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wherzwaldo

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Everything posted by wherzwaldo

  1. I used one of those (magnetic mount) for a long time and was happy with it. I don't use it anymore, but only because I got a phone with wireless charging and the magnetic plate you put in the case would disrupt the charging.
  2. I'm 35 and have been near sighted my whole life, but in the last couple of years I've started to notice my near vision (less than 1ft away) starting to go. Can LASIK correct both of those at the same time, or will I just have to get reading glasses in a few years?
  3. Sounds like a shitty experience. Our system was $48k ($28k after rebate and tax credit, which keeps the loan payment manageable) and provides a 100% offset.
  4. The Tesla stuff is what got me seriously interested in solar in the first place. The lifetime warranty on the tiles is nice, but it has several drawbacks: - You can't get tiles on 100% of your roof. I think the max is 75-80%. - The tiles cost quite a bit more than traditional solar panels. Tesla said my estimated 30-year cost savings was about $6k, vs. $18k with the traditional solar system I ended up with. - The Powerwall battery only has a 10-year warranty and costs $7k each. When your battery craps out it wipes out your 30-year savings and then some.
  5. Sorry, he checked everything in the breaker box and said it was all fine as far as he could tell. The loose neutral he didn’t find was behind a bathroom light switch.
  6. Maybe he means it will be a PITA if the system isn't paid off by then, but I don't see how that would be any different/worse than selling a house with a second lien (e.g. home equity loan) on it. We installed a 13.76kW system (43 panels) on our house last June. Our payoff period was pretty similar to yours, but I think ours was a conservative estimate. We switched to Green Mountain Energy which has the best net metering plan, and we haven't paid a penny in electricity since July. Of course, we're paying on the loan for the system which is a little higher than our previous average electric bill (ranged from $125-200), but we're in it for the long haul so that's okay. I'd recommend going through your last 3-4 years of usage and figuring out what your average daily kWh usage is. That data can be used to size your system appropriately, and then you can track your solar production and see where you stand. In my case we need 46-52kWh/day to break even. As of yesterday my running average is right at 50kWh with the sunniest few months of the year still ahead, and the running daily average never dipped below 49kWh even with the colder weather we had this past winter. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
  7. He checked the switches but not the connections behind them.
  8. An epilogue... fixing the loose neutral didn't fix the problem. On Sunday I replaced the two breakers that tripped the most and also replaced the switches in the laundry room. No trips since then.
  9. No trips Tuesday thru Thursday, then the office tripped again last night when I turned off the laundry room light. This morning I decided to check a switch box that the electrician hadn't checked and found a loose neutral wire behind the switches. Loose neutrals cause arcs, and this is where I correct myself from earlier and say that I have arc fault (AFCI) breakers, not GFCI breakers. And in my research online, if neutrals of multiple circuits are bundled together too tightly in or near the panel (which may be the case), a trip on one AFCI can cause another AFCI to trip. Crossing my fingers.
  10. Breakers tripped every day Friday thru Monday, then nothing yesterday. Electrician came out today and didn't find a damn thing wrong. Oh well.
  11. Given what I've found when replacing a few light switches in the house, this would not surprise me in the slightest.
  12. Did you add anything to your home network around the time the printer stopped working? Can you ping the printer at the IP address it says it has? Moreover, if you disconnect the printer’s power will that IP address still respond to a ping? I’m wondering if maybe you have an IP conflict on your network. That would explain how it went out to the Internet to update firmware but you couldn’t connect to it. Try running Advanced IP Scanner from your computer and see what manufacturer it says is at that IP. If it’s not the manufacturer of the printer, or if that IP responds to a ping when the printer is off, then you gots yourself an address conflict.
  13. When the office kept tripping immediately upon reset, I went through and unplugged or turned off everything, then started plugging stuff back in until it tripped. Problem is, I’ve done that like three times now with leaving stuff unplugged and it keeps tripping.
  14. The GFCI is on the breakers themselves in the box. Haven’t had any GFCI outlets trip yet, nor have I had any non-GFCI breakers trip (my box has a mix of GFCI and non-GFCI). Also, just now... walked into the office, moved my mouse to wake up my monitors, office breaker trips.
  15. Is this a serious question or related to the ghosts?
  16. I have the self propelled Ego mower and Bermuda grass. It mows fine but isn’t great at mulching - if I go two weeks without mowing then it leaves a fair amount of clippings behind. The blade speed will ramp up if you’re cutting through thick grass, but there’s no way to tell it to ramp up all the time. Overall I’m pretty happy with it though.
  17. 6.5 years - house was new construction. Can one bad breaker cause others to trip?
  18. BTW, should add that we’ve been in the house for 5.5 years with the same UPS arrangement with no problems.
  19. In the last few days I’ve had as many as five breakers tripping all over the house at different times. Started in the living room a few months ago where I had an old UPS. Replaced the UPS and it went away. Then it started happening a couple days in my home office where I have two other UPSes, but my kitchen (on a different breaker) tripped at the same time. Replaced that UPS and it stopped for about a day. Then last night my wife started the dishwasher (on its own breaker) and the office tripped again. While trying to reset the office breaker my living room (on a different breaker) and my son’s bedroom (another different breaker) tripped. I ran an extension cord for the new office UPS into the hallway (on a different breaker) and all was well. This morning my son turned on the laundry room light (yet another different breaker) and both the hallway and office tripped. I’m calling an electrician tomorrow but wondering what I’m up against. These are APC and CyberPower UPSes so they are major name brands. All of the breakers in question have built in GFCI protection so I wonder if it has something to do with that tripping falsely. But I don’t know why other breakers besides those with UPSes would trip unless there is some kind of serious problem afoot. Thoughts?
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