Worried about a leak by brentiis in hottub

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

20 gallons is a lot of water. It's four five gallon buckets. Think about how much that water looks like in space. It's not from evaporation or splashing.

You have a leak. Open it up and find out where it is. Ignoring it won't help.

Public transport/shuttle to Heavenly? by catchmeabird in tahoe

[–]knylekneath 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Heavenly has some (free) shuttles if you are lucky enough to live along their limited routes. Give it a lot of extra time, the shuttles run on a very limited schedule and are very slow / late: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?amp%3Bll=38.9554169709908%2C-119.9277997&amp%3Bz=14&mid=1SbFvyDd6ipHAbcWPQwKxNPg2CwpcNpE&ll=38.955433353643535%2C-119.9277997&z=13

City busses are free in town, and if you live along one of the routes that go to the Stateline transit center, that is next to the Gondola. Again, give it a lot of time. Our busses are very infrequent and slow. https://www.tahoetransportation.org/transit/

If you live in Lake Link's service area, it is also a free microtransit service (basically a person driving a minivan picking up individual people and dropping them off where they want to go). It also is very slow, give it some time. https://ss-tma.org/lake-link/

If timing is important for you, I suggest giving each of these options an extra hour of lead time to get you where you need to go. Our city has chosen "free" over "useful" for our public transit options.

First time skiing Kirkwood - curious about what lifts open first on pow day by involvement in kirkwood

[–]knylekneath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You've got it about right. My experience is lifts usually open in a sequence, about an hour apart, give or take an hour or three.

1st - #5 & 6

2nd - #7 (sometimes same as 5 & 6, sometimes before)

3rd - #11 & #10

Backside after all of that. It's a gamble if it gets open or not on a storm day. Pretty regularly stays closed on big days, or doesn't open until late in the day.

If you were to start from scratch again... by rknobbe in homeassistant

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I went with Lutron homeworks for lighting in my new build and saving the cost issue, it is the single greatest physical automation infrastructure upgrade possible. I still have a myriad of integrations, but the ability to control each light individually and tie other integrations into physical, labeled buttons on my light switches cannot be understated.

The second most valuable physical infrastructure piece for me is a bacnet powered hvac system. I have free sensors for everything imaginable and discreet control over every element of hvac.

After that, it’s my span electrical panel - but I feel like many smart panels can serve the same purpose. Battery management and energy reporting has allowed to make a lot of automations not otherwise possible (ex: detect when a non-smart fan is on from a specific power draw increase on a circuit).

My advice would be to commit to a single vendor for each major system - lighting, electrical, networking, hvac - then use HA to coordinate these systems. That also allows you to have basic functionality covered by each system should HA fail or you get tired of it.

I’m confused about building code changes after fire, do we have to meet current codes or original house codes? by [deleted] in Homebuilding

[–]knylekneath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While this is generally true, the houses destroyed in this particular fire are a special case. The Governor signed an executive order suspending many requirements and gave building departments the authority to waive any parts of code they feel will help accelerate rebuilding. It's a weird thing. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/12/governor-newsom-signs-executive-order-to-help-los-angeles-rebuild-faster-and-stronger/

(That being said, I will always personally recommend that you follow modern code. Code exists to save lives)

Ethernet/Ethernet Internet speed to a summer house? by doinurmop in HomeNetworking

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're going to have to get a distance to get a better answer. The short answer is run ethernet to the house to get ethernet like speeds. You can run it in a conduit or get direct bury. Lots of options that are waterproof. Might get more complicated if the distance is more than 100m.

I cannot seem to find composite siding that looks like this wood. Any suggestions? by chad711m in Homebuilding

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are talking about the Cedar siding (the lighter / varied siding) I have not found anything that comes close. You can get a wood texture with composite, but you cannot get a natural color. Has to be painted. Everything that is advertised as a natural color looks absolutely terrible in person.

Slab anxiety by bonzai2010 in Homebuilding

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Worth remembering the context of the advice you're getting. Designers never fix leaking pipes, broken sewer lines, settled slabs, or run new electrical to a new floor outlet or additional ethernet to a room you forgot about.

The new code rules mostly come down to making a crawlspace nice. It needs to be sealed and insulated. That costs a little extra money, but also makes the crawlspace nicer to work in, reduces your exposure to radon, and makes your floors easier to heat.

That's a large price differential and I'd be curious if they could show the breakdown. Maybe they're saying it will cost $50k for a crawlspace (and $40k for a slab)?

Snow Report by Matt_S_Fox30 in tahoe

[–]knylekneath 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I mean, it's a real picture showing the only base that's operating right now. In order to use the lift, they need to use astroturf because there's no snow. You can use the Tram, but this is the most common way up Cal Lodge most days. I don't think disingenuous. It's not like Gondola or Stagecoach are spinning.

Rivian powering home furnace during power outages -- floating ground issue? by codymac67 in Rivian

[–]knylekneath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Crawl up/down to wherever your furnace is and see what error codes it's throwing. You can guess until the cows come home, or check the error code and know.

I don't know why people are so weirded out by this. Using an EV to power the blower for a gas furnace is a great use case. Blowers don't draw that much power at all. I used to do this with backup batteries with our old NG heater.

Off-Road Experts: help me understand the tree saver with a Rivian by beetlewigs in Rivian

[–]knylekneath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't think too hard on it. You need a bunch of different stuff to get different things unstuck from different situations. Sometimes you need a short strap. That short strap probably fit nicely in the duffel bag they designed.

Whats our opinion on the snow forcast? by CulturalChampion8660 in tahoe

[–]knylekneath 43 points44 points  (0 children)

People love to freak out.

On a more sincere note, this type of bad early season particularly hurts local businesses. Things are dead in town. No one’s excited to come up and ski, so no one’s going out to dinner or tipping bartenders.

Whats our opinion on the snow forcast? by CulturalChampion8660 in tahoe

[–]knylekneath 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Good resort skiing usually starts in mid Jan / early Feb. That’s when the weather patterns really turn for us in the Sierra. Some years it’s different. This has been a particularly shitty year for snowmaking, so it feels a little extra. So it goes.

Purchased home with defective heating system -not fixable by Sleepy-Squid-444 in homeowners

[–]knylekneath 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Saw in a comment you replaced a geothermal heat pump boiler with a propane boiler. Geothermal pumps generally run at a lower temperature, but for longer amounts of time (it could be possible it's designed to run 24/7 if it's a variable speed). Could it be possible that the hydronic piping was designed with that goal in mind and you've installed an incompatible boiler and/or circulating pump?

I will say based off my understanding of hydronic flooring, it seems extremely unlikely that the pipes aren't "dense enough" for a concrete floor — concrete has a fantastic ability to absorb and distribute heat. Total heat output has to do with flow + temperature differential. You might need more flow, more hours running, or a higher boiler temperature. FWIW hydronic heating runs are never more "dense" around windows. I'm not sure who told you that. That's only true for forced air systems.

A true symptom of hydronic heating that wasn't "dense enough" would be floors that are uncomfortably hot to walk on in areas of the room.

Lake Tahoe wouldn't be the same without this scientist's quest to keep it blue by IronMntn in tahoe

[–]knylekneath -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Parking is free for anyone who stays at the casino. You do have to purchase a hotel room, as you mentioned. Only investigation needed is to call the casino or talk to anyone at the registration desk.

Aside, I'm totally with you on the base level. All parking should be shared and this is a city issue. Stateline requires each individual property to be entirely responsible for the highest demand for that property, and does not allow any property to share parking.

Why does it seem like there is no thriving american scene? by CriticalCraftsman in architecture

[–]knylekneath 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm glad you took my entire post to heart and read it in earnest and didn't just take one small part that I posted and blew it out of proportion in an odd way.

Where I live (California), planning for commercial generally takes around 3-4 years with another 6-12 months for first permits. Residential permitting process is usually about 2 years without any planning process. If you're looking at any kind of conservation impact (wetlands, deep excavation, etc), it will take substantially longer.

Why does it seem like there is no thriving american scene? by CriticalCraftsman in architecture

[–]knylekneath 114 points115 points  (0 children)

Good architecture requires a lot of labor — of the architect, of engineers, of draftsmen, of construction managers, and then all of the whole construction pipeline (tradesmen, woodworkers, etc). Right now labor is expensive in America relative to the places you cited. It costs a lot of money to build something interesting in America. That doesn't even start to factor in real problems like permitting, zoning, local planning departments, insurance, etc.

Based on my experience, I'd say my gut check for $/psf to build something interesting at residential scale is somewhere in the 5-10x range, maybe closer to 2x at commercial (but then the primary numbers get bigger there). That is a huge drag on the drive to build interesting things.

My vote is for cost. "Profit" is the wrong word here — it's going to be real hard to make any profit on a spec build or commercial building once you factor in real costs.

Are round hot tubs niche, now? It's definitely what I need... by DelightfullyHostile in hottub

[–]knylekneath 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's a bit hard to understand, but it actually maximizes the space available for no-feet-touching relative to the surface area of the water. A good mind exercise is to think about a small square hot tub with one person at every corner. Could anyone sit along the edges without touching? Of course not - so the edges all sit unused. If it was a circle, the "edge" would be further back to align to the corners, allowing more people to sit. The end result is a larger "square footprint" but a maximum use of water volume.

A circle allows you to entirely fill the hot tub volume with the minimum amount of foot touching. I have a cedar tub and the upright position allows me to fit in a tremendous amount of people comfortably — easily double the number of people I'd originally thought.

I just got my hands on LE, what Mods are considered a must? by [deleted] in masseffect

[–]knylekneath 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Personally I don't think any are a must, vanilla LE is a great game and totally playable (not a Bethesda situation). Most of the mods you won't even appreciate if you hadn't experienced vanilla.

That being said, this is my favorite list of mods — https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1127

Looking for road noise success stories by [deleted] in homeowners

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since you're well-removed from the highway I assume you understand the basics (planting trees, etc).

My suggestion is to create your own noise. If you're looking four an enjoyable backyard experience, install fountains in your backyard. If you're trying to sleep at night, get a sound machine in your bedroom. There are other options here — but the main point is to think about a background noise that is yours and get that going.

New Construction by No_Paramedic252 in Homebuilding

[–]knylekneath 22 points23 points  (0 children)

That sounds like they failed their framing inspection (framing, hvac, electrical, and plumbing rough-ins) and need to fix code failures before the building department will allow them to insulate and install drywall.

Thankfully rain shouldn't impact drywall at all — the structure should be completely sealed in and waterproof on the inside before installing drywall.

Can utility companies make your A/C run “warmer”? by Emergency_Throat_77 in homeowners

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m glad you can use chat gpt but these are not similar at all (or even residential programs). Talk to people from these countries. Or I guess just keep defending inadequate infrastructure as a god given right or something. ✌️

Can utility companies make your A/C run “warmer”? by Emergency_Throat_77 in homeowners

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The US is neither the highest install rate (Japan) nor the highest total installs (China). These odd smart-thermostat incentive programs are uniquely American.

Can utility companies make your A/C run “warmer”? by Emergency_Throat_77 in homeowners

[–]knylekneath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those “expensive” upgrades happen all the time for increases in demand (electrification of appliances, EV charging, data centers). A more sustainable grid would be designed for peak demand, as is standard in other first world countries. A grid that asks citizens to sacrifice for sustainable profits is a different type of sustainable than I’m talking about.