Honeywell HZ519 Baseboard Heater Noise Issue / Rotary Heater Rotating Lifetime

Honeywell Baseboard HeaterAbout 4 years ago, shortly after the Georgia Public Service Commission completely abdicated their responsibilities and threw Georgia consumers to the Natural Gas provider “wolves”, I invested in a bunch of electric heaters to use as part of a “zoned” scheme to keep my house comfortable (heat only the bedroom area in the evening and morning, heat only the TV room when we were watching TV, etc.).

One of those heaters was the Honeywell HZ519 Baseboard Heater which has served us very well until this past year.

It still heats the area well and its thermostat works fine, but it’s taking to making REALLY odd noises as it heats up and cools down.

I swear it’s like listening to outtakes from Star Wars’ SPFX folks when they were testing audio sounds for the epic series.

I’m just curious if anybody else has encountered this. I’ve picked up the unit, shook it to see if anything is loose, checked to see if there was dust in it (used a compressed air can to blow out the vents) and can find nothing unusual save for the bizarre noises.

As an aside, the average life for Rotary heaters’ rotary apparatus, under regular (daily in the winter) use, seems to be just over two years. This as evidenced by my two Honeywell rotary heaters and my Holmes Twin Ceramic rotary heater. The heating elements continue to work just fine but those rotary components are certainly not meant to last a lifetime.

Kid impression of George Bush

**Update 2008 04 01** It turns out that this is probably just a lip-sync of a Will Ferrell bit. Mind you, it’s still a laugh and the kid’s doing a good job. Any Britney Spears fans can appreciate a good lip-sync…

Like or hate President Bush, you have to admit this is very well done.

I’m pretty sure that this is a much more professional production than it implies (a la “lonely girl”) but it’s funny nonetheless. The Bush administration has set science and education standards back untold years with No Child Left Behind and their meddling with the output and presentation of various government controlled or influenced organizations.

At least we can laugh a little bit. I enjoyed the revelation that Adam and Eve drove an Excursion… 🙂

As an aside, I found out recently that all those suckers who bought “H2” Hummers really bought “Yukons” with stylized bodies that shared NOTHING with the original Hummers that were being emulated.

Can you tell I have strong feelings about obscenely large vehicles bought for style but not for function?

Travesty! Retroactive immunity

Say what you like about the US government’s ever expanding need to simplify the surveillance of her own citizens (hint: It’s *supposed* to be challenging, that’s why it’s detective *work*), but to retroactively change laws is absolutely and criminally wrong.

Maybe you can change the law from now going forward, I’m still steadfastly against ANYTHING that makes it easier for ANY government to collect and mine for wrongdoings that aren’t wrongdoings….yet, but changing the rules of the game after the game has been played erodes confidence in the government and the law. AT&T (and others) broke the law as it was at the time and they need to be taken to task for it. When they should have been using their not inconsiderable lobbying clout and corporate might to protect their customers, they were kowtowing before the federal government and participating in larceny of the absolute and most unforgivable kind: abuse of our trust.

My father was once stung by this kind of unforgivable betrayal by the Canadian government. It was not for something so egregious as what the US Federal government is currently hemorrhaging out of both the senate and the house of representatives, but in his case it was to do with taxation. At the end of the year the Canadian government felt that certain business perks should be taxable where before they were not. Again, it’s OK to pass such laws, but not retroactively like that. So he had a wholly unanticipated extra burden placed on him that he could neither plan for nor, should he have felt the need, avoided completely by simply not accepting the perk. That is just plain wrong.

What is the line where we find that our representatives’ (and I must use that term lightly) abrogation of, not only the constitution, but the very essence of fair play, honor and justice to be beyond our tolerance? Acting with indifference to the sanctity of the individual, pandering to nanny state philosophies without concern for the principals and foundations upon which America was created and made great. Generating new laws and shackling her citizens with overwhelming commitments (criminally mismanaged social programs, crippling deficit spending, short sighted – illegal if private enterprise attempted to behave similarly – social security).

We really need to take a serious look at deconstructing our government and rebuilding her upon the far more more modest and less sweeping social doctrines that our founding fathers envisioned. Rebuild representative government to get career politicians the hell out of dodge and get real, productive citizens with a knowledge of something other than politics or law into our congress so they can create laws for, by and of the people.

Now *that’s* a landing!

Low Landing PlaneAs scary as this looks I have to say that I’d *love* to try this someday. There is very little room for error and you definitely need to be confident with your skills.

Of course parking off to the side and watching planes taking off and landing from here would be a lot of fun too! I’ll have to see if I can ever get to St. Barts (maybe via a cruise) and make my way over to this strip for a couple of cool photo opps and some excitement.

First Person Bike Trail

I’ve done a little mountain biking in my time. This is definitely what it looked like from my perspective. I can’t say I was ever up to the level of these guys who make this look effortless. I got a great rush through the first half of the trail and then just simply enjoyed the rest. If you don’t ever think you’ll mountain bike on singletrack but really want to know what it’s like… well… here’s your chance!

Jocks and Jills Fries – Superb

French FriesI frequent (OK not so much frequent as just get there when I can – it’s kind of out of the way for me these days) the Jocks & Jills restaurant at the Galleria on Cobb Parkway (near I-285).

My favorite meal is their “Boneless Buffalo Bites” which has exactly the right amount of chicken and exactly the right amount of their wonderful french fries. Never mind the fact that their Buffalo sauce is perfectly tangy and just a little spicy, their french fries are worth writing home about too!  These wonderful fries rate a 5 out of 5 for me. Slightly crunchy exterior, just the right texture on the inside. mmmm… that’s good eating!