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Some Ideas For Keeping Your House Cool.

Some Ideas For Keeping Your House Cool.

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I wish to share with you some ideas on how to help keep your house stay cool.  These ideas have come from years of trying different actions and techniques.

  • A real important factor that you should try to achieve is to cool your house the best way you can so as to deeply cool the house structure as possible.  Think of these factors:
    • Cool the core portion of your house for as long as possible.  The cooling concept here is time.  It takes a long time to get the behind the walls to cool down.  Once these areas are cool they then act as sources for cooling.  Reasoning behind this method is if it takes a long time to cool the inner walls of your house then those areas should still be cool the next day when the temperature rises.  Those inner walls should be a cooling source!  So, consider start cooling when the outside temperature drops below your current house temperature.  This may be very late afternoon or early evening.  I have a very good inside the house thermometer (NEST), which I can view on my cell phone.  I compare that temperature with a good reliable Internet service provider web site.  I like The Weather Channel as I have found it to be reliable for my location.  Just a suggestion, you might consider buying a good outside thermometer that is WiFi capable so you can double check what The Weather Channel shows.
    • CAUTION:  Do not think you know the outside and inside temperature by how it feels on your body. Use science by looking at a temperature gauge.
      • Open windows when it gets cooler outside than in your house.
      • Close windows when the outside air gets within one degree of the pending outside temperature rising.
    • If you use any kind of window dressing such as sheer curtains, be aware that they will impede the free flow of air.  I do not like sheer curtains covering any window that I might want to open when it is cool outside.  I typically slide the sheer curtains open and closed as I think best.  If y0u think you need to keep a sheer curtain in place to maintain privacy, consider placing one or two ends of the curtains in line with the window opening so that, if there is a breeze, the curtains will be blown out of the way with the breeze or wind.  You will loose privacy when this happens but the curtains flapping back and forth might meet your requirements for some privacy.
  • Please be aware that turning on lights in a room will add heat into that room.  Tungsten light bulbs typically generate more heat than florescent bulbs but florescent bulbs do add some heat, just less than tungsten.  Compact Florescent Lights (CFL) and LED bulbs emit way less heat.  LED bulbs are the coolest because they emit very little heat.  Reference: https://brennan-electric.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-led-lights/
  • Another option to consider is to install window awnings where sunlight can pass into a window typically from the south, east and west.  Sun light passing into a window will heat the inside of that room.  I do not yet have these installed but I hope to soon.  A small rather nifty advantage is that you might be able to keep a window open when it rains if it has an awning.  Awnings are reported to increase the value of a home some times.

 

Posted:  June 19, 2024
Updated: June 20, 2024
Posted by: Score Card

Wonderful Amazon Experience

Wonderful Amazon Experience

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Our house seems to need Wifi extenders to improve getting good Internet on our computers and cell phones.  I did a fair amount of research and chose the product “eero mesh WiFi system – router replacement for whole-home coverage (3-pack)” which cost me $129.99.  The website rating was pretty good at 4.4 and achieved an Amazon Choice recommendation.  But, after installing the units, we experienced random short periods loosing our Internet.  The cause was the Eero units.  I found some web sites that support that a lot of people were having this problem.  There were a few simple web site solutions that I tried but none worked for me.  I finally gave up and called Amazon customer support.  I talked to a man located in India, a terrific fellow, who understood the problem and immediately approved my returning the extenders.  He sent me a return shipping label to my computer within minutes.  I had saved the original box.  How it was repackaged was real easy and I was able to get my package ready to ship out in less than ten minutes.  I dropped the package off at the FEDEX store and those people accepting the shipment with no problem.  Within less than one hour, I got a message from Amazon that my full purchase price was returned to me!  YIKES!  INCREDIBLE!  Amazon had no way to check to see that I had sent them back all three units!   That really impressed me!

 

 

Posted 5/14/2023

SECOND IN SERIES FOR NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT REPAIR

SECOND IN SERIES FOR NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT REPAIR

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This is the second post in a series for repairing the NEST.  This second method should not be attempted by anyone who does not understand electronics.  If you feel unsure of your capabilities or your understanding of this repair, please call a professional repair person who understands NEST products.  It is strongly encouraged that you shut down all power to your heater and air conditioner prior to making this repair!  Typically this is done by turning off your circuit breakers for these devices.   Please call a HVAC qualified repair person to check your wiring prior to energizing the system after this repair is made.

A few months after putting up a post describing my repair of the NEST thermostat we encountered another problem. We started getting errors showing the NEST was not connecting to our WiFi.

In the evenings after the AC has been on for hours we begin to see battery error. (This error is because we had NO C wire connected which I will explain to you shortly).  We only had power from furnace and air conditioning wires powering the thermostat.

At night, after the air conditioning runs for a long time during the hot months, we get low battery resulting in loss of WiFi connection. Battery should be 3.8 or higher.

 

Note in the image above that the battery voltage is a bit too low (3.848 V).  We still have a problem.  The battery should be 3.9 or higher.

In the morning, after the AC has been off for hours, the battery is back to normal as seen in the image below (3.926V) and the system works properly.

This is obviously a power supply problem. My guess is power from the heater and air conditioning wires is not providing enough power to the thermostat. We need a better solution. I then added my own 24 volt transformer as the supply source but that failed because the wiring did not “see” a complete circuit. The final and best solution was to connect the C wire! I found this was the problem by finding this web site: https://smartthermostatguide.com/thermostat-c-wire-explained/

 

Prior wiring that failed to work properly as seen in the picture above was because the NEST was getting power from the heat and cool circuit wires and not from a dedicated power source.

I then turned OFF the whole furnace and AC unit at the circuit breaker box. I know electronics but I am NOT an authority for HVAC systems. I really do not want to take down our HVAC system by making any mistake.  I will only add new circuit wires to the system when the system has been turned off!

I looked carefully at the thermostat wires and found an unused wire at the thermostat and at the furnace unit. Prior installers had spun this extra wire backwards around the the other wires to keep it out of the way.  It took me a while to find this unused wire.  At the thermostat end, I had to pull the whole set of wires out of the wall to find this unused wire.  I stripped the thermostat end of this prior unused (blue) wire and attached it to the C connection at the NEST thermostat as seen in the image below.

 

 

I then went to the furnace and found that unconnected same wire color and connected it to the “C” terminal at the furnace.

ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE SAME WIRE COLOR CORRESPONDS TO THE CORRECT CONNECTOR AT THE FURNACE END AND AT THE THERMOSTAT END!

I then called a HVAC repair person that knows NEST products and told him I would pay to have him make sure this new thermostat wiring was good to go. He came over and took a look and said it was good. I turned the circuit breakers back on. I then did a thermostat reset.  We have not had a problem yet with the system.

Summary: This method adds a single wire connection between the thermostat and your heater/air conditioning units to complete a new “C” or common circuit between the two devices.

If you do not have your NEST wired for C and are having problems with your NEST, research this option by going to this web site: https://smartthermostatguide.com/thermostat-c-wire-explained/ This web site is a bit technical.

When I tried to find a HVAC person to come over and check my wiring I found the Internet did show vendors that service NEST thermostats and I did call that qualified person.

I find it rather odd that the NEST Thermostat worked for over a year before having power supply problems.

I just love the NEST as I can see the house temperatures and adjust them even when on vacation.

 

Posted December 5, 2019

NEST Learning Thermostat Loss Of Power = Error E80

NEST Learning Thermostat Loss Of Power = Error E80

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NEST Learning Thermostat Loss Of Power = Error E80

 

The main error I was getting was “No power to Y1 wire.”  I then lost Internet connection to the NEST because the NEST internal battery was not charging and it’s voltage went too low to maintain that connection.

The NEST Learning Thermostat needs 24 volts AC from the furnace unit.  The two wires that provide this power is Red marked Power and Y1.

Internet Source:   At this time, the Nest Learning Thermostat is only designed to work with 24Vac systems that are connected directly from the control board using solid copper wires.

I measured 24 volts on the Y1 Yellow wire and the Red power wire at the furnace unit wiring interface board.

I then went to the NEST and measured 24 volts with Yellow and Red pulled out of their connections.   I then took the Red wire and slid it in and out of it’s connector to clean it.  I did the same with the Y1 wire.  I should have used a pocket knife or some other sharp metal object to rub against the wires to clean them.  The UNIT WORKED as soon as I put the wires back in!  The NEST showed the problem to be the Y1 connection but actually it was the Red power wire that was not making a good connection.

We still showed a low battery but the system works.  This should not happen now that the unit is getting proper power.

Note:

  • A voltage of at least 3.7V is required to install a software update.
  • A voltage of 3.6V is required for the display to turn on when you approach.
  • The Nest Thermostat’s battery voltage will fluctuate.
  • But your voltage should generally be higher than 3.6V if everything is functioning normally.

I then went into the NEST menu and performed a Restart but specified that no saved settings be removed and the NEST came back showing no low battery!  Total success.

________________________________-

This repair worked for just over a year and then a new problem occurred.  The new problem was similar to the one described in this post.  The new problem was that the thermostat was receiving low power.  To view this next repair go to this web page: https://mclarenblog.com/2019/12/05/second-in-series-for-nest-repair/

 

Post updated: December 5, 2019

American Standard Toilet Lid Problem – Solved

American Standard Toilet Lid Problem – Solved

The customer complained that one of their bathroom toilet lids kept falling down.  This is a real problem for men.

I checked to see if the floor was level.  I was darn near level but had an ever so slight tilt backward which should have helped the lid to stay up.  It appeared to be a defective design.

The only identification is inside the water tank: American Standard 1112 tank, made in Mexico.  I suspect that this toilet came with the new home.

American Standard has a pretty awful score at Consumer Affairs web site.

The quick solution was to shim the tank backward a slight bit.  I used white heat shrink plastic tubing.  The top water tank rests upon a front and rear ridge.  I put the shim between the front ridge and the tank and then tightened the tank bolts.

In practice, this solution did work.  The customer had to make sure the toilet lid was firmly put up against the tank for it stay in place.  I now wished I had used a second plastic tubing shim.

Image shows a closeup of the tank resting upon a plastic tubing shim which has been placed upon the front base ridge.
This image shows the plastic shim in place before the tank is tightened down.

 

The image shows a side view and very close view of the toilet seat on the left in a up osition. In the center of the image shows the first tank ridge which the water tank rests upon. A red arrow points to where the shim was inserted before the tank was tightened. The bolt for mounting the tank can be seen. Near the right edge of the image is the rear tank mounting ridge.
This image shows the toilet seat placed in the up position as seen on the left side of the image. The red arrow points to the shim placed upon the forward ridge. The bowl bolt can be seen next as you view the image from left to right. At the very right edge of the image is the rear ridge which the water tank rests. The whole concept is to get the water tank to tilt backward slightly so when the lid is placed up, it will stay in place.

 

Revised April 7, 2018