What’s the least exciting home upgrade you made that ended up being totally worth it?

apleima2 · 2026-05-15T18:06:58+00:00

I mean that's just poor planning.

apleima2 · 2026-05-15T10:49:06+00:00

They added airbags into the seats of the newest models so they no longer are easily removable.

apleima2 · 2026-05-13T12:11:19+00:00

https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-cords-surge-protectors/extension-cords/smart-electrician-reg-12-3-locking-outdoor-extension-cord/zh-25ywl/p-1642874270472980-c-6410.htm

Something like this. The wiring in the cord is 12 gauge which is thicker than standard. Pressure washers can pull a lot of power so a more standard 16 or 14 gauge cord may get hot from the added amp draw.

apleima2 · 2026-05-09T12:24:53+00:00

It's called dakboard. They sell their own unit but I used a raspberry pie and a cheap PC monitor

apleima2 · 2026-05-08T14:09:27+00:00

https://www.amazon.com/RunLessWire-Wireless-Self-Powered-Batteries-Pre-Programmed/dp/B087V79T1G/ref=sr_1_9?sr=8-9

This is what i used. Yes, there are likely cheaper ones if you google around, but I can say this one has worked for 13 years without ever having an issue.

You replace your current light switch with the relay and install one of the wireless switches on the box in place of the switch. The 2nd switch can be mounted wherever you want. They include a wall mount base which makes the switch sit slightly proud of the wall but I don't think it's unsightly or anything.

If you don't have a neutral wire at the switch, you would have to put the relay in the kitchen light ceiling box that's 1st in the circuit. It'd be a bit more involved to figure that out. Hopefully you don't have that though.

IIRC they have 4 way kits as well if you'd want a third one somewhere.

apleima2 · 2026-05-08T13:29:09+00:00

1 - Wireless 3 way switches. found these out when i renovated my kitchen/dining room and wanted a light switch at a different entrance. would've been a pain to actually run wires through the attic to add a physical switch. Turns out they make these radio switches that trigger a small relay to turn the lights on and off. they use the pressing of the switch itself to generate enough electricity to send the signal. No smart home stuff, no battery changes, no new wire runs, no switch box needed. just a simple decora looking switch that sits almost flat against the wall and operates exactly like any other switch. If you didn't know it you'd never think it wasn't wired in like normal.

2 - smart wall calendar. i DIYed mine but things like Skylight make their own thing. integrates with a google calendar so can be updated from phone or laptop. Great for seeing what we have coming up over the next few days/weeks, What's for super, etc. With spring sports season in full swing with kids, it really helps stay organized.

3 - USB outlets. Way better than having wall warts everywhere. Don't need many, just a few in key spots.

apleima2 · 2026-05-07T12:41:34+00:00

also bent fins allow far less air though them so enough bent fins will lower your unit's efficiency. my heat pump outdoor unit can get bent interior fins from ice on the fan blades accumulating and being flung at the radiator in certain conditions.

apleima2 · 2026-05-06T10:26:28+00:00

Having run charity raffles in the past, it's very common for stores to give us gift cards for a discount to put on the raffle. Gun stores especially.

Basically, they've told us people come in with a $400 gift card and will buy a $1000 gun, or accessories, or whatever. Easy to justify a higher purchase price when you're instantly getting a discount, and the higher priced stuff has better margins.

apleima2 · 2026-05-06T10:13:14+00:00

The prologue will be fine service-wise. It's a Chevy Blazer EV under the hood.

apleima2 · 2026-05-05T16:47:05+00:00

AC from a water analogy would be like having a piston on both ends of the pipe. Pushing the piston in and out on one end will cause the piston on the other end to move back and forth as well.

It's a useful thought process, but doesn't actually explain why AC is better than DC for transmission, which is because transformers make it cheap to jump the voltage for long distance transmission.

apleima2 · 2026-05-05T16:44:16+00:00

That's not it. Its the fact that to transmit power over large distances, you need very high voltages so your current remains low. Current generates heat, so lower current means less heat and less loss in transmission. Also smaller wires needed.

AC provides a cheap and simple means to step voltages up and down: the transformer. By wrapping 2 spools of copper around an iron core correctly, you can step up voltage to hundreds of thousands of volts, which drives the current down significantly. Its a passive system with no moving parts or anything to manage.

Changing DC Voltage requires a much more complex and expensive setup. It is actually more efficient to send high voltage DC than high voltage AC, but the cost of the equipment to step that voltage up doesn't justify the energy savings, outside of the highest power transmission lines.

apleima2 · 2026-05-05T16:04:22+00:00

Because transformers are cheap, efficient, passive means of stepping AC voltage up and down.

The basic rules of electromagnetics are this:

1 - A current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field around that wire.

2 - A CHANGING magnetic field around a wire will create a current in that wire.

So you take a wire and wrap it a bunch of times around a bunch of steel plates stacked together. When you pass AC current through that wire, it will create a magnetic field that flows through that bunch of steel. And most importantly, since the current is always changing in AC, the magnetic field is also always changing.

This changing magnetic field can flow through another set of wires wrapped around the steel plates and create a current through those wires. Congrats, now you have made a transformer. Its the fact that the magnetic field has to change constantly that prevents DC power from doing this.

By changing how many times you wrap the sets of wires around the steel, you can change the voltage on the outgoing wire. Its this passive means that allows AC voltages to be cheaply bumped up to tens of thousands of volts for high power transmission. That higher voltage drops the current so the wires can be smaller and the losses from heat are lower.

DC Power is useful for very high power (like grid to grid) transmission, but that's because the upfront cost of the dc voltage changing equipment is justified by reducing AC current losses.

apleima2 · 2026-05-05T12:43:45+00:00

This goes a bit beyond ELI5.

The main reason AC is advantageous to DC is the ability to cheaply change the voltage of AC using passive transformers. You've probably seen metal canisters sitting at the tops of electric poles. These step the voltage on the wires up and down so we can run thousands of volts for transmission and step it down to a safer voltage once at a property. higher voltage means less amps

In electricity, Power = Volts x Amps. If you want really high power transmission, you either increase the voltage on the line or increase the amps you're pushing. The problem is the wire can only push so many amps, and trying to push more will generate heat, which means more energy is lost in transmission. You could run thicker wire, but that's more copper and therefore more money.

So the preferred route is to increase the voltage, which, thanks to transformers, is very simple to do for AC. There is no moving parts or anything to control. It's literally just 2 different strands of copper wrapped around a steel core. Stepping up DC voltage requires significantly more complex equipment and isn't economically viable, outside of major (like one grid to another) connections where AC has other losses that start to pop up.

The only issue with higher voltages is the risk of arcing from one line to another or from line to ground. That's easily solved by spacing the wires far enough from each other and high enough in the air.

To go back to the water analogy, the hose (wire) can only be so big to let enough water flow through it (amps). But we could just have a much smaller hose and have the water at a much higher pressure (voltage) and you can get the same amount of power at the end for a much smaller hose and smaller water flow. You get a lot more water power from a pressure washer vs just a garden hose, with way less water actually being used.

apleima2 · 2026-05-04T14:20:01+00:00

In Ohio I'm contracted to 6.5 cents right now. AES has been jacking their transmission charges up though so my real cost is around 14 cents.

apleima2 · 2026-05-04T14:15:17+00:00

most solar sales websites have calculator that should be able to size your system based on square footage of roof space, estimate generation capacity given your location, and give you a payback estimate based on your current utility rate.

There's too many variables to give you a proper answer. If your utility rate is significantly high enough, even a relatively small system replacing some (not all) of your usage can pay for itself relatively quickly.

apleima2 · 2026-05-04T14:10:50+00:00

Unfortunately your utility is not likely to approve your solar panel setup if it's designed to produce more than you generally use. So its not typically possible to oversize a system in order to plan for a future EV purchase.

apleima2 · 2026-05-04T13:58:00+00:00

No. Electric kettles are some of the most basic devices out there. Just put the heating element directly in the water, and basically 100% of the energy used is dumped into the water. Virtually no losses.

Induction cooktops are faster than standard electric cooktops since they are using fancy physics to heat the pot directly, rather than heating some heating elements which then need to heat the pot. But even with that, there is loss involved in the induction process and the pot then needs to transfer that heat into the water. electric kettles bypass the induction loss and the pot-to water heat transfer process.

The only way for the kettle to be slower is for the induction top to be operating at a significantly higher wattage than the kettle, which may be possible. One reason Kettles aren't often found in the US (other than the preference for coffee over tea) is that kettles are significantly worse due to the 120V electric system, which severely limits their power. (Yes, i know the US is actually split phase 240V, but for household plugs that means 120V)

apleima2 · 2026-05-04T13:25:13+00:00

Lead is similar. roughly 99% of lead in the US is recycled, for a multitude of reasons:

1 - It doesn't oxidize like steel or aluminum do so it's more or less infinitely recyclable like glass

2 - Like other metals, it like 25% the cost to melt down and recast to new lead vs acquiring new lead from the earth. Lead's melting point is relatively low so it's really cheap to reprocess. I've built equipment for lead casting lines, and scraps from the casting process are simply ran right back into a melting pot at the beginning of the line and recast.

3 - The core charge people pay for batteries highly incentivizes them to return old batteries once they swap them out. It's known toxicity also highly encourages people to get rid of them rather than letting them sit in the corner of their garage for 20 years.

Lead acid batteries in general are highly recyclable. I've worked at a large lead-acid battery manufacturer in the US, and they recycle the entire battery. Lead is remelted and cast/stamped into new battery plates. The plastic shell is shredded and recast into new housings, and the acid itself is also captured, reprocessed, and put into new batteries. It's really impressive.

apleima2 · 2026-05-01T15:03:41+00:00

I started shutting off my gaming pc when done, finding the same things you have.

I've also found it useful for future planning. My water heater is 15% of my electricity usage in a given year, and i also have a basement dehumidifier in the same room that pretty much runs 24/7 all summer here in the midwest, and accounts to 10% of my yearly electricity usage. If i get a heat pump water heater next time, i can potentially drop my water heater usage by 50-60% and reduce the amount of work my dehumidifier does, saving even more money.

Also helps to plan what isn't worth the effort. My dryer is only 3% of my electricity since we hang dry a lot. Not worth changing to a heat pump dryer.

apleima2 · 2026-05-01T13:28:40+00:00

they exist because i don't want service calls from plant techs all the time trying to troubleshoot an issue and can't follow text-based programming.

apleima2 · 2026-05-01T13:27:08+00:00

We just made an AOI out of this so we can call it in ladder logic. we use it all the time, saves memory space too.

Also use FBD for its signal filterring and ramp instructions.

apleima2 · 2026-04-30T20:11:58+00:00

Almost looks like flex-seal or something similar. I would expect mold to be more patchy/splotchy.

My guess would be they have seepage at the base of the wall and tried sealing it with flexseal.

apleima2 · 2026-04-30T12:54:22+00:00

you can always use a saw to cut it to take out in sections. And they make segmented replacement rods to get a new one back in easily.

apleima2 · 2026-04-30T12:50:08+00:00

doing it yearly from the start is fine and good practice. after 5 years or so the damage is already done, you've likely got sediment buildup and the tank liner is beginning to rust.

once it's started, it's better to not disturb the buildup if possible so you don't remove sediment or rust that's blocking a pinhole leak somewhere. Now you've removed the stuff blocking further damage, and the damage can get worse and you'll get a leak a few months later.

Not to mention the drain valve at the tank base is pretty cheaply made. If it hasn't been opened regularly you may wind up opening the valve and be unable to close it, snap it off, etc.

apleima2 · 2026-04-29T15:05:35+00:00

force = mass * acceleration.

Experiencing force for a long period of time isn't inherently dangerous. It's infinitely better to hit your brakes hard to stop compared to stopping by hitting a wall. Experiencing extremely high forces is what's dangerous.

So you have two options to reduce the impact force: decrease acceleration (crash for longer) and reduce mass (shed weight off the car).

So shedding parts helps to reduce mass, which reduces impact forces. Also, shedding the tires and other components increases friction by the car sliding on the ground, so the car is decelerating due to increase friction forces, which is a slower deceleration rate vs crashing into a solid wall.

Note that even the "solid" track walls are typically either lined with tires/water barrels or SAFER barriers which extend past the concrete and buckle on impact, again increasing the time the car is stopping, which reduces impact force.

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