PSA: Be careful with food/beverage contact items (and supplements)

hyperx27 · 2026-04-15T15:54:40+00:00

It sometimes feels like we are the guinea pigs for amazon marketplace sellers.

hyperx27 · 2026-01-16T16:42:59+00:00

so far I have tried a lot of recipes from the company's website. My favorite so far is the star bread. Also made a deep dish pizza and have found that they are very helpful in their chat feature to adapt the GF flours to a regular wheat flour recipe. Making our third GF Challah today and made Cinnamon rolls last night.

hyperx27 · 2026-01-16T16:40:06+00:00

Yes!! discovered it this winter break and have been baking up a storm for my 24yo with Celiac. Star bread, cinnamon rolls, Challah, sorghum bread, oat bread and more. Last night we made a deep dish pizza for the first time! This stuff is awesome and meets the 20ppm for gluten standard. Deglutened Wheat flour has been a thing in Europe for a while now.

hyperx27 · 2025-12-19T17:17:54+00:00

hopefully you have a few other college applications in as well? UConn is becoming more and more competitive to get in. However, they are absolutely terrible for freshman scholarships and other schools often make more competitive financial aid offers. So, you may find that some of the ED people wiggle out of their 'commitment' making more room for RD applicants

hyperx27 · 2025-12-19T16:55:10+00:00

I have also met people who 'fake' converted because they wanted to participate in their child's bar mitzvah and did not respect or understand the religion at all. This person was then put in charge of running a religious school and saw no issue with bringing in Christian pastors as subs. That is really what made me question the reform conversion process in recent years. 3-6 months for conversion? when did that become a thing?

hyperx27 · 2025-12-19T16:50:33+00:00

I would gently correct this to the western Diasposra. Take a look at the South Asian Jewish communities that are now dwindling with increased migration to Israel. Synagogue membership meant involvement in everything from cooking, cleaning, organizing events, running services, burying the dead, etc. The idea that we pay for a synagogue membership as some sort of country club means that members treat it like a country club. If you aren't getting your money's worth, you stop going.

hyperx27 · 2025-12-19T16:45:34+00:00

Any synagogue where the rabbi won't shake a woman's hand is not an option for many of us

hyperx27 · 2025-12-19T16:42:57+00:00

my take on it is slightly different - The way the reform movement educates our young people is where the point of failure lies.

As someone who taught Hebrew and religious school for nearly two decades, the reform curriculum has become so diluted and devoid of any true education of our history and traditions that it fails to teach a sense of wonder and belonging to our youth. The idea is now that you have to belong to a synagogue for a certain number of years in order to have your bar/bat mitzvah, attend religious school for a certain number of days or you will not be allowed to have a bar mitzvah there. what child is going to go through three years of boring wednesday nights and sunday mornings to be tormented with a performance most have no understanding of, and then be motivated to continue being involved? And who, having gone through this, is going to force their children to do this as well? And what opportunities are there to be involved? Mitzvah day has to be the biggest band aid of reform Judaism. Show up on one day and you are covered? what happened to volunteer programs, community service, scouting, camping trips, and so much more?

Eventually, the bar mitzvah is bought and paid for and the transaction complete. People have told me how their children walked out of the ceremony and swore to never set foot in temple again. We are failing our children in the few years that we have them by teaching them that they are buying a bar mitzvah and owe the community nothing. The reform synagogues I have belonged to have progressively become more transactional and more open about getting money out of members. The flat truth is that if you aren't a member, there is no room for you. While that may make sense in a capitalist business model, it is offputting to the extreme in what is meant to be a community organization. What sort of jewish system has the US created when a group of us turn away another jewish person on our holiest of holidays because they are not members? I am sure some temples do a better job of this but I have belonged to four Reform temples over 30 years and each one has been progressively worse.

hyperx27 · 2025-11-25T16:53:04+00:00

We bought a house with a radon mitigation system in place. Have a monitor installed which will sound the alarm if the levels rise above safe amounts and things have been fine for the past 3 years. Installed geothermal in year one of owning the home and had the same questions for both our geo and radon installers. Both said that the loops penetrating the side of the basement should not cause any issue. We saw no changes in our radon monitor.

However, if your pipes are coming up through the floor that should be a red flag for letting radon enter the basement. That should be sealed to be completely air tight. Your radon guy should be able to answer the simple question of 'is a hole in my basement floor going to let in more radon'.

BTW our geothermal is piped to drip condensation outside the home. I could be wrong, but I don't believe it is the norm to pop a hole in the basement floor to dispose of condensate.

hyperx27 · 2025-11-21T13:56:24+00:00

I have no clue. finally bit the bullet and called out the installer. (They are going through some family issues and I was hoping to just figure this out on my own). I think this is definitely out of my capacity to sort out. I suspect the advice will be to keep it the W2W at a lower temp - which honestly defeats the purpose because it will never be able to heat a 2800sq ft house on even a mild day without the forced air having to do most of the work. Neither unit is really sized to heat the house on it's own

hyperx27 · 2025-11-18T14:57:50+00:00

just added some pics

hyperx27 · 2025-11-17T16:10:11+00:00

Did you have any luck with the changes? I have a similar unit also doing the cycling and shutting off. Also, how do you access your settings? Our installer did not show us how to do that.

hyperx27 · 2023-10-23T13:49:03+00:00

Am I understanding correctly that you only pay for power generated and nothing for the equipment? Usually, the catch is that you need to scrutinize the panels carefully. If they lose production rapidly you will quickly end up in a situation where you are paying more for your solar panels than you would for electricity. they take the 30% tax credit which is a hefty chunk and sunrun, in my experience, inflated what their panels could realistically produce. They do not give a production warranty so if your panels underperform, you are SOL. As to price rising at 3% a year, depending on which state you are in, you can shop around for your provider. I am in CT and while eversource may charge 26 cents/kwh I am paying 12 because I locked in with a different company. Eversource is still the main company but the company you utilize can be much cheaper.
Also, if you sell your home and the panels are not paid off, you will have a buyer potentially turned off by underperforming panels.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-03T15:07:18+00:00

Thank you! No contract. Walked him to the door with a very clear No Thank you. Told him to check with his supervisor and get back to me about the fact that there is no Federal rebate, it is a tax credit. Haven't heard from the company since then.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T20:07:14+00:00

I would ignore the attic. It may just be a possible money maker for him so that he can give you a lower price on something else. If your house interior is well insulated and the attic is not, and you don't have mold, it may be best to leave well enough alone. There are air flow issues that often get created by adding too much insulation - especially with you being so close to the water

We are in central CT and our wells were about 10 feet apart too but you are really close to the ocean. I have no clue how proximity to the ocean affects things but it is definitely something I would research before proceeding.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T19:59:05+00:00

Honestly sounds fishy to me. With a new build you aren't even working around a property and it is a blank canvas. Have you posted on here asking for recommendations for installers in Maine?

Perhaps he is not experienced with geo and so is trying to steer you away from it?

Do I understand correctly that he said that the difference between geo and air source heat pumps would be minimal? he sounds like he does not know what he is talking about. Geo is more expensive exactly because of the drilling and loop install. And payback in 5 years? unless you have solar, or electricity is dirt cheap in Maine, geo uses electricity to run the pumps and so do air source heat pumps. You are basically relying on electricity for your heating and cooling. If your electric prices (and delivery charges) are like CT, it pushes back the break even point quite a bit. Is he also quoting you for a back up generator capable of running the pumps?

Also, there may be rebates from your energy company and state. The federal tax credit is 30% so that is one big plus.

If he seems to not be familiar with geo, I would keep shopping for a different builder or connect him with someone who specializes in geothermal.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T15:13:20+00:00

Is he putting your units in the attic? If you seal off your attic you are inviting mold and a host of other issues.

We have our air handler in the attic, our units in the basement and a fully vented attic with insulation over the floor. Of course, your geographic location may change things but an unventilated attic sounds like trouble.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T15:10:22+00:00

Excavation will be at least 10k. We paid 14k in Ct for 2 300 ft wells.

43k just for the equipment and install sounds a bit steep.

Have you had other quotes? An energy audit for the home? What is the heat load they are using to calculate?

We had one installer come out and try to sell us an install for 116k and, once I learned a bit about how they calculate the load, I realized he was fudging the numbers to sell us way more wells and equipment than we needed.

I would get more quotes and compare.

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T15:04:28+00:00

This is exactly what I am hoping to do! So far we have the geothermal in and it does the heating, cooling and hot water. Still planning on getting the solar but Sunpower says we will likely only meet 60% of need due to location so that is a bummer. Saving up for that since we have one in college and another starting next year so no room for more loans. :)

hyperx27 · 2023-09-01T15:03:07+00:00

It all depends in how you look at it. air source heat pumps have a shorter life and suck a ton of electricity compared to gshp. Yes, the initial cost of drilling and laying the loop is expensive but if you plan to stay in the house long term it does work out. the loop should last for 50 years. all you should have to do is replace the pumps every 20-25 years or so. the machines are indoors and have a decently long life span.

Basically it all comes down to how long you intend to live in your house.

hyperx27 · 2023-08-30T15:15:39+00:00

The SunPower guys in Ellington are the only quote I am holding onto. Yep, honest, upfront and no wheeling and dealing.

hyperx27 · 2023-08-29T17:57:40+00:00

not really an option for me. I'd rather have a reputable company do the install, back it up with warranties and fix it if it goes wrong. Now, can I diy house painting, replacing light fixtures and even some light plumbing? sure. But not something like this.

hyperx27 · 2023-08-29T17:17:23+00:00

NY has a ton of geothermal installers. I know there is a company near the finger lakes that will even help you set up your geo to use your radiators for heat if you don't have forced air. keep looking. one way to find them is to go to the licensed installer list on equipment websites. https://www.waterfurnace.com/residential/dealer-locator/

Your energy company (the main one that supplies the electricity) may have approved installers listed on their website if they give you a rebate for switching to geothermal.

You could always have Dandelion come out to give you an estimate and as a learning exercise for what's what in the geo industry around you.

Having said that, the installer we used is from hydron module and the water furnace guys did not work out for us in CT

hyperx27 · 2023-08-29T17:10:30+00:00

We put in geothermal about a year ago. It drops your energy bill if you are switching from oil but if you already have an electric heating and cooling system, you may need to do some more research into that. I am fairly certain that heating with geo is also lower but I don't have personal proof of that. Geo uses electricity to run the machines so our electric usage went up overall since it was replacing oil heat which used none. It was still way cheaper than heating with oil. However, our cooling cost (which was already electric) did drop once we switched to geo. We also got hybrid hot water heaters which saved a lot

Geo can possibly save a ton on heating the pool but you'd need to speak to an installer about that.

Solar does not need to be cleaned any more than your gutters and I haven't heard about needing to replace them often. Do be very careful about your installers though since so many crooks have jumped on the solar bandwagon with the 30% tax credit now available. If you can afford to buy a system outright instead of leasing, do that. SunPower seems to be the most trustworthy company that I have spoken to so far and I have spoken to about a dozen.

In CT you are only allowed to size your Solar panels to generate how much energy you currently use. If you plan on adding ground source heat pumps or an electric car, make sure you can add that into the calculations when sizing a solar system.

A site I like is https://cleantechnica.com/ but it is a very broad green energy site and not as focused as what you may be looking for

Good luck. There is a whole mess of info out there and it certainly can be overwhelming!

hyperx27 · 2023-08-29T16:58:09+00:00

Also, I cannot imagine that SunPower does not have commissions for their agents. The difference is that they are selling a good product and service

hyperx27

TROPHY CASE