beginning and end of season to extend the season and solar is least effective at the time I need it most.
If I was ever building a pool, I would put loops of pipe under the stones. Cools the stones and warms the pool at the same time for minimal upfront and operational cost. On a hot summer day, our stones are too hot for bare feet and we water them which annoys me.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Solar works really well, you just need the requisite area and you must be able to stand the ugliness. Here are the options Ive seen:
Panels. Like solar cells, these are panels that can be mounted on stands or on the roof of a structure. A simple control system routes water into the panels when they are able to supply heat, and around them when they can't. They can be flat mats or black poly pipe coils.
Driveway. Asphalt driveways absorb a lot of solar heat so embedding PEX can do a couple of things. They can be used to heat pool water using a heat exchanger or by directly cycling a portion of the pool water thru the system. I should have done this when I paved my driveway -- I have about 1500sq' of asphalt, more than enough to solar heat a pool.
You can also get some heat out of your concrete pool decking. The problem is it has to be colored dark in order to heat up, and that's not a desirable feature on pool decking -- makes the decking too hot to enjoy.
I have the 50 k heat pump and leave it on 24/7 and pool always at temp with a solar blanket. It works great and is always ready.
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Our interlock is mostly light colours with a dark grey around the pool. All too hot to walk on in full sun. Obviously won't transfer heat as well as concrete if it were to have loops under it but I still think it would help.
Ran the heatpump for 12 hours last night. Pool started at 82, air temp was 65, pool was covered, water temp this morning was 82. I was hoping for better but not surprised. Didn't bother checking with something with accurate data after the decimal. Normally pool would drop a few degrees in those conditions so as expected, changes won't be quick but it can get ahead on weekends and maintain through the week. Cost ~$3.50 in power so cost wise, equivalent to a little more than half an hour of the old gas heater. With the overnight temp and 40 minutes of the gas heater, I would expect a lower pool temp so I'm ahead financially. Need to fix a recirculation issue to improve efficiency a bit (air comes out of fan in a cone, hits a wall (wall perp to plane of fan blades) and some comes back to the intake side. A baffle between the wall and heat pump will mostly fix this.
The other upside to a quiet heat pump is you can sit in the air stream on really hot days. It's a nice stream of cool dry air.
Who needs a 300k addition when a free bunk bed does the trick!?
Perfect fit for the cottage. Now just need a desk, Internet and I can ‘WFH’ all day long.
Perfect fit for the cottage. Now just need a desk, Internet and I can ‘WFH’ all day long.
Looking for recommendations on electricians in the Barrie / Wasaga Beach / Collingwood area.
Trying to put in 100A service at the cottage. The 60A service was really struggling when a window air conditioner was on. Damn lights were flickering.
Parents never got around to putting in a real air conditioner so it's a stupid tiny little window unit that does a garbage job of cooling off the cottage.
I'll ask my guy, but doubt he'll go up all that way for a simple panel install.
Trying to put in 100A service at the cottage. The 60A service was really struggling when a window air conditioner was on. Damn lights were flickering.
Parents never got around to putting in a real air conditioner so it's a stupid tiny little window unit that does a garbage job of cooling off the cottage.
I'll ask my guy, but doubt he'll go up all that way for a simple panel install.
Friends in the subdivision are getting their basement redone and are super happy with the work so far (and they are picky). Their basement contractor is using "Current Voltage Electric".
Thanks. Will give them a call once I convince the parents to do the work.
I also want to add a direct 220V line for the Volt at the cottage.
I've never used CVE but hopefully they don't suck.
I don't understand why the 60A service would be struggling. Window A/C will be taking 15A or less. The rest of the cottage shouldn't be using much power at all.
Robbo
Well-known member
My new next door neighbour is getting theirs done. Yesterday I screamed at both the neighbour and the contractor to stay the f off my property after I spent the best part of 45 minutes cleaning concrete off my driveway.
The whole job site is a mess and there’s no regard for securing the site each day.
Bunch of effing hacks.
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No clue. But the lights were flickering pretty badly.
I think it's just on an overloaded circuit. Mom still needs convincing that we should upgrade the cottage and make it more modern instead of the garbage old decor.
They basically bought in 22 years ago (or whatever), and it still has the same beds / walls / decor from back then....embarrassing.
We've made slow changes where throwing old junk out has actually removed that 'old' smell. It's clean...just has that smell to it.
Sounds about right.
What do you expect for $1M a cottage?
Just saved a chipmunk from my dogs paddling pool. He was doing laps while my dog was patting him and barking. Poor little bugger collapsed exhausted but after 15 mins he toddled off to live another day. Just bought a critter saver off Amazon. My wife doesn’t care for the chipmunks as one managed to get into the house once and was sitting on a shelf one day when she went to the bathroom. For the sake of my eardrums I went to get some traps and we got rid of a few from the house. I actually like them, they are a lot cuter than rats and seem pretty smart (apart from the pool). They also hoover up the stuff that the grackles throw all over the garden from the bird feeders.
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