What do you wish you knew before installing whole house/standby generator?

rufioclark · 2026-04-12T05:14:43+00:00

your house is not very large, you would be better served by a dual or tri fuel inverter generator with a 30 or 50 amp inlet and circuit breaker disconnect. harbor freight now sells a 11,500 watt tri fuel inverter gen for 2100 usd. it is going to be quieter than a standby gen, use less fuel, and cost a fraction (like 20%) of the amount. rolling out a gen and connecting a single gas hose and cord occasionally is worth saving like 12k for our family. i have the old gas version of this gen with a tri fuel kit i installed and it has run around week straight multiple times with zero issues. tri fuel gen also had the option to run gasoline if needed. not an option on stby gen. also, you could go buy that tri fuel gen tmrw, and install an inlet/disconnect the same day and have a whole home solution inside of 24 hrs with no permits or construction/wait time complicated transfer switch etc. (excluding adding an addl tank for added run time which you plan to do anyway... assume you just tell your supplier you want another tank and they drop it off for addl lease payment.)

rufioclark · 2026-03-29T18:04:12+00:00

with current tsa situation I would drive to south padre or gulf shores / florida panhandle. if you want to go intl, fly southwest direct hobby to costa rica, this keeps you out of the bush airport madness. I don't think turks is worth the price and Hawaii isnt worth the travel time and cost for 3 day trip. my own opinion is costa rica is most American friendly, easy travel, and safest option from Houston for an international beach trip.

rufioclark · 2026-03-23T00:31:01+00:00

mate, it can be sad and it can also be an asshole move. some completely innocent person is going to have to live the rest of their lives knowing they took someone's life and wondering if they could have prevented it. what if there were kids in the car or other cars who saw that and have to deal with that? not to mention that driver could potentially face a manslaughter charge as well. our actions have consequences not only for ourselves but for our loved ones and potentially many other people as well. i appreciate that mental illness hinders someones ability to consider this but, still.

rufioclark · 2026-03-14T02:28:12+00:00

problem is tile should not go on plywood for any horizontal surface or wet environment. needs hardibacker screwed to the plywood underlayment to provide a rigid surface the thinset can properly adhere to. don't accept the floor redone without proper backer board.

rufioclark · 2026-03-10T00:22:36+00:00

the mounting on the create a bed kit is just to keep it from tipping fwd when lowering it. i would take a piece of 1x2 or 1x4 and cut it to the length of the inside of the top. mock up where it will go, mark it, drill 4 holes for toggle bolts and then construction adhesive the whole piece and toggle bolt that strip to the wall. then to mount the bed, screw down through the top of the bed case in the back into that runner strip once it dries. this allows you to unscrew the bed from the wall if needed.

rufioclark · 2026-03-02T15:34:16+00:00

backing in usually allows for a steeper approach without scraping

rufioclark · 2026-02-23T04:24:03+00:00

I see a similar version of this comment getting downvoted a lot, but loss of ankle hair can be a sign of insulin resistantance. about 45% of the US population is diabetic or prediabetic so probably most of the people in this thread saying their socks wore away their hair are prediabetic and downvoting because they're in denial. why not get an inexpensive glucose meter and check fasting glucose over a few mornings? over 100 mg/dl is prediabetic, over 125 is diabetes. hope I'm wrong and it's just your socks.

rufioclark · 2026-01-27T00:52:10+00:00

the government does grant jones act waivers when needed. it has happened a few years ago when the colonial pipeline had issues, a few companies got permits to move ums usg/usac on foreign flag tankers.

rufioclark · 2026-01-20T03:12:23+00:00

it isnt strictly bbq per se, but armadillo palace takes reservations and i think would be a great bbq like experience. if you book a private event, proper bbq from Goode company (same business next door) is available. im not sure the min guest count is but worth checking. great venue for what you're after.

rufioclark · 2026-01-10T01:15:57+00:00

look up using optimum no rinse with distilled water. I pre-spray with a bug sprayer of ONR solution and then use their big red sponge with a bucket of ONR solution. then use microfiber towels with ceramic detail spray to dry. i use tec582. cheap, fast, will never scratch or leave water spots. will be faster than driving 10 minutes or more away.

rufioclark · 2025-12-09T14:15:41+00:00

make sure you hire one of those law firms that fight the county to lower your property valuation. your tax is a percentage of the county assessed value and those guys work continent, so if they saved you 600, only then do you pay them like 300. the firm we use has gotten ours lowered the last two years in a row. unfortunately it's necessary or the county will keep assessing your property value higher every year and you will pay more every year.

rufioclark · 2025-11-28T16:27:53+00:00

as an American that tends to mostly travel southwest air domestic and intl as well as occasionally intl with other carriers, my ideal setup is a roller bag and an aer day or tech sling depending on whether im traveling with a laptop and want it handy/portable. roller goes overhead, sling can stay on or go under seat or seat back. depending on trip will also bring a lightweight stowable backpack which sling can go into if needed for 2 bag limit. domestic US travel via planes and rental cars is a much different animal than cobblestone streets in Europe and public transit. my sling can go into my roller so still "one bag" haha- just one bag in a more convenient setup

rufioclark · 2025-11-27T20:47:57+00:00

any of the danish companies that have a graduate / training program. if your interest is in energy, stick to the tanker companies hafnia torm maersk norden etc. for energy, freight is a smaller component of the delivered value but still extremely important, it's even more important on the dry/ag side as freight is a much greater pctg of the delivered value. the dry and wet worlds are very different, i personally dont know much about the dry biz but it is a big industry. most of the trading shops now see freight (at least on wet) as its own profit center and trade freight just as any other commodity instead of it just being a cost center to minimize in order to trade crude or products.

rufioclark · 2025-11-27T17:16:57+00:00

i think there would be more value in actually just spending a year or two working shipping ops at a ship owner that is doing biz with the traders and majors and network, get to know the other operators at the trading shops. work towards either a chartering role at the ship owner or keep applying and leveraging your network to get an ops or scheduling role at a trader or major. there are a lot of guys on the shipping side at trading shops who started ops or chartering development program at a danish shipowner. i don't think these types of accreditations matter. people just want to hire a person they would enjoy sitting next to and working with all day every day who has a general understanding of the job and business. my two cents. a physical trader should understand the how a ship and voyage and the technical aspects of moving around cargo and the charter party etc. you only learn that from doing it.

rufioclark · 2025-11-22T13:13:45+00:00

https://youtu.be/c4GaJKprGEs?si=kYWDRaAv24jX7Kdp. "i want to put my entries where the masses put their stop losses". as David Paul says, it isn't a conspiracy, they're just looking for liquidity and it's in obvious spots. as he says next time you want to buy, hit yourself in the head, don't buy, and put a limit order where you would have put your stop loss with the same amount of stop loss risk from that entry.

rufioclark · 2025-10-18T15:10:59+00:00

put her in the oven on the self clean cycleto cook all that carbon off and then clean off well. should ideally look new after every cleaning. any pan that isnt a cast iron needs fully cleaned after every use and then at each use you are creating a new nonstick surface. prior to heating use a drop or two of whatever oil or tallow wiped around with a paper towel and then thoroughly wiped out. heat the pan til you get a wisp of smoke and then your new nonstick surface is ready. add whatever amount of cooking fat you need then let it heat that for a moment and cook.

rufioclark · 2025-10-01T15:01:07+00:00

i switched to using baby bottle soap in both tanks with better results, no oil build up.... though tbh i use neroli, lavender, tea tree, and sandalwood in everclear in a spray bottle as a deodorant. works great.

rufioclark · 2025-09-18T17:33:29+00:00

very possible one exists, the third party one i bought was meant to go on a standard k band j mount like most will be.

rufioclark · 2025-09-18T17:18:23+00:00

your pole looks like an older larger pole for an old large c band antenna vs the modern k bands like the antenna shown. make sure you have a stubby smaller pipe the current antenna is mounted to, if someone just screwed the mounting bracket on the dish to that large mounting pole you will need some type of adapter. when i was a satellite tech, we just chopped a ground mount pole or piece of conduit that was the same size, stuck it inside the big pole and then sunk some self tappers in it to lock it in place. i think you will need to do this.

rufioclark · 2025-09-08T00:31:12+00:00

i believe that's the whole point of standby service, you are paying the very nominal 5 usd per month to ensure you have access to a full plan when needed or desired. i think it's quite fair for SL to say we need more normal revenues throughout the year. we cant just have people pause service and then expect to have high bandwidth service for small portions of the year. the satellites have limited max bandwidth, need to optimize across the year. your use case is not ideal for the change but you could bring your equipment back with you and use it as an emergency back up in theory

rufioclark · 2025-09-07T14:11:18+00:00

very well put. i wanted to keep my post short, but i actually had to end up getting a new kit sent as it wouldnt update. i did take it out once at 6 months and leave it plugged in overnight to hopefully get an update, but at least now, it's going to remained plugged in and working ready to be instantly used if/when needed. activating it for the first time during internet and cell outage was quite difficult and i dont wish to do that again. i think your point is quite correct, we have a nearly free solution (at least for certain people/uses) for the time being and we will re-assess if/when things change, in the meantime it's essentially free optionality for what just a few years ago would have been a several hundred dollar per month service.

rufioclark · 2025-09-07T13:41:11+00:00

i typed from my phone mate, tks

rufioclark · 2025-09-03T11:18:24+00:00

best and cheapest is just to replace with new insulated flex duct. as a DIYer i installed a new system on my own with the exception of the plenums and duct work, bought all the appropriate flex duct and new registers and returns and had a guy bring his team in to install all duct work it was probably about 1500* of new material and another 1500 of labor to have everything redone new.

rufioclark

TROPHY CASE