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September Banter 2020


George BM
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6 hours ago, JakkelWx said:

I know exactly how that old man felt.  And I'm glad that he wasn't injured.

 

4 hours ago, BlizzardNole said:

So my nephew is in the Army and recently moved from Florida to Colorado Springs.  His nice Dodge Charger got totaled by baseball sized hail a few weeks ago.  Now he's getting treated to highs in the low 90s today with several inches of snow tomorrow and tomorrow night.  Man that climate is nuts!

Imagine being at a cookout in Denver this afternoon in the low 90s knowing that it will be snowing when you wake up tomorrow.  Wow.

The webcams should be fun tv tomorrow.

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I just purchased the Tempest weather station from Weatherflow. The reviews are pretty good and the price is very reasonable at $330. You can enter the discount code, Tempest10off, which saves 10% through Oct 1 I believe. That pays for better shipping.

I intend to link the station via their Wi-Fi hub to my Nest thermometer and eventually into Wunderground, which will be nice because we seem to have a bit of a data hole in the Reisterstown area.

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17 minutes ago, Mrs.J said:

Well after a smooth sailing virtual experience for the girls last week for school, with all systems going on today it is a cluster****. Some kids are able to get on, mine are not. No Schoology or Google Meets are able to open.

Just got notification from the school through the Parent support group on Schoology messaging that it is a known issue, as the parent server is not experiencing issues today, and teachers are aware of it. Loudoun Co VA just started today and they are a large system. This is their first year using the same online platform as us. I have a feeling that because of that is why Frederick Co is experiencing the issues we are having. 

Update: Both girls are in school! Quick fix from their online program. 

Schools are being asked to change ~200 years of instruction practice in under 3 months. We're also finding out what parts of the country had inequitable access to reliable Internet.

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1 minute ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Schools are being asked to change ~200 years of instruction practice in under 3 months. We're also finding out what parts of the country had inequitable access to reliable Internet.

Yea I expected issues especially today with a lot of systems going on as their first day today. We live 1/4 mile from my girls school which has a brand new tower installed on the property. I believe it was a server issue most likely with the online platform with this issue. Loudoun's first day is today and they are now using the same platform as Frederick. I think the western part of Frederick Co. might be on the same servers as Loudoun and we went down over here. 

All back up and running now though. School system was super quick with getting the issue resolved with the online platform. Much better communication than back in the spring. 

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1 minute ago, Mrs.J said:

Yea I expected issues especially today with a lot of systems going on as their first day today. We live 1/4 mile from my girls school which has a brand new tower installed on the property. I believe it was a server issue most likely with the online platform with this issue. Loudoun's first day is today and they are now using the same platform as Frederick. I think the western part of Frederick Co. might be on the same servers as Loudoun and we went down over here. 

All back up and running now though. School system was super quick with getting the issue resolved with the online platform. Much better communication than back in the spring. 

FCPS seems to be pretty on the ball. Other jurisdictions in MD have been looking to them as kind of the state leader in this rapid transition to online education. What's going to be interesting is to see what sticks around for winter days. I can certainly see the 3" - 6" storms become online learning days to cut down the issues. What's going to be interesting are events where there is a forecast of more widespread power or Internet outages, such as ice storms in central or western MD and schools are just closed outright.  

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6 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

FCPS seems to be pretty on the ball. Other jurisdictions in MD have been looking to them as kind of the state leader in this rapid transition to online education. What's going to be interesting is to see what sticks around for winter days. I can certainly see the 3" - 6" storms become online learning days to cut down the issues. What's going to be interesting are events where there is a forecast of more widespread power or Internet outages, such as ice storms in central or western MD and schools are just closed outright.  

Did not know that. FCPS has been using Schoology for the last 2 years. The older Miss J's freshman year certain teachers at the HS level were chosen to use it 100% in their classrooms. Her French teacher was one of those teachers. All MS and HS the year after that went to using it. So those kids and families are familiar with it. ES schools just transitioned to it this year. 

Yes I am curious about snow days from now on and how they will be handled. I am aware of all the HS's in Frederick now have cell towers installed on their grounds and that has helped a lot with in school online access. Not sure about the tower situation around the county for more rural areas. Although out of 44,000 students only around 800 were not able to get logged on this past spring even with a hot spot. So the tower situation for those without cable or fiber may be better than I would have thought. 

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2 minutes ago, mappy said:

our AC died yesterday. So between juggling my work schedule, Mr Maps schedule, the kid's schedule, now we have to also wrangle dogs from the HVAC guy who shows up in 30 minutes.

Happy First day of school! lol is it happy hour yet?

Sorry to hear about your AC.  Hope the HVAC guy can do the needy.  FWIW, in most cases the issue with AC failures is a bad start capacitor on the outside compressor unit.  The start capacitor is normally a round or oblong silver thing about 5 inches long with terminals on one end.  You can get one at Grainger or online (Amazon or Ebay) for about $20-$30.  Substantial savings over the HVAC guy.  Need to know the rating requirements, which is stamped on the outside of the capacitor.  

Easy way to tell if the capacitor is fried is to look at the top end where the terminals are.  If there's a bulge on the end, and/or signs of any liquid on the outside the capacitor case, it's bad.  Likewise, if you put a voltmeter on the capacitor terminals and get an open reading, it's bad.  It is a 5 min job to swap out the capacitors, but make sure you electrically disconnect the main electric service to the AC unit before opening the case.  It is 240VAC, which is unforgiving.  

I normally keep an extra capacitor on hand for emergencies.  Didn't have one on hand when our AC went out on the afternoon of 03 July just before the long weekend.  Got ahold of someone who responded in an hour - to the tune of $200+.  Ouch.  Hope your fix today easier on the wallet.  

 

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28 minutes ago, RDM said:

Sorry to hear about your AC.  Hope the HVAC guy can do the needy.  FWIW, in most cases the issue with AC failures is a bad start capacitor on the outside compressor unit.  The start capacitor is normally a round or oblong silver thing about 5 inches long with terminals on one end.  You can get one at Grainger or online (Amazon or Ebay) for about $20-$30.  Substantial savings over the HVAC guy.  Need to know the rating requirements, which is stamped on the outside of the capacitor.  

Easy way to tell if the capacitor is fried is to look at the top end where the terminals are.  If there's a bulge on the end, and/or signs of any liquid on the outside the capacitor case, it's bad.  Likewise, if you put a voltmeter on the capacitor terminals and get an open reading, it's bad.  It is a 5 min job to swap out the capacitors, but make sure you electrically disconnect the main electric service to the AC unit before opening the case.  It is 240VAC, which is unforgiving.  

I normally keep an extra capacitor on hand for emergencies.  Didn't have one on hand when our AC went out on the afternoon of 03 July just before the long weekend.  Got ahold of someone who responded in an hour - to the tune of $200+.  Ouch.  Hope your fix today easier on the wallet.  

 

Thanks for the information! Not sure yet what the issue is, HVAC is working on it now. I'm in charge of keeping dogs sane and kiddo on track with school while Mr. Map deals with the HVAC. 

Takes a village!

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1 hour ago, mappy said:

our AC died yesterday. So between juggling my work schedule, Mr Maps schedule, the kid's schedule, now we have to also wrangle dogs from the HVAC guy who shows up in 30 minutes.

Happy First day of school! lol is it happy hour yet?

Yea I agree with @RDM. Ours stopped last month. We have a maintenance plan so did not have to pay the after hour rates and got a discount on labor. But it was just a bad insulator. Replaced and all was good. Hope your fix is easy and quick. 

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24 minutes ago, Mrs.J said:

Yea I agree with @RDM. Ours stopped last month. We have a maintenance plan so did not have to pay the after hour rates and got a discount on labor. But it was just a bad insulator. Replaced and all was good. Hope your fix is easy and quick. 

some flange came loose which resulted in refrigerant leaking. so he fixed that, refilled it and we are good to go. $300 later of course hahahahaha

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1 minute ago, nw baltimore wx said:

I've got a Breckenridge CO earthcam opened and just flurries so far.  If that was here, we'd be screaming, "Bust!!"

I have a friend who is on a family road trip in SD currently. They are in Custer State Park and were supposed to be tent camping. They opted to stay in a lodge last night which was a good idea. They woke to about 6" of snow already on the ground from overnight. 

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18 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

I've got a Breckenridge CO earthcam opened and just flurries so far.  If that was here, we'd be screaming, "Bust!!"

I've got one from Winter Park open.  Flurries there too.

The obs thread here would be littered with sht/bust calls especially from that one poster called snokima or something like that.

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3 hours ago, losetoa6 said:

RDM is exactly right ! :thumbsup:

I've replaced 3 in the 4 homes I've lived in . Very common.

 

The other thing that goes with some frequency is the starter relay.  Have an extra of those on hand too.  It's about the same price as the start capacitor.  Of course when our AC went kapooey back in July, it was not the capacitor.  Being the last afternoon before the July 4th long weekend everyone was closed.  We were fortunate to get an HVAC Company to respond and were happy to pay the $200 for the call.  Murphy never strikes when it is convenient.  

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3 hours ago, mappy said:

some flange came loose which resulted in refrigerant leaking. so he fixed that, refilled it and we are good to go. $300 later of course hahahahaha

Hummm - Interesting.  If enough freon (R-22 or R-410) leaked out that it prompted the low pressure switch to shut off the compressor, then they likely had to pull a vacuum, evacuate the system and completely recharge it.  If that's the case, you got off cheap for $300.  The cost of R-22 is outrageous these days.  Either way, glad to hear they got you back online.  

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41 minutes ago, losetoa6 said:

Snowing good and accumulating at Buena Vista( Birthday Peak), Co....which is  sw of Denver .

7900 feet 

With that upper low dug in so far west, it would seem the best lift would be in the mountains west/sw of Denver. That said, the window of opportunity for the eastern foothills and Denver proper has always been late afternoon into tonight. Still looks like a burst of snow on the mesos- probably 2-4". Radar seems to be supportive of that idea.

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12 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

I just purchased the Tempest weather station from Weatherflow. The reviews are pretty good and the price is very reasonable at $330. You can enter the discount code, Tempest10off, which saves 10% through Oct 1 I believe. That pays for better shipping.

I intend to link the station via their Wi-Fi hub to my Nest thermometer and eventually into Wunderground, which will be nice because we seem to have a bit of a data hole in the Reisterstown area.

Shipped today, comes Friday. Really excited for this.

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17 hours ago, RDM said:

Hummm - Interesting.  If enough freon (R-22 or R-410) leaked out that it prompted the low pressure switch to shut off the compressor, then they likely had to pull a vacuum, evacuate the system and completely recharge it.  If that's the case, you got off cheap for $300.  The cost of R-22 is outrageous these days.  Either way, glad to hear they got you back online.  

It was working. Then died again in the afternoon. Guy comes back this morning to try again. LOL home ownership is the worst. 

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