Marc's Musings Reality from Marc's point of view!

Back in October, 2008 I picked up the Sunbeam Therapeutic heating pad from ebay. The price was much better than I was able to find either locally or even on my normal shopping haunts on the “intertubes”. I was able to get this new for about $150.

Let me say, in no uncertain terms, this is one of the best purchases I have made in recent memory.

Unlike a normal electric blanket, this heats from the bottom so the bed is thoroughly warm when you get into it, and you are comfortably warm as you lie in it.

You just set it to preheat the bed (I find at least 15 minutes before you want to turn in) and you will not believe how great it is to slip into a warm bed every night.

I’m also able to keep the house and room temperature cooler at night with no decrease in comfort. And, as you’ll see below, the cost of running the heating mattress pad is vastly less than that of running the little room heater that I use in our master bedroom and obviously less than that of using the furnace to keep the whole house warm when you’re going to be ensconced in your bed all night.

As if that’s not great enough, both sides of the bed are independently controlled so his and her (or his and his… hey I’m not judging) preferences can be met. I don’t need much if any heating after I get in while Michelle likes things a little warmer for longer.

But wait! That’s not all! (picture a ginsu knife ad) Each side has 3 zones that can be heated independently. So if your feet get cold but your torso or head are fine then you need only heat that part of the bed. You can heat any of the zones from nothing through 10 different levels. And hot is pretty danged hot. The most we’ve ever played with is level 6 and I’ve settled on level 3 as my maximum. 

I keep mine set for head – 1, Torso – 2, Feet – 3 while Michelle keeps hers set as head – 1, Torso – 2 and Feet – 6.

The control is wireless. Of course the mattress pad and the control unit need to be plugged in but the wiring can be completely inobtrusive. Here are some pictures of how I have it set up in our master bedroom. One warning, the remote can sometimes not communicate properly with the receiver unit. When you press any of the buttons, the receiver will make a beeping sound. If you don’t hear this then your command wasn’t sent. Just press another button and press your original again and it will work. I usually turn the pad off and then on again to be sure that it’s set to what I intended it to be.
There is no danger in this, the mattress pad will shut off automatically after 10 hours anyway if you somehow manage to leave it on. And the receiver unit has a light on it representing each side of the bed (sort of the way a stove light lets you know the burners are on). If you crouch down and peek under the bed you can assure yourself that the mattress pad is on or off.

You are sleeping on a mattress pad with wires in it. If you really try you can feel them. There’s no getting away from that. Sunbeam has seen fit to make the pad reasonably thick so I have not found this to be an issue.

As you may or may not know, we had some furnace issues during the cold snap that we had recently. Partly due to the “Sunbeam Therapeutic Mattress Pad” I did not have to rush to address the issue. I had no worries about us being uncomfortable. Add some well-placed space heaters and the furnace is merely an inconvenience rather than a crisis.

The following power tests were done with the unit in “preheat mode” which I understand means full blast. It is very difficult to make claims about power consumption at any point in time as all six zones seem to operate independently of each other. So the peak consumption is created by me letting the pad cool off, then setting both sides for full power.

The results comprise reasonably reprsentative winter use of this mattress pad. i.e. we used it every night and many nights even left it on all night long.

RESULTS

Elapsed time: 546 hrs (about 23 days)
Measured Maximum Consumption 1 side on preheat (Watts): 63
Measured Maximum Consumption both sides on preheat (Watts): 128 (don’t ask why it’s not quite double the single side, the results were the same regardless of which side was the single side)
Measured Consumption when not in use (Watts): 2
KWH: 4.23
Cost –
     Actual (for duration of test): $0.44
     Daily: $0.01 (rounding involved here)
     Weekly: $0.12
     Monthly: $0.53
     Annual: $6.49 < -- Take with a grain of salt. We will probably only use for about 5 months a year.

Posted under On the Home Front, Tech Stuff

More or less on impulse we bought a cat tree a few days ago off the Internet.

Maverick and Phoebe spend their nights in the laundry room with their cat beds on a utility table (Mav) and the clothes dryer (Phoebe). Michelle has never been a big fan of the utility table, so we’ve now removed it and replaced it with this cat tree.

We picked this up from “CozyCatFurniture.com“. It’s called the “Cat Cheap Tree“. We ordered it on March 28th and it arrived promptly on April 1st. It needed to be assembled, of course. All the parts were in there and everything fit together properly (which is nearly a miracle ). It’s really nice and solid. Both the cats were drawn to it immediately and “helped” put it together.

I like it enough that I’m thinking of getting another one for the TV room, but don’t tell Michelle!

BTW you can’t quite make it out, but Phoebe’s new collar tag says “Princess” on it in addition to her name and our phone number.

Posted under On the Home Front, Retail Experiences

Our house is a bungalow (a “stepless ranch”) comprising about 2,500 square feet. Four bedrooms with two and a half baths. It was built in the late 1970’s and the attic-mounted air conditioner is original while the furnace is probably about 20 years old. Both are due for replacement.

The existing air conditioner is a 4.5 ton Rudd unit and the furnace, well.. I don’t really even know what brand it is. Nor, I suppose, do I really care

I’ve had 3 guys come in and offer estimates. The first guy was very professional, recommended by a friend who used him to install her furnace. One thing I liked was that he offered a pretty reasonable (I think $140/yr) maintenance schedule to keep everything up to snuff once installed. But he did not do any calculations or measuring besides estimating the needed tonnage of the air conditioning unit based on the power connections and outside coil size and reviewing all the registers and returns throughout the house. He also inspected the current ductwork.

The second guy walked cursorily through the house, indicated a disdain for variable speed furnaces and indicated that he could get pretty much any furnace I wanted for a very good price.

The third guy noted the model number of my existing air conditioning unit and went and looked it up to determine what the existing tonnage was. Then went through the attic to inspect the existing duct work and reviewed all of the registers and returns. He then returned a week later to fully measure all of the rooms and did the calculations to determine the proper a/c and heater sizing should be for the house as well as offering recommendations for additional registers in some of the more poorly served areas of the house.

I discussed a desire to zone the house with each of them, as well as to include a humidifier solution and an allergy-suitable filtering solution.

It seems that to zone the house will require pretty much removing the entire duct system and replacing it.

As my existing furnace is in the attic over the garage, I was warned by at least two of them that a humidifier system up there would need a waiver as there is the potential for freezing and associated pipe bursting issues.

I had initially thought to install some kind of heat pump or heat pump / gas hybrid furnace but it seems that the cost for that would be prohibitive.

<soapbox mode>In the end I’m thinking I’ll just ditch the zoning idea, forget about the humidifier and go with a normal gas furnace as, frankly, I’m not in any position to evaluate these things nor am I in a position assess the value of the opinions proffered by my local installers. It seems such technologies are only for folks with ties to educational institutions and / or the resources to employ experts in such fields. So I’ve resigned myself to the usual “whatever is for sale at a price I can afford and the environment can go to hell” position that we all end up having to take when we try to pursue these things beyond a superficial layer.

I can rant all day on the number of times I do a ton of research into new technologies only to find that it’s all theory and that you can’t actually *implement* what you’ve researched. I’m learning… slowly. I’m starting to drink more booze too.</soapbox mode>

Anyway, I received estimates and would like some opinions on them if you have any experience with these things. I think I’ll try to post the below information in some “furnace forums” I’ve seen too.

This from Coolray:

Trane XV80 (16 Seer) (model numbers unreadable)
Listed scope of work:
Install new Trane (5) Ton XL16I (16) SEER R410A Dual Fuel System to include Heat Pump Condenser, Coil, pad, variable speed furnace, new refrigerant lines, metal plenums, safety pan w/switch, drain sensor, new EWC Electronic(3) zone system, New R8 Supply and return ductwork, new Trane clean effects high efficiency air cleaner and vision pro digital t-stats. Lifetime parts and labor warranty w/annual maintenance.
Steam Humidifier S2000 add $1,295 and will need electrician to add separate circuit.
$11,698  (system)
$ 3,885 (ductwork)
$ 2,915 (zoning)
-$1,000 (federal rebate)
Total $17,528

I’m contacting him now for a simpler quote, in keeping with my reduced expectations above.

This from Seasonal Heating & Air:
(They actually provided me with 6 variations, this is the one most in keeping with what I would want)

Heil Equipment:Premier Grade with 5 year no hassle warranty
Duel Fuel system
4 ton 13 seer heat pump R- 410 A freon
4 ton 13 seer coil
80% gas 100,000 BTU furnace
Remove existing furnace,existing coil,all ductwork and discard
Install all new duct work R-6 Flex
Supply Plenums, Return Plenum
Add 3 supply outlets( master closet, work out room, laundry room)
1 year labor warranty
compressor 10 year warranty
parts 10 year warranty
limited lifetime warranty on heat exchanger

Optional items:
Programmable t-stat(s) 7 day = 100.00
Touch screen thermostat = 300.00
Humidifier(s) = 450.00
Media air Filter(s) system= 300.00
Electronic Air cleaner April Air 5000 = 950.00

Total (w/o optional items) $6,000

This from Bardi Heating & Air Conditioning:

Install New 14Seer 5 Ton R410-A Variable Speed Heating and Cooling System
The above price includes all equipment, labor, and materials to install a new American Standard 5 ton Heating
and cooling system in the attic. Add supply to master closet and hallway. Add supply to laundry and create return
from existing supply in laundry at door. Install 11/8 x 38 refrigerant line set down exterior to new unit location.
The warranty is 5Year Parts, 10 year compressor & 1 Year Labor.

Equipment is (American standard):
AUD120R9V5 variable speed 2 stage gas furnaces
4TXCC060 Aluminum Evaporator Coil With TXV

Total $15,165

So, what do you think?

I’ll post the updated Coolray estimate when I receive it.

Posted under On the Home Front, Retail Experiences

This morning I awoke to the site of my wardrobe looming over me in bed. All I could think of was the old guy scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey” when he’s at the end of his years with the monolith at the foot of his bed…

The adhesive smell was faint in the air but not nearly anything we were concerned about. We *did* leave the windows open (our mattress heating pad being very much appreciated) overnight just to be safe.

The shoe molding has been installed and the job is pretty much finished, at least from the Enhance Floor Trends point of view. There is one small trouble spot that we’re going to have to have them back to resolve where the floor is uneven at the join of the two hallways. More to come on that I’m sure.

Besides that, all that remains now is to go ahead and paint the shoe molding in those rooms that were already the way we like and to finish decorating the remaining ones. We’ll be painting the gym and the TV room wholly different and (I’m told) exciting colors.

So here are what the floors look like (hover for descriptions):

Posted under On the Home Front

They got a lot more accomplished on day 3 than I expected. When Danyel and I spoke in the morning we discussed only the hallways, master bedroom and the TV room. As it was, the hallways, master bedroom, back room, guest room, gym and about 1/3 of Michelle’s office was floored by the time they left.

I’m certainly no expert but, from my perspective, it looks like the work is being done with due professionalism and care. Each step from the pulling of the carpet to the prep through to the laying of the wood has flowed with no obvious problems or issues.

The adhesive being used is not nearly so bad as I had expected. I’m working from home through this whole process and there is plastic separating the “under construction” part of the house from the rest. But the adhesive smell is reminiscent of being back in grade school at those little desks working with LePages glue-all (that white glue that is ubiquitous in classrooms throughout North America).

I do keep my windows open, and have been leaving the back door open so the cats can “escape” from the noise and activity as needed. Maverick just melts into the background and appears only now and then for no reason that I can think of. Phoebe is constantly on patrol. Whenever there is a loud noise she trots *toward* it in a guarded fashion. She always wants to be part of the action.

So here is what things look like now:

Posted under On the Home Front

Crumb!  I just realized that I had totally messed up my focus on the “before” pictures and now it’s too late to retake them.   I’ve been pretty tired lately with this renovation prep and didn’t even notice when I was viewing the pics online on a real screen!! Sorry! Hopefully the pictures can still convey the essence of what I’m describing.

Day 1

At the start of Day 1 all of our stuff was piled up in the living room and garage

The morning had the carpeting being pulled out and then the underlying slab assessed. This is where the additional $1,100 prep came from when we found that the slab bore more resemblance to a Six Flags roller coaster than it does to something one might term as “flat”.

So, after agreements were made the crew was able to start the prep work which involved a LOT of leveling cement.

Day 2

It was found that the cement was largely too wet to proceed Danyel (I think that’s how you spell his name), the team leader was using this slick device to measure the moisture content in all of the floors. Ideally the moisture needs to be below 4 (percent I believe) and ideally below 2. Many of the patches on the floor were pegging the meter. It went to 6.

So they did some cleanup of the thinner patched portions and did a bunch of grinding but were out of here by about 11 am. I needed leave the furnace on much higher than usual for the rest of the day and overnight to encourage the cement to dry.

One thing I hadn’t thought of was that you really need to disable or remove your smoke detectors before the grinding begins. Ditto for when they start cutting wood later. There is a LOT of fine dust that is generated.

Posted under On the Home Front

Two days prior to the first day of work on the new Hardwood floors we began moving stuff out of the carpeted rooms.

The evening of the day before (this was a Monday so we were at work during the day) we finished most everything else and were ready. Here is what the rooms looked like:

Posted under On the Home Front