Category Archives: Interior

Jun 19 4 comments
Interior, Weather

Basement not flooding

It is hard to take a picture of what is not there.

Since June 10th, we have received 5.38 inches of rain.  That is quite a bit for a 9 day period.  Our old basement would have looked like this:

flooded basement floor

flooded basement floor

That is a picture from two years ago before we had the basement french drains installed.

Today the basement looks like this:

basement after installation of interior french drain system

basement after installation of interior french drain system

Which is to say, much better indeed.  I also noticed that there are no wet spots on the walls, no active mold colonies, or any other features of wet basements.

I have also noted that the dehumidifier is used a lot less than it used to be.  Last year, I only used it during July and August to keep the cold water pipes from sweating.  This is saving use some significant money (my estimate is $580.00 per year, based on the Kill A Watt meter results) on our electric bill.  That is all good.

In all fairness to American Dry Basement Systems (ADBS), the system that they installed works as advertised and it was worth the expense.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Feb 25 2 comments
Heating, Interior

How much money did I save using my woodstove this year?

We burn about a cord of firewood in our Jotul F-100 Wood stove every year.   Our primary source of heat is the oil fired boiler in the basement,  the wood stove is a supplemental or backup source.  On those really cold nights, of which we have had a few this winter, it is nice to sit around the warm fire.

I thought it would be interesting to see how much money we saved every year with the wood stove.  There are several factors involved in this, namely, the heat value of the wood we are burning, the efficiency of the wood stove, the heat value of the oil we are burning,  the efficiency of the boiler and the cost for the fuel.

fire wood

fire wood

According to Woodheating.org, (linked to by the DOE wood heating web site), black cherry contains 23,500,000 BTU/cord (assumes >20% moisture).  A cord measures 4 x 4 x 8 feet.  Of course, these numbers are approximations, but for my purposes, they will work.

My wood stove is 74% efficient, according the the manufacture’s data sheet.  Therefore, I get 23,500,000 BTU  x .74  = 17,390,000 BTU heat per cord of cherry firewood.

My Furnace is 84.5% efficient, according to the last time it was serviced.  A gallon of heating oil contains 139,000 BTU.  Therefore, I get 139,000 BTU x .845 = 117,455 BTU heat per gallon of oil.

If I burned a whole cord of wood this year, I generated 17,390,000  BTUs of heat for my house.  I therefore avoided using 17,390,000 BTU ÷ 117,455 BTU/Gallon oil = 148 Gallons oil.

I get my fire wood for free.  Heating oil costs about $2.76/gallon, so I saved 148 gallons x $2.76/per gallon = $408.63 which is a little too precise.  I’d say $408 ±5% to account for imprecise qualities of cord wood and wood moisture content.

We are almost out of fire wood for this year, on account of it being cold.  Next year when the solar heaters are attached to the side of the house, it will be interesting to see how much oil is saved.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Feb 15 5 comments
Interior

New Bunk Bed

William is now a little past two years old and getting too big for his crib.  So we decided that we would get a bunk bed for his room.  This way, if we have company, they can sleep in Eliza’s room while Eliza sleeps in the top bunk in William’s room.

We purchased this locally at Bare Furniture in Accord, NY.  I like them because they are a small family operation.  In this economy, I’d rather give my business to somebody locally that I know.

New Bunk Bed from Bare Furniture

New Bunk Bed from Bare Furniture

In any case, the bed has been very well received.  William likes having the new bed and Eliza is very excited to have company so she can have a sleep over in Little Guy’s room.  I am not sure how much sleeping will actually occur on that night, but we shall see.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mar 30 8 comments
Electrical, Interior

Putting up a ceiling fan in the Master Bedroom

Jay was nice enough to give me his old ceiling fan that I think he took out of his Kitchen. It sat in the basement for several months until I worked up the motivation to clean it off and put it up. Of those two tasks, the cleaning off was harder.

hampton bay model ac 552 bb ceiling fan

The Ceiling fan itself is quit nice. It’s a Hampton Bay model AC-552 which has three speeds, fan reverse switch (which is great for winter time use) and three lights. We had a ceiling fan in this room before, but I took it out because it was squeaking and making terrible noises. I am installing this fan on the same box as the old one.

One thing to note about ceiling fans, they are a great deal heavier than an ordinary light fixture. They also generate more vibration and motion on their mounting device, therefore an ordinary ceiling light electrical box will not support a ceiling fan. Ceiling fans need an electrical box that has extra support and bracing. Connecting a ceiling fan to an ordinary light box is asking for trouble.

ceiling fan box

Notice the bolt and nut in the center of the box. This is connected to a metal bracket that goes between the ceiling joists. Last year when I was in the attic, I checked this particular installation because I was having bad dreams about the old ceiling fan flying out of the ceiling while we were asleep. It seemed to be plenty strong enough.

box with fan bracket

This is the bracket that will hold up the ceiling fan. It attached to the box and has a little ball receptacle for the fan itself. This makes it pretty easy to install, as there is no standing on the ladder holding the fan up twisting the wires together while the fan gets heavier and heavier.

ceiling fan wired

This is a close up of the fan hanging from its bracket with the wires all connected. We have two switches on the wall, so we can control both the fan and the lights from the wall switch. The ground wire is connected to the ground wire in the box.

ceiling fan installed

All done. We turned it on and it runs great! Now we are all ready for those hot summer nights!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Mar 05 27 comments
Interior, Weather

Putting the American Dry Basement System to the test

It was one week ago that AmericanDry Basement System, Inc. (AKA A.D.B.S., Inc) finished the water proofing of our basement. Tonight will be a good test of their system, as we have 12-14 inches of snow on the ground, temperatures are expected to rise through the night, we have so far received about 3/4 of an inch of rain and we are to get 1-2 more inches of rain. If ever there were a “Perfect Basement Flooding Storm” this is it.

As of 7 pm, both pumps were cycling on and off, with pump number one running once every 1 1/2 minutes and pump number two running once every 10-15 minutes.

1:00 am Update: Heavy Rain. Pump one is running once every 30 seconds, pump two is still running occasionally.

4:10 am Update: Weather Radio goes off, National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Esopus Creek, well north of here. This is normally the first place to flood, but is not a good sign of things to come. Still raining heavily.

5:52 am Update: High water alarm for pump one. The pump is running full time and water is still getting higher in the pit. Pump number two is running about once a minute. Water stains noted in some of the floor and wall cracks. Overall basement floor remains dry. Deployed third pump (small submersible) and cleared snow and ice from surface drains on the patio area. Camera Battery dead.

sump pit one water rising

Sump pump pit one, pump running all out and not keeping up with incoming water. The capacity on this pump is 2220 gallons per hour.

Sump pit two

Water flowing into sump pit two. This pump is keeping up with the incoming water, capacity on this pump is about 2000 gallons per hour due to the larger friction head.

6:34 am Update: Water is shooting from wall cracks in outside basement stairwell. Work harder to clear patio drains, about 6 inches of water/snow/ice on patio.

7:44 am Update: Third pump is doing the trick. Water level in sump pump pit one is dropping slowly. I will call American Dry Basement and tell them we need a bigger pump for this pit. The pump in pit two is working great. Throughout, no water on the basement floor. Because the high water alarm woke me up, I was able to avoid any flooding (at least so far)

third sump pump added to system

Sump pump pit one with two pumps running.

basement drain pipe

This is the water that would have been in my basement, had it not been pumped out of the ground first.

12:44 pm Update: Mixed results from calling American Dry Basement Systems, Inc. First, there was no one to take my call so I had to leave a message. When they did call back, I was told how to deactivate the high water alarm, which I had already done. I told them how the water was about to come over the top of the sump and we need a bigger pump. Their response, the Zoeller M53 pump is the only model they sell. That’s fine, it is just a little under rated for the job. Zoeller makes an M98 pump, which looks perfect. I will call them again today and re-enforce my point that we need a bigger pump. Stay tuned.

Of course, I saved them a service call by dropping the second pump in the sump and keeping the water down. Perhaps next time I should let the water run out on the basement floor and make them come out and fix it.

Conclusion: The ABDS system does work, however, it is a little expensive.  Negotiate hard and don’t fall for any of the fancy wiz bang clap trap that the sales guy might spout.  It is a under slab french drain system with a pump, pure and simple.  Materials probably ran about $500-600 or so.  The labor is intense.

Popularity: 11% [?]