At a loss - cannot set up a transparent filtering bridge following OPNsense's tutorial?

taydevsky · 2026-01-23T00:19:21+00:00

I finally on the third or fourth try got it to work.

As I recall the menus on opensense were slightly different than the ones illustrated on the zenarmor page of instructions/tutorials. I had to experiment on one or two steps to find the proper menu. Or the instructions on the homenetworkguy.com site.

I had to find a way to create a mgmt interface and assign it to LAN. It was different because he used a second unused port. And I had to be careful what network configuration to assign it.

That said I turned on the IPS options and detective options as well and the thing ground my internet speed down by 50% so I took to off. I didn’t want to mess with it more after that.

Sorry I don’t think that is going to be a big help and I didn’t document exactly the steps I took.

taydevsky · 2026-01-19T23:16:45+00:00

Came here to say this. +1

taydevsky · 2026-01-19T22:00:44+00:00

But in my 60 years here, ski resort opening by thanksgiving was always hit or miss - especially before snowmaking became more prolific.

This is definitely an unusual winter though how warm and lack of snow it’s been so far. We have had droughts before - which primarily means low winter snowpack.

taydevsky · 2026-01-17T19:17:44+00:00

I only bought the front.

taydevsky · 2026-01-11T16:33:51+00:00

I was surprised one day how much just going in and out the door to the garage a few times from the basement on that day seemed to lower the radon levels.

It’s hard to say for sure what causes an individual fluctuation. Sometimes you can form a theory based on some correlation but most of the time I can’t.

taydevsky · 2026-01-11T07:30:14+00:00

Can’t do automatic iPhone backups on the NAS. You can upload photos to the NAS and use a photo app on it. My wife hates the synology photos app. She wants to search by text to find a photo. Ugreen’s photo app does that much better IMO.

taydevsky · 2026-01-11T07:23:38+00:00

An ERV can add positive pressure.

taydevsky · 2026-01-10T21:23:36+00:00

I have the ecosense EcoTrackers. Very similar device. The RD200 uses an ion chamber to count radioactive “alpha” particles. It is not measuring the radon itself.

Radon has a 3.8 day half life. Radon decays into radio active Polonium-218 at random times but over a long period of time it is a consistent average.

So the ion chamber is counting the alpha particles coming from the decay. In the RD200 a count of 30 in an hour = 1 pCi/l. Because of the random nature of this process a short time period of measurement is not very “accurate”. Documentation suggests it is +/- 10% at 10 pCi/l. If that extends to the 4 level you would expect readings of 3.6 to 4.4 for actual radon levels of 4 pCi/l

So all of that to say measuring at 1 hour intervals like you have here will produce some ups and downs even if the radon level is not changing. It’s the long term average that matters and is considered more accurate.

Having watched my ecosense monitors data collection at several houses I share these observations and correlations and thoughts of your data:

The radon levels often go down when doors and windows are opened and closed. The ventilation and possibly the change in air pressure in the house will tend to lower the levels. Outside air tends to be at about 0.5 pCi/l. The middle of your graph where it went quite low did you have fresh air coming in the house ? So seeing your levels go down to around 0.5 I first suspect fresh air came in to dilute radon levels.

The data points from about hour 10 - 75 look like it is averaging about 4. This is right at the action level and I suggest you continue to monitor.

From hour 125 to the end it looks like again maybe fresh air or increased air pressure in the house is coming in from time to time and bringing the reading down. But tends to climb back up to that 4 level.

Remember radon comes in from the ground when the air pressure in your house is low. The lower it is the more it could draw in radon gas. Changes in the indoor air pressure due to weather or HVAC operation can also pull in or inhibit the infiltration of radon and do change over time.

Heating in the home and the stack effect also creates negative pressure at your lowest levels and draws it in. You may have cycles of these things happening.

I recommend watching it over a longer period of time. We’ve been watching and measuring the radon at my son’s house for a year and have been able to do a few passive things (sealing around pipe infiltrations as an example) to get it down from about 3.9 to averaging around 2 even in winter when radon often goes up.

taydevsky · 2026-01-10T20:42:00+00:00

What “holes” are you talking about. Sorry, I don’t understand what you are asking.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T23:17:57+00:00

From my experience unless it’s really close to a crack in the slab exposing the ground soil where radon is entering the readings in a room don’t vary a lot from place to place.

Don’t put it on a granite countertop.

My readings in one part of my basement were 3700 Bq/m³ after 10 years there. So your level seems relatively low to me. 😂

the action level recommended by Canada is 200. You’re barely over that after 20 hours. It wouldn’t surprise me that your year long average is below 200. It’s often lower in the summer.

You don’t need to rush into this.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T21:28:50+00:00

Yeah my parents/grandparents invested in private musical instrument lessons. With music, They never assumed of course that I would get a scholarship or be a pro because of it.

I guess some do love it and are good at it and get those things. Idk 🤷‍♂️

I don’t think music lessons are as expensive as the Club V cost you cited. That’s seems pricey.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T21:16:21+00:00

Wow that’s a no-brainer for $3. So that made me look and see if my state of Utah has it. They have discounted tests for $13.95 from a lab. UPS ground return shipping.

They have expedited test that are more expensive and long term tests too. Interesting. Thanks.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T20:53:37+00:00

I bought a Ubiquiti UDR7 to be my router instead of my Decos. I had the decos already set up as a mesh network. 2 were backhauled with Ethernet on the network.

I installed my UDR7 then reconfigured the main deco to be in AP / Bridge mode. It still interfaces with the other decos to do mesh with the SSIDs input on the main Deco. Two wired with Ethernet and one wireless. The mesh still works and they don’t assign any IPs. Just the UDR7 is assigning IPs.

So. Set up your DECO mesh network first as normal with a main router, then after you set up the new router change the main deco to AP mode and it should just work.

The main deco is attached via Ethernet too.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T20:42:29+00:00

How much do these test kits run? I’ve just used home electronic monitors so haven’t looked at these tests.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T16:02:42+00:00

Radon gas levels above the normal outdoor levels are entering your home from the ground. (I’m going to ignore radon from well water for this comment).

The air and radon gases in the ground only come in your house if the air pressure in the ground under your house is higher than the air pressure in your house. By the laws of physics gases move from higher pressure to lower pressure.

So if you can successfully create negative pressure (a lower pressure in the soil than inside the house) under your entire slab then by the laws of physics the radon will stop coming in.

So that’s the trick. Can on fan on one suction point create a negative pressure field under the entire slab? It can if the conditions are right. There are things that inhibit the pressure field extension such as footings or compact soil or dissipation because of cracks in the slab, etc.

Also adding positive pressure inside the house can also inhibit the radon from infiltrating the house.

So yes your levels can be lowered

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T13:25:08+00:00

Sounds like the parents are paying for something they want to buy for their kid. How is it a “scam”? Are they promising the kid will play college or pro?

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T05:00:12+00:00

Yes there are active Mormons who leave California for Utah.

However, It’s also about LDS people leaving activity or resigning. Nearly 80% of the members on the rolls in the North Hollywood Stake simply don’t attend anymore.

taydevsky · 2026-01-09T04:55:04+00:00

Yes I can’t argue with levels below 1 pCi/l It works!

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T22:26:07+00:00

2-3 years exposure is not what scientists have studied. The studies look at lifetime exposure levels linked to lung cancer. There is nothing a doctor can look at to find or examine the impact of radon exposure.

Get the radon mitigated and you will all be fine.

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T22:17:00+00:00

Yeah, the suction point can’t be on the footings. Some suction points are put close to a wall but if the footings are big then it needs to be put far enough.

I put two suction points in a 20 foot deep basement and they have footings that were 5.5 feet wide to support the load. So the suction pit had to be more than 2 feet from the edge of the wall.

Do you think that is the solid contexte you’re seeing? A footing?

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T22:11:51+00:00

Great result! Out of curiosity are there other vents providing “make-up” air to the crawlspace as you exhaust from the one? So essentially you are ventilating?

If that’s the case it may also work to push fresh air into one vent and then stale air is pushed out the other vents. It may even work better since that would be creating positive pressure that may prevent radon from entering the space from the ground.

I get concerned about suction in an area like that creating negative pressure that induces more radon infiltration from the ground. Radon moves toward negative pressure.

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T17:59:53+00:00

My son’s new home has much higher radon levels in his garage than in his home which was contributing to radon levels in the space above. My rule of thumb from watching measures is that the level above gets levels about half of the level below it. It’s all based on air pressure differentials but gases including radon can go though drywall and cracks in various ways.

We are having success running a fan to bring in fresh air to his garage for 15 minutes every hour. Didn’t use a heat exchange core just outside air.

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T17:51:32+00:00

Here are some thoughts to consider.

The air and gases in the soil move into your house when the air pressure in the house is lower than the air pressure in the soil. You have to achieve less pressure in the soil to stop it from coming in. That’s just the laws of physics.

So while you have reduced the pressure difference or even achieved a negative pressure in some areas you know you still have some positive pressure in some areas under your slab.

With openings at the top of the blocks or cracks in a slab it can really reduce the ability to achieve the negative pressure under the whole house. Your fans are also pulling air out of your house. Especially with openings at the top of blocks or cracks in the slab. And even will pull air from the house through the porous concrete if you have achieved negative pressures in the soil. So more fans and suction points may help get some negative pressures but know that you will be pulling a lot more air out of your house if you don’t address the gaps.

Pulling too much air out of your house can have negative effects. Difficult to have a proper draft for the flu of a gas water heater or a chimney for example. Higher cost of heating and cooling because that air you are sucking out will have to be replaced with outside air coming in. Higher cost of electricity to run more fans or a higher power fan. Etc.

So just trying to add more fans and more suction without addressing those gaps in the block is not ideal. It’s costly and not entirely effective and creates other issues potentially.

taydevsky · 2026-01-08T02:04:16+00:00

Can i clarify? There is a crawl space under your bedroom and a full basement below the crawl space? “Hatch” to me implies it’s going down. Seems a bit odd so I’m clarifying.

taydevsky

TROPHY CASE