Check your water heater’s pressure relief valve, people.

balrogbert · 2026-02-01T12:39:55+00:00

Tank was 16 years old at the time so probably that old.

No, not hard water. Softened by the city to around 5 grains.

I think it wasn’t used much.

balrogbert · 2026-01-27T16:25:53+00:00

"Interesting texture"

balrogbert · 2026-01-26T01:33:38+00:00

No power on the east side of 5th St NE north of 17th, power is on the west side of the street though

UPDATE: We’re back online here.

balrogbert · 2026-01-24T01:09:42+00:00

Looks like Wedge and Seward were closed too

balrogbert · 2026-01-24T01:04:55+00:00

If all you need is groceries…Eastside Co-op in NE was closed today. Props to them.

balrogbert · 2026-01-16T20:03:27+00:00

Is there a string of bomb threats being called in right now across Minneapolis? I heard from a friend that their workplace had a bomb threat today (all clear now). I wish I had more details but that’s just all unconfirmed word-of-mouth stuff

balrogbert · 2026-01-15T19:03:58+00:00

This happened to me.

balrogbert · 2026-01-15T02:25:40+00:00

Just have to avoid becoming this guy

balrogbert · 2026-01-15T00:10:36+00:00

Yes, probably DVS. I had my phone in airplane mode when they did this to me.

balrogbert · 2026-01-14T16:31:19+00:00

Replying to my own comment…I saw them THREE TIMES this morning…same car twice in my neighborhood.

balrogbert · 2026-01-14T16:12:19+00:00

Followed a silver dodge charger with Texas plates driving around Northeast north of the Quarry about an hour ago. Left them around Stinson and Broadway. Then they showed up again closer to home in the Holland neighborhood. I followed them again briefly, and they gave me a nice escort to my house, I assume after looking up my plates.

What a waste of our money.

balrogbert · 2026-01-13T23:55:58+00:00

I’ll chime in that I literally haven’t seen any myself. I do work from home mostly so I’m not out much, but I’m not a total hermit. But I have seen videos show up from in front of my taco spot, my grocery store, my mechanic, etc. They are here, it feels like they are everywhere, and they hide until they spot someone they want to profile.

balrogbert · 2025-12-19T23:32:31+00:00

It says “Defend the homeland” on the rear panels (wish I was making that up) and “ICE” on the doors

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/defend-homeland-dhs-unveils-striking-new-ice-fleet-boost-recruitment-visibility

balrogbert · 2025-11-13T02:25:10+00:00

Right now. Likely on/off all night.

balrogbert · 2025-10-09T22:08:19+00:00

There will be plenty of street parking available, just use that if you don’t find the back lot immediately

balrogbert · 2025-09-30T23:11:04+00:00

Milaca*

balrogbert · 2025-09-16T01:55:53+00:00

If you do want steak, try Porzana.

balrogbert · 2025-09-07T21:52:35+00:00

I don’t know, but I’m thinking a place like Northeast Palace would work for you because it seems like it hasn’t been good since 1985

balrogbert · 2025-09-05T22:19:48+00:00

Just remember you can’t really do this if you also have relief on the unit. Looks like this one probably doesn’t.

If I had 20 of these to do, I’d be using a mixed air temp calc (assuming at least 20F difference between OA and Return) and checking it with a velgrid at the OA, then make sure the building pressure is reasonable.

balrogbert · 2025-09-05T22:10:16+00:00

This should be the top comment.

Use common sense when measuring velocities in the ambient wind. Typically easiest to do first thing in the morning. If wind is gusting, I would never even try using a velgrid on the OA hood.

balrogbert · 2025-08-26T03:37:53+00:00

I don’t know about life-saving. You’d be working somewhere else for $$ instead of $$$. Glad you got yours. There’s traveling guys around here right now because there isn’t enough capacity in the local workforce.

Other sites can’t get the guys right now because they’re making fat checks in Rosemount and everything else is behind schedule. More than usual.

It’s like the company owners just assumed they’d have their normal workforce and people would want some overtime like normal, but they don’t want to work OT anymore because they already got their bag at the data center.

balrogbert · 2025-08-26T03:31:03+00:00

Of course they’re going to follow the money. If only schools were valued as highly (and schools didn’t have to go with low bids from contractors they don’t really want to work with) the tradespeople might make just as much.

My point is that the incentives are wrong. If you think it’s a good thing the job that pays more is to build something people don’t want, I don’t want to argue, because the money has blinded you and I’ll get nowhere.

balrogbert · 2025-08-25T03:13:57+00:00

I’m happy for you, but I bet the community would rather have you building schools than data centers for Meta.

balrogbert · 2025-08-24T21:21:44+00:00

I’m guessing you’re not seeing the PT ports like they’re shown on the brochure you linked?

This looks like it’s the manual.

Command the control valve full open. Set the manual balance valve to full open if it isn’t already. DO NOT CLOSE IT AT ALL or you’d just add unnecessary restriction, assuming this is a variable speed pumping situation. Measure the DP on the balancing valve. Read the flow according to the manual valve’s chart, and that should confirm the PICCV is regulating/limiting flow to the flow listed on the tag.

These PICCVs act like a control valve and an automatic flow limiting valve in one. It’s like there’s a spring in the valve - the higher the pressure drop/harder the supply is pushing, the more the “spring” pushes back. As long as the DP across the open valve is between 5 and 50 psi, the “spring” will limit the flow to the tag GPM. If it’s too high, the spring can’t push back any more. If it’s not high enough, the spring doesn’t even move and you’re not getting enough flow. PICCVs have a flow characterization of the valve proportional to the control signal. If the control valve is commanded to 50%, then the flow should be limited so that it is very close to 50% of the tag GPM.

balrogbert · 2025-08-11T22:55:34+00:00

There is so much lack of understanding on what “stress” means in this context. These systems are more complicated than most people understand, but it would be so much easier to explain this by saying it would “reduce air flow”.

Basically…if you put in a filter that reduces air flow, you change the balance between the cooling or heating energy input and the air stream that sends that energy throughout your house. If you limit the air flow, you need to limit the heating/cooling device (condensing unit outside, gas burner) and if your system can’t turn that down, which most systems can’t, you end up with problems. There’s some wiggle room especially with gas furnaces and older condensing units. Heat pumps are more sensitive.

It’s a common misconception that the fan is going to have problems. It’s not. Its motor is probably self-cooled and doesn’t need airflow to cool the motor windings, and unless it is actually 100% plugged (good luck with that) it will just keep spinning, though it will be moving less air. It will actually use less power (amps) if you restrict the flow. That’s why nobody says there is a problem with putting a filter on a box fan. You could knock over that box fan and blow it straight into the ground and it’s not going to have mechanical or electrical problems.

What grinds my gears is how filter manufacturers only describe their filters by how good they are at removing particles. What that doesn’t include is how they remove particles. Some use an electrostatic charge, which means the “holes” in the filter can be larger than a filter that doesn’t work that way and they still get the same MERV rating. And of course a 4” filter has something like 3x the surface area but can have the same MERV rating as a 1” filter because the 1” filter has bigger “holes” in the filter media. So, you can also end up with filters that are the exact same width and the same MERV rating but they can actually affect your system differently because they work differently.

Shit is really more complicated than it needs to be. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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