home posts page 3

I’m very happy to say that my house, like so many rich and famous people’s, now has hot water flowing right through the pipes. It comes right out of the faucets and even the shower head. I feel so priviledged. At last I can take showers in my own home. I intend to take my first here in over a year tonight.

I had, when I first got my new fancy smancy tankless water heater in, hooked it up to 240VAC instead of the 120 it requires. This, I determined, burned out the main transformer. I had finally ordered that. When I put it in, I finally had power going to the GFCI and then the controller board. However, when I tried to run it, all it did was blink a small light on the circuit board. This was an error code, telling me there was one of three possible problems. One was the circuit board; I feared I might have burned something out on it, though it all looked fine. Another problem, wrong gas type, was not the problem for sure. The third option was a problem with the solenoid valve. Testing this required jumping past a fuse, and I was leery of doing this myself, so the heater sat for months. Finally, today I had my dad come over to help me look at it. We did they bypassing of the fuse test, and determined that was fine. We then had no more help from the troubleshooting guide, and had to start figuring things out ourselves. We tested the continuity and voltage going to the two solenoid valves, a hi-limit switch, and many other parts. After over two hours of this, we were getting ready to stop for the day. My dad, looking at a diagram of it, wondered if removing the plate the GFCI was attached to would give us a better view of the solenoids and other stuff. I took it off and immediately noticed that the wires going to another gas valve, the VGO, were disconnected. We plugged them in, ran the heater, and instantly it was working. It was quite exciting.

The amount of force needed to attach the wires’ clip was enough that it couldn’t have been knocked off while I was messing with the GFCI before. It must have been either put on loosely and not clipped in all the way or not put in at all by the manufacturers. It’s crazy that I’ve had to go all these months without hot water and showers at home because of such an amazingly simple problem.

wahoo, hot water.

I haven’t posted the news about my water heater. I got it in back in fall or early winter of last year. I was quite excited. It took me a few weeks to do all the installation stuff, partly because I needed my dad’s help for doing things such as installing the gas line. I had to do a good bit of work that I’m happy I got to do. I installed a black iron line running from my tank under the house to the heater. I simply connected the old line that went to the furnace and stove into this line. I installed a wall frame to hold the heater and put an exhaust and air intake system through the exterior wall. That wall still needs siding on the outside and insulation and finishing on the inside. The exhaust was very expensive, requiring special stainless pipe. I did some more plumbing. My dad got a new torch with one of the four way tips and piezo ignition. It’s mighty nice. The four way tips actually heat up the joint quickly and uniformly, with no real need to rotate around the pipe. and an easy to see green color surrounds it when it is up to temperature. It makes the whole job easier.

I also installed a wall outlet and a plug on the heater, which has led to quite a problem. The line going to the ‘utility closet’ there had been for the old electric water heater. I didn’t think of it, but that needed a 240V supply. The new water heater doesn’t. Even when flipping the two-pole breaker, I didn’t think of it. I heard a loud humming noise coming from the unit. I was worried something was wrong, especially since it wasn’t firing. I kept unplugging it. The unit has an error light on the computer board. I took off the front panel and looked around for the error light. It certainly wasn’t blinking. By the time I found it, though, a green flash came from elsewhere and the unit stopped humming. It now did nothing. The GFCI, which had been working before, stopped as well. I soon found that the fuse had blown. I got more fuses, but they blew instantly upon powering the unit. I soon came to the conclusion that the transformer must have burned out. After much email communication with the company that didn’t seem to get me very far, I finally ordered a new transformer over the phone. I worried that I wouldn’t end up getting it, as the guy I ordered it from didn’t speak english especially well, and I had to spell out all of my information. It arrived and I installed it. The fuses no longer blew instantly, and I had power to both the GFCI and the CPU board. In fact, on trying to run it, I found the error light was now working. It told me there is a problem with either the solenoid valve or the computer board. I will likely have to order a new board, which may be costly, but I want to test out all other possibilities first. Unfortunately, it’s hard to test some of these things. That’s where I’m at right now, still with no hot water after nigh on a year.

During my stove installation assumed gas-out situation, I ventured under my house to see if a gas line running toward the stove was indeed spliced into the one going to the furnace. One was, on a little tee near the tank end. However, I discovered a horrific site (at least to a home-owner/energy conservationalist). The underside of my house in the back area and especially the middle, was filled with holes going straight up to the floor boards. Smaller ones maybe 5″ in diameter were all over the place. Some of these had small bits of black plastic taped over them, most of which were in the process of falling off. There were bigger holes though, including one perhaps 5′ square. In that largest hole, I could see the pipes running to the kitchen, expaining why they constantly freeze. I also could see a bit of the heating duct exposed, and there was a strange vertical duct sticking down into the underneath area with a opening at the end. I’m not sure if it’s there to throw some heat into the under-area there, which would seem terribly inefficient, or if it is not even connected to the heating system.

The ground beneath the house was covered with lots of junk, including a box of siding and a telescope (which I had seen before). There was also a thin layer of grayish insulation looking stuff in certain areas, and a large amount of small particles floating in front of my flashlight. This probably contributed to the irritation of my lungs and eyes and helped speed my exit.

It looks like this is a big portion of the cause of my extremely high heating bills (I heat my small house to 50°, yet pay more than in a normal house heated to 70°), and so I shall have a large project on my hands. I will have to put new sheathing of some sort and insulation down there to slowly replace the holy flooring. This will probably cost a good bit of money and take a lot of cramped work, but should save me a good bit in heating bills and allow me to keep water flowing to the kitchen. I also intend to replace my water pipes with copper and lay some PEX pipes for a radiant heating system, so I could do this at the same time, or more likely, set it up so I can easily remove the panels and do it later. I want to vacuum or sweep out all that insulation junk on the ground before I start though.

My am I silly. When installing my stove, I had to turn off the gas at the tanks to put in the gas line. When I was finished, I opened the valves again. I went inside to test the new line for leaks using soapy water, I saw bubbles on the first connection I sprayed, so I tightened it a good bit. I soon realized, however, that my soap, probably because it is the “oxy” variety, bubbled no matter what. I then opened the valve to try the stove, but got nothing. We were not completely sure the line ran to it was actually connected to the tanks, as I didn’t recall where it connected into the line going to the furnace, so I figured it must not be hooked up. I went to turn on the furnace. The last time I had done it, I had just left the knob set to ‘on’ and lit it up. I couldn’t seem to get it lit. I knew I had had trouble before, and had needed to let the gas flow out for a bit, so I tried for a while. I tried opening the valves on the tank more outside, closing and opening them again, and even turning the furnace knob to pilot. I glanced at the instructions, but saw mostly jibber-jabber about being careful and what-not.

After reading up in some Amerigas pamphlets, I came to the assumption that I had a ‘gas-out’, as I was slightly low (26%) and the pamphlet mentioned this could happen even without running the tank all the way down. I used my electric space-heater, but it was only 8°F outside, windchill -7°. It got down to perhaps 36° in most of the house and near 50° in my bedroom (where the heater was). I worked that day. When I came home, I had hoped perhaps the heat of the sun would start them flowing again, but my attempts still failed.

I fell asleep, as I was tired, so I didn’t get to call Amerigas till after their hours. I called at 8:30 the next morning, telling them I think I had a gas-out. It was a bit of a confused conversation, and when I said I had 26% left, she said that I wasn’t out of gas, but that I shouldn’t let it run too low or they’d charge $75 for a leak test. I declined the rush delivery, which ran $100. She gave me the charge just for the gas at a special lock-in price. She said she’d send me the forms to get this lock-in, and that I’d have to send them back ASAP. She was waving the $40 application fee normally involved. Sweet. The price quoted at the lock-in was perhaps 50¢ a gallon cheaper.

After work that night, and after doing some shopping, I called my Dad (he had called while I was out to check up on me) and told him that I though I had a gas-out. I told him I couldn’t get the furnace or the stove to light. He rather quickly realized I had not held down the button of the knob while it was at the ‘pilot’ setting, pointing out that the thermocouple closed when it cooled down to prevent gas from leaking out. The instructions reinforced the idea of pushing down the button. Had I but read them a little more thoroughly, I would’ve seen that. How silly of me. Such a simple little thing, and I had been freezing away for a day and a half. The problem with the stove was soon fixed as well. When I had been unable to light it at first, I had hoped there was a valve somewhere below the house just for that line. My dad suggested I check for this, and if that didn’t work, unscrew the flex-line going to the stove to see if gas came out there. There indeed was a valve, an old decrepit one, right near the side of the house, making it easy to access.

My house was warmer very quickly. I lowered the thermostat from the usual 50° to 45° to ensure I wouldn’t really run out of gas. The stove worked as well, and I got to play with it a bit. I didn’t end up cooking anything that night though, as I was a bit lazy and cold (still) and ended up just falling asleep.

I finally got a real stove. It’s installed and all. My parents last christmas (or perhaps my birthday) offered to give me a stove. I did research looking for the one I wanted before and after that. I wanted a 20″, or at least 24″, but those weren’t offered locally. I also wanted a cooktop, but couldn’t find one of those online in the 20″ width. I was a little leary of getting the stove delivered anyway. I finally realized that to get a good stove with the narrow width, I’d have to get a range. The Sharp microwave/oven I had gotten just didn’t work as well as I’d hoped as a real oven anyway. I found one I liked on some websites, but didn’t order it, just bookmarked it. It was an Avanti. It had the electric ignition (no energy lost to pilot, though I was hoping for piezo) with sealed burners (much easier cleaning). I eventually went with the more expensive one with stainless steel and an oven window, since I found it so close to the price of the cheapest one when shipping was included.

I didn’t do anything about it, partly out of laziness, and partly because of other projects. I finally decided it was time to stop using the electric hot plate and old camp stove. The hot plate was thermostatically controlled, but had a very wide swinging method of getting at the temperature it was set at. On simmer, it would go all the way up to full blast, red hot for a bit, then swing back down to too cold to cook anything, and stay that way for several minutes before going back up again. This made for a very slow process of cooking food that could easily include burning it if I wasn’t there to shut off the heat when it got too hot. The camp stove was rather unstable, and every time I’d touch the pan, I’d have to hold it to prevent it from sliding. The flame would frequently go out if at a simmer setting, so I couldn’t keep it very low. The flame was also very small in comparison to the size of the pot over it, so it would often burn a very small clump of food to the center of the pan.

I had to stay home the whole day they were expected to deliver the stove (a nice 7 hour window). Of course, it didn’t come till near the end of the day. I had borrowed the hand truck my Mom had newly acquired in case the guy’d just leave it in the yard and go, but luckily he helped me carry it inside. My dad helped me saw out the counter area it was to go. I had to switch the thing to LP, which involved putting in different sized gas orifices, flipping over a spacer bolt in the regulator, and tightening some screws for each knob. It was a bit of a pain, and I had to wait to finish because I needed a mini screwdriver for the knob screws. I managed to slice my finger pretty good when pulling off the knob panel for the second time: I pulled on it from the back, and the metal edge went right into my finger. Then I installed the gas line (luckily there was a line there for that purpose). I also set in 2×4 runners to raise it up a bit, to be level with the countertop. It fit in mostly nicely, though there is still a little lip where the counter goes above it near the back. My kitchen looks nicer and more like a real kitchen with it.

I got to finally use it after figuring out that there was a valve underneath the house that was closed. I made spaghetti. It started right up. It is definately easier to use than my old tools, and lowers my cooktimes. I don’t much like the burner setup. It has one powerful burner, two regular, and one simmer. The two regular are in the back, though those would otherwise be the ones I’d use most often. I’ll just have to live with it though. One of the burners’ knobs doesn’t activate the spark ignition, so I may have to take off the panel again to see if I can fix that.

I haven’t tried the oven yet.

I’ve captured two more mice now. The first was very smart and was able to figure out how to pull the cracker out of the trap. She did this a few times before I put the cracker standing up against the back of the trap. This was far enough in that she couldn’t get at it without the door closing behind her, so she was trapped. I took her immediately to the park, as I figured I’d have the same trouble as with the last one if I kept her for the night. I had trouble getting the door opened at first to release her. I flipped the cage upside down so it could open, and thought it was, so I was confused as to why she wouldn’t leave. I tried to pour her out, only to realise she was squeezed against the door.

The next mouse I caught in that same trap. I had hear they wouldn’t go into a trap that hadn’t been cleaned, as they’d smell the other mouse, but this one did. He made some noise trying to get out, which woke me up. He was a rather large fellow. Released him quickly and easily. He sped off quite quickly.

Both these mice I took quick shots of in the trap. I wasn’t able to take any pictures of them outside while releasing like I had with the first, as it was quite dark and would have been a challenge.

I’ll have to see if I’ve still got more to take care of. Since trapping the second mouse, they (or it) have been much more quite and sneaky than before.

Mrs. Mouse is dead. She somehow managed to fall into a bucket of water I had sitting around and drown. Awful way to go, in my opinion. I was glad to get the body out of my house; it wasn’t something I liked looking at. I poured her with the water onto my lawn, and she is presumably eaten at this point.

Before she died, I began to become aware that there was more than one mouse. I wasn’t sure of how many, but at least two. I’d see a shadow zip by while I heard chewing elsewhere. I didn’t let them chew long; I’d pound the wall where they were chewing until they stopped. I don’t want my house chewed up.

Last night, I ventured out to Walmart because I really wanted to get rid of my mouse problem once and for all. I examined all of their traps. They had a variety of kill traps and a couple of live traps. I of course wanted live. They had some fancy looking ones for an unknown price, but I settled on some cheap plastic one’s, a box with a door that only opens one way. I wasn’t sure if the mouse would be fooled into going through the door to get the food.

I set two traps up with cheese crackers in them, and put little crumbs near the entrance. That night, the mouse came out, right near me. He kept creeping up and then running back. He snuck the crumbs only from the trap, then snuck around elsewhere. The next day, I worked all day, then celebrated my brothers birthday. I didn’t get home till 2200 or so. I came home to find a little mouse in one of the traps.

I had luckily just brought a tank home from my parents house. I cleaned it, put some paper and a can in it, then let the mouse into it. Mr. Mouse doesn’t seem to want to remain in the tank, and has jumped up and walked around upside down on the mesh lid numerous times. He keeps looking at me from time to time. I have the cracker, some cake, and broccoli in there for him, and he’s eaten much of the cracker already. I fear that he’ll eventually just hop onto the lid and chew through to escape. I dunno if I’ll keep him, even if I’ll be able to. I may just release him off in a forest. He appears to be a white footed mouse, as he has the white undercarraige and makes a buzzing noise from time to time, so he should be quite at home there. He’ll certainly be happier than living in a cage, and I’ll be happier without having to worry about him.

Despite what I had thought, Mrs mouse is still here. She just had been hiding much better than before. I saw her sneak passed my room a couple days after writing my ‘missing’ entry. I’ve heard and seen her several times since then. Once, when my brother was visiting (the first time in months), we saw her in my back room. She must have been hiding in there amongst all the junk. I’ve also seen her several times in the kitchen. I found that she had been eating from a bag of flour I had in a closed cupboard that I never use. The cupboard shelves have spaces around them, allowing easy traversal up and down the entire set (for a mouse anyway). I removed the flour and several other items I felt she might like to eat. Today she is being extremely outgoing, making noise and rummaging through food while I’m in the same room. Whenever I come up to her, she sits for a second, as if trying to hide by lack of movement, then scurries away. She appears to have attempted to eat some baking soda. Then she moved on to some candy. I’m trying to remove all food sources, hoping she’ll get the hint that I don’t want her there. Perhaps her long periods of not being seen are actually due to her visiting other houses or food sources. I’m hoping for this, as it’ll make it more likely for her to give up at my place. My table is covered in food right now, as she can’t reach that. I’ve also got several more closed cupboards filled with food. She’d have to chew her way through them to get that food, which I’m hoping she won’t do. I also have some cans and jars easily accessable. She could chew throught those, though I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll remove them if need be. I had some sugar drink mixes on a top shelf, one I once thought impenitrable by her, though I removed other things just in case, but she seemed to be trying to chew through the wall there, so I removed that as well. I don’t care for damage to my house. I have some croutons and some sugar drink mixes on a box on my fridge, which she seems to have not been able to achieve yet. Theres chips and other snacks on a shelf that would seem fairly accessable, as it is low to the ground and a simple slide out drawer, but it has walls against all four sides when the door is closed. Scraps of fruit and other stuff that I sometimes leave out to be put in the compost she doesn’t go for, though they’re right in the open, so she is certainly targetting only certain foods.

Mrs. mouse is a very nice looking mouse, very clean like a pet mouse. She’s gray with a white belly. She has big, curious looking eyes. She still looks quite healthy.

Mrs mouse would frequently sneak over to my kitchen, finding bits of food to eat. I’ve been moving all the food I can to places difficult for her to reach and I swept the floor to get rid of crumbs there. A couple of nights ago, I made a late dinner, at perhaps 200 or 300. For part of that, she was in there. Every time I’d go nearby where she was, she’d zip accross to a hiding place. Then, when I’d go sit down at the table for a while to eat, she’d sneak back out.

Perhaps the declining levels of available food combined with my increased presence in the kitchen during her meal times led her to decide to move to a new home, because I haven’t seen her for several days now. I’ll still keep an eye out for her; perhaps she’s changed her schedule to work around the times I’m not there better. I do hope she’s gone though, and has find a better, more inviting home. I don’t want to find a decaying mouse body hidden underneath the bath tub when I’m doing some plumbing underneath there.

I have a friendly visitor to my house. She’s small, brown, and furry. I’ve seen her three times now. The first, I was sitting on the toilet, and she ran from behind it past my feet. It startled me a bit. Later, I saw her walking by my bedroom door. When she saw me, she ran back again. Later that night, I saw her run past my bedroom door the other way, so she must have snuck past at some point. She was in the kitchen end of the house, but I searched all my limited selection of stored food and found no possibilities of entry by a small rodent. She may have simply eaten crumbs off the floor or from around my toaster. I’d prefer not to have a mouse in my house, so I’m trying to get rid of all possible food sources for her in hopes that she’ll have to go elsewhere to eat. I’ve temporarily moved most food items she’d likely be interested in to places that’d be quite hard or even not especially possible for her to reach. I’d prefer to remove her and prevent her comrades from moving in by eliminating the habitat mice are looking for. I’ll do some research to figure out the best way soon