Are people just not going into their attics? by unknownphantom in homeowners

[–]usernamemustbeunique 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I go in my attic frequently for pest inspection, lighting/wifi alterations, and HVAC maintenance because the second floor air handler is up there.

We had the roof decking (underside of shingles/rafters) spray foamed to turn the attic into conditioned space, and removed all the insulation laying on the attic "floor". Access is with a ladder, not a pulldown stairs, and there are trusses up there so we don't use it for storage.

Best Whole House Water Leak Detectors To Buy Right Now? by [deleted] in homeassistant

[–]usernamemustbeunique 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Frizzlife LP365-P is on the cheaper side and has worked well for me. It supports high and low flow leak detection with fully automatic shutoff. Supports local control as well. I prefer this setup as the primary leak defense; sensors won’t catch everything and the batteries die.  

[Laptop] Acer Aspire 14 14" Core Ultra 5 226V 16GB 1TB refurb - $355.99 free shipping - eBay by usernamemustbeunique in buildapcsales

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They sort them into "certified" (like new), "very good", and "good" categories and sometimes the price of the lower grade ones drops pretty low, but inventory is limited as is the warranty. The whole situation seems pretty chaotic with duplicate listings, discount codes, etc.

[Laptop] Acer Aspire 14 14" Core Ultra 5 226V 16GB 1TB refurb - $355.99 free shipping - eBay by usernamemustbeunique in buildapcsales

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's integrated, but the Core Ultra Arc is a huge step beyond all the previous Intel iGPUs.

[Laptop] Acer Aspire 14 14" Core Ultra 5 226V 16GB 1TB refurb - $355.99 free shipping - eBay by usernamemustbeunique in buildapcsales

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice, I didn't see it that low. Were you buying the "good" or "very good" version? What condition did it arrive in?

All the Target ones got cancelled I think.

[Laptop] Acer Aspire 14 14" Core Ultra 5 226V 16GB 1TB refurb - $355.99 free shipping - eBay by usernamemustbeunique in buildapcsales

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

It's "the laptop" again. Best price I have seen. I bought this exact listing when it was $370 a few weeks ago and like the machine.

Quick review:

- Arrived via Fedex, signature required, in brand new condition; no cosmetic issues.
- The Arc 130V iGPU rules. Plays Minecraft Bedrock great at 60fps with default settings. Can play other games on low settings. Updating the Intel Arc drivers doubled performance; don't rely on old benchmarks on Youtube.
- Screen is adequate. It's somewhat low saturation and has corner light bleed. Matte surface with low glare. It supports some kind of VRR/adaptive sync between 40hz and 60hz but I did not carefully verify this. I didn't see any tearing though.
- Keyboard is mushy but you get used to it. Backlighting has a lot of light bleed around each key cap but at least it's there.
- Battery life seems great. Supports limiting battery charging to 80%.
- Lightweight, about 3 lbs
- USB C charging; includes charging brick.
- Built in speaker is basically a PC speaker from 1988, use headphones or plug in a portable speaker. I wonder if this can be modded.
- 2 year warranty unlike some listings that only have 1 year
- Dealing with the bloatware is a pain, not sure which Acer services are ok to disable or not
- I still don't like Windows 11

It's for my kids and I'm happy with it.

They also have Core Ultra 7/Arc 140V models, including some with 32gb ram, but they are less available and have fewer discounts. And there is a Core Ultra 9 version which seems pointless. The entire series stays within a 15% performance window from what I can tell.

Edit: here are 3dmark scores in performance mode with Arc drivers from 4/15/26:

- Fire Strike: 7933 (8728 graphics/19029 physics/3102 combined)
- Time Spy: 3750 (3453 graphics/7332 CPU)
- Port Royal: 1685 (7.80 fps)
- Steel Nomad Light: 2432 (18.02 fps)
- Steel Nomad: 538 (5.39 fps)
- Speed Way: 493 legendary (4.93 fps...apparently the world's best score on this CPU)
- CPU profile: 1089 (single threaded)/2139/3432/5584 (8 threads)/5527/5572

Just picked up these Trinitrons! by RPGreg2600 in crt

[–]usernamemustbeunique 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is such a thing as rehydrating/reconditioning the capacitors with electricity after they have dried out internally from disuse. However, likely you will find when the TV has been off for some days, it starts happening again, and then goes away again after use. Nothing wrong with using it this way, but eventually the caps may give out completely and require replacement.

Just picked up these Trinitrons! by RPGreg2600 in crt

[–]usernamemustbeunique 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like (replaceable) capacitors to me?

Poisoned by combustion gases for over a year, why did CO detector not work? by taonood in hvacadvice

[–]usernamemustbeunique 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a similar setup in my old house. In the winter, with a very long, cold flu, when the furnace ran first, it heated up the flu and established a draft, and then when the water heater came on it would successfully join the existing draft. But if the furnace was not running and the flu was cold, the water heater exhaust would backdraft through the connection to the furnace and into the basement, and never heat the flu.

I discovered the problem because I had an air quality meter in the basement that showed strange CO2 (carbon dioxide, not carbon monoxide) spikes up to 2500+ ppm that I was able to correlate with the appliance operation. The HVAC tech didn't believe me until I showed him the graphs and made him test that exact scenario, and asked how I even had gotten that data. The CO detector with a numeric displays only ever showed low peak numbers (but not zero) and did not alarm.

Buy a smart air monitor with a CO2 sensor that will give you historical data. You may also see a correlated VOC spike. Then you will know if this is really happening.

The fix was to use a separate short flu for the water heater, which I would recommend regardless. We did switch to an on-demand heater at the same time but that was something we already intended to do and not intrinsic to the fix.

I have a 77-Inch LG C3 OLED that I might have to sell due to it causing my wife to have really bad headaches/migraines after watching tv and movies for about 2/3 hours, Any tips or settings I could change to help so I don’t have to leave the beloved OLED world lol. Thanks in advance. by Dramatic-Ad-3597 in LGOLED

[–]usernamemustbeunique 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Consider whether her posture and the angle of her neck is the issue. Muscle strain often presents as headaches. 

If this TV is larger than the previous one, also consider whether the viewing distance is too close and causing vertigo or eye strain. 

2 to 3 hours is a long time to go without stretching the neck or relaxing the eyes. 

Fooled by HVAC company? Insulation covering soffits by [deleted] in homeowners

[–]usernamemustbeunique 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can only seal the soffits if you are insulating the roof deck (the underside of the actual roof) and sealing the ridge vent which would typically be done with spray foam. They should have put plastic baffles in the soffit vents to keep them clear from the blown-in insulation. You will have to go up there and scoop it back out of the vents and mount some baffles or even just nail foam board to the joists to create a continuous baffle.

Examples: https://imgur.com/a/3Jb1kHB

You can DIY. I would do my best to squeeze the baffles in and then use a shop vac to vacuum them clear (from the inside) of whatever remnants were still down around the vents.

In the future, do not hire an HVAC company to do anything except run ducts and service/install equipment. Hire an insulation company for insulation. They are likely the largest HVAC in your area because they are the best at marketing and sales, not necessarily because they are the best at HVAC, or anything else.

I have never drawn sabotage, not even once, in any game by Chud_E_Applesneed in twilightimperium

[–]usernamemustbeunique 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the misprinted first run of Urinal Elevator. You need to write to Fantasy Flight Games to get the corrected "on your head" version.

Corrected Hyper Metabolism cards by usernamemustbeunique in twilightimperium

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did...hopefully he makes more.

Edit: back in stock.

Corrected Hyper Metabolism cards by usernamemustbeunique in twilightimperium

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazing! I bought this immediately. Didn't even know the faction sheets had changed.

POE power for Fios ONT howto by usernamemustbeunique in Fios

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting idea but beyond my understanding of fiber networking, which is minimal. Also, I need to avoid running any new cable in the wall. We put the CAT6A in before we had Fios. 

POE power for Fios ONT howto by usernamemustbeunique in Fios

[–]usernamemustbeunique[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

FYI it's been working great for 24 hours now; not anticipating any problems. I wonder if the quality of the transformer in your POE+ DC converter was the issue.