That Backup Generator I Had Installed...
We went up there this morning with my daughter and son-in-law--and the garage door opener didn't work. Then we went in the front door--and there was no power. Then we went to the meter--and it was completely blank. Idaho Power, it seems, has lost power to hundreds of homes in the Horseshoe Bend area because of weather--and five hours later, the power was still out. My wife no longer thinks that I was being paranoid specifying a backup generator for the house.
So why didn't the backup generator start up automatically? That's what it is supposed to do, within 30 seconds of losing grid power. The electrician was supposed to get back up to the house after the heating guy hooked up the LP gas line to the backup generator to verify that it actually works. Apparently that didn't happen. So now I have a house with no heat, no electricity--and without the pressurization pump running, no water.
I am not a particularly happy person at the moment. At least I am not trying to live in the house.
Last house project entry.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Why I Am Hassling With Lead Filters
The results just came back from the water test performed after the lead filters went in a week and a half ago. The previous two water tests had shown 15 parts per billion of lead, and 37 ppb of lead. This test says that there is less than 2 ppb of lead--meaning, it is below the level that they can measure.
Last house project entry.
The results just came back from the water test performed after the lead filters went in a week and a half ago. The previous two water tests had shown 15 parts per billion of lead, and 37 ppb of lead. This test says that there is less than 2 ppb of lead--meaning, it is below the level that they can measure.
Last house project entry.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Big Bertha & A Mighty Wind
I've mentioned Big Bertha before--my 17.5" reflector. (There's a picture at that link of it.) I've had it sitting in the back yard the last several months, since it is only portable if you can pick up 250 pounds by yourself. It has been adequately protected from the weather by an enormous tarp. After several attempts at getting it to lie flat, and not have the winds pull the tarp off of it, my wife suggested that I aim Big Bertha skyward, and then drape the tarp over Big Bertha rather in the manner of a condom--which, until now, has worked quite well.
Anyway, this evening we had very heavy rain--and a remarkably heavy wind to go with it. It didn't topple Big Bertha. It appears to have lifted it right off the eight or nine inch long pivot pin that allows it rotate in azimuth. Nothing was damaged (except, perhaps, the grass where it landed), but this solved the question of whether to bring it into the garage or not.
I've been planning for some weeks to move Big Bertha up to the new house. Partly, the new house (once the skies clear) will have much darker skies than we have here in Boise. Partly, Big Bertha creates a pretty substantial dead patch on the lawn. Moving it now gives the grass a chance to regrow before summer, when we will put this house on the market. The third reason for moving Big Bertha into the garage is that I am planning to put casters under its base so that I can roll it in and out of the garage at the new house.
There's nothing quite like carrying a massive telescope into the house during a rain and wind storm. Everyone should do it once.
I've mentioned Big Bertha before--my 17.5" reflector. (There's a picture at that link of it.) I've had it sitting in the back yard the last several months, since it is only portable if you can pick up 250 pounds by yourself. It has been adequately protected from the weather by an enormous tarp. After several attempts at getting it to lie flat, and not have the winds pull the tarp off of it, my wife suggested that I aim Big Bertha skyward, and then drape the tarp over Big Bertha rather in the manner of a condom--which, until now, has worked quite well.
Anyway, this evening we had very heavy rain--and a remarkably heavy wind to go with it. It didn't topple Big Bertha. It appears to have lifted it right off the eight or nine inch long pivot pin that allows it rotate in azimuth. Nothing was damaged (except, perhaps, the grass where it landed), but this solved the question of whether to bring it into the garage or not.
I've been planning for some weeks to move Big Bertha up to the new house. Partly, the new house (once the skies clear) will have much darker skies than we have here in Boise. Partly, Big Bertha creates a pretty substantial dead patch on the lawn. Moving it now gives the grass a chance to regrow before summer, when we will put this house on the market. The third reason for moving Big Bertha into the garage is that I am planning to put casters under its base so that I can roll it in and out of the garage at the new house.
There's nothing quite like carrying a massive telescope into the house during a rain and wind storm. Everyone should do it once.
House Project: Finished Closing Today
The house is about 99.9% complete. What's left are largely minor touchup issues (wind whistling around the front door) and the problem of lead filtering. This has taken up just about all my time, preventing me from completing editing of my next book, Armed America, and preventing me from blogging about the important issues of the day. Even though I am off work this week (my company shuts down between Christmas and New Year's Day), every spare moment has been spent dealing with house issues, or machining a new ScopeRoller product.
There was some last minute confusion about the final price of the house, because we had paid some costs to Idaho Power directly, and the builder was still showing almost $2400 as having been paid by them. The final cost came to about $267,000.
First, the filters. I mentioned that the lead filters seemed to have been clogged because we didn't have adequate prefiltering to remove fine particles. Here you can see the filters in their new state, and after just a couple of weeks of use--in a house that has not been occupied.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
I mentioned that the water, while safe to drink (at least, for a short period of time), and actually tasty, is a disgusting color without the lead filters.
Click to enlarge
That's not all minerals. Most of the visible stuff is probably dirt that got kicked into the water tank during installation of the floats that tell the well pump whether to run or not. It looks terrible, however, especially compared to the slow, but very clean water from the lead filters.
The electrician purports to be done, but I see a few signs that he didn't finish a few phone and television cable jacks.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Anyway, there's a water issue to be resolved in the next few days, and some grading and exterior trim painting to do when the weather improves. Otherwise, the house is complete, and livable.
We took a friend up to take a look at today when we went up to measure for drapes, and to drain the water tank (in the hopes that some of the ugliness is dirt in the tank that will just drain out).
Here's the road leading to our subdivision.
Click to enlarge
Going up our driveway.
Click to enlarge
The laundry room.
Click to enlarge
The kitchen.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
A view like this almost makes doing dishes tolerable.
Click to enlarge
The family room.
Click to enlarge
The dining room.
Click to enlarge
My son's room (assuming that he isn't away at college), with the "worst view in the house."
Click to enlarge
And his bathroom.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
The living room.
Click to enlarge
The guest bedroom.
Click to enlarge
Guest bathroom.
Click to enlarge
My office.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Okay, there's still some debris to be cleaned up when the weather improves.
The master bedroom.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
And the view out the back door.
Click to enlarge
Last house project entry.
The house is about 99.9% complete. What's left are largely minor touchup issues (wind whistling around the front door) and the problem of lead filtering. This has taken up just about all my time, preventing me from completing editing of my next book, Armed America, and preventing me from blogging about the important issues of the day. Even though I am off work this week (my company shuts down between Christmas and New Year's Day), every spare moment has been spent dealing with house issues, or machining a new ScopeRoller product.
There was some last minute confusion about the final price of the house, because we had paid some costs to Idaho Power directly, and the builder was still showing almost $2400 as having been paid by them. The final cost came to about $267,000.
First, the filters. I mentioned that the lead filters seemed to have been clogged because we didn't have adequate prefiltering to remove fine particles. Here you can see the filters in their new state, and after just a couple of weeks of use--in a house that has not been occupied.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
I mentioned that the water, while safe to drink (at least, for a short period of time), and actually tasty, is a disgusting color without the lead filters.
Click to enlarge
That's not all minerals. Most of the visible stuff is probably dirt that got kicked into the water tank during installation of the floats that tell the well pump whether to run or not. It looks terrible, however, especially compared to the slow, but very clean water from the lead filters.
The electrician purports to be done, but I see a few signs that he didn't finish a few phone and television cable jacks.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Anyway, there's a water issue to be resolved in the next few days, and some grading and exterior trim painting to do when the weather improves. Otherwise, the house is complete, and livable.
We took a friend up to take a look at today when we went up to measure for drapes, and to drain the water tank (in the hopes that some of the ugliness is dirt in the tank that will just drain out).
Here's the road leading to our subdivision.
Click to enlarge
Going up our driveway.
Click to enlarge
The laundry room.
Click to enlarge
The kitchen.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
A view like this almost makes doing dishes tolerable.
Click to enlarge
The family room.
Click to enlarge
The dining room.
Click to enlarge
My son's room (assuming that he isn't away at college), with the "worst view in the house."
Click to enlarge
And his bathroom.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
The living room.
Click to enlarge
The guest bedroom.
Click to enlarge
Guest bathroom.
Click to enlarge
My office.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Okay, there's still some debris to be cleaned up when the weather improves.
The master bedroom.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
And the view out the back door.
Click to enlarge
Last house project entry.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
House Project: Fun With Filters
I went up this morning to try and figure out why the lead filter seems to have cut water pressure to nearly useless. At the suggestion of the vendor, I opened up the filter housing, and verified that yes, the plastic sheeting was not left on the filters. Then I removed all the filters from the housing. This was an unpleasant task, sitting in the garage, while a freezing rain with a mighty wind behind blew in on me. My hands are numb from the cold, and the filters have water from the water tank, which is well above freezing, but still plenty cold. It could have been worse--the heating guy was hooking up the backup generator to the LP gas line, in the rain, standing in cold, sucking mud.
Anyway, I was only able to get 12 of the 14 filters out of the filter housing. These are held in place by big plastic nuts that are are supposed to be "hand tightened only." Perhaps they were, but I do not want a firm handshake from whoever "hand tightened" these nuts. Still, this was enough to demonstrate that the pressure problem was strictly a matter of the filters--not something else failing.
I spent some time discussing the problem with the guy at Filtration Technology who sold us the housing and lead filters. I notice that when I removed the filters, they were gray--not white, like new filters. I also noticed that the water coming out of the faucets is now tinted lightly yellowish-brown.
It turns out that the lead filters are one micron--and apparently, absolute one micron. Nothing larger than one micron gets through--as distinguished from most water filters, which have a nominal filtering size which actually means that most particles of the specified size are stopped. Filtration Technology says that the prefilter was probably not specified tight enough, and what has happened is that fine particulate matter in the several micron size has clogged the lead filters. Their proposed solution is to replace the current prefilter (which I think might be 25 micron or so) with a nominal two micron filter, feeding into a housing with a nominal one micron filter. The two and one micron filters are much cheaper to replace, and will give a much longer life to the lead filters. They are also suggesting that we should have pressure gauges on the input and output of the lead filter housing, so that we can see when it starts to clog.
I have received a few emails asking why I am bothering with lead filters on a new house. The answer is that water tests have shown variously 15 and 37 parts per billion of lead in our water--probably because we are on the edge of a rather impressive granite batholith. Granite often has gold and silver, and where you find silver, you often find lead. Certainly, some parts of northern Idaho have silver and lead in proximity, and so I am assuming that the granite upslope from us is the source of the lead in our ground water.
Last house project entry.
I went up this morning to try and figure out why the lead filter seems to have cut water pressure to nearly useless. At the suggestion of the vendor, I opened up the filter housing, and verified that yes, the plastic sheeting was not left on the filters. Then I removed all the filters from the housing. This was an unpleasant task, sitting in the garage, while a freezing rain with a mighty wind behind blew in on me. My hands are numb from the cold, and the filters have water from the water tank, which is well above freezing, but still plenty cold. It could have been worse--the heating guy was hooking up the backup generator to the LP gas line, in the rain, standing in cold, sucking mud.
Anyway, I was only able to get 12 of the 14 filters out of the filter housing. These are held in place by big plastic nuts that are are supposed to be "hand tightened only." Perhaps they were, but I do not want a firm handshake from whoever "hand tightened" these nuts. Still, this was enough to demonstrate that the pressure problem was strictly a matter of the filters--not something else failing.
I spent some time discussing the problem with the guy at Filtration Technology who sold us the housing and lead filters. I notice that when I removed the filters, they were gray--not white, like new filters. I also noticed that the water coming out of the faucets is now tinted lightly yellowish-brown.
It turns out that the lead filters are one micron--and apparently, absolute one micron. Nothing larger than one micron gets through--as distinguished from most water filters, which have a nominal filtering size which actually means that most particles of the specified size are stopped. Filtration Technology says that the prefilter was probably not specified tight enough, and what has happened is that fine particulate matter in the several micron size has clogged the lead filters. Their proposed solution is to replace the current prefilter (which I think might be 25 micron or so) with a nominal two micron filter, feeding into a housing with a nominal one micron filter. The two and one micron filters are much cheaper to replace, and will give a much longer life to the lead filters. They are also suggesting that we should have pressure gauges on the input and output of the lead filter housing, so that we can see when it starts to clog.
I have received a few emails asking why I am bothering with lead filters on a new house. The answer is that water tests have shown variously 15 and 37 parts per billion of lead in our water--probably because we are on the edge of a rather impressive granite batholith. Granite often has gold and silver, and where you find silver, you often find lead. Certainly, some parts of northern Idaho have silver and lead in proximity, and so I am assuming that the granite upslope from us is the source of the lead in our ground water.
Last house project entry.
Monday, December 26, 2005
House Project: Fun in the Mud
No pictures, but my wife and I ran up to the house this afternoon to dig a couple of drainage ditches to empty the small lake next to the garage. This was an ugly, filthy, muddy task, with the clay sucking my boots down until I was afraid that they were going to pull right off my feet. The builder finally came from Christmas vacation, and agrees that he needs to at least grade the area a bit better to get the water to not pool. The next step if this doesn't solve it will be putting in the drainage pipes to move the water away from the house.
There's still a river flowing through the garage (okay, only a river by Los Angeles standards), but when we were washing off our muddy boots at the end of the day, we noticed that water was getting past the drain in the driveway, and ending up in the garage. The builder is going to work on extending that drain into the garage floor.
The builder is also going to get the water filter issue resolved on Tuesday. Either the vendor makes it work, or takes it back, and we go to undersink lead filters instead.
Last house project entry.
No pictures, but my wife and I ran up to the house this afternoon to dig a couple of drainage ditches to empty the small lake next to the garage. This was an ugly, filthy, muddy task, with the clay sucking my boots down until I was afraid that they were going to pull right off my feet. The builder finally came from Christmas vacation, and agrees that he needs to at least grade the area a bit better to get the water to not pool. The next step if this doesn't solve it will be putting in the drainage pipes to move the water away from the house.
There's still a river flowing through the garage (okay, only a river by Los Angeles standards), but when we were washing off our muddy boots at the end of the day, we noticed that water was getting past the drain in the driveway, and ending up in the garage. The builder is going to work on extending that drain into the garage floor.
The builder is also going to get the water filter issue resolved on Tuesday. Either the vendor makes it work, or takes it back, and we go to undersink lead filters instead.
Last house project entry.
Friday, December 23, 2005
House Project: Cleanup, Water, Water, Everywhere--But Not Enough Pressure
The electrician was supposed to finish up some last minute details today, and it appears that he did. The heating guy was supposed to get the gas dryer hooked up, and the backup generator hooked up to its gas supply. The generator looks hooked up, but the gas dryer was not done, so I don't know if he was up there or not.
A couple of days ago, we took up the mailbox. The builder is going to have to put it on a temporary pole until the ground is warm enough to sink a permanent post. (Yes, the ground has been frozen solid until yesterday.)
My wife has an artistic side, so she "improved" the boring black mailbox:
Click to enlarge
The other side is a bit blurry, not because she was experimenting with impressionism, but because I think I was a bit close.
Click to enlarge
The tile guy was up on Wednesday repairing a number of cracked tiles. He thinks the underlying floor joists might have sagged; the builder thinks that the tile was placed on a boundary in the tile underlayment. I think I agree with the builder.
Click to enlarge
We drove up Thursday afternoon, late, after a couple of days of light but consistent rain. Like the movie a few years, we opened the garage and discovered, a river runs through it.
Click to enlarge
Now, sometime on Thursday, the gutter guy got the gutters over the two ends of the garage installed, so we may be seeing the effects of rain coming off the roof before the gutters went in. The next serious rainstorm will tell for sure.
Click to enlarge
We went up today to do some cleanup around the exterior of the house. The builder is going to do that, but when he left for Christmas vacation, there was a thick layer of snow around the house, and there was ice holding many pieces of scrap in place on the driveway aprons. At least the warm weather has melted most of the ice, leaving a debris field:
Click to enlarge
Out back, there is a bit of a lake. We need to put in a drain or at least a drainage ditch to let this empty over the side of the hill. (You can see the backup generator.)
Click to enlarge
I asked a couple of days ago where to get a big bow for the house. Thanks for all the suggestions! I called the very nice salescritter at Chevrolet of Boise (Karen Martin) who sold us the Equinox last summer, and she told me where they get their bows made. I sneaked up around noon and attached the silver and red bow to the front door, so when my wife and I arrived in late afternoon, she was completely surprised.
Click to enlarge
At least I didn't have to wrap the house in shiny paper.
Even after picking up scrap for a couple of hours, there's still some grading work to do.
Click to enlarge
Now for the disappointing news. By the time we were done, I was aching, wet, and cold. So I thought, "I'll go fill the jetted tub and turn on the jets." I turned on the hot water. It wasn't much warmer than the cold water--and there's wasn't much of it.
So I checked the water heater. It was at the "WARM" setting, so I turned it up to one notch below "HOT." The water did get a lot hotter--but there wasn't much of it. The water pressure was so low that I checked to make sure that the pressurization pump was running. It claimed to be running, and the gauge said it was putting out about 65 psi.
Hmmmm. When my wife turned on a faucet while I was trying to fill the jetted tub, she got no water at all.
As near as I can tell, when the plumber installed the whole house lead filter, he verified that he got water out of the faucets--but didn't verify that he was getting much pressure. I found the installation manual for the filters, and they indicated at 10 gallons per minute (my nominal maximum flow), I should lose at most 0.5 psi of pressure because of the filters. My guess is that I am losing more like 50-60 psi of pressure.
So, what is it? The builder is away. I don't know the plumber's name. I am going back tomorrow to check if:
1. The filter housing is installed correctly. Perhaps there is a preferred direction, and it is backward.
2. Remove the filters from the housing, and see if the water pressure increases.
3. See if there is something really obvious, like a plastic cap over some part of the filter assembly that is constricting flow.
This is the first moment in the process where I have been really, really upset about how something has been done.
UPDATE: I went up this morning. The filter housing is installed correctly. There is plenty of pressure going into the filter housing. There's nothing obvious restricting flow. I think the problem is that the filters that remove lead are such a barrier to water flow that they are effectively unusable for their intended purpose. Even if this filter housing were upstream of the pressurization pump, they would so slow the flow of water into the pressurization pump as to make it impossible to get enough water. I am going to insist that the vendor take this back, and refund our money. I guess we'll put lead filters on each faucet. What a nuisance.
Last house project entry.
The electrician was supposed to finish up some last minute details today, and it appears that he did. The heating guy was supposed to get the gas dryer hooked up, and the backup generator hooked up to its gas supply. The generator looks hooked up, but the gas dryer was not done, so I don't know if he was up there or not.
A couple of days ago, we took up the mailbox. The builder is going to have to put it on a temporary pole until the ground is warm enough to sink a permanent post. (Yes, the ground has been frozen solid until yesterday.)
My wife has an artistic side, so she "improved" the boring black mailbox:
Click to enlarge
The other side is a bit blurry, not because she was experimenting with impressionism, but because I think I was a bit close.
Click to enlarge
The tile guy was up on Wednesday repairing a number of cracked tiles. He thinks the underlying floor joists might have sagged; the builder thinks that the tile was placed on a boundary in the tile underlayment. I think I agree with the builder.
Click to enlarge
We drove up Thursday afternoon, late, after a couple of days of light but consistent rain. Like the movie a few years, we opened the garage and discovered, a river runs through it.
Click to enlarge
Now, sometime on Thursday, the gutter guy got the gutters over the two ends of the garage installed, so we may be seeing the effects of rain coming off the roof before the gutters went in. The next serious rainstorm will tell for sure.
Click to enlarge
We went up today to do some cleanup around the exterior of the house. The builder is going to do that, but when he left for Christmas vacation, there was a thick layer of snow around the house, and there was ice holding many pieces of scrap in place on the driveway aprons. At least the warm weather has melted most of the ice, leaving a debris field:
Click to enlarge
Out back, there is a bit of a lake. We need to put in a drain or at least a drainage ditch to let this empty over the side of the hill. (You can see the backup generator.)
Click to enlarge
I asked a couple of days ago where to get a big bow for the house. Thanks for all the suggestions! I called the very nice salescritter at Chevrolet of Boise (Karen Martin) who sold us the Equinox last summer, and she told me where they get their bows made. I sneaked up around noon and attached the silver and red bow to the front door, so when my wife and I arrived in late afternoon, she was completely surprised.
Click to enlarge
At least I didn't have to wrap the house in shiny paper.
Even after picking up scrap for a couple of hours, there's still some grading work to do.
Click to enlarge
Now for the disappointing news. By the time we were done, I was aching, wet, and cold. So I thought, "I'll go fill the jetted tub and turn on the jets." I turned on the hot water. It wasn't much warmer than the cold water--and there's wasn't much of it.
So I checked the water heater. It was at the "WARM" setting, so I turned it up to one notch below "HOT." The water did get a lot hotter--but there wasn't much of it. The water pressure was so low that I checked to make sure that the pressurization pump was running. It claimed to be running, and the gauge said it was putting out about 65 psi.
Hmmmm. When my wife turned on a faucet while I was trying to fill the jetted tub, she got no water at all.
As near as I can tell, when the plumber installed the whole house lead filter, he verified that he got water out of the faucets--but didn't verify that he was getting much pressure. I found the installation manual for the filters, and they indicated at 10 gallons per minute (my nominal maximum flow), I should lose at most 0.5 psi of pressure because of the filters. My guess is that I am losing more like 50-60 psi of pressure.
So, what is it? The builder is away. I don't know the plumber's name. I am going back tomorrow to check if:
1. The filter housing is installed correctly. Perhaps there is a preferred direction, and it is backward.
2. Remove the filters from the housing, and see if the water pressure increases.
3. See if there is something really obvious, like a plastic cap over some part of the filter assembly that is constricting flow.
This is the first moment in the process where I have been really, really upset about how something has been done.
UPDATE: I went up this morning. The filter housing is installed correctly. There is plenty of pressure going into the filter housing. There's nothing obvious restricting flow. I think the problem is that the filters that remove lead are such a barrier to water flow that they are effectively unusable for their intended purpose. Even if this filter housing were upstream of the pressurization pump, they would so slow the flow of water into the pressurization pump as to make it impossible to get enough water. I am going to insist that the vendor take this back, and refund our money. I guess we'll put lead filters on each faucet. What a nuisance.
Last house project entry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)