Home ownership

Hope the system works for you!

Never heard of any of those contractors, I think the people I have dealt with are more Boulder based.

little late to the conversation so almost hesistate to post this,
but did you take maintenance costs into the equation?
not that you have to have a furnace maintained by the outfit that installed it for the same reasons you don't have to get service from the car dealership you bought it from, but sometimes incentives make this option attractive
if anything don't forget about your 1-year warranty date

Part of the deal is for them to come out and take a look at 6 months and 1 year. Haven't discussed long-term maintenance beyond that.

On the plus side, I only need it to last 20 years or less. Then it will be an SEP.

Mild setback with the HVAC. Got called this morning. Apparently, the proposed furnace didn't make it to the warehouse as expected this weekend. Now expected to come in Wednesday for a Thu/Fri install.

I'm around. No worries.

Communication is the backbone of excellent customer service.

Instead of them just not showing up as scheduled and you have to call and then they give you an excuse.

Impressed with the company you went with so far. It wasn't their fault the unit wasn't delivered as scheduled , but they got out ahead of the problem.

Agree. Even if the info is not pleasant, it's far better to get it out there, rather than make the customer do the discovery. I just terminated a one-week relationship with a new bank because I felt their systems (both business and electronic) had already shown themselves not to be good.

I've had them out for some other small work in the past. Thought they did well. My SIL steered me away as they had problems with something Cooper did, but a few others I'd talked with liked their work as well.

It's supposed to be rainy and 65 Wednesday, so small chance I'll fire up the old furnace one last time. But I imagine it will be warm enough that my passive solar between the clouds makes it ok.

The first call this AM was from the young woman who took the payment last week. When I heard it was her, my first thought was, "how did Citi mange to not let hte charge go through?" Fortunately not that.

Then, just a few minutes later, the sales guy/PM/whatever he is called and also let me know the situation.

Got home yesterday evening to a bunch of drooping plants. It's been hot and relatively dry here. So I got out the hose to water, including taking it as far as possible to get to the neighbor's sad palmetto. Stretching the hose was a mistake. When I turned off the water, it was still running, but out the side of the pipe now, instead of through the faucet.

Turned out to be a split in the galvanized iron riser coming from the exterior plumbing. And the only shut-off I could find that affected it was the whole house shut-off. Boo! Tried some "waterproof" two part epoxy that advertised it cures underwater that I happened to have lying around. Lies and balderdash. So no water in the house last night.

Instead of a workout this morning, I spent some time with YouTube Technical College and settled on a galvanized compression fitting. Dug out the pipe, cut it off below the split, de-rusted, and installed the fitting. Water back on now, and Imma go take a shower!

I hooked up my trusty Milwaukee M18 Inflator to the old Tucson with a slow leak, went around back to turn off the sprinkler, got in the Tucson and drive off with the inflator still attached.

Ripped the hose right out, it's fifty bucks for a new real panel which includes the hose.

I've backed out of my garage a couple times with a battery charger still attached.

I now put a post-it on the windshield saying "DON'T DRIVE"

An EV or attached to your 12V battery? I don't see how you would do the latter. My hood is open when using my trickle charger.

I had a Battery Tender (trickle charge) on my MC, plain as day (though the cord is pretty long from the little device that plugs into the wall to where it hooks up to the MC. Took off down out the driveway and down the street before I realized. Surprised the wall plug gave up before the little connector at the MC did. 10' of cord/device/plug trailing behind must have been a sight to see.

I close the hood because the under the hood light will stay on forever.

When last we left off, expectation was a Thu/Fri install. Hadn't heard anything, so left a message this morning.

Just got a call back, the furnace arrived, they're planning to come tomorrow.

There is a small bit of work to be done on the water heater by plumbers instead of the HVAC guys. The current furnace had a humidifying unit attached, so there was a water service line going over there. Kinda like your fridge's water line.

I've always hated that thing, not having one on the new setup. So, of course, I don't want the leave a valve and line hanging off there.

Sounds like a pretty simple swap. Take out that section, replace it with straight pipe and a ball valve instead of the one with the knob I have today.

Of course, the simple swap of a GFCI that quit working didn't work out for me last summer. This outlet had broken in such a way I could put a plug into it, as if the plastic housing shifted or something. It was fine electronically; there's an outside light that the GFCI secures which worked just fine. I just couldn't plug stuff into that outlet.

Wire off old, into same spot on new for each wire. Turned on the circuit, no juice.

Put the old one back on, electricity flows. Tried a cuopole times, I failed. Obviously I need someone who knows what they're doing, so that'll be a side job while they're out.

Out with the old...

In with the new....

Kind of a long day. I think guys showed up around 9:15, left around 6:15. A little plumbing, the aforementioned water heater line fix. Some electrical, they had to install a new GFCI "close enough" (within 25 feet) of the heat pump for code.

Of course, the bulk of the work was the removal of old and install of new heat pump equipment. Seems like everyone did a good job, though I don't have the technical expertise to judge. We tested the furnace and heat pump, they did some small tweaks during that test. Downloaded the thermostat controller app and signed up. Seems like we're ready to go.

The AC unit had a device installed which let Xcel control the compressor. I was in a energy efficiency program where they could (only during very high use periods) turn off the compressor for 15 minutes of an hour. For this, they would apply a small credit (~$25) to my bill in the fall.

Give me money to turn off something I don't use the first place? Yes please!

Anyway, that isn't compatible with the new equipment, so called Xcel to have them come pick up the unit which used to be wired in.

This morning when I jumped in the shower, it was super hot. Dialed back the valve. Afterward, went downstairs and saw the water heater was turned all the way up, instead of the setting which I used before, so tweaked that back.

I think it's ok. At some point, I'll get into the muck of the thermostat and set up a program, but that won't be necessary for a while.

Realized this morning I forgot to ask about how to get the inspection set up, so sent an email to the PM guy to get that going.

Do any of you have experience with tankless water heaters? I currently have a Rinnai system that is about 8 years old and getting erratic - takes a while to get hot water flowing and one of the showers has the dreaded "cold water sandwich" issue. I've had three different plumbers out none of whom have offered a viable solution.

I've thought of going back to a tank system, but the custom made steel cabinet where the system is located is too small for an 80 gal tank and can't really expand it without totally replacing the cabinet which is out doors.

Any advice on tankless brands if I want to get a new one?

the amount of thought that you reserve for the equivalent of repeatedly using bog roll on your arse is quite admirable

Realized over the weekend I forgot to ask the installer if they scheduled the inspection or that was on me. Also found a bottle for wire-pulling lubricant laying around.

Sent an email to the PM guy to let him know about that, and ask about the inspection.

Happened to be down by our city hall, so stopped in to inquire on the procedure. She looked things up, said they hadn't paid for the permit yet. When I said that it seems like that shoulda been done first, she mentioned it's not unusual on projects which are necessities like HVAC or water heaters to get out of sequence.

Just got a call from the billing-type person asking if it was ok to run the card for the balance. I pointed out that the agreement said the balance is due upon completion to my satisfaction, and that required a passed inspection.

She then asked if I was giving her permission to run the balance. No, not until the inspection is completed, any repairs found necessary are completed to the inspector's satisfaction.

I then asked if she happened to know how the process is going to work for getting the permit completed and the inspection completed. She told me I'd get an email from someone else with the permit, and then I could go forward with the inspection.

Sounds as if it's usually just a few days to get that completed, then it will be official.

City inspectors came today and checked out. Seems that the HVAC was installed properly.

Really nice day out, so took a short bike ride to the office and got the remainder paid.

Yesterday was cool and rainy, so a good test for the heating. A few things I noticed.

When setting up the schedule, they start you with something like "wake/away/home/sleep", where you can set times and temps for heating and cooling through the day. Seems pretty natural, (for normal working folk): heat to wake up, less heat when at work, warm up for coming home, then sleep.

Except when I enabled away, wake would disable, and vice versa. WTF, why do you provide four defaults if they can't all be on simultaneously? No worries though, they let you add as you please, so I added a "daytime" setting.

You can also set multiple calendars. Since every day is a Saturday to me, I didn't bother.

Also noticed about four PM the thermostat said "Aux Heat" Went downstairs, and peeking through the vents on the front, could see the furnace burners were running. I thought the heat pump was supposed to handle everything above 35 or 40 degrees (around 55 at the time). n Figure that must've coincided with the "home: mode, and the pump needed some help to get back up to temp.

Later in the evening, I noticed the heat came on w/o the burners, hence my theory above.

Seems as if 71 is a nicer 71 than the old system. I turned the heat back to 70, as it was almost warm yesterday. I wonder if it's just a newer system doing better. Also part of it is (I think) that the new thermostat came with a sensor. This can evaluate if a room is in use, and make sure it's comfortable there. The old one just had the thermostat reading, which is on the first floor.

I put it in the basement, as that's where I spend my evenings when home. I'll probably get another for the bedroom. Then two sensors where I spend my time, plus the thermostat itself for the main floor.

I bet my credit score takes a dive for a while. Put both halves on cards to get some cash back, but my % of available credit used will be pretty high til November.

Seemed as if it's a little quieter, or at least no noisier. But that may be just me wanting it to be better after that expense.

Anyway, sample size = 1 day, pleased so far.

Good thing I'm not planning to buy a new vehicle or something.

This is actually not correct in most climates for several reasons:

Heat Pumps are sized based on the cooling load, and in Denver the cooling loads are such that heating demands will not be satisfied by the heat pump alone.

The temperature change across the coils will be less as the outdoor temperatures drop(I can explain this also if needed) and below freezing this becomes more pronounced.

GoldDog-I would suggest that with a heat pump you will be much more comfortable and spend essentially the same amount of money by avoiding complicated programs. If you like to sleep colder, program a nighttime setback. Your system will almost use backup heat in the mornings to bring the house up to temperature (or anytime you have a big difference in the set points) due to the nature of heating with heat pumps(low temperature rise across the coils will cause the 2nd stage to engage). The more time your condensing unit runs the more efficient your system is operating.

I can get much more granular with this if anyone’s interested.

Thanks, pokerhack. As mentioned, with the minimal sample size, it did feel more comfortable even set one degree lower than the old system.

Anybody know if it's a bad idea to splash a little (very little) gasoline down the openings of a French drain that runs along the entire back side of your house? LOL

Damn mosquitoes have been giving me fits on the back patio recently and I can't think of any other standing water within a few hundred yards. I got pissed yesterday, and this evening I didn't spot a single mosquito. Coincidence?

I'll probably pick up some liquid insecticide next chance I get, but any port in a storm.

Any dead mosquito is a good mosquito, regardless of how it met its demise.

Any collateral damage in the neighborhood is easily explainable.

Had my heat pump AC stop working. Air was still blowing inside the house, fan was running on the outdoor unit, but condenser wasn't kicking on.
Found out it was the capacitor. HVAC company wanted to charge me $400 to replace it. I bought one for 28 bucks, and a half hour later I was back in action.
Posting as a PSA because its such a large con that gets run on people that dont know better.

PS - I didn't know better either, but knew enough to question it. Called my brother-in-law on the opposite coast and he told me what to do. Very easy.