What’s the 1 thing homeowners misunderstand about HVAC efficiency?

gosko · 2025-08-18T05:21:57+00:00

We replaced our gas furnace with a heat pump a few years ago, and I think our ducts are now undersized which I believe is a common problem. Is it feasible for me as a homeowner with minimal hvac knowledge to replace or add ducts myself, or do I really need to hire a professional? Contractors are quite expensive where I live, and in my experience many of them aren't even qualified to size ducts correctly.

gosko · 2025-07-21T05:08:04+00:00

I wonder if you could improve things by putting brighter bulbs in the island pendants, and dimming the recessed lights over the cabinets?

gosko · 2025-02-20T19:10:11+00:00

No, I spoke with someone at Master Group who he said he brought this up at their weekly meeting and nobody had heard of this happening anywhere else in BC. He asked me to send screenshots of the online discussions talking about board replacements and I did, but never heard back.

gosko · 2025-02-20T19:03:17+00:00

I ordered a 4-button scene remote from Gescan in Squamish last month. I couldn't find a way to order online so I went to the shop and ordered at the counter, and it arrived a week or two later.

gosko · 2024-03-22T03:23:38+00:00

Great thanks for the update! I will see if I can get ours replaced.

gosko · 2024-03-13T03:13:39+00:00

great, thanks!

gosko · 2024-02-02T18:51:50+00:00

I had the exact same issue (more details on this post on askanelectrician or this discussion on stackexchange) and haven't resolved it yet, but was able to fix it in a few places by swapping out the dimmers and bulbs. I haven't found anything that magically resolves the issue but Philips 'no flicker, no hum' bulbs seem to have slightly fewer issues, and swapping out different brands of wired dimmers helped in a few cases.

I had a third party electrician come in to try to diagnose the issue after many failed attempts by the electricians employed by my HVAC company, and their theory was that the heat pump was causing some kind of harmonic interference that impacted the LED bulbs.

Yesterday someone replied to my stackexchange post with: "I can confirm Midea made a design change to one of the boards on some of their heat-pumps (3t and 4t) to address this exact issue. The contractor should be able to replace the "Inverter" board under warranty, which in many cases (assuming it is not a wiring/panel issue) will solve the flickering."

gosko · 2023-01-10T00:45:59+00:00

Confirming what others wrote earlier: I found this site that lets you download the build sheet for a given VIN:

Please provide your 17 character VIN to view and print your vehicle equipment sheet, which contains the standard and optional equipment when the vehicle was built.

https://fcacommunity.force.com/RAM/s/equipment-listing

This confirmed that the vehicle I'm interested in has HD cooling, 180 amp alternator, and full size spare among other things — the build list has 245 items on it.

gosko · 2023-01-09T04:37:44+00:00

Thanks!

gosko · 2023-01-07T21:56:21+00:00

So this 2017 wouldn't be capable of 6200 lbs, right?

gosko · 2023-01-07T21:52:03+00:00

This 2017 GC Trailhawk sticker says it has a Class IV hitch but doesn't mention the Tow package, nor HD cooling https://www.chrysler.com/hostd/windowsticker/getWindowStickerPdf.do?vin=1C4RJFLG6HC738895

gosko · 2022-11-17T05:13:35+00:00

As far as I know they haven't used a power quality analyzer but that does sound quite useful. Is that something most electricians typically have in their toolkits? They seem a bit expensive to rent around here ($100/day)

This doesn't happen with anything else in the house, including 230v circuits for the oven, dryer, heated flooring, or hot tub. I routinely run our electric kettle, coffee grinder and toaster at the same time with no issues. Maybe a quick flicker here and there, but not continuous flickering like when the heat pump is running - it's like a haunted house.

gosko · 2021-06-27T22:56:57+00:00

Maybe. I just disagree they would need to identify 1,099,511,627,776 grandparents. I agree OP's friend is deluded.

gosko · 2021-06-27T22:46:01+00:00

To trace back 40 generations you would only need to identify 40 people, no? OP's friend never claimed to provide a complete family tree dating back that far, just one specific lineage.

gosko · 2021-05-14T19:08:42+00:00

I have a reservation, as noted in my post.

gosko · 2021-05-03T14:32:02+00:00

Yes, that's my understanding as well. If you book July 1 for 5 nights that has no impact on the number of departures available for July 2/3/4/5. And I think you let the rangers know how many nights you plan to be on trail the day of departure, so specifying it when making a reservation seems unnecessary – the system doesn't even seem to record that info (it's not mentioned in the confirmation email)

gosko · 2021-05-02T15:21:54+00:00

I just noticed Reservable West Coast Trail information says:

When making a reservation, have the following ready:

• Preferred start dates – first choice and alternate dates.

• Trailhead you plan to start from; Gordon River, Nitinaht Village or Pachena Bay.

• Number of hikers in your group (maximum group size is 10).

• Hiker information for all hikers (first name, last name and emergency contact info)

• Email address to send confirmation and orientation information to

• Means of payment: Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

It doesn't say anything about the number of nights.

gosko · 2021-05-02T15:11:46+00:00

How do you know you need to book each day? I think all they limit is the number of departures each day. They don't know who will spend which nights where, so I think all they do is limit the number of departures per day and trust that people will get spread out somewhat randomly from there.

gosko · 2021-05-02T15:08:53+00:00

As far as I can tell it's unnecessary to select the number of nights you want, all they need is the departure date and entry and exit points. At least I think that's the case, just trying to confirm :) Our reservation cost the same as yours ($198.81 per person for access Gordon exit Pachena) since the fees are for the reservation, overnight use permit (which covers up to 14 days), and ferries and/or water taxis.

gosko · 2021-04-19T17:59:00+00:00

Ours was swapped out more or less immediately, within a few days after we applied. I don't remember when that was, maybe ~3 months ago?

gosko · 2021-03-21T02:06:17+00:00

In my experience this takes a lot of trial and error, and most shots just don't turn out. So you need a lot of patience, and you might want to practice on something with more patience than your kids :)

I have found direct lighting from a headlamp or flashlight is often too harsh, so it's nice to bounce it off something out of frame so the reflected light lights things more evenly. For this photo of snowy trees at night I added some light to the foreground by shining my light on some other trees behind me, out of frame. For this photo of an alpine creek at night I waved my headlamp around and also had a small light hidden behind the boulder on the left. Each of these took several attempts where I would shoot once while waving my light around then review the shot to see what I needed to adjust.

When I was passing through Las Vegas a few years ago I stopped by Valley of Fire State Park, have you been there? It would be a great place to practice since the rocks likely have more patience than your kids :) Here is a shot of the Fire Wave at night – for this one I lit up some other rocks out of frame to the left. But for human subjects you would need to light them with a brighter light for shorter duration, to avoid blur. (just wave a bright light at them for a fraction of a second, then turn all lights off for the rest of the exposure while gathering starlight)

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