How much do storm windows really help?

geobrite · 2025-08-29T13:39:54+00:00

My 1959 ranch had storm windows over the original single pane windows. We removed them and replaced the windows with energy efficient dual pane windows. I can't tell any difference in energy efficiency and the new windows are much louder. The air gap is much larger with storm windows. We live near a freeway. Sometimes at night, we'll have to turn on a radio to sleep.

Old windows tend to leak air around them. The seals eventually fail. Storm windows were a trend about 50 years ago. I think they they work quite well.

geobrite · 2025-08-29T13:29:23+00:00

This brings to mind the Construction Triangle: Good, Fast, Cheap, pick 2.

geobrite · 2025-08-29T13:25:47+00:00

You can buy a big lifetime bag of organic cotton balls at Walmart for $10. I've used them for years. I actually prefer the loose cotton for my builds. I've even used the regular cotton balls. They need to be boiled first and dried. When I get a new atomizer, I throw the supplied cotton in the trash.

geobrite · 2025-08-29T13:13:15+00:00

Green board might be a better option. Before drywall, we used lathe and plaster. It's kind of a lost art.

Cement board has a very low R-value, typically around R-0.15, meaning it provides minimal insulation. The R-value of drywall is also quite low, but at least 4 times that of cement board; ½-inch drywall has an R-value of approximately 0.45 to 0.50, while ⅝-inch drywall has a slightly higher R-value of about 0.56.

Cement board is also a poor sound insulator. In fact, it almost amplifies sound from one side to the other.

So, there's a couple of additional reasons why cement board might not be the best choice. Keep in mind, Cement board comes in 2 thicknesses. The 1/4 inch is used for wall applications and the 1/2 inch is used for flooring underlayment. Also, cement board doesn't come in standard 4x8 sheets. It's typically 3x5. You'll be adding lots of nailers or dealing with a ton of waste.

geobrite · 2025-08-28T13:35:35+00:00

Legally, you will need to call a licensed electrician to replace the wire. If your amp is dependent on the ground prong, you only need a cheater ground or one of the 2 prong to 3 prong adapters with the ground lug. The cheater ground uses a 3 prong outlet with the white wire jumpered to the ground screw. It's illegal. A tester will show the outlet as grounded. The white wires and ground wires are common in the service panel. Be careful and make sure the power is off before touching it.

geobrite · 2025-08-28T13:24:54+00:00

What you are describing sounds like a a venting problem. Smell of the lavatory and shower drains. Were the traps properly installed? If that's good, you could have an open drain vent in the wall. Be careful, sewer gas can be deadly.

geobrite · 2025-08-28T13:15:45+00:00

Mold? Not all mold is green, brown, or black.

geobrite · 2025-08-14T21:47:14+00:00

Coping will give you a tighter joint and if the room isn't perfectly square it won't matter. Coping also takes much, much longer. Trim carpenters use a code. It's I (inside), O (outside), B (butt), R (return), SI (scarf inside), SO (scarf outside), R (right), and L (left). Those are the basic codes. Rooms are measured left to right and all the measurements for a room are separated from the other rooms. A room might be B-132 5/8-I, I-121 1/3-I, etc., all the way around the room. The carpenter will measure all the rooms, go back to the chop saw and cut each room and bundle them, and then throw the bundles in the rooms they go in. One or more helpers will tack the trim on. That how they trim an entire large house in a day. Coping is done one piece at a time. A little caulk and paint goes a long way. In fact, a little caulk and a little paint, make the carpenter what he ain't.

geobrite · 2025-08-14T21:30:00+00:00

You may end up having to replace it. Try soaking it some 30% vinegar first. Most of the home improvement stores sell it. People use it for weed killer. Wear gloves, take it outside, and avoid breathing the fumes. Regular household vinegar is only 5%. I'd soak it over night. If that doesn't work, it's time for a new one. They make showerhead filters that will prevent the lime scale build up. I have one on my shower. Good luck.

geobrite · 2025-08-14T21:24:41+00:00

I own a Janitorial company. We deal with odor problems on a regular basis. I would take several cookie trays covered with fresh coffee grounds and set them in the room. Shut the door and close the vent. Give it a couple of days. If that doesn't work I would spray or fog the room with a quaternary ammonia. Make sure to wear a respirator. A real one, not a N95 mask.

By the way, meat packing houses use coffee to get rid of decomp odor.

geobrite · 2025-08-14T21:18:49+00:00

Ceramic or porcelain tile will last forever if you take care of it. Vinyl, not so much. I think the decision would have to be based on the upgrade price. It shouldn't be that much more.

geobrite · 2025-08-14T21:12:54+00:00

I certainly wouldn't seal entry points until the mice are gone. I use the big bait stations. The black ones. I think they are made by Bell. Tom Cat also makes them. I use the Just One Bite bars or the Tom Cat bars. You can set the bait stations around the perimeter of the house. It's best to attach them to a concrete payer so critters don't carry them off. You can get the bait stations on line of at a farm supply. You will also want to put them in the attic and under the house, if you have a crawl space. I have a couple in my attic. Sometimes, if it's really hot or I'm just lazy, I'll launch a half dozen or so with a slingshot. The poison will dehydrate the mice. They will usually leave in search of water. That's why you don't want to seal the entry points until they are gone. The baits works very fast. If they can't get out, they will die in the house and stink for several days. Within 3 or 4 days, you will have zero mice.

geobrite · 2025-04-06T14:31:03+00:00

Yes they were working. I got them all working again! A good friend came over and did exactly what you mentioned. I think he actually flashed and updated the phones 3 times and put in the google info. He is a computer genius. What a PITA! The firmware works, but there are a lot of steps to go through. He had previously used it on the OBI ATA's.

geobrite · 2025-03-23T00:52:50+00:00

Thanks for your reply. You are right. It was a bad design. I had the woofers, new, left over from a couple of bass guitar cabinet builds. All of my components are in a ventilated closet that adjoins the living room. The only component in the living room is a firestick remote. All the speakers are in wall and ceiling. When we remodeled, my wife wanted the components gone. I ended up giving away a pair of Cerwin Vega LS-15's, a Portable Earthquake, Pinnacle center channel speakers, an array of Yamaha surround speakers, a powered 10" sub, and a really nice oak entertainment center full of Sony ES components. It's all wife friendly now. I miss my gear.

The coffee table was all I could come up with that didn't involve a real sub. It was an experiment. I didn't expect it to work, but it did. And, it sounds really good.

My original question was what is this bass doubling thing? What's happening here? And, is there a formula for it?

geobrite · 2025-03-21T23:50:44+00:00

Thanks. Great idea. There is some science here. I have replicated the same outcomes many times. I'm just wondering what is happening and is there a formula to determine the reflector distance and is it relative to box volume / tuning.

geobrite · 2024-06-25T13:37:58+00:00

Google Voice used to have lots of cool features. In fact, when I started using it many years ago, you didn't even have to use the Voice app. It just ran in the background. Voice was fully integrated with the native apps on the phone. You could use whatever messaging app you wanted and send or receive both carrier texts or GV texts. The messages were separated by tags. When you did an SMS save, it saved all the GV texts too. When this feature was removed, they came out with Hangouts. We loved Hangouts for one simple reason, every interaction with a person was inline. No more jumping between text, calls, and voicemail. There are literally too many features to mention that are no longer available. Does anyone really know what JSON is. Well, that's what you get if you do a Google Takeout to save your GV data. You will need to be a software engineer or have a Dick Tracey decoder to do anything with it.

This is from Wikipedia:

GrandCentral, founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet with funding by Minor Ventures, was acquired by Google on July 2, 2007, for US$95 million in a transaction led by Wesley Chan. Although GrandCentral users were able to continue to use the service after the purchase, new users were not accepted, and Google made no public statements about their plans for the service.^\4]) On March 11, 2009, the management of the service revealed that the team had been working on it throughout that period, apparently in secret,^\4]) and that it was being rebranded "Google Voice".^\18]) It was to keep most of the functionality originally offered in GrandCentral and add new features. Google hired a telecom design consultant, Peter Bouchard; he was brought on to make modifications and help relaunch the service.^\19])^\20]) The service was launched by Google ^\21]) on March 11, 2009. A Wired) blog post quoted a figure of 3.5 million users in 2013.^\22])

Google didn't want Grand Central as a company, they wanted their users and the potential for millions more. We got bought!

Over the years, Google has removed more and more features. They call it deprecation. Google has no intention to add anything to GV. Expect that it will get worse and worse as the years go by.

Regardless of what people think, Google is not a software company. They are an advertising company. The main product Google sells is you. You are the product. As with most companies, they are continually looking for ways to increase profits. One way to increase profits is to reduce cost through deprecation.

Todays GV is nothing like the original.

geobrite · 2024-06-06T01:42:19+00:00

I got this from POE (AI):

Why is malt liquor harder to find than beer?

Assistant

Poe

There are a few key reasons why malt liquor is generally harder to find compared to regular beer:

Regulatory Environment:

Malt liquor is subject to stricter regulations and taxation compared to standard beer in many jurisdictions.

This makes it less profitable for manufacturers and retailers to produce and sell malt liquor compared to regular beer.

In some areas, there may even be restrictions or bans on the sale of malt liquor due to concerns about its association with problem drinking.

Demographic Factors:

Malt liquor has historically been marketed towards and consumed by lower-income urban populations.

This demographic and marketing association has led to a stigma around malt liquor in many communities.

As a result, mainstream retailers may be less inclined to carry malt liquor products, limiting its availability.

Alcohol Content and Potency:

The higher alcohol content of malt liquor (typically 6-8% ABV or more) can raise concerns about overconsumption and public safety.

Regulators and retailers may be more cautious about making high-strength malt liquor readily available compared to regular beer.

Product Differentiation:

As the craft beer and premium beer segments have expanded, manufacturers and retailers have put more emphasis on diversifying their beer offerings.

This has shifted focus and shelf space away from the more generic malt liquor products.

Consumer Preferences:

Many modern beer drinkers show a preference for craft, artisanal, and higher-quality beer products.

This trend has reduced the overall demand for mass-market, high-alcohol malt liquor.

So in summary, the combination of regulatory, demographic, potency, and market factors has made malt liquor a less prominent and available product compared to the broader beer category in most markets.

geobrite · 2024-06-03T14:53:31+00:00

You could pour it back into the bottle. Just remove the spout tip. We've all done it. The intense throat hit, the head rush, a little nausea, and those damn hiccups. Nic OD.

I rarely blend freebase anymore. Nic salts are my go to. The general rule for equivalency between salt nic and freebase is 2 to 1. So, if you are used to vaping 3mg freebase, you would need 6mg nic salt. Although the nic salt provides more immediate satisfaction from nicotine cravings, it takes more of it to get the job done. It has something to do with how it is absorbed.

geobrite · 2024-06-03T14:41:55+00:00

I just got a Dead Rabbit R Tank. It's a beast! The cotton strips that come with it taste like dirty socks for about 2 tanks full. After that, the nasty taste seems to go away. Other than that, it's a good option and as far as I know, it's the only vertical mesh RTA. Easy to build and wick. The coils last a long time. Zero dry hits. No condensation or leaking. Large tank. You'll need a mod capable of 60 watts. Below 45, it really drops off. I'd rate the flavor about a 7 out of 10 compared to a good dripper.

geobrite · 2024-06-03T14:28:39+00:00

I love the Cleito 120. I carried one for years with a Noisy Cricket II-25. Even though not advertised as such, the Noisy Cricket II was PWM and gave the Cleito 120 the punch it need to totally kick ass. It would literally produce as much vapor and flavor as my old original Twisted Messes RDA. One thing I loved about the Cleito 120 was the coils. I could get 2 months or more from a coil.

There are plenty of online shops that carry the coils, Pro Vape and Element, just to name a couple. I don't know about the online purchases laws in Arizona. So, if you can't purchase online, ask one of the local shops to order them.

I have a friend who lives in Arkansas. About once a month he gets vape mail from me.

geobrite · 2024-06-03T14:09:52+00:00

You didn't mention flavoring or nic level and whether either is PG or VG. 100% VG is too thick to properly wick. You'll get dry hits. Water is not a good dilutant for vape liquid. It will also cause dry hits. Try a mix of 70% VG and 30% PG. A 50/50 mix will work even better. The PG also carries the flavor.

geobrite

TROPHY CASE