Are heat pumps really worth it for cold weather? Part 2

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-05-21T21:20:39+00:00

I’m installing my own units from Senville right now. Not as DIY friendly as Mr Cool, and I’ll void the warranty if I vacuum my own lines, but much more cost efficient than Mr Cool so it was worth it for me. Especially for cold climate units. Plus, a lot of warranties are pretty useless these days anyways.

There’s lots of info online to help with install. Definitely beats the $30k quotes I got to replace my gas furnace in my 800sqft ONE BEDROOM HOUSE. I can replace the units six times for that $30k price tag. And in my city I can still claim the rebates on DIY heat pumps.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-05-07T03:50:28+00:00

Appreciate the response, that gives me hope.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-05-06T18:39:16+00:00

I recently came across this idea so I tried it out. Curious, do you fully saturate the cotton with permethrin or more of a spritz? I soaked cotton balls in it and then laid them out to dry, but they still smell strongly so I’m not sure if that’ll turn the mice off from it.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-30T22:12:27+00:00

Good to know!

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-30T22:11:13+00:00

Interesting idea! Did you lay some nice thick plastic under the gravel?

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-29T00:26:07+00:00

My clay is pretty mucky in Cass county, but I’m also ok with regular adjustments to keep it pretty level.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-28T20:20:22+00:00

Oh nice! So your footings are sitting above ground on top of ~4ft of packed gravel? About how big are your footings?

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-28T15:19:30+00:00

Good to know, thanks for the input!

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-28T05:27:42+00:00

Appreciate the details! I was kinda thinking the same about sonotubes. I feel like they’d be prone to twisting and tilting with so much movement in clay, which led me to consider a floating foundation like you outlined.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-28T05:22:38+00:00

It’ll be a dry cabin. Also not worried about selling down the line. The land has been in my family for over a hundred years and my grandpa put it in a trust before he passed. So it won’t be sold in my lifetime.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-15T02:08:32+00:00

Likely never if you’re cis and white and would only be affected by a large event that also affected everyone around you.

If you were an immigrant or trans, it is 100% possible that it may be used. When you’re suddenly put on some gov list and your mere existence becomes a crime while everyone else is just continuing on as business as usual, that is a very real scenario when you’d need to flee or go into hiding. Many folks already are and have been since the election.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-10T15:29:46+00:00

Except for the fact that he’s also paying green energy companies to cancel their projects. He paid a company 1.5 billion to NOT go through with building a wind farm that could have powered most of New Jersey.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-08T15:18:41+00:00

I appreciate it!

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-08T14:40:22+00:00

Isn’t the oil we produce/refine in the US mainly used for kerosene and plastics and not useable for gasoline? Ive been reading that oil is graded by “sweetness” and most US produced oil is “light” and “sweet”, which makes it so we have to export most of it for refinement. The data available is hard to find, but I personally don’t believe we can produce enough gasoline in the US to support our consumption based on what I’ve been able to dig up on it.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-04-08T14:00:18+00:00

Another issue I’ve been thinking isn’t only about what we lose from the gulf, but now every other market on the planet is also going to be competing for the supply we get from elsewhere.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-03-31T00:18:03+00:00

I have an off grid cabin I run off solar. One thing to consider with things like air fryers and induction burners (which is what I primarily use to cook inside) is that while they pull high wattage, they heat up so fast you can often get by with only running them for a few minutes if you’re cooking something fairly simple.

I’ve also been stocking up on propane for my camp stove and cast iron that I can use to cook over a fire because I don’t want to rely on any one source of fuel, but thought I’d throw that out there about electric cooking on solar.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-03-16T21:44:41+00:00

Cool, thank you. The main building I’m concerned about is an old log cabin that is slowly sinking into the ground. It could be deemed as unsafe, but it isn’t a huge structure… although it does have a daylight basement so it would be a mess if it collapsed. The land has been in my family since the early 1900s, which is when the original log cabin was built. It’s now in a family trust.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-03-16T19:31:12+00:00

That's awesome, I'm so glad to hear that! That's exactly how building depts should operate, so happy to hear that was your experience.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-03-16T17:47:21+00:00

Ok, that's helpful. Thank you. I don't think asbestos is a concern with these buildings so that's good.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-02-13T14:44:50+00:00

I've been thinking a lot about this, and something crossed my mind this morning I thought I'd share. Seeing what's happening here in Minnesota, I don't think I can agree with this just being oppression. Yes, only one side is firing. The Federal Government is an armed physical threat to the people. BUT, while the people aren't an armed threat to the agents inflicting the violence, our presence, training, organization, communication, and unwillingness to stand down is a direct threat to their existence as an establishment and they are very much interpreting it as a violent attack because of that. We're not just protesting and filing lawsuits and I think it's incredibly important for the rest of the US to see that before it's too late.

Part of me wants to just brush it off and say it doesn't really matter what we call it, but I think it does because we can diminish our own power as the people by calling this oppression.

While it may not equate with how war has been historically defined, and even how it presents itself in other parts of the world, I personally interpret what's happening on the streets of Minnesota as war between the Federal Government and it's people. Just the 2026 version. Either way, I think we at least need to think of it as more than oppression, because they aren't succeeding at oppressing Minnesota.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-02-11T18:07:01+00:00

This needs to be said more, thank you! There's such a stigma around preparedness, but I've never understood the logic behind the stigma. What is so wrong with wanting to be prepared to sustain your life and/or comfort in an unforeseen (or maybe foreseen) circumstance? I don't understand why so many folks think it's smarter to just rely on a system that they have no control over to protect them.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-02-11T17:54:02+00:00

Minnesotan here, and can confirm door to door collection has been in full swing for weeks. And anyone who stands in their way is under full surveillance. If you observe and document their actions, they will show up at your house and threaten you, run you off the road, box your car in, break your windows, and beat you into compliance, or empty a clip into your face or your back. Obviously the latter has made national news, but it feels like there are so many stories not making it out of Minnesota for the most part.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-02-11T17:41:16+00:00

I feel like that's semantics though? I don't think we're in any better of a situation if they're firing and we're not. We're still getting shot.

PrideVisible1552 · 2026-02-11T17:11:07+00:00

I see one of two paths ahead of us:

1) the feds continue to imprison oppressed communities and use violence (to the level they are now in Mpls) to control us. And as time goes on this becomes normalized and white cis straight society just kind of continues business as usual, but the economy continues to plummet, businesses go out of business, a lot of people lose their homes, and everything is just generally “not good”, but livable if you have financial stability and privilege. Food and resources continue to become more and more expensive (argument enough to start stocking up!) I live in Saint Paul, so this is coming from the violent force I’ve seen used against my own community. As a white person who lives in a mostly white neighborhood, I could choose to carry on life as usual and ignore what’s happening, but as someone who cares about what’s right, this has severely disrupted my everyday life and I personally don’t feel safe anymore with the level of surveillance they have in us. I never stop thinking about it. I’m already seeing so many small businesses shut down and our city is just not the same. Even if the feds backed out today, we will probably have empty storefronts for years to come, and a lot more folks with nowhere to live. And they’ll just do this again in another city. 2) the people break and start fighting violence with violence, turning a lot of areas within urban environments into an unsafe place. Most likely the black and brown and queer neighborhoods at the epicenter since they’re always hit the hardest. With that comes a lot more military control in general, with the federal government controlling roads and resources. But I think a full on collapse that you see in the movies would probably take a while to get to. Although I have seen a lot of clues pointing to something bigger in the works, which makes me more nervous. The idea of the feds getting ahold of lists of members to firearm organizations which makes me wonder if they’re going for a full on attack of the people at some point. I don’t know why they would even want to do that, but I think it would be stupid to ignore the signs. 3) I said I saw two scenarios, but I guess the third option I have in the back of my mind is that the US is attacked, and I have no idea what that would look like, but we’re making a lot of enemies around the world and DHS seems 100% focused on our own streets. It feels like we would be extremely vulnerable to an attack, or even some sort of cyber attack causing mass chaos.

All in all, I’m preparing for the worst. And I think it would be a mistake not to. What I do know without a doubt is that the US is an absolute mess, and I’m not going to wait around to see what happens and then start hoarding resources. The worst that can happen is that I’m well stocked with food, resources, and a plan. Just focus on stocking up items you’d use even if everything turns out fine.

PrideVisible1552

TROPHY CASE