BrianW

I am enjoying my 81 and seabreeze out on the deck.

Everyone ready for some expensive electricity. Noticed they fired up the oil power plant in New Haven this morning. Its sits idle about 99.9 percent of year. When its running it sells its electricity for about 20+ times normal rates. Our grid provider ISO New England has all the electric data on its website. Right now power is about 20$ mwh. I bet tomorrow its 20 times that. At peak load tomorrow power will cost 7-10 million an hour. https://www.iso-ne.com/

Good soaking here before the big heat. 1.35 so far and more coming. This stuff has been real slow moving and just dumping rain. Flood advisory up now.

My friend in CO posted this 2 days ago. He is in the Aspen area. Looks like they still got a solid pack in some spots.

Been a pretty epic start to the month for those with solar panels. Been having some amazing production since the start of the month. My panels have been pretty much at peak efficiency the last 2 weeks.

This was posted in the tropical forum. Hell Is High Water When will the Mississippi River come for New Orleans? ....One of the most unnerving aspects of this year’s record high water is that it now coincides with the start of hurricane season. The Army Corps’ river levees are built with the assumption that tropical storms would coincide with a river only 8 feet high—less than half its present height. Hurricane Katrina pushed a surge of 13 feet up the river. Hurricane Isaac made the river run backward, with a surge of 8 feet up to Baton Rouge. A storm surge of that size right now would cause the Mississippi to overtop the levees in New Orleans, a catastrophe in its own right that would weaken the barriers below, threatening worse. https://slate.com/business/2019/06/new-orleans-mississippi-river-high-water-climate-change.html

70 here at my sisters beach house in Narragansett. This is such an awesome area in the summer that never really torches as we are pretty much surrounded by water.

I am trying to save my other ash and I started treating it with a insecticide soil drench a few years ago. Cost about $10 a year to treat with a professional grade insecticide available online. They trimmed some dead branches off it but the crown is really healthy still. The other picture is the tree that was taken down. Notice the entire crown is dead and when that happens there is no saving it. Just about every ash around me is dead so this may be one of the few still alive and doing well in the area.

My dying ash tree was taken down Monday. I had them leave the wood for my wood stove. Love burning in the winter. Had to break up the main trunk with a sledge and maul as they were to massive to move. Those that burn know how back braking using a maul is especially in this heat.

Does not look like that it is up to code. You need 4ft of clearance I believe to a window. Did you pull a permit and get it inspected? Does your insurance company know? They will most likely want to see the permit/town inspection. If you did none of the above and that causes a fire you can be guaranteed your insurance is going to fight not covering that loss.

Looks like you are in MA which is ranked number 1 in the usa for solar policy and incentives. There is a program where you sell your power and can collect $1700 or more a year. This website explains everything quite well. Payback period is like an insane 5 or less years. Its pretty much a no brainer if you have good sun exposure. You definitely want to buy them outright in order to get the 30% federal tax credit. I believe it starts going away and dropping next year. There are a ton of really low financing options available as well. https://www.solarpowerrocks.com/massachusetts/

Does anyone not live in a modern energy efficient house here? On modern energy efficient airtight homes you dont open the windows. You have HRV/ERV (heat/energy recovery ventilation). All incoming outside air is regulated and either precooled or heated with exhaust air with about 75% efficiency. There is very little air heat or cooling loss while keeping fresh air mixed in. These homes HVAC systems are all using insanely efficient inverter heat pumps that provide both heat and cooling at insane efficiency. Some units have efficiency ratings of around 480%. Oil and natural gas is going away as the heat loss on these houses is so low that a 12-24k btu unit is more than adequate. Most people on here probably have 80-120k btu furnaces/boilers and probably send around half of that or more back outside with a leaky poorly insulated house. There is also very advanced filtration available now that filter out the air extremely well and even have UV lights to kill bacteria. Outside air pollution is real thing that people dont want to be breathing in especially with allergies/respiratory problems. Extensive testing has been done that show the inside air in you home vastly cleaner comapred to outside air with a good system in place. The EPA monitors air quality and it is poor here right now. Looks like down in NYC/NJ its really bad. https://airnow.gov/

A real estate friend in CT said most buyers these days won't even bother looking at a house that doesnt have central air. It will add a massive resale value to your home. I will never buy another home without it. Have you ever had it? Its incredible to have your entire house cool and comfortable.

Doesnt get any cheaper than free power with solar panels. I have my central air set to 67 24/7 and all it cost me every month is 9 bucks for the connection charge..

Right. My house was built in 1958 and had central air when it was built. My real estate friend said central air is like the number 1 thing people want in houses now.

Impressive that BDR tied BDL with a 91.

There was a bounty paid on them in NY untill the 70s. Supposedly a guy named Art Moore in NY claims to have killed 15,000 and its thought he just about wiped out the species.

I remember reading something about how easy it was to wipe out timber rattlesnakes as they all den together over the winter. You would find there den and could kill a few dozen easily. Heard a story from my friends grandfathered who had a place in VT near Rutland in the 50s. Found a den of them smoked them out and killed like 2 dozen of them with a shotgun in minutes.

See you later dews...

I know many people here in CT that recently got lymes disease. Everyone described it as feeling like death. You also have it for life and know people that have had symptoms suddenly reappear a year or so after getting it. Take evey precaution you can to keep ticks off you.

You should head down to New Orleans and enjoy their impressive dews. Mid 90s, dews in the upper 70s, 100 percent relative humidity, heat index of 100-105, and showers everyday to kick those dews up even more.

This. Those portable ac's depressurize your house and suck warm humid air in from every crack as they exhaust air out the window. I read studys that a 12k btu portable literally only delivers like a fraction of that. Something like 4k btu.

My a/c has been on and running for months. I pretty much never open up any windows. No thanks on letting all that pollen and dust inside. With a airtight home and a good hvac unit and filter system the air inside is vastly better quality then outside. Indoor climate control is pretty advanced now. My unit has humidty control settings, uv light filter, multiple stage heat pump/cooling. It is crazy energy efficient. In the winter it has been nothing short of amazing with keeping the indoor humidity around 40-50 percent. I dont think many realize how bad it is for you in the winter when your indoor humidity is like 10 percent.