evranch

joined 2 years ago
[–] evranch 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I should probably clarify what I mean by that. Unlike most countries, most of Canada is probably best described as "a barely habitable hellscape"

Even the pioneers relied heavily on existing supply chains, and in most regions aside from southern BC and Ontario the natives lived an unenviable hand to mouth existence.

So while working harder for the same cheque is a bad idea, if everyone stops working at all (which feels like it's on the brink of happening, some days) the collapse of our society actually means losing our ability to survive in a country that actively wants to kill you on most days.

I live way out in the country in a mostly self reliant community, but the amount of material and energy we need to bring in just to survive always worries me.

[–] evranch 9 points 7 months ago

Gut an AC from the dump. Replace the condenser with a tube in tube heat exchanger, using your cold water as a heat sink. Brazed plate HX if you're feeling rich. Replace the cap tube with a TXV for better load tracking. Recharge with R290.

T Sure this is even further beyond your skill level but is the best possible way to use a source of cold to chill your apartment. You can locate it anywhere convenient, not just by the window. You could likely get a COP over 5 and be discharging the water in a fairly modest stream at around 30-40C.

[–] evranch 13 points 7 months ago

It's not people, it's only one person!

There's a lot of him to go around though.

[–] evranch 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Looks at what happened in Canada too, we had big structural problems with our economy so our government dumped a huge volume of immigrants into the country, almost entirely from a group known to not integrate well and who share little values and culture with the existing citizens.

Now everyone blames the immigrants for everything. Success! And wages have also been depressed, and housing and rent prices elevated. The rich get richer and the poor get a scapegoat. Everyone... wins?

And there's literally nothing we can do about it, except effectively the whole country has taken on the "lay flat" movement as a protest after Covid pulled the mask off the villain. Very few working class people put any effort into their work anymore, figuring to collect their check but not generate any wealth for the robber barons.

The trouble is we will burn our country down while we do it, because ultimately some work does need to be done to sustain our society.

[–] evranch 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Yeah otherwise he would remember that guy who stepped up at an extrajudicial killing and said "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone"

You know, Jesus

[–] evranch 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh I think I know what you're talking about, abusing a minisplit by idling the inverter back too far. Effectively you have a hugely oversized condenser for the tiny flow, under the right conditions like a cool night you can get ridiculous subcooling.

But COP is irrelevant in this case because you've derated the actual BTU to near zero, you aren't moving any refrigerant.

Also yes this will kill your compressor because the minimum speed is set where it will get enough oil flow. Run it too slow, and it won't pick up oil and eventually seize up. You also could end up running the suction in vacuum which is also hard on compressors.

[–] evranch 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Actually come to think of it, I don't think Pert is actually gendered. But everyone knows it's a "man's shampoo", because it isn't actively marketed as a "women's shampoo"... Yeah, pretty stupid, isn't it.

[–] evranch 6 points 7 months ago

I saw 5 for air-air and was impressed. Then I see SCOP? Oh please. Why not change the scale again to make sure nobody knows what a good value is. Just like SEER on an air conditioner.

SCOP varies depending on environmental conditions!

Real COP or go home IMO. Watts out/watts in, no fudging numbers to confuse consumers again.

[–] evranch 2 points 7 months ago

I designed my heating system around a fairly efficient non-condensing NG boiler that takes 40W for the fan. I can run it and the circulators off my battery bank no problem, and handle a sustained power failure. But only because of the natural gas.

I've been integrating a water-water GSHP into it to provide summer cooling and a supplemental heat source from my solar panels. It works well, but in my climate (Rural Canada) I would be insane to completely remove my gas boiler IMO. Heating demand is just way too high on the sort of days where the power goes out. I've been working on plans for a wood boiler but insurance has put their foot right down on anything that burns wood in the last couple years.

Here in Canada we can't get lithium at a reasonable price so I have 10kWh of lead-acid (which as you know is actually 5). Doesn't go very far on a cold winter day with 4 hours of sun and snow on the panels!

On the upside I haven't had to hook my generator to my house in years, I'm really happy with my "grid-independent" system.

[–] evranch 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Double would be a COP of over 10. That's a stretch for an overbuilt GSHP and not even slightly feasible for air-air.

High COPs are usually easy on a compressor as they represent low compression ratios and low differential temps. For example I can hit around COP 7 in cooling on my scrap heap GSHP, with an evap temp around 10C and condenser temp around 20C. That's a high side pressure around 100 psi and only 30 psi of differential, "barely working" as far as the compressor is concerned.

The only way I know to get high COPs is to have an oversized condenser and a way to get your refrigerant below ambient, like evaporative, ground source or overnight radiant so you can get the compression ratio down, unless you know a secret in which case I'm not afraid to burn out a compressor or two trying it out!

[–] evranch 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

If the man gets his hair really dirty, like farm dirty with diesel and moly grease and itchy chaff bits, then it means it probably doesn't have what it takes to do the job.

My wife bought endless shampoos, I tried them for sport and none ever impressed me. Our hard water laughs at fancy shampoos and soaps.

I always told her to forget it and use my big jug of Pert. A classic that says something on the back like "Pert wasn't designed to waste your time and money. Pert was designed to get your hair clean" but she was sure there was something wrong with it because it was only 5 bucks.

Finally one day she gave it a try and has used Pert ever since. It made her hair smooth and soft, it even washes moly grease out and it smells "fine", men's shampoo is the winner IMO

And now my shower is so tidy with only one jug of shampoo

[–] evranch 10 points 7 months ago

Out here in hard water country we just call that "Dove"

Seriously if you're looking for a soap that just plain works in ANY water and doesn't leave your skin feeling like it shrank a size, a good old bar of Dove is the answer.

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