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[#] Sun Dec 25 2022 18:23:55 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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You know it works because it says "Amazing!" on the bottle.

Ok, it seems the main ingredient in Liquid Fire is sulfuric acid. I think other drain openers contain lye, right? So we're playing around on the other end of the pH spectrum. Imagine pouring a bunch of Drain-O (high pH) into your drain and then chasing it with Liquid Fire (low pH). The resulting explosion would give 11th degree burns to everyone within range.

I suppose in my case I could just use some acid from my pool supplies and it would do the same thing. But my tub doesn't clog anymore, even though I live with two women who have beautiful long hair. I removed anything that could be an obstacle that grabs hair (particularly the tub stopper linkage) and also the 1.5" drain and trap empty into a 2" pipe going to the main waste stack. I have not had a single clog since then.

[#] Sun Dec 25 2022 22:01:35 UTC from Nurb432

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Ya we rarely have a clog too, tho i used to pour a bit of draino stuff down once a quarter. Also toss a can of tree root foam down the toilet once a quarter, to avoid another clean-out event.. Not real sure why i got the big bottle, but the "we might need it someday and stock up" mentality kicked in.

In this case, the advertising was true.. it was pretty freaking amazing. 

Be interesting to see how it does with a  'real' clog and not ice. I bet it melts grease and hair..



[#] Mon Dec 26 2022 11:07:39 UTC from darknetuser

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2022-12-25 17:01 from Nurb432
Ya we rarely have a clog too, tho i used to pour a bit of draino
stuff down once a quarter. Also toss a can of tree root foam down the

toilet once a quarter, to avoid another clean-out event.. Not real
sure why i got the big bottle, but the "we might need it someday and

stock up" mentality kicked in.


I am not a fan of chemicals for removing clogs. They work well and I have some in storage just in case, but I much prefer phisical removers when available.


I deal regularly with clogs because the drain of barn appliances have a tendency to suck stones and half-chewed wood and whatnot.

[#] Tue Dec 27 2022 03:43:18 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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High pressure jetting is definitely preferable if there is a septic system at the end of the line. Also there are nozzles available that are absolutely savage -- they can literally cut through roots with only water.

(And yes, I am indeed a Drain Addict fan. Ollie is THE MAN.)

[#] Tue Dec 27 2022 12:31:35 UTC from Nurb432

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Yes, chemicals are bad for septic tanks, dont want to kill the bacteria in there. But we have city sewer here as I'm not in the country anymore :(    Used to be semi-rural, but not any longer. But it was still a 'city' when built so it had city water, sidewalks, sewer, etc  ( ya,  have bitched about that before, wont start up again :) )

Mon Dec 26 2022 10:43:18 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar
High pressure jetting is definitely preferable if there is a septic system at the end of the line. Also there are nozzles available that are absolutely savage -- they can literally cut through roots with only water.

(And yes, I am indeed a Drain Addict fan. Ollie is THE MAN.)

 



[#] Sun Jan 01 2023 23:36:40 UTC from Nurb432

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and just finished yet another portable emergency battery backup. 500 watt. capped at 100 watt use. Double wide ammo case. if you build them with barrel jack inputs, you can charge them with the house, solar, car, generator.. whatever. 

Wont run a house or anything, but will run a light and small fan, and if you add a buddy heater you dont freeze to death or sit in the dark. ( or have to bug out and leave your house unprotected )

 



[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 01:01:02 UTC from darknetuser

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2023-01-01 18:36 from Nurb432
and just finished yet another portable emergency battery backup. 500

watt. capped at 100 watt use. Double wide ammo case. if you build
them with barrel jack inputs, you can charge them with the house,
solar, car, generator.. whatever. 

Wont run a house or anything, but will run a light and small fan, and

if you add a buddy heater you dont freeze to death or sit in the
dark. ( or have to bug out and leave your house unprotected )

 


That sounds interesting. How are you building them?

Do you mean the battery is 500 Watts-hour with a max rated output of 100 watts?

[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 01:46:42 UTC from Nurb432

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I'm limiting the power output lower than what the batteries can do via a lower output inverter.  Partially just to hard-limit it so it lasts longer but also i went with a smaller inverter to fit in a smaller box. Could use a large toolbox or something and used a larger one, but then weight may bite you if you want it to be portable.

Short version of how, just get a box.. toss some 12v batteries in. Wire them in parallel to a solar charge controller, then the controller to an inverter.  I bolt them to the lid so i dont take up any room from the batteries. Wire a couple of jacks to the charge controller for input.  I used 2 in order to reduce amperage on each plug since they are small barrel jacks ( standard stuff you would see on an external hard drive power supply or something ), and so i could run 2 100 watt panels in parallel without any Y-adapters.

Most inverters have a fan, so i cut a hole near in the box near the fan for air flow.  This time I got an inverter that powers its self up/down on load instead of a manual switch that i had to deal with.

Dowel rods in the box separate the batteries to give it a bit of air flow around them, and so they dont bounce around. These are the size of the ones you see in boats, to give you an idea. Perhaps 1/4 the size of an average car battery. But you can really use any size you want, or have around its all the same concept.

How many batteries depends on how long you want it to last on a charge, and how big the box is.  Lead acid and lithium are about the same power for the same size, but lithium is 1/2 the weight, but more costly, so its a trade-off.   This one was lead acid. it wont be lugged around much. I have a couple that could be lugged around if needed as an option, so they are lithium. 

Sun Jan 01 2023 08:01:02 PM EST from darknetuser
That sounds interesting. How are you building them?

Do you mean the battery is 500 Watts-hour with a max rated output of 100 watts?

 



[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 15:27:20 UTC from Nurb432

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Mid-build, during testing and with lid closed, if it helps give you a better image.  Dowel rods are not in, nor did i hook up the charge ports yet in the open view. Vent hole will go in the back, there on the right so it lines up with the inverter fan ( the red box )

 



[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 16:02:55 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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flow around them, and so they dont bounce around. These are the size
of the ones you see in boats, to give you an idea. Perhaps 1/4 the

I guess we haven't been around the same kind of boats. On the boats my family owned we always had deep cycle marine batteries, which were like car batteries but bigger, and with more plates in them so that they can run longer cycles instead of just the episodal load of starting the engines. And of course there were all sorts of crossover switches to select charging via the generator, from the engines, from shore power, etc.

But yes, having some 12 volt stuff around is great. I want to do more of it. I think I might have mentioned before that it would be cool if homes began having both 120/240 volt *and* 12 volt distribution wiring -- just like boats. For many loads it simply isn't necessary to invert first.

[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 16:19:37 UTC from Nurb432

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Does not seem like it, between the batteries and the 'delayed steering' thing.  Almost hit a barge of some sort going across a canal in front of me once, before i got used to the 'turn early' thing.  Guy with me " turn...now..hurry " "but its way down there. "

 

And ya i dont plan on running my house with this stuff, its just for emergencies so we dont die.   I still have a generator, but if the area gets hit hard, gas would be gone, between people panicking and it needing power to pump.... ( and ice for freezers, last time we had a power line go down within minutes every store in the near area was empty of ice. ) 

Who knows about natural gas, it might stop too if its really bad. ( that is my heating/cooking and can run the generator off that or propane, but if we natural gas too, i wont be using propane i dont think.  rather keep it for heat and food.. ).

And of course as the area is being destroyed by housing developments  it only increases our risk.

So a few of these battery things, + some solar, could prevent us from having to bug out and leave my house unprotected. Or attract attention with the noise of a generator.

Also looking into generating power direct from the heat of burning wood in a rocket stove. ( Peltier electric modules.. no, not efficient by any means, but they are simple .. )

Mon Jan 02 2023 11:02:55 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar
I guess we haven't been around the same kind of boats.


[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 18:12:30 UTC from darknetuser

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Also looking into generating power direct from the heat of burning
wood in a rocket stove. ( Peltier electric modules.. no, not

Dunno. Energy from a stove is best used for heating and cooking IMO. The idea of a stove generator sounds interesting, but if you already have a fireplace in which you can stick a Dutch Oven you probably have other priorities. Firewood reserves go down surprisingly fast if you start using them, and if things get so bad that you need to use wood instead of your main heating system I would not start burning wood for electrical power.

In any case, if you set such system, don't forget to tell us your experiences.

[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 18:18:37 UTC from darknetuser

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2023-01-02 13:12 from darknetuser
Also looking into generating power direct from the heat of burning


wood in a rocket stove. ( Peltier electric modules.. no, not

Dunno. Energy from a stove is best used for heating and cooking IMO.

The idea of a stove generator sounds interesting, but if you already
have a fireplace in which you can stick a Dutch Oven you probably have

other priorities. Firewood reserves go down surprisingly fast if you
start using them, and if things get so bad that you need to use wood
instead of your main heating system I would not start burning wood for

electrical power.

In any case, if you set such system, don't forget to tell us your
experiences.



That said, it would rock to use the exhaust from a stove to power a turbine and get electric power from it.

[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 19:40:15 UTC from Nurb432

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Right. Turbine is the better and more efficient route, but there is a larger investment in time/space. I considered wrapping the stove with a copper coil, creating steam to run a Tesla turbine. But, we are only talking emergency here due to storms and such, not ongoing daily life after the apocalypse so its really not worth going that far.  Now if i live out in the Appalachian Mountains or something, id be saying different things, would not be 'plans' but done decades ago..

i was toying with the idea of running a water line ( steam ) from a rocket into a small car 'heater core' inside the house for warmth.  Then use power generated from the thermo units to drive a small fan.

But those are just random thoughts of stuff that i might try just to see.. The practical ones here are multi fuel generator+battery+solar+gas heat/cook. ( which are all covered ).   If i were to move back into the country, water would be added for power  ( and we are back to a Tesla turbine ), wood for heat/food, and most likely beef up the solar. 

One thing i sort of regret here is not having a fireplace. Power goes out for a week, it would come in handy. At some point, if the area is without power long enough i assume natural gas stops too, and i know water will stop at some point since we have those large tanks in the sky and its not unicorn dust that runs the pumps....



[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 23:19:31 UTC from darknetuser

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One thing i sort of regret here is not having a fireplace. Power goes


That is easier to solve than you might think.

Get a cast iron stove. Pierce a hole through the wall and attatch an external chimney to the outer side to the wall. It is mush safer than piercing through your roof.

I keep trying my family to let me add a stove to my house that way since the fireplace we have takes a bit too long to heat the whole house, but they won't bulge.

(Bonus points because such stove can also be used for cooking, but a fireplace is still better because that way you don't get vapor everywhere every time you boil something in a pot)

[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 23:28:30 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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My old house had a fireplace, but it was so old and inefficient that it was useless for heating.  I think it drafted more warm air out of the house than it produced.

Later on when the next owners put it back on the market, I noticed that they added a cast iron fireplace insert to basically turn it into a wood stove.  That was very clever.

(Damn ... that house was tiny.  I don't miss it.)



[#] Mon Jan 02 2023 23:48:05 UTC from darknetuser

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2023-01-02 18:28 from IGnatius T Foobar
My old house had a fireplace, but it was so old and inefficient that
it was useless for heating.  I think it drafted more warm air out of
the house than it produced.

Later on when the next owners put it back on the market, I noticed
that they added a cast iron fireplace insert to basically turn it
into a wood stove.  That was very clever.



(Damn ... that house was tiny.  I don't miss it.)


Yup, if you set a fireplace, use an insert. It makes it much more useful because it allows you to control the draft and the oxygen intake. If you get one of those which has a door you can close so sparks don't come out, it is also much safer.

[#] Tue Jan 03 2023 00:08:00 UTC from Nurb432

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With the layout of my house its not as simple as it sounds. 

i actually have recently looked into a stove, but we would lose so much of our front room in the process, i skipped it.  ( there is no 'back wall' to our living/dining area, as the wall there is the garage, not outside.  I would have to put it in the far corner in the front, tear out the windows, build wall there, put in smaller windows.. bla bla. lose quite a bit of floor space.  Find a place for the fish ( 70 gallon tank ).

There also may be some insurance ramifications. I know out at the old place with my parents, we moved into a place that had one in the basement. ( walk out ). They said it had to be removed to get insurance..  I dont think there was anything wrong with it or installation. It was solid, was on a concrete foundation, brick back wall in the corner.. i donno.

Honesty my better option would be to move back out to the boonies. But i'm sort of stuck for the time being.  Going to work on that in the next year or so, depending on what the housing market does around here. its looking like it may collapse.

Oh, and i have seen Peltier 'generators' built to go with stoves :)

Mon Jan 02 2023 06:19:31 PM EST from darknetuser
One thing i sort of regret here is not having a fireplace. Power goes


That is easier to solve than you might think.

Get a cast iron stove. Pierce a hole through the wall and attatch an external chimney to the outer side to the wall. It is mush safer than piercing through your roof.

I keep trying my family to let me add a stove to my house that way since the fireplace we have takes a bit too long to heat the whole house, but they won't bulge.

(Bonus points because such stove can also be used for cooking, but a fireplace is still better because that way you don't get vapor everywhere every time you boil something in a pot)

 



[#] Tue Jan 03 2023 14:26:18 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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One of my neighbors near the old house (they were all converted summer cottages) had a wood stove in the basement, a pretty big one, and this was just an ordinary under-the-house basement, not a finished walk-out. (Wow, lots of comma splices in that sentence. I need to do better.) The interior of the house was porous enough that he just ran it all winter and let the heat rise. It worked pretty well, actually. It isn't all that odd when you think about it -- in the early 20th century it wasn't uncommon to just have one big heat register in a central part of the house and let the warm air convect around the place. My old house must have originally had that because I saw the impression in the basement floor where the furnace had been set, and the repair in the floor above it where the grate must have been.

Now I've got electric resistance heat. I believe I've mentioned before that even with these electric radiators I'm spending thousands per year less to heat this place than the old house, even though it's twice as large, because the insulation is so much better. But at some point I'll add a mini split, and maybe a wood stove.

[#] Tue Jan 03 2023 16:29:18 UTC from Nurb432

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With good enough insulation all you need is a bunch of pets. 

lol 



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