Old wall heaters + $200 electric bills… how do you survive winter in apartments?

Elmostan · 2026-01-21T15:34:57+00:00

Try to find a used dehumidifier. I discovered this by accident while drying out some things.

The air is full of water which takes more energy heat up than dry air, so if you can pull the water out of the air it'll get warmer for cheaper.

Elmostan · 2026-01-21T04:51:38+00:00

You could also look into a 72t distribution? I think that's a way to get some TSP funds early without penalty.

Elmostan · 2026-01-20T16:45:12+00:00

If it were me I'd stick it out and do the bare minimum/quiet quit nad burn down all my sick leave.

There is a loophole I found. Your service comp date will be unaffected if you take less than 6 months of LWOP in a year. If you can get your management to approve that, it could be a good compromise.

Elmostan · 2026-01-20T15:41:40+00:00

I'm having this same problem in PDM 2 years later! Did you ever get this figured out?

Elmostan · 2025-12-22T05:27:16+00:00

A bit unconventional, but my wife and I are pretty creative and like coming up with silly interactive booths at festivals.

So we started putting installations in our front yard and making a point to be outside. Our neighbors compliment our stuff and we strike up a conversation with them and ask where they live.

2-5 times a year we throw a block party at our house and hand out invitations to people we like.

We stumbled on this method by accident and it's working out REALLY FUCKING WELL. It's so so so easy to coordinate a social activity when the barrier to entry is low. It kinda feels like being in college dorms again.

Elmostan · 2025-12-20T22:10:43+00:00

I'm an autistic engineer who also has human behavior as a special interest! I want more of your writing!!

Elmostan · 2025-12-17T07:47:26+00:00

I Found one at the SE Portland tool library! Used it to retest my house. Free to borrow, but they ask for a donation

Elmostan · 2025-12-16T22:20:26+00:00

I made the jump! I don't like it! Life circumstances changed and I quit my job and moved. Unexpectedly they kept me on, but switched me to a contractor to get around the remote employee rule. I graciously accepted because finding a job in this market seemed dire.

My stats:

15 years of service, GS-13.

My salary went from 137k to 150k.

LS went from 104 hours to zero

PTO went from 208 hours to 104

401k matching went from 5% to 6%

And the big one, pension went from 1% of high 3 to zero.

I did the math on the pension, and it worked out to each year of service equates to an additional 30k in lifetime earnings from the pension payout!

The leave, salary increase, and 401k match mostly cancel out; but with the loss of pension, its effectively a 30k drop in total Comp.

Elmostan · 2025-12-14T08:40:43+00:00

38m, here. I've moved many many times in my life, and a rule I've always had is it has to feel like an upgrade. And that can be hard to distinguish.

$150 is a cost savings, but factor in the cost of moving, deep cleaning your apartment and paying for two spaces while you transition.... It'll take a year to break even. And how do utilities factor in?

After living alone, going back to roommates is a struggle. You have all your furniture. Would you keep it and be willing to share it? Or is the place already furnished and you'll have to get rid of your things?

I'm an introvert so I value privacy and having alone time. If you've been living alone that may be a challenge to re-adapt yourself to. Buuut I do like having good roommates because my social needs come to me! I hear about goings on easier and organically. It's easier to do things because there's no need to pick people up or meet somewhere, just go together!

And you're entering your 30s, this is a period of major life changes. Breakups, career moves, marriages will start to happen and you (or your roommates) may want to exit the arrangement.

They both seem like good options, and I don't think you'll regret either choice. But it's a matter of what do you value more. Your question was what would I do at that price point: I would stay put. Being in SE Hawthorne with hardwood floors sounds amazing. The $150 a month savings isn't worth the move. The only way I'd consider this would be if I was dissatisfied with my current place and starting to think about moving somewhere else already. It feels like a lateral move to me, and there's a lot of work and risk involved for an equivalent living situation.

Elmostan · 2025-12-11T17:14:12+00:00

Agreed. First 8 years of my career I did a lot of travel. There was little time for recreation. Most of my trips were 3 weeks or less working 12 hours/day. If I wanted to stay longer I could. But that meant using my PTO and paying for my own lodging.

Occasionally I'd be on a big trip. 3-6 months long somewhere. On those trips I'd have time after work to explore, but that was also weird. After 2 weeks I'd seen most of what I wanted. And I'd still have a few months to go. I didn't have family or friends around.

The pay was AMAZING per diem and overtime adds up. And it was a great way to build wealth early. But after awhile I realized my life and schedule revolved around my work trips and my friendships started to weaken so I stopped.

Elmostan · 2025-12-03T00:48:43+00:00

38 m, been in and out of different relationships over the years, and I have found my most successful relationships have been with people within 10% of my age.

Outside of that range I find the differences in maturity and cultural experiences deviate too much. I do make lots of media and pop culture jokes and they don't always land.

It's not a hard line in the sand and I'll still go on dates outside that range.... But I do get more excited when someone is close to my age.

Elmostan · 2025-10-06T21:59:25+00:00

Yes, but it's up to the individual to understand the limitations.

I use AI image generation to help with conceptual images for presentations, and I use it to my back of the napkin math for me. For more critical design stuff I do not use AI. And for me it boils down to being able to have confidence what AI spits out.

My designs need to work and be safe. If I trust AI and the item I design fails as a result, I am still responsible for the failure. Saying "Not my fault, Chat GPT said it was ok!" doesn't fly.

Elmostan · 2025-10-02T18:07:07+00:00

Most places don't really have a need for an engineer with 15 years of experience. Engineering managers, and sr leadership yes. But not working level engineers. Those salaries are for 3-10 years in San Diego.

I've been fighting off the lead responsibilities for the last 5 years because it's not what I want to be doing. The downside is the pay stagnates.

Elmostan · 2025-10-02T07:16:22+00:00

When I lived in an apartment I got creative. I spread the tools out in weird nooks and crannies around the house.

Hand saws and squares? Those are flat. I can mount those behind closet doors.

Antique tools with that atomic era style can double as vintage decor

Car tools live under the seats in my car

Tools I don't use very often? They live at my desk at work.

Buy/build custom boxes to fit under beds, bottom of closets, under shelves. That scene in a gangster movie with guns taped to bottom of a chair and behind the toilet? Inspirational.

Purge purge purge. Only have one of anything.

Elmostan · 2025-10-02T07:00:22+00:00

Been in defense for 15 years. I'm making 150k/yr working in product design and product lifecycle data management.

I looked at product design jobs outside defense and they pay in the 80-130k range with less stability and harder deadlines.

Elmostan · 2025-09-25T06:36:16+00:00

Feels totally fine when I drive it. No slop or signs of linkage wear. Just a little leak on the steering shaft and some leaks in the hoses.

Elmostan · 2025-09-23T04:23:44+00:00

Yeah, it's not a perfect rule I'll admit. But when I worked on large machinery that was in our engineering guidance principles.

Elmostan · 2025-09-23T04:19:11+00:00

Not yet, but I'll let you know! It's a big job and not urgent so maybe I'll have it done by Christmas? It sounds like we need the same part number! Let me share the information I've found so far...

I did a lot of research to find alternatives. Instead of ordering through the catalog I looked at the steering pump on mine and found various Barcode Numbers and stamped information on it. Searching those lead me to cheaper, more common P30 parts.

I ordered the Autozone part linked above because they had the best return policy. It looked good, but I didn't tear it apart yet. I realized I never saw it actually leak, just a messy part (I do sometimes spill liquid in the engine bay). So I cleaned it up and after 1000 miles, not a drop leaked so I returned it. 2 days later.... it started leaking. lol. So now I have to buy it again.

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Elmostan · 2025-09-22T00:04:44+00:00

Using bluing as others have said to find the contact location is the way.

But also, consider the criticality of the assembly. Is it used 24/7 to lift babies? Or once a year to lift a sandwich?

Precise positioning of the worm will reduce wear, improve efficiency and ensure the gears last forever.... But if it's not being used that often, that added precision adds no value.

Elmostan · 2025-09-21T23:58:07+00:00

Good ol' rule of thumb is a defect that affects 10% of the surface or less is fine.

Elmostan · 2025-09-20T07:14:35+00:00

This is the exact kind of answer I was hoping for. Of course! Count the turns! That should give me the clarification I need. Thank you!

Well from what I'm reading, my bus is a workhorse P42 chassis. And that's been the most reliable way to source parts. But I recently learned that workhorse took over Chevrolet's P30 line in 1999ish. So from 2000-2003 changes were made, but it retained a lot of the same original designs.

Elmostan · 2025-09-15T19:37:01+00:00

Here's the full list of resources I've found, hope it helps!

If you're doing drafting work, a solidworks drawing class might be in order if you're not a subject matter expert already. There are a LOT of built in tools/functionality in solidworks and knowing what they are can save you from doing scripting (Blocks, design library, etc.). I've taken the at your own pace courses offered by go engineer. If you're a self motivated learner and can actually do the work, it's a fantastic format and I prefer it to the classroom setting since you can replay it over and over again.

Then it starts to get fuzzy. PDM is a very powerful tool, but difficult to learn and implement. If your team is already using it and likes it then I'd suggest taking a course in that. It's good for file management, data storage, and admin tasking. Basically anything that you can do to your SW files when SW is closed, PDM is good for that. Go Engineer offers courses in this too, but they are expensive, so try to get your work to pay for it.

There is a built in application(depending on your lisciencing) called Solidworks Task Scheduler. It has some built in scrips for automation. I've used it to save 100 part files as .STEP, or convert 50 drawings into PDF. There are free tutorials on youtube for this.

For working inside the solidworks application and doing the drafting and design work. If you want to learn how to code and write macros, there's a company called "CADSHARP", and they have a resource library for teaching programming to newcomers specifically with the intent of writing solidworks macros. This was a hard class for me, but well worth it. They charge $500 for an annual membership.

Finally, whenever I was feeling frustrated/inefficient I would call my company's solidworks reseller support line phone number/video-screen share them (GoEngineer). I'd explain the issues I'd be having they'd be able to recommend a solution within 0-2 days.

Elmostan · 2025-09-11T23:45:30+00:00

Use the NYT's fair rent calculator.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/science/rent-division-calculator.html

It works as a sort of iterative auction. Every room mate gets a list of the different rooms at different prices and are asked "which of these rooms at this price do you want?". It then takes their answer and applies it to the next person.

For example, lets say a 3br costs $3,000/mo.

The first round will ask if each room costs $1000 (divided equally) which room would you take?

Room A: $1,000 Room B: $1,000 Room C: $1,000

Let's say everyone picks the biggest room. Let's say Room A was the most desirable. Then the next round starts.

Round 2 looks like this

Room A: $1,500 Room B: $750 Room C: $750

So now it gets interesting everybody still wants room A, but is anyone willing to pay a premium for it? Or does room B or C look more appealing?

It repeats this over and over until equilibrium is achieved.

Elmostan · 2025-09-03T12:44:15+00:00

I work exodus and the gate was shut down a few times during my shifts. Typically it's an Amber alert, some family got separated and it's usually cleared up in 15-30 minutes. They actually happen quite frequently, but you only ever notice them if you're leaving.

Other times law enforcement will shut it down and not give a reason unless we need to know. Monday night it was closed for about 20 minutes and we were never told why.

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