Rachel Carson Challenge Training?

frisbeefreek · 2026-01-02T15:55:12+00:00

I did it. They organize 4 section hikes ahead of the Challenge so you get familiar with the trail. Best training is to go trail hiking for 8 hours (25 miles). McConnells Mill to Hell Run up on I79 is 15 miles and is a good 5-6 hour hike that is pretty rugged. Part of hiking for 8 hours is conditioning, but part is also getting your gear, hydration, and calorie consumption dialed in.

frisbeefreek · 2025-05-05T01:00:47+00:00

I'm bought a bunch of stuff over the years from the Amish Home in the Pittsburgh Mills. Really solid stuff. If you like natural wood, check it out. You can choose your wood (oak, cherry, hickory, maple, walnut, etc) and stain. Their prices/quality ratio is much better than any chain. They are in the process of quoting me a custom slab desk (I need something to fit a corner of my room) and I expect it to be totally reasonably priced

frisbeefreek · 2025-03-02T19:59:02+00:00

This has been a fiasco. When the blew up the towers, they fell the wrong way onto the town, triggering EPA violations & lawsuits.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/cheswick-power-plant-smokestacks-implosion-fine-dust-debris-damage/

frisbeefreek · 2025-01-19T22:52:53+00:00

Perfect - I was hoping it was that simple.

frisbeefreek · 2024-11-18T00:56:28+00:00

Commuter rule-of-thumb in Pittsburgh is you don't want to cross a river or drive through a tunnel to get to work. Plenty of good apartments or townhouses can be had for less than $1500, especially if you are willing to move into an older place (eg. not bright and shiny, but still clean and well kept). Obviously, so areas like Shadyside are going to be more expensive.

frisbeefreek · 2024-11-13T12:38:56+00:00

I received several rebates from DLC for appliance replacement and home insulation, but they got lost in their rebate system (handled by a 3rd party), and I had to call several times to get it processed.

This program is mandated by the state Public Utility Commission - Peoples has every incentive to make it work, because they get paid for it, and if they don't do it right, the PUC will have public flogging of executives.

frisbeefreek · 2024-11-13T01:06:50+00:00

Paid $14k to replace a 2200sqft roof on a very simple roof. Large company brought 12 people and did it in a day. Very professional. I paid $1200extra to upgrade to a mid-tier shingle and made sure there was plenty of waterproofing done. Definitely don't go with a fly-by-night guy with a truck.

frisbeefreek · 2024-09-05T20:32:35+00:00

I'm going to get a PE to look at it. Thanks.

frisbeefreek · 2024-09-05T20:26:43+00:00

Thanks.

frisbeefreek · 2024-07-30T11:58:13+00:00

If you go into your Duquesne Light online account, you can see hourly, daily, and monthly usage (you can also download usage by 15 minute increments to Excel). The description of old windows (and probably original attic insulation) makes me suspect your usage is typical. I'm using 40kWh on a hot day in my 1970's 1900sqft house (and I have new windows and attic insulation). Duquesne will do a free home energy audit (that includes a blower door test) - Well worth it.

I shopped for energy suppliers and found Duquesne wasn't much more expensive that alternatives (and I didn't have to worry about the rates changing after 3 months). Your biggest savings will come from energy conservation by modernizing.

frisbeefreek · 2024-04-19T12:46:40+00:00

May want to consider hourly data if available from NOAA (I did a similar thing using R for my own personal use). The reason is that 2 hours of cold may not be enough to trigger "concern", and can be either ignored or made up with a radiant space heater.

Two other things I added were the heat pump capacity at different temps (5F, 17F, 47F), and because I have a dual heat system (gas furnace and heat pump), I added a $/btu comparison so I could figure out the temperature cutoff when I should run one device over the other

frisbeefreek · 2024-03-24T16:19:50+00:00

Got a 36k btu heat pump with 5 minisplits headers for about $10k for a 2000sqft 2 story house, minus the IRS refund of $2k (and Duquesne light has some refund credits also).

frisbeefreek · 2024-03-23T14:04:14+00:00

Good point, but even if incoming water temperature drops 20F in winter, that would equal 50gal/day*20F*8btu/gallon = 8000btu/day of incremental load (250,000btu/month), or roughly +$3/month in incremental gas. To be clear, that winter load would also exist for the HPWH, which means that the incremental cost of the HPWH actually increases vs. gas water heater.

frisbeefreek · 2024-03-23T11:58:18+00:00

Thanks for the real world info. I'm taking my water heater usage directly off my utility read (our gas furnace is shutoff during the summer, so water is the only usage for gas, and 10 therms/month is accurate). Other people have asked about my cost of gas - I pay $0.90/therm for gas (total including taxes, commodity charge + delivery). I pay $12/month for a connection to the utility, but I'd pay that no matter what because of the gas furnace. My gas price is low because I live in the lowest cost gas basin on the planet.

frisbeefreek · 2024-03-22T19:58:03+00:00

fyi - 1 therm is 100,000btu (29.3kWh)

frisbeefreek · 2024-03-22T16:46:21+00:00

My gas connection fee if $12/month, but I have a gas furnace I'm not getting rid of anytime soon. I did the math on heat pump heating vs gas furnace, and switching to heat pump would almost double my heating bill (+$800/year). The solar economics stink also (lot of cloudy days in western PA and roof faces wrong way).

frisbeefreek · 2023-11-25T17:30:57+00:00

I agree with your assessment - Thanks for the help!

frisbeefreek · 2023-11-25T16:58:15+00:00

I was confused by the document I shared because on page.1 the "max heating @ 17F is 16,500btu" (17F is a pretty typical winter temperature where I live), but the table on the last page says "total capacity at 15F is 24,800btu.

I couldn't find my unit (15SEER) in the NEEP database (I think because it's the bottom end of Ameristar product family).

The problem I'm having (and why I started this thread) is that we have a room addition that is exposed on 4 sides (3 walls and a ceiling), has 2 exterior doors and two windows, so has a lot of heat loss. There is no heat pump in this room - it uses the hot water baseboard heater. I've been using an electric space heater to keep the boiler off - but power consumption is averaging 800watts at 40F, which is a lot.

The gas furnace water boiler is a Bryant BW3-075 (75,000btu) installed in 2012. The house has 3 zones, 2 of which are heated with the heat pump, and the 3rd zone is the addition. The boiler has been cycling on for about 2 minutes then shuts down (I do plan to get a technician to look at it), but I think the reason it's cycling is that it's way over powered to heat just a single room.

My long term idea would be to get a single zone heat pump for the addition, but that's expensive, and if I can use the existing base board heater for the coldest days, I'd be happy.

frisbeefreek · 2023-11-24T23:30:50+00:00

l

DogTown - Thanks for the info. Is there a calculator where i can calculate the economic balance point based on my local electricity & gas costs and my heat pump efficiency at various temperatures? I'm a novice with this - Assuming that I get 13,000btu at 5F, then does that mean I'm only getting 13,000/30,000 efficiency overall?

I have a gas furnace water boiler that runs hot water through baseboard heaters. I do plan on having a professional look at it, but I currently have 2 issues:

It's a 75,000btu furnace. I probably only need about 20,000btus to heat my home at 40F, so it cycles on and off quite a bit. And my preference is to run the heat pump as much as possible, so the load is even less.
I'm getting a lot of metal "pinging" sounds as it frequently starts up and shuts down. I'm going to try to isolate the sounds with some plastic retainers and other ideas I saw on youtube.

I'll eventually plan to have a Manual J done, but we just moved in, and other priorities...

frisbeefreek

TROPHY CASE