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My home's installed electric resistance heat exceeds 15kW. (Or did, until I swapped several wall blower units for lower power versions.) All are still in place and maintained as functional, despite being little used since installing a minisplit heat pump and improving the insulation and sealing.

But they never ran full power 24/1, let alone 24/7/365.

 

It's illegal to feed the deer within the city limits. I have a herd of about 12-14 that live on my property. Kill my grass, poop all over the lawn, whatever. At least with the exhaust vent they've moved from prime yard to the side lawn where the heat is so all the grass-kill is hidden and I don't get fined for it.

Currently have an overpopulation of deer. We had a really cold winter about 6-7 years ago with lots of sustained temperatures in the -20C range. This caused a lot of the field mice to find a warmer home inside people's houses. The idiots around here responded to that by using various poisons. Killed the mice, but most of those poisons make them go crazy and run away (out of the house) and die outside. Then they're eaten by the birds and whatever else. Those birds (and mice) are then eaten by the coyotes. Killed a bunch of birds that year, and for the past 5 years or so, the coyotes have bad mange because of the poison ingestion. When the coyote's die either because of the poison, or losing their fur and freezing to death, the deer have no predators other than the mountain lions who really don't each that much. So now the deers and rabbits have exploded in size and people are now trying to use poisons to kill the rabbits. It's ridiculous. It's like they skipped that day in school where the food chain was discussed.

We call the deer big rats around here. They're everywhere and just annoyances. How do you spot a tourist? They're taking photos of the deer...

 

the deer around here carry ticks. i could live without them.

 

Beware that many states have hunting laws that limit or prohibit 'baiting' for some or all game animals. So limit this feeding to non-harvest zones, unless one has first checked the regulations to insure its legality.

My native red state bans baiting outright, except for black bear. My current blue state allows it for deer and elk, limited to 10 gallons at a time, which hardly seems like any limit at all. But I have never hunted here.

 

You have deer in Boston?

 

i'm 10 miles west, we're overrun with them, but too dense for hunting. they are continually driven out by development.
lyme disease is rampant in eastern ma.

 

Lyme disease is rampant all over the east coast and cases have been diagnosed as far west as Western Tennessee. Ticks that carry Lyme disease, aka deer ticks are actually much more present on field mice and our cats bring the ticks in when they eat their prey. Not much can be done about field mice (or deer for that matter).

My wife suffered from Lyme and it's no joke, but honestly, exterminating deer is not the answer. I am not sure what is, but deer are not the primary or only vector. We do not have that many deer here in Western Mass, but Lyme is absolutely everywhere and so are the deer ticks. They really ought to be called mice ticks.

 

These particular rules don't infringe on piling the corn outside. They only limit subsequent harvesting.

 

the doctoring is still behind the curve.

 

It cooled off enough last night that the AC kicked off for a couple hours. But as you can see, this one 5-ton AC unit is almost always on, and it is just enough to "maintain" basically.

We've got minisplits on the island and love them. I tried to get them installed about a decade ago on a different house in the states and nobody had any idea what I was talking about. They've been all over the world for a very very long time, only just now gaining popularity in the US. But in this house, it doesn't make a difference. Open floorplan with high ceilings, whole house ducting does a better job.

 

While having seen many during foreign travels, I didn't look at them until discovering regional and federal incentives in 2009. Jumped for it the next month, and it is a great improvement.

Minisplits are meant more for unducted spaces, such as my house. A single zone minisplit in the largest space, with all interior doors left open, ended up providing about 90% of our heat. Some supplemental resistance heat is still needed in the far bathroom, occasionally in the master bedroom, and rarely in my office.

 

Yes, the house I wanted to put it in, was all water radiant heating, so no furnace/ac with ducts. Which was awesome. I hate furnaces. But I love AC. I wanted a mini-split in the master bedroom only. Nobody had any idea what I was talking about. And by the time I paid to import one and get it installed, it was ridiculous. I just used a portable AC unit ducted through the windows. Hated to look at it when I knew for the same price I should have been able to get a nice wall mounted permanently installed unit. And the couple times the AC drip hose blocked and flooded the carpet, the wall mount came to mind even more.

I really should just buy my own refrigerant charging machine. I can do everything else to get it in there, I just don't have the tool to get the magic inside the pipe.

 

Have you looked more recently for incentives? I don't see CO equivalents of the Pacific Northwest region-wide incentives I was able to use, but some parts of CO have current deals. Here is one, for HVAC, hot water, insulation and air sealing, and several other home improvements:
http://www.denverwinair.com/literature/xcel-energy/2017_Xcel_Rebate_Summary.pdf

HINT - HINT - HINT: This tip isn't really for 2k1Toaster only. EVERYONE who hasn't modernized their major household energy consuming appliances should look at the new offerings and check locally for incentives. And consider possible upgrades even if no local incentives are available.

My minisplit came with a $1200 regional incentive, and a 30% federal tax credit in 2009. The later was capped at $1500 then, but is reduced to much less now ($500?). That federal incentive is also bundled with other home energy improvements, so some readers may find that they have already capped out on previous energy projects.

There are some DIY kits that come pre-charged (hoses too). They seem to have somewhat lower efficiency ratings than the best professionally installed units, and I am suspecting that this is a consequence of some inevitable small amounts of air introduced into the system when the hose connections are made.

 

Yep, good for people to check the incentives.

In my case, all that is done. Very well insulated house, and the AC units are 18 SEER which isn't the best, but really not bad. Most in the neighbourhood are 10 SEER units from the 80's. It just takes a lot of energy to heat and cool large spaces, especially those with large radiating sources. Even the 3 "smart thermostats" installed have $50 rebates from my utility. I leave those for people who are more needing of it though. I did take the utility rebate for the 10KW of solar I installed though.

I have seen those, but really there doesn't exist a mini-split device that would work for my needs right now. But I am looking to add a fourth or fifth full size unit outside to help with the cooling. Those don't come pre-charged. And it is a cool toy I don't have and have needed a few times. Usually when that happens, I buy one for the next time.

 

Completely off topic, and fine by me lol.