Off The Grid

Sound up. A far cry from the city

Blocking done today. Will start roofing tin on Saturday I think.

Coin clipping idea applied to weights and measures. ⚠️ 📢 🚨

😁

Additionally, the minisplit compressor works down to 14F (-10C), and an option for -5F is also available.

If you have a lot of rooms, using conventional minisplits may not be practical. Think for a moment an ask yourself "am I really going to put a HVAC head unit in the bathroom??". So a ducted system may be the best fit for your house. Minisplit systems are really efficient though... they have variable speed compressors and variable speed fans. They like to run low and slow and remove a lot of humidity... but how do you combine the whole house ducted system with the benefits of a mini spllit?

Look into a ducted minisplit. Mitsubishi makes an indoor air handler that works with their minisplit compressor. This combines the soft start, variable speed compressor with a ducted system.

When it was time to upgrade the HVAC system in this house I was able to downgrade from a 5ton conventional split system to a 3.5ton ducted mini-split. The house maintains a humidity of 40-50% due to the longer run times of the minisplit.

The previous conventional split HVAC system here had a 2 speed compressor, but it pulled nearly 20kw surge just to start. It ran 6 minutes and shut off... 20minutes later, it ran 6 minutes and shut off... Pulling 3.5kw when running. Now this ducted minisplit system runs 45minutes to 4 hours at a time pulling about 1kw most of the time.

Just food for thought... I welcome any comments you have.

Another issue with the original HVAC system in that house was that it had a one speed fan in the air handler. There was a bypass duct on the output of the air handler that recirced air back to the return of the air handler if the air pressure was too high. This damper was a gravity operated vane with a weight on a penduulum. And it would get corroded from condensation on it and stick open or shut. I had to lubricate it each year when the air pressure was so high the vents would whistle.

So the solution with our new HVAC system was that it had a variable speed fan that actually measured the pressure in the ductwork instead of this unreliable bypass/recirc system.

In our previous house, we had a Finished Room Over Garage that we often didn't use. So the HVAC system had a damper on the duct going to the FROG. The problem with this was that the return air was *always* pulled from the hot FROG. This meant that probably 25% of the air returning to the air handler in our attic was air from a hot space. So when it was time to replace that HVAC system, I had them install an additional damper on the return air from the FROG. it ran off the same 24v power supply, but it meant that both the supply and return air was shut off when the FROG was not in use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcE6lsOkhzA

McMansions seem to take the roof and pull it upward. Instead of a 6:12 pitch, they usualy have a 10:12 or 12:12 roof just to make the house look bigger... but it's wasted roof space. Also, you end up with HVAC ductwork running thru the attic. It's much better to run HVAC ducts inside a basement or a crawlspace. Imagine your ductwork in a 120F or 130F attic pumped cool air.... that air in the duct is going to condensate if any of the duct is exposed and also the air getting to your vents is not going to be as cold as when it left the air handler.

Venting a 2nd story toilet. Very similar concept to venting an island kitchen sink with a "chicago loop".

Well yet another day the power company will ding you for using power. Although they don't spell it out in this email, the price of electric will be 3x the normal price during this time.

"Duke Energy Solar Choice Rate Alert. Tomorrow, Aug. 20, 2026, is a critical peak-pricing day. Be sure to limit energy use during the on-peak hours of 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. (adjusted by one hour)."

I won't even sell them power then, I'll just throw the main breaker at 5pm

This may seem silly, but I'm hanging fascia boards on the rafter tails of my pole barn roof and can't reach both ends of a 10ft span from the man basket. So I had this idea... use a 1x2 scrap as a hinged hanger for one end of the face board. Now I can drive the man lift 10ft to the right and work on the other end of the face board. By using one screw in the rafter tail like this, i now have a hinge joint that allows me to make fine adjustments on the board left and right before screwing it in.