Is everybody frozen solid?

[Thermioniclife]

On long island n.y. we're frozen solid. 18 overnight 26 during the day, yikes. Next Wednesday we should hit 40 thank god. My yard is solid ice and if I slip and fall it will take 2 men and a boy to get me up. Possibly a crane!

[ccmccull]

Atmospheric river here in the bay area!

[Thermioniclife]

Roger that ccmccull. At least it's not a skating rink! 

[ccmccull]

I bet my system sounds better than yours today, since this is basically Poulsbo/Renton weather. This is their natural habitat!

Colin

[Paul Birkeland]

Here is popping pipes, but it has warmed up and the drama is cooling off.

[Doc B.]

It's all fun and games here in the Northwet until the power goes out. As PB says, warming up and wet today, supposed to get to 47F and we got .6" last night. Quite a bit different than our nightly hot tubbing last week when it was 24F and 35% humidity. We were moving fast out of the tub to get back inside.

We head to Chicago late next week to take care of some family business. Dodging a bullet there. Supposed be around 35-40F when we get there. Saw that it was 7F there last night, "feels like -0.8". The frigid wind comes off the lake and whips around the entry to the highrise that our condo is in like no other place I've been in Chicago. Brutal.

[Paul Birkeland]

Quite a bit different than our nightly hot tubbing last week

Settling into that empty nest nicely I see!

[debk]

in Northern NY it is zero out and we had 3+ feet of snow last week

Deb

[Doc B.]

Yup, our cheapo hot tub turned out to be the best purchase of 2023. Use it almost every night.

[ssssly]

It's been in the low 50s to 60s here.

But apparently DHL thinks we are buried under snow and ice. They were supposed to deliver the PCBs I designed for my SEX rebuild on Friday. But they just keep sending me messages claiming they can't deliver them due to adverse weather. Guess 60 and sunny is too much for them to handle if it has snowed anywhere in the US within the past week. Last time I choose them as a shipping option.

Put me on the list for the Bottlehead hot tub. I vote for 6SN7  heaters. Have a huge box of them with nothing to put them in.

[Thermioniclife]

On Eastern long island ny. we're back to normal. Temps in the 40's during the day and 30's overnight. Feburary is the month that is the worst.

[Hank Murrow]

Well, my report from Eugene is that the night before the big freeze our furnace went out and we were fortunate to have an old Monarch Wood stove in the back kitchen and some well age firewood stored away. after five days of freeze, we borrowed a couple of electric space heaters, and friends brought in some construction remnant sticks, and we survived in a sort of improvised way until the furnace Company installed a new motherboard(what new appliance does not
have a motherboard these days?). Then the motherboard told the furnace company that it was the furnace blower motor that failed. Now we are pricing out a new furnace and whether or not to include AC in the mix going forward while enjoying the current warming trend. Strange Daze in the Pacific Northwest! Very glad the power never hiccupped during this episode, so I could enjoy my all Botttehead system for daily cheer. Hoping that is true for all in Bottlehead land,  Hank in Eugene

[Paul Birkeland]

Yeah, tell me about it with the appliances.  We are still rocking our 1969 Holley natural gas furnace, though I keep a very close eye on that CO alarm.  I wonder if Doc still has that ancient furnace in his basement, I think it may be nearing 100 years old if he does.

[hmbscott]

I'm embarrassed to admit that here in the CA Bay Area, we were unscathed. My home is about 1/4 mile from the Pacific 20 miles south of The City, as SF is known locally. Our average temperature has been 61F for the past 12 months, rarely deviating by as much as 15 degrees. We have seen brief extremes as much as 20F in both directions, but we rode out the big freeze in the high 50's and also escaped last summer's baking heat.

[Doc B.]

I lived in The City for about 17 years. You get a really spoiled view of temperature fluctuations for sure.

Yes, we still have the old oil burner though only the structure and vents are original. A furnace tech Eileen called in last year when it wouldn't fire and I was out of town and said he thought it is probably an old Sears or Monkey Wards mail order furnace. I replaced the burner a few years ago with a newer and more efficient one and also lined the brick lined firebox with modern ceramic fiber. A thermocouple in the stack monitors exhaust temp. My intention was to install an air fuel ratio meter too, but I have yet to complete that. An old school furnace tech's test kit is used for tuneups.  Around the same time I replaced the blower motor and installed ball bearings to replace the extremely worn bushings on the bigass squirrel cage blower shaft. Calculated efficiency of around 92%, which is pretty damn good.

So this winter the blower motor died after about 10 years of use. I put a new motor and belt in, wired the same way as the old one. Noticed that the fan seemed to be running backwards. WTF!?!? Swapped wires and suddenly we had waaay more heat blowing thru the vents than we had in the past. Cripes. My only defense is that furnace techs we had work on the system a couple of times never noticed the issue either. I have also installed thermostat controlled fan boosted vents in the rooms furthest from the furnace. Between the tuned up furnace and the super hot and clean burning wood stove burning broken up pallets (and of course the hot tub) we have been super cozy this winter.