Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Post up a pic of something you have done around the house that could help others out. 

Are you the type that collects plastic shopping bags that pile up or become a pain? see my fix.  Cut the bottom out of an apple juice container and mount it to the wall.

Want to decrease your water heater electrical useage,, see my fix.  Very high quality made in the US automatic and manual timer single or three phase compatable found at lowes.

Got a wood burner somewhere like in the garage but tired of the wind getting back down in it causing back draft? see my fix.  Metal coffe can will fit perfect over top of most 6'' duct.  just cut openings into the side of the coffee can which act as regulators as well.

Nice...ive dont the plastic bag one. right now im trying to find a solution for our lack of space for the recycling. i built up a frame to stack our washer and dryer to save space. should have bought stackable units in the first place.

That water heater timer is a good idea. No point in keeping water hot overnight.

I'm the master of redneck engineering. I simply don't wanna spend money. It's actually more than being cheap, though - it's also a matter of pride. I have the tools, I have the skills, and if I don't have the skills I'll either learn 'em or fake it. Some of my greatest hits:

I made a chimney cap for the garage woodstove out of two old Ford van hubcaps and some galvanized sheet metal. Got tired of the flimsy and not cheap store bought ones coming apart in wind storms. No better pics of this because I didn't take the camera on the roof - in fact, going on the roof was the hardest part, as I'm TERRIFIED of heights. Here's a pic:
(http://www.foxthundercats.net/images/chimneycap.jpg)

*EDIT* I misunderstood the purpose of the thread, so I deleted the window stuff.

If you paint a lot of small items you could make yourself a miniature vented paint booth. This booth was made using a single 4X8 sheet of 3/4" plywood. I mainly use it to cast resin (for my sequencers). I've got it in my attic, in my office. There are two 150-watt flood lights to provide some heat (the two can be switched independently) and a 110CFM bathroom fan mounted on top. The motor in the fan is permanent magnet and brushless - this is extremely important, because it does not create sparks. Some 1" holes drilled in the bottom of the door give the box a cross flow. If you were using it for paint you might want to put some sort of filters over the air intakes. I vented through the wall because I was redoing the attic anyway and use the box a lot, but if you only use it occasionally you could vent it out a window.
(http://www.foxthundercats.net/images/paintbooth.jpg)
(http://www.foxthundercats.net/images/paintboothinside.jpg)
(http://www.foxthundercats.net/images/paintboothvent.jpg)

A men to that....quote of the year right there....

Next summer I will be building this (you will like this, Scott):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8260530/How-To-Make-A-Waste-Oil-Heater

Clean your shoe's off before you go in the house after the junkyard.!! I'm scrubbing now>

Hmmm, that's a great idea. I'm always painting stuff in the basp00get, but the fumes eventually find their way upstairs into my living room. Now I know what to do with that blower I got from our old burn-in racks at work (motor is isolated from blower cage.)

My garage has a normal rectangular chimney on it so I bought a commercial chimney cap - good ideas though.

Awesome...when you do post up your results/progress. looks like a neet and fun project. my home is pellet stove and electric. might be nice to have a non electric option.

Well, my addition is this:
I have a dual-fuel stove in my basp00get, and I'd rather use wood when possible than diesel fuel, and since my basp00get windows are low and not very tall, I made a little chute out of 2x4's and a piece of barn tin that comes up just over the tailgate of my truck (when it's opened and down) so that i can just drop the pieces of wood on it, and they slide right down through the window frame and into the basp00get. I bent the edges of the tin up so that the wood wouldn't fall off before it got in the basp00get.

Saves a LOT of bending down with my hands full to drop wood in.
If I get a free minute later, I'll take pics of it.

Cool idea. Our town uses the waste oil collected at the dump to heat the facilities there - pretty leading edge if you ask me.

Hey cassidy, the tank isn't a storage area!!. not a coffe dryer.

THAT'S funny.I got yelled at by the wife yesterday because I was still wearing the Rid Wings after the yard run.I have to remember to remove the boots before getting on the carpet.

True, but I wonder how much energy is consumed when that timer clicks on and the heater has to run long and hard to heat the cool/cold water. If it has to do this once a day, would it not negate the purpose of using a timer for energy savings?
How much energy is consumed to maintain a certain temperature of water versus heating an entire tank every day?

Depends on it's location (heated area or semi-heated) and if it has an insulating blanket around it.

It usually costs more to heat water from a colder temp. (at least in my case).
Our entire house has radiant and baseboard heating. It costs less to keep the heat at 68-70 then to turn the temp. down and try to re-heat the water, and reheat the house back to the original 68-70. and our bills are about the same as a house with about 1000 less sq. feet

As for our hot water tank, I'ts very energy efficient. It almost never turns on, unless someone is using the hot water.
most newer tanks will do the same from about 2003 on up

I have oil hot water along with the furnace, and 3 floors cutting it back to 63 during the day is saving plenty. At times its cold in my house, bundleup and be a

I should have mentioned that my house has 7 heating zones, and has been totally remodeled with a plastic vapor barrier on the walls and a foil barrier in the attic and tyvek outside under the cedar siding.
I built it to keep the cold out.

I built my addition that way - 2 x 6 with all the insulation tricks you described. At the same temperature setting (addition is a different zone than old part of house), the addition feels much warmer.

Unfortunately my 100 year old house was built with no such consideration in mind. I added insulatioin when I did the renovations, but until I replace all the windows I've gotta live with the draft.

Good point about reheating the water. I'd imagine if the water heater is in a warm room and well insulated it'd pretty much be a wash...

Your right about the windows. 80% of heat loss goes out the window... Windows were the first thing I replaced. It actually snowed in one or two of our bedrooms when we first moved in. The windows had a gap between them. My house was built in 1904 and all 34 windows were original. the heating bill was about $500 a month on a yearly budget plan. We got our money back from the windows the first year

Read this on the HAMB a yesterday.  I just might try it, as the old water heater from my trailer house is still there.

Not being cheap, but here's how I built my house a couple years ago now.  In floor heat, bathroom back corner, kitchen back wall for cabinet storage and sink, double outlet boxes recessed behind the sheetrock ceiling with a small dent locating them, 16' door header in place, with slanted concrete edge, and the rest of the walls are removeable by unscrewing the concrete screws in the floor.  Yes, it is a 36x44 shop converted into a house.  If we decide to build a new house, I have my shop.  If not, no big deal, I'll just build another garage.  Forward thinking, lol.

timer is set to turn off at 0015 and click on at 8am.  It fits the routine around here since no one is "ususally" taking a shower from 2300 (11pm) on forward through the night. Doing the timer actually provided me with an opportunity.  I found that the ground on the 220 ckt was loose.  THat would cause some excessive current draw so it got good treatment on the connection inside the tank where the BX fitting is. 

I also turned down the temp to 135.  for some odd reason it was up near 150.

I adjusted the bottom element to 140 and the upper to 130 thinking heat rises.  The temp sensor is on the upper element so it should work out.  I figure the water thats in the tank will be purdy warm across 8 hours since it resides inside the house in a well heated room.

got any inside pics of that?

Here are a couple more.

Ever want to store fishing poles easy?  see my fix.  I cut a piece of s cheapy pvc in half long ways.  I cut several notches out with tin snips to the width of a typical fishing pole diameter.  I removed a couple poles so the pic would be more clear.


Ever got your car in the garage and suddenly the battery was dead????????  Yep, im sure you have.  see my fix.  I ran two runs of 4awg wire from the deep part of the garage where the engine typically is (duhh).  I ran these wires secure to the overhead and to the outside of the garage.  each wire terminates to a copper plate which is lag bolted to the exterior.
When i get a car in the garage that has a dead battery, I lower those two cables and clamp to my dead battery.  I go outside and hook my jumper cables up to a car sitting outside the garage.  I hook the other end of the jumper cables to the copper plates mounted on the exterior of the garage.  Now i am jump starting a car stuck in the garage.

I was looking to do a similar cable set-up for my plow outside next to the garage.  I have the battery charger in the garage, and just have extensions coiled up on a hook outside.  Just uncoil, hook to the battery, go in the garage and turn it on.  Jerry, here's just one right now (on my computer)

LOL
 a snow door

with all the creativity around here, there's gotta be more neat ideas out there.:D

If I must...
2 years ago when I wasn't working during winter, I got really bored and made a HD tv antenna
Here's the prototype. Made from cardboard, aluminum foil, and a some 10 gauge wire.
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/HD%20antenna/HDTV_antenna_prototype.jpg)

ended up evolving into this.
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/HD%20antenna/IMG_2559.jpg)

Here's the quality. I picked up about 34 stations from NY/Pa border all the way to Toronto
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/HD%20antenna/IMG_2562.jpg)

WOW!

Here is a real time saver. Saves a lot of clean up too. Plus its very user friendly. It all about location.....


(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn65/cougar86_89/SSPX0340.jpg)

Notice how well it stays in the up position like it was suppose to be there all the time.

and after my cardboard antenna worked so good. I decided to make an outdoor model.
I look enthused about the whole situation, LOL
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/HD%20antenna/IMG_2574.jpg)

I have made a few antenna's,, complicated to do actually with all the natural environmental variables.  Looks good and you save money doing it yourself.

Any heat loss is just dissipated into the room you're heating anyway, I doubt there's any real savings here... May help in the summer when you are cooling instead of heating...

About the handiest thing I've ever done is to begin recycling. It all started when I switched the kitty over to canned food from the foil pouches. I got really tired of throwing out all of those aluminum cans...there had to be a better way. Fortunately my county has a very good recycling program and they are also pretty good about letting the residents know about it. There are about 30 drop-off locations throughout the county, two of them within 5 miles of my house. So I had no more excuses to not recycle...first aluminum, then plastic, then cardboard and paper; they even take batteries of all kinds as well as plastic bags. Today I'm actually shocked at how much I do recycle. My weekly garbage output has been reduced at least 60% if not more.

It takes about 5 minutes of my time to stop at the recycling bin on the way to work and dump everything out, usually every 3 weeks or so (no curbside service out in the country). Pretty amazing how easily I slipped into the habit...although it doesn't really save me any money, recycling does save what I would otherwise put in the landfill, and most of the products that I use have a recyclable container.

The county program also has appliance drives once a year, and used electronic drives at least twice a year. Got rid of my old CRT monitors that way, and the next drive I have a lot of old broken electronic stuff from the office, my house, my girlfriend's house, etc. that need to go. Nothing like getting rid of stuff you'll never use again and knowing that it's going to be reused in some fashion. It's basically guilt-free garbage disposal LOL. But it's also the responsible thing to do, especially when the county (and its taxpayers--including myself) makes it so easy.

Other things:

- I have wrapped all the pipes in the house with the hopes that they'd be better insulated, but that really hasn't helped much, although they don't sweat in the summertime anymore and drip all over the basp00get floor.

- In the wintertime, I have the programmable thermostat set to kick on about 30 minutes before I awaken (63 degrees). The furnace usually runs twice, then goes to the daytime program of around 58 degrees. Sounds cold, but it's a brick ranch around 1000 sq. ft., and kitty sleeps all day anyhow. About 30 minutes before my usual return home from work, the furnace again kicks up to 63 degrees. When I walk in the door, I turn on the ceramic (electric) heater. The furnace will not run again until the next morning. The ceramic heater is aimed toward the thermostat, but also filters heat into virtually every room. I can raise the temp inside the house sometimes by 7 degrees or more (and I'm very warm-blooded so that helps). The net effect? Not only am I using less propane (at $2.50/gallon, it adds up), but my electric bill goes up only about $1/day. It's actually cheaper to run the space heater than to let the furnace run. A 500-gallon tank of propane now lasts a lot longer; I used to get it filled once a month during the heating season. Now I can go 3 months or more, and I'm down to only two fills for an entire year. One heating source supplements the other, but both are necessary. It's all a matter of trading off. It is now a very comfortable house, and while I cannot avoid using a fossil fuel at some point, I feel that the electric part gets me more bang for the buck than propane. I'm saving $600/year or more on propane, while spending only ~$100 more/year on electricity. That makes for a very happy wallet.

- The attic was just insulated...for ~1000 sq. ft. it was around $600 for blown-in insulation (not cellulose but shredded fiberglass). According to the company the 14" or so of insulation equates to a value of R-38. I don't really know how much it will save in energy costs, but I am using less propane for the furnace, and my electric ceramic heater--while still working hard every day--has allowed for more comfortable temperatures inside the house when it's colder outside. So I suppose the insulation helped somewhat, although ironically I suspect it will do more good in the summertime with the a/c running.

- New windows and doors have done virtually nothing for energy savings. Sad but true. And that's what my father installs for a living! I've noticed no reduction in heating costs with them in the house; immediately around the windows it is warmer, but that's about it. Nothing is leaking or drafty. Strange.

Bet it would do a lot for me. When it's windy my curtains move :hick:

Yeah, for homes like yours, definitely. My folks' house was the same way as yours, and new windows made a big difference for them. But for some reason it did nothing for my house, as far as stopping drafts/leaks.

I've done everything I can to reduce heating costs these past 2 years, but I've only been able to keep equilibrium due to the fact that the past 2 winters have been cold and below average temperature-wise.

Don't discount the weather! My electric bill includes the average temps on it so it's easy to compare year-to-year - the colder temps explain the increased electricity use as well.

BTW, my town has MANDATORY recycling. There is literally a trash-puppies (some grumpy old redneck lady) who looks at your garbage as you dump it and will question you if you have bags with visible bottles etc. in it.


- Bottles/cans, paper, cardboard, waste oil all have a place to dump all next to the garbage "house" in the "main loop"
- They use the waste oil they collect to heat the facility in winter.
- Batteries, A/C's, tires, metal products etc each have their own "booth" in a secondary loop they call "recyclers lane".
- Tires are limited to 4 per year so tire shops won't abuse the dump
- They charge by the pound for "construction debris" which helps keep abuse by contractors to a minimum.

Pretty neat considering that my town is far from progressive in it's thinking.

some people need to have thier hand held.:D

My "small town" of 35,000 would have barely 30% compliance rates if it was voluntary.

I can't even convince my parents & ex-wife to do it properly (voluntary), no matter how many times I cajole them!

Jerry, it took me awhile to find them.  first pic shows the recessed outlets for shoplights, the second pic shows the interior walls (10 foot) put together below the sheetrock (trusses are designed to go the whole span without support), and the 3rd pic is the floorplan that I drew up.  The bathroom is the only room permanent, and you'll see the machanicals are all on the North wall where the daily driver would be parked.  Second pic shows the garage door header also.

digging this up from the past,
again, post up a simple thing you do around the house that saves money or its just a good idea or a little invention you made.



so...........
yep, for 8 dollars you to can have studs in your tire chains.

let tire pressure down, add pan head / carriage bolts and Nylock nuts.
pump tire back up and your in like flynn!!

works great, thought i would share since we all need all the edge we can get with all our snow (and more coming).

Too cheap to buy wheel weights for your tractor?  Find windshield washer fluid on sale cheap,  I bought 20 gallons for ~$12.  Break the bead on the rear tires add fluid till its nearly full.  If the rim is fully submerged it will not rust.  I got about an extra 70 some pounds per wheel doing this and with Ag tires and chains its plenty to push snow.

As for home heating, I spent a saturday putting duct mastic on every joint and it seemed to increase velocity on the first floor of my home.  Helped even the distribution out better across the rooms.

i guess i am too cheap like that, i thought about putting chloride or whatever goes in AG tractor tires for weight.  They sell it up in town, good point.  I just may do that.

I coulnt imagine my rear tires holding more than 4gal of fluids.

I need to put fluid in my mower's rear tires, with the deck on, if you so much as spit, the tire(s) will spin...I'd rather do fluid than chains, I have some nice sections that I'd hate to claw up....

For everyone that asked me how to make a HD Antenna....
Here's a link that will explain and show you how to make your own for almost no money at all.....
http://www.tvantennaplans.com/ (http://"http://www.tvantennaplans.com/")

Depends on the price you are paying when the water heater clicks on. :hick:  I'm on a Residential Time of Day plan which drastically reduces the cost of electric between 8pm and 8am and on weekends. Shutting the water heater off during peak hours certainly saves some money.

There's some lifestyle adjustments required with this plan but overall I'm sure it saves money.

Now of course they just removed the rate caps so I'll be seeing a 5% rate increase I can't do anything about....:mad:

well folks,
The hot water tank timer has been out for a year and a few months now in place of the German made tankless water heater.  I posted a thread on this a while back showing actual cost savings.
Without the timer, my daily useage was 6.14$ / day
With the timer my daily useage was 5.20$ / day(source power set to cut off from 2300-0800 which worked out for us)
With the tankless water heater i am now at 4.10$ / day (or was until rate scam went up again)

cost- 625$
Stiebel Eltron Tempra 24
requires 2) 60A 2p single phase 208 / 240 breakers and 6awg.
As you can see, the plumbing was easy to groom in,  water in,,water out = that simple.
The wiring was just as easy, dont go skinny on this part.  I could have used wiremold on the interior but this probably is better for the 90degC wire i used anyway instead of falling into the wiretray or raceway NEC rules by putting it in said conduit.
Flow meters only turn heaters on when .5gal/hr or more is detected of hot water demand at a hot water tap.

see actual ampacity draw while unit in work while dialed in to produce 125deg water from 55deg ground temps (70deg temp rise)

So you spend $123.00 in a 30 day month just to heat hot water , is that correct? Holy  ! How many people are in your household ?


 I'm curious because there are 5 people in my house and I have electric heat and hot water and  central air and my monthly electric bill is only between $150-$200 per month  all year .
 My hot water heater is about 10 yrs old and I was looking at tankless mainly because my daughters are getting older and taking longer showers these days , and I dont like running out of hot water .

use your noggen man,,lol
my daily useage for power (whole house).

I dropped a full dollar and more a day going from the timer to the tankless,,,

my old hot water tank was a 5000w unit and I was about every other year replacing the temp sensor on either the top or the bottom.  I could never figure out what was going on, the temp reading on the breaker wasnt odd, my IR camera didnt show odd hot spots, the darn thing just got to a point where it was eating up thermal couples and sensors.

It was terrible to set it also, it seems everytime i walked by the laundry room i could hear the darn thing heating.  Hot water tanks will kick your ass on electricity if they are fugged up.

OK that makes more sense I thought maybe you were running an orphanage or something and had like 35 or 40 people showering a day

 Of course I read your post and asked before my first cup of coffee this morning so I wasnt at peak sharpness :dunce: