"In 2028, new U.S. federal regulations will require most common light bulbs to be significantly more energy-efficient, specifically achieving a minimum of 120 lumens per watt. "

So, banning CFLs without actually banning them by name, unlike what they did with incandescents.    Fool the sheep.. 

Didn't Trump sign an executive order undoing the light bulb regulations?

Wed Aug 13 2025 17:43:25 UTC from Nurb432

"In 2028, new U.S. federal regulations will require most common light bulbs to be significantly more energy-efficient, specifically achieving a minimum of 120 lumens per watt. "

 

So, banning CFLs without actually banning them by name, unlike what they did with incandescents.    Fool the sheep.. 

Apparently, no.

Thu Aug 14 2025 21:51:05 UTC from SouthernComputerGeek

Didn't Trump sign an executive order undoing the light bulb regulations?

Wed Aug 13 2025 17:43:25 UTC from Nurb432

"In 2028, new U.S. federal regulations will require most common light bulbs to be significantly more energy-efficient, specifically achieving a minimum of 120 lumens per watt. "

 

So, banning CFLs without actually banning them by name, unlike what they did with incandescents.    Fool the sheep.. 

 

You know what? I'd appreciate it if you started citing the sources from which you derive your information, otherwise I'll just assume this is you:

The story i was reading, i cant find with a simple search now. It was in news headlines of that day.   But one example below.  If Trump did nullify it, why is a bill being introduced this summer?

And for the record, while its always possible something i read wasn't true and I fully admit that, as these days you never really know, nothing i say was made up by me, unless i specifically say ' i think ' or 'my opinion' or something similar.

https://www.energy.senate.gov/2025/5/chairman-lee-introduces-bill-to-end-biden-era-lightbulb-ban

Lol

So as i mentioned i have solar and some batteries.   The portables will only suck around 60 watt max to charge ( ill never buy that brand again ).  I now have 5 panels of solar on my shed. ( 5 more panels in storage for emergencies, and a bunch of mini ones if we bug out  )

Since they wont suck much i put a splitter on the incoming, and plugged them both in.  I use them every so often to cycle the batteries ( mostly crypto mining.. might as well ).  One wasn't charging..  pulled the wires off to check for voltage, one side was hot. . the damned thing melted. .. lol 

Even if those panels were at 100%, which none are, the battery would not take more than 60 of it anyway.. should never have got that hot.   I wonder if they were lying on the wire gage.. and it was REALLY tiny wire.

I have a peach tree on property. Every year we get a bunch off it, so many we share with neighbors.  ( used to have 2, but one stopped producing anything for several years, and it was too close to the house anyway so down it came )

This year, not a lot of peaches on it, but still enough to want to pick them.  Oddly a lot were rotten.. Not all, just more than normal for some reason ( heat? i donno ).  Had plans on picking this weekend since i had help here doing other things with us.  Yesterday evening coming back from walking dogs, saw 3 squirrels sitting under the tree eating what had fallen. ( and why i dont pick all the fallen, unless so many that its effecting my mowing or starting to kill the grass, i leave them for the birds and squirrels, and bugs and such )

Fast forward to this afternoon, go out to make plans, the tree is empty..   what the hell..   Ground looks about the same as the day before, a few but not tons.. 

Family member noticed i was using a ratchet clamp as a spreader in the garage ( details not important ).  They had never heard of such a thing.

Isn't that a pretty common practice? I cant be that different..

This is a bar ratchet.  Not a strap.

I have a comealong in a box. It used to go with me when i took my old jeep truck out into the woods if no one had a winch. Better than nothing.

Wed Aug 20 2025 00:48:08 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

I've done it. I own several ratchet straps, I don't own a spreader or a comealong, and in a pinch you use what you've got (as long as you can do it safely).

Yay generator wont start.

Was going to get it ready for winter.  nope.   Now i have to drag it out into the yard tomorrow and see what is wrong with it ( impossible to look at it in the box )

annnnd   get to replace my water heater this weekend.  

Might have told this story already, i dont remember.  Had a valve starting to leak. Cant find a replacement since they changed the design just enough not to work with the old housing....  Not knowing what was behind the wall, i had a plumber rip it out and replace it ( and was not cheap.. at all... ). But due to new government rules they cant just replace them as is unless its just the cartridge, no, it has to be totally changed to a single handle. "for your safety" grrrr.  Turns out what was inside the wall was fine, so i could have done it myself, but its an old house, and i didn't want to take the risk of getting in over my head physically. Im not 30 anymore. sigh.

So it means you get lukewarm water, at best. 

But in my case, it was worse. On the low end of warm... I did not buy a huge water heater last time, 68k BTU or so. It was plenty for what we need, and since we could actually adjust the water, showers were fine. Actually it was more than we needed as if you turned the heat all the way up it was too hot.  So it sat about 1/2 of what it could do.. 

So a new one has arrived @ 120K BTU.  That should make up for the difference with this stupid valve. And of course the layout is not quite the same so not plug and play, i have to redo a bunch of the work i did a few years ago and there goes my Saturday afternoon. 

I know i should not bitch, im able to do this myself and not have to hire people.. but its still an annoying event, and for no real good reason, just the government getting its fingers in my business.

And along the lines of not being 30.. actually having someone come to trim my huge bushes and apple tree.... i started, but just didn't feel secure enough on my ladder this year doing it...   this getting old stuff sucks.

At lunch " we might get a dusting tomorrow night" Happened to look at the radar a big ago, seeing if the snow was going to stop soon, noticed now its 3-6" tomorrow night.  LoL.  Being a weatherman is the only job you are expected to screw up and not really know the answer, AND get rewarded.

And i donno, 6" i might have to dig out the shovel, as that is pushing it a little. The jeep dont really care upwards of 9", but i park it outside, so id have to trudge out to clean it off if i go anywhere.. 3", not worth it, other than the front steps or the mailwoman, but not the drive, since our mailboxes are on the house, she goes thru lawns )

So. Washer freaks out..  seems we lost water and it made it angry.

Call the water company "we don't know of anything we will send someone"   get a call 10 mins later, hey this is bob from the water company, we have a main break a few houses down and are working on it, turned the water off 2 hours ago..

Nice the office knows what the crews are doing.  

Other than perhaps tax reasons, why would having 2 families in a house you own be illegal? 

Ok i was thinking "same family idea, but different parts, with owner living in 1/2" not a rental. 

So this weekend ( and this morning ) it was soooo cold.   how cold was it?   Well, the water temp in the lines freaked out my new heater and it was beeping "freeze warning".  Wouldn't turn on. Which seems dumb, dont you want heat if the water was that cold but still moving?  

Ran it for a couple of minutes. Felt the temp change just slightly. Shut it off. .wait for beeping to stop.. try again. and it worked. 

Ran into the similar issue with the old, smaller, heater where it had a hard time keeping up every so often mid-winter. Figure this is a by-product of having those huge city water tanks up in the air. Or the lines around the houses are not as deep as they really should be to protect them from air temps.

Other than pressure issues due to our smaller than average incoming main, and no regulator on the lines after they split ( which i *could* fix.. ) so it meant you had to 'balance' the use or it would turn off due the low pressure sensor, as designed. Tho the new one seems less sensitive on that. And i guess that is really no worse than some kid turning on the washer when you are in the shower with a tank heater.... I guess this is the one downside i have seen yet of tank-less, the not keeping up as well in *really* cold weather. And i guess if you get a HUGE one, it would over compensate. But as always, i went with 'what was needed' and didn't over do it.

But considering they are lusciously cheap, take up no space, save tons on energy and dont run out ( unless you hit the safety timer, a simple reset of the water flow restarts ) that is a small price to pay.