Bogieblog

Time for a New Phone

I was visiting the family in Kansas Tuesday thru Saturday. During the entire time I was out of NH I didn't have cell phone service or text (even at airports). I could connect to wifi and use any apps I wanted, but the main function of the phone was a no-go. I have US Cellular, and it has never failed me because they have agreements with Verizon (which has massive coverage in KS). I did some research and everyplace was telling me I would have to remove then reinstall the SIM card, reset the network (loosing a lot of presets), or do a factory reset. But, it was clear that they were talking about no cell service from anyone (including your own carrier). I messed around with the settings, rebooting etc but I didn't want to do anything drastic. Finally found a site that said old software may be to blame.

My phone is old enough that it hasn't updated for 1 or 1.5 years so I thought that may be the problem. I found a US cellular site in KS about 30 miles from where I was staying so Cop Car and I went on a field trip to see if I had inadvertently changed something since my last trip. About 10 miles away my phone suddenly started pinging with texts coming in. I looked and sure enough I had cell service. Decided that they probably couldn't figure out anything if had cell service so decided to turn around and not bother. Besides, I had been thinking of getting a new phone and that gave me the excuse I needed to spend money on one.

Yesterday afternoon it was in the 90s so decided it was a great time to go to my favorite US Cellular location. Told the guy my woes and he looked up where I had been and figured I was correct. At the very least, since My old S9+ didn't have 5G, that might have been the issue too (some networks have dropped support for the older tech). I had done my research and wanted a phone that could take my SD card for all my picture taking, and the flagship Samsungs don't. But, there is a nice mid-range phone that does, and has decent performance at less than 1/2 the price of the more popular models.

After all was said and done, I walked out with an A54 and a contract that included insurance and unlimited data that was only $2 more than what I'd been paying. My old plan (not a contract) had limited data although I could go over and they would automatically charge for the next higher amount.

Most things were synced at the store or on my way home, but of course I had to set up a few things last night. I kept my old phone as a backup and it still retained its wifi connecting abilities, so that is cool as I can use the old phone for web surfing while outside in the sitting area (or when the new phone is charging)

April 2023 Solar Production Report

Despite 6 days of very little production (2.9 - 10.1 kwh produced), I still logged in a respectable 774 kwh produced in April.

I use anywhere from 6.5 to 10 kwh per day; most of the difference is use of the clothes drier. The west side produced more per panel than either of the other sides (except for 1 panel on the south side).

I do enjoy that with the 3 sides of panels, I start producing some energy about 7 am and it goes thru about 7 pm (as of yesterday). I've seen some houses with panels only on the south side, or east side and wonder how much of the day they get production. Of course the circumstances of the house orientation and roof style impact the configuration.

With the trees starting to leaf out, although at this point they are barely leaflets, it will be interesting to see what the effect is on the east and south sides in the coming months. I don't expect them to reduce production (because the sun angle will be higher). But will production increase on those side? And if so by how much, percentage wise, as compared to the west side increase?

And, as an aside, I added a "Solar" Category for posts. I believe I have updated all previous entries starting from my investigations into solar thru the install and activation, including the tree work and chimney work I had done, and of course my reports on solar production. Hopefully I caught them all because apparently searching for the word "solar" doesn't actually bring up every post that mentions solar, or even has solar in the title.

Changes are Coming to a TV Near Me

After 10 years of having the same TV/DVR box, Xfinity is making me upgrade my cable TV equipment to X1. I got an email this morning about it and wondered if it was a scam since I haven't had any notices pop up when I check my email thru my account website. At the same time, the originating email address looked correct, but I wasn't convinced. Went to my account (never ever click on those email links) and looked around. Nope, no notice. So then I googled and found the article about older equipment that would not longer be supported and not function correctly at the end of May. The article gave me the way to check and sure enough, I've got to give in and get chit I don't need to replace equipment that is working totally fine for my simple needs.

I don't need voice command, I don't need streaming, and I'm not even sure that my old TV (2010 I believe) will work well with it. Dollars to donuts the X1 remote won't work with the TV - my current Comcast remote has only ever worked to shut the TV down, not to turn it on.

The only good thing is they "say" that there is no additional cost from what I'm paying to rent my old TV box. Not sure I believe that, but we'll see.

No Fun the Last 5 Days

I've been fighting with gastritis since last week. Thursday morning I had my normal breakfast, oatmeal and a banana (at 6 am) and everything was fine. By 10 am I was in agony. Of course that was a day that I had to work extra long - until nearly 6pm (I start at 6am).

The next day was my off-Friday and I spent half the day at urgent care. where they gave me fluids (I had been vomiting all liquids, even just saliva, back up) and some IV meds. Gave me a scrip for nausea meds and told me other OTC meds to get, gave me diet restrictions and sent me on my way. Saturday I was somewhat better. Sunday not so much. Yesterday was more like Saturday, with waves of pain instead of constant, although shifting pain. I did start my workday but only put in a little over an hour. When my boss got online I asked him if I could have the day off. I had to burn some PTO anyway, so 2 birds and all that.

Throughout, sleeping was in small bites - as the pain would continuously wake me up. I did nothing but lay around all those days, I couldn't even concentrate enough to read (I did make a dump run Saturday and made the grocery run for my neighbor on Sunday).

Since Thursday's breakfast, I've had 2 cups of rice, 1 banana and a couple of cups of mashed potatoes (all forced down because I haven't been hungry). I've had a couple of bottles of pedialyte, a bit of chicken broth and lots of water.

This morning I'm feeling better and last night's sleep was the best I've had since this started. I do still have the "heavy" feeling throughout my digestive track which tells me at least some inflammation is still there, and a bit of acid reflux, but I think I have turned the corner.

Solar News for March 2023

Got my electric bill yesterday, and it was stellar. I owed $0.00 and now have $34.67 as a credit. Since my bill for February was $35.65, that pretty much pays me back.

I expect to be banking credit until next fall, so I'm pretty happy. Oh, and the west side (actually somewhat WNW) is starting to show the rockstar status that I was sure would develop once the sun angle got higher. Yesterday was the first day that each western panel produced more energy than any of the east and south panels.

It pays to know your property and stick to your guns even when the "experts" don't like it. The east and south sides have shade challenges, but those are minimal this time of year while the trees are still bare. If you remember, which you probably don't, one company would not consider placing panels on the west side (alright, I finally got him to give a quote showing 3 panels on that side) and another company basically refused to come out to give me a quote even when I pointed out the western side has exactly zero shade. The representative for the company I went with was reluctant about the west side, but to give him credit he did eventually say something to the effect of, "I wouldn't normally suggest west side placement, but in this case, maybe it would work since it has no shade. Your house isn't that far off from true west."

Even in the low sun angle months, when I expected basically zero production on the west side because of house orientation and sun angle, it has always outproduced the east side. Here is the lifetime production that shows were the lowest producing western panel (55.2) is just shy of the highest producing panel on the east side (56.7). The southern panels rule the roost of course.

Yep, I'm pretty happy about this whole thing!

Nor'Easter March 2023

The northeast got slammed by a nor'easter that started late afternoon of 3/13 and ended early morning of 3/15. The power went out at 11:30 am on Tuesday and was out until at 11:15 am on Thursday (just shy of 48 hours). Then it went out again at 12:30 am Friday morning, and was restored 9:30 am the same day. So a total of 57 hours without power.

Not only was power out, but my cell phone had no phone calls or texts from 5:30 pm  Tuesday until about 4:30 pm on 3/17. That is not entirely accurate as there was one point on Wednesday that I could text my sister and let her know I was alive on Thursday (but some texts didn't send so it was a very short window). Interestingly, I still had FB and other apps, although they did run fairly slowly. However, all I really wanted to do was keep up on the town FB page in case I could offer help to others - plus keep the 71-73 people that were on my particular outage area apprised of how it was going.

The outage started at the pole in my yard, so I always knew when the line workers were there. Pic from the second outage where they had to replace the transformer (first outage had 4 trucks there - 2 big and 2 small. 2nd outage there were 8 trucks). The power company claimed that both outages were caused by tree limbs, but as you can see, there are no trees even close (they had come out 2 months ago and cut down any trees that were there). Nor were there any limbs when I went out to look prior to the workers getting there. My bet is the transformer had just reached its lifespan.

I endured the outage pretty well with a Ryobi power station that I bought last fall. It ran the P43 for about 4 cycles before batteries gave out. The house bound elderly neighbor across the street, who I help with snow clearing, groceries and picking up meds, had power throughout the ordeal (yay), so I was able to recharge the batteries when needed and keep the main floor warm. I was feeling genius for getting the power station since the 800w gas generator that I bought way back in 2014 (and never been used) would not start. I had been planning on using the gas generator for the downstairs stove and/or hot water, but that obviously didn't happen. I will say now, that I sorely missed the old water heater since it didn't need electricity to run. At the same time, even a replacement water heater (instead of combi-boiler) would have required electricity per the new codes, so it is what it is.

I ended up with 30" of snow. A person I know in the next town over (and higher in elevation) received 35" of snow and I've heard reports from others that received 40-44" of the white stuff. Before (3/12) and after (3/15) of the north side. That bank is about 4' tall in the first pic

The west side

The south and east sides

Ski areas and snowmobilers are happy anyway. Yesterday got into the 50's and somewhat windy, so there was some meltage, but today is supposed to stay near freezing. Then a gradual warm up thru the week. I'll take it since that will keep the melting slow so keep flooding down or non-existent.

A New Rise and Shine

When I moved to this house in 2013, one of the first things I bought was a coffee maker. I think I got it on sale for something like $12 and it has done a marvelous job for my needs.

I don't drink a lot of coffee but I make a pot of coffee every 4-5 days and then store the excess in the fridge. Each day I microwave the 12 ounces I drink in the  morning After pulling a not so brilliant stunt while trying to brew a pot Friday, I decided to replace it. Oh, I know I can fix the old one, I just don't want to hassle with it on an emergency basis (I want to do it on my time).

So I went online to look for an exact replacement. I did find one, with updated controls that was in stock at Targe. Although I could get it cheaper elsewhere, I had a $25 gift certificate to Target (from my boss a couple of Christmases), that would cut my cost down to $5. I put the item in my cart, then decided to let it sit there overnight to determine if I really wanted to buy a new one or would get the motivation to fix the existing machine.

So, although that strategy works well most times (I still have stuff in my amazon cart that I put there months ago - LOL), this time it backfired a bit. Because, when I woke up yesterday morning, I got to wondering if there was a machine (in stock) that I could also make a cup of tea in. A couple of times a week I make tea in the afternoon and that involves nuking some water - and microwaves use a fair amount of electricity for that small amount.

So it was back to researching and I ended up ordering a machine that was just at $100 ($75 after the gift certificate). I was smart enough to measure to make sure it would still fit between the orange bowl I use for compostables and my phone charge station. So here it is, my new coffee maker that can do a pot, or a pd, or a cup of grounds (which will work for tea also).

 

Sunny News for February 2023

Note - wrote this on Friday but apparently never published it :D

 

Got my electric bill for February 2023. Considering the last 7 days of the billing cycle my panels were snow covered, I came out pretty good. First off, my production report for the exact time frame that my electric bill is for. The solar company and electric company are off just a little from each other. But let's just assume that the 330 shown in the circle below was my total consumption.

Power company says I pulled 244 kwh while solar company says I pulled 248 kwh. Electric company says I pushed 180 kwh while solar company says I pushed 176 kwh. All in all, close enough for me.

The power company shows my net usage as 64 kwh and total charges were $35.65

So in February, a low production month (but with the sun angle better than Dec. & Jan.), nearly 64% of the bill ($22.71) was the basic costumer charge and other charges that were not the actual cost of energy consumed.

Solar company shows, total usage was 330 kwh (just so you don't have to go back to look). Last Sept, prior to the array install, I used 338 kwh and my bill was $119.62.

I didn't pay the electric company $80 in a low production month (the math comes out to $84, but I subtracted some for the 8 kwh difference). Can't complain about that.

It has snowed every day this week and have a big storm coming in tonight, so won't have any production at all for March until some time next week. Actually, not technically true; had minimal production yesterday afternoon when some panels mostly cleared and should get some today. But with the sun angle getting better every day, production should be stellar when the snow finally stops and the array clears.

New Temporary Flooring in Heater Room

I buckled down on Sunday to get the linoleum installed where the boiler and water heater used to reside. One would think it is an easy process, just cut to shape and lay it down. I'm sure it is easy for those used to working with it, but for me, not so much. 

See, linoleum need to be cut smaller than the area being covered, but not too much smaller. It needs room to expand and shrink (depending on temperature), but also should be covered by trim piece  at the wall edges. Add to that the lack of anyplace to work with the sheet besides the room it was being laid in, and it was a series of folding the linoleum to create room for making the cut, cutting, then seeing how close it is.

Deciding that I would lay the linoleum so it was more pleasing to the eye than if I just scabbed in a piece, I removed the trim piece at the wall, cut down the old linoleum piece, then cut and installed the "new" linoleum. I also had to cut a new trim piece at the wall by the safe (first pic).

Never thought to get a picture of the covered floor before moving the shelves over to their new resting home, but here is the final result. Note that I did place a transition piece over the edges of the two separate sections.

I should really go thru those shelves and get rid of stuff I don't use anymore. Take that big box on the bottom - that is filled with bottles and screw tops that I used when I made real vanilla and sent it as Christmas gifts. And the next shelf up has the stereo I bought and installed in the 2004 Explorer (I de-installed it before trading in on the 2014 Explorer).  There are several bird feeders that I should find new homes for also.

I hate that the town swap shop closed at the beginning of Covid, and has not reopened. All the stuff on there is still good stuff (and the bottles are unused) but I don't really want to deal with putting them on CL, FBM or even on my town's FB page. Maybe I'll find someone holding a garage sale in a couple of months and just give them the stuff. They could make a few bucks and I could gain some room.

Basement Floor Patching

When we last left the comb-boiler install, and resulting de-installation of the old boiler and water heater, I mentioned that I needed to patch in to match the raised flooring that went around the old appliances. At hte bottom of the picture, you can see the square concrete where the water heater was. Not as easily seen is the 2x4 section where the old boiler was under the buckets and stuff in the lower left hand corner (in front of the chimney).

I still have a bunch of the material that raises the flooring off the cement (to keep any moisture off the plywood, so patched that in. I also had a piece of plywood that was suitable for where the water heater was. But I did not have plywood pieces that were large enough for where the boiler was. So I made a trip to HD, where they sell 2x4 plywood (I didn't need a full sheet). Yesterday I cut that piece in.

Didn't want to patch in the "temporary" linoleum, especially since it was curling at the edges anyway. (temporary meaning I put a cheap scrap of linoleum down to protect both the wood and feet from splinters until I put down a more permanent solution)

As luck would have it, years ago I had bought a remnant of linoleum off of FB, thinking it would be big enough for the bathroom. You can see it rolled up next to the chimney in that top picture (wrapped with green painter's tape). Unfortunately, it was not quite large enough, so I rolled it up and it has patiently waited for me to find a use for it. So, I unrolled it and let it "rest" all day yesterday and overnight. Even the area that was cut by the previous owners is nearly perfect to fit in the gap between the chimney and the safe.

So hopefully today I will get to cutting both the old and new linoleum. But I'm undecided whether to lay it in that orientation or turn it so it goes all the way to the wall next to the safe. But then I would have to remove the baseboard over there, and I'm not keen on doing more work than strictly necessary for a temporary fix. I just want the flooring covered so I can move the shelves over there. I really don't care how it looks since it would still have some of the dark linoleum showing over by the pellet stove. BUT, if I did so, then I could install a floor transition piece over the two edges to keep them from curling, and make it look a bit neater.

Decisions, decisions, decision.