Home Improvement

Steve Jackson

12:20

@BMitch added a pic to my drywall question - does that clear it up?

Steve Jackson

13:03

@TheEvilGreebo You have good experience using a multitool on drywall? I've only ever used a utility knife and a rotozip.

The Evil Greebo

@SteveJackson Yes, I've used it to cut old drywall like you have in some of my rentals

its a nice low impact cut, so it doesn't vibrate the hell out of the old stuff breaking it furhter

Steve Jackson

I'm intrigued. How's the dust?

The Evil Greebo

IMO the multi-tool has a place next to a power drill as a MUST HAVE tool these days :)

minimal - the cut is very small and it's not a spinning blade so it doesn't throw dust like a grinder would

I have the Bosch version - batteries last about 15 minutes but they charge just as quickly and it came with 2 when I got mine - its pretty light and since it vibrates, you can get real precision cuts - it doesn't want to "pull" in one direction

if you've seen the commercials where they cut wood but don't break the skin with the blade, its for real. I've bumped my hand w/ it plenty of times w/ no breaking the skin (if you used pressure it would cut, of course...)

Steve Jackson

Man! I wish I would have asked this 2 years ago. I've cut ACRES of drywall with a utility knife.

The Evil Greebo

mind you it's not a speedy cut

its not like mind achingly slow but its not fast either

but it is precise, low impact, low dust, and the tool has a LOT of uses

and no I dont work for bosch ;)

Steve Jackson

13:14

Rotozip is very fast, but the pulling will catch you by surprise that first time. I've seen guys use it for straight cuts, but I couldn't.

The Evil Greebo

i have one, haven't used it yet...

sorry, work issue - gotta stop chatting for a bit

Steve Jackson

later

The Evil Greebo

not leaving room, jsut need to focus on a call soon as this other person joins

which, knowing her, could be a while...

BMitch

@SteveJackson yup, clears it up, just wanted to be sure. Plaster has a tendency to fall apart like your description. I think Tester has the right answer for you.

Steve Jackson

@BMitch Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I'm going to have to climb over the stove to go much further to the left. I can't tape and mud as-is though I've had one of those jobs fall apart on me.

BMitch

13:26

@SteveJackson sadly the right answer isn't always the one you want to hear.

Steve Jackson

:)

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo, I got the impression the dvd spinner was to go through the pages of the book. E.g. something to make this book easier to read:

that's regarding this question

0

Q: Excessive cd/dvd storage help

I have an embarrassing number of dvd's and cd's; I think it's up to about 600 - 800 now... I have long ago started putting the majority in cd binders, but I have a really nice room dedicated as a library and I'd like to make the dvd's more accessable. What I was thinking of was a podium that h...

The Evil Greebo

@BMitch Hm. Well then I misunderstood the question.

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo I may be misreading it too, just wanted to give another opinion

Steve Jackson

Hi @AarthiDevanathan - look chat happened without you! It's amazing!

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

13:39

whaaat

ridiculous.

BMitch

btw, the caption on that book "Understanding Women"

The Evil Greebo

You're right. We're a figment of your imagination. We were never here.

Steve Jackson

Strike it from the record!

The Evil Greebo

@BMitch LOL

Steve Jackson

@BMitch looks a bit small

The Evil Greebo

13:40

hehehe

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

laughs

The Evil Greebo

Chat seems to have stopped with Aarthi's arrival.

@AarthiDevanathan Have you considered that you might be a chatkiller?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo i mean, i could leave the room

BMitch

It's kinda like when a woman shows up on the construction site and all the guys don't have anything to talk about anymore. No more woman jokes.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@BMitch i mean, if that's what you're worried about, then don't fret on my account. i honestly don't care. plus none of you is whistling at me, so...yes.

BMitch

13:46

And I say that with a new appreciation for shopping at IKEA:

►

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathan what is the Ψ in your username?

and if you prefer, every time you enter the room we could all wolf whistle...

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo it's the pitchfork she uses to poke us with

Steve Jackson

@BMitch That is quite possibly the best idea I've ever seen

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo flattering, but perhaps a little much. ;)

The Evil Greebo

That is a brilliant idea by Ikea

Steve Jackson

13:49

30 mins is a bit short though. My wife can spend days at Ikea.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo I work for Stack Exchange. The pitchfork identifies me as a CHAOS team member, tasked with taking an assigned site and promoting it to the world at large. :)

BMitch

I think Ikea should offer the men paid temp jobs... assembling furniture for all the shoppers

Steve Jackson

I hate that it's designed to guide you through the whole thing. I have one 10 mins away and you can't get in and out unless you sneak through the exit.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@BMitch A+, I'd take you lot up on that. But I'm a lazybones.

Steve Jackson

Assembling IKEA furniture is not for mere mortal men....

The Evil Greebo

13:50

@BMitch That would be a great way to destroy product, considering how handy some men aren't ;)

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo some would get paid more than others :)

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Ah, I see. So when you enter the room, cowering in fear is a more appropriate response than wolf whistling

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo more like, friendly greetings and appropriate senses of gratitude! ;)

The Evil Greebo

bmitch: Ever tried putting together one of their kitchen cabinets? My MIL and my wife took 3 hours on ONE cabinet while I rebuilt a bathroom...

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Not nearly snarky enough for me, sorry.

(of course the bathroom took longer overall but... still...)

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo I'm the family assembly man, but most of my family is into things other than IKEA furniture

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

13:53

@TheEvilGreebo snarky version: bow before me, peons!

BMitch

the last project was my step-sis's basketball hoop, I assembled a large chunk of it while the family of 3 tried to figure out how to get the net on the rim.

ok, last conversation starter from me before I run back to work...

designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/9562/…

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ grovel**crawl**fawn

BMitch

I'm torn between sad and creative on that link

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo basks in the attention

Steve Jackson

@BMitch This happens to me everytime I visit my in-laws. It's crazy, because in my family I'm the nerd who might get to hold the tape measure, but I go to my in-laws and I'm Captain Construction.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

13:56

@BMitch both. the answer is both.

BMitch

@SteveJackson my step sis and fam are terrible at home repair, but they are great cooks, so it's a good trade

The Evil Greebo

@BMitch Homeless people need computer stands?

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo maybe it's a silicon valley homeless shelter

Steve Jackson

@BMitch At first I thought it was something from thereifixedit.failblog.org - but that's really clever in the details.

The Evil Greebo

a little too clever perhaps... did they article list a price tag?

and it's skinned w/ what, 1/8th ply? It'll last a week!

BMitch

14:00

I really should read ThereIFixedIt more

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

5

i didn't just spend way too long drawing that on MS Paint...

Steve Jackson

That is going on the refrigerator.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

A+!

:D

the moderators' chat pointed out that he has no hardhat, which is an OSHA violation.

my response:

"It's with this super utility toolbox for easy access, in his Shed of Solitude."

Steve Jackson

14:19

:) Right! He needs some place to keep his other ginormous tools.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

exactly. he can't just heroically stand in front of them all the time.

i thought you all would appreciate the hammer / phillips head crossing in the background as well. personally, i thought that was an inspired touch.

Steve Jackson

It adds a certain depth and gravitas that otherwise wouldn't be possible in a stick figure rendering

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson agreed. also, the cape billowing in the wind give the image a sense of motion, despite its inherent stillness. no gifs needed.

Niall C.

Excuse my stupidity, but what does CC stand for? (not really here)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

Captain Construction!

30 mins ago, by Steve Jackson

@BMitch This happens to me everytime I visit my in-laws. It's crazy, because in my family I'm the nerd who might get to hold the tape measure, but I go to my in-laws and I'm Captain Construction.

Niall C.

14:26

D'oh. Missed that skimming the earlier messages. :)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

nah no worries. it was kinda buried

but he said Captain Construction, and my brain went, ding.

meanwhile:

is this the right title for this question? I kind of flat-footed my way through it:

0

Q: Is there a relay-controlled widget for switching line voltage that is UL listed?

I once saw a device with full UL listing that was effectively a relay that could switch on or off a line voltage device. It looked something like a short extension cord but then had a low voltage wire coming off of it to control the setup. Does anyone know about anything like this? I want to bui...

electrical

Niall C.

I improved your edit @AarthiDevanathan -- there was an extra "device" in the middle

But looking at it now, I'm not so sure it scans well. Anyone else care to comment?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@NiallC more power to you. i do these so fast that i usually miss stuff like that.

Steve Jackson

Is there a UL listed relay for a line voltage device?

I dunno - that's a tough one. I keep getting twisted.

The Evil Greebo

What about, "Looking for a UL approved, relay controlled line voltage switching device"

Niall C.

14:38

@SteveJackson: I like that, much simpler than I had it.

The Evil Greebo

and then looking for a bottle of advil cause even that hurts to read

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

I dunno if you all have noticed, but I try to edit titles to be "real" questions. so...."Looking for a UL approved, relay controlled line voltage switching device" doesn't work on that level, either. and yes, advil times.

The Evil Greebo

do replace "looking for" with "Does" and end with "exist?"

s/do/so

The Evil Greebo

15:17

/me is sorry he killed chat.

;)

Tester101

15:59

@AarthiDevanathan next time you link to a YouTube video, do you think you could find one with a little more camera movement? I didn't quite puke watching this one.

BMitch

@Tester101 My thoughts while watching it: "worst review ever" (said with the simpsons comic dealer voice)

The Evil Greebo

Sorry, couldn't even watch it - just had to make a snarky comment and move on

Tester101

Starting with the "up nose" shot is always a bad sign.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@Tester101 whoops sorry guys, i clicked into the video and didn't have the audio on. :(

Tester101

16:21

@AarthiDevanathan the audio wasn't the problem (I watched it with no audio), it was the violent camera movements. I've seen steadier camera work during earthquakes!

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

16:35

@Tester101 cracks up oh god this is terrible.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

16:45

holy shamoley, there are currently more people in this room than there was during our chat-cast yesterday! :O

The Evil Greebo

17:01

when was the chat-cast?

BMitch

@TheEvilGreebo click on the info link above the room's user list, and then go to the schedule tab

it's every thursday

Tester101

Should change to "Project update Friday".

Everybody is busy working on Thursday, but Friday they are just waiting for the weekend.

The Evil Greebo

Oh ok so I was here for part of it

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

should we move it to Friday or Monday?

The Evil Greebo

Yesterday

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

17:09

This is a legitimate question. @BMitch suggested moving to Monday.

BMitch

I like Monday's

The Evil Greebo

No opinion

BMitch

@AarthiDevanathanΨ well, I agreed with the suggestion to move it to Monday's

Tester101

Monday's are good, because you can chat about the project you worked on that weekend while it's still fresh in your mind. But Friday seems to have more people in chat.

Is there any usage data on chat?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

true. Monday is when our traffic spokes, though

chat?

(Also, this is the 3000th chat message RIGHT HERE.)

The Evil Greebo

17:12

Three thousand and FIRST

(mocking "first" posts)

BMitch

3003! (I have a thing for symmetry)

The Evil Greebo

how can you tell anyway?

or is that a "I'm on staff so I'm super special and you're not" thing? Cause if so, I will bow and scrape and grovel some more.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

nope -- if you go to a room's info page

Steve Jackson

I think this is the second Friday running we've had some chat action going on. It's really hard to say historically though, there was no chat 4 weeks ago.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

the little "card" that is the room info has two numbers in the bottom corners. the one on the left is the total users the room has seen, the one on the bottom right is total number of messages.

@SteveJackson and six weeks ago this room had....me. and just me.

The Evil Greebo

17:15

ah yes I see it now

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

all of those numbers ~mean things~ but you have to hover over them to learn what they indicate

BMitch

/me practices hovering

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

laughs

Steve Jackson

I think Monday makes the most sense for Project Updates. Fridays might be better for inspiring us to do the projects. Did you take a vote yesterday?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

nope! i....forgot. :(

Steve Jackson

17:19

You were intoxicated with your new power tool. Happens to all of us.

Tester101

We can call it "Kick in the ass Friday's"

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson pretty much. i like the shiny. i post pictures of me with it when it arrives.

Tester101

to motivate us to get some projects done, so we can chat about them on Monday.

BMitch

@AarthiDevanathanΨ you can also make some money on the side with a discount dentistry practice.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@BMitch D: oh god

@Tester101 hmmm. "kick in the pants" fridays

Steve Jackson

17:21

@Tester101 Might also inspire some questions for the site to talk about what we plan to do.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson which, btw, is one of the big goals:

ask moar questions!

we're averaging 4.4, we should be averaging like a dozen or more

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Based on what?

Not that I'm against more questions....

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ What new shiny?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson well, that's my arbitrary choice, buuut gaming is the 5th largest site and averages 15.5 questions a day.

@TheEvilGreebo I won a drill from Lowe's. and oh how i wish this sentences was me joking.

The Evil Greebo

Oh yeah I saw something about that yesterday - which drill?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

17:24

Gaming – gaming.stackexchange.com

Launched Q&A site for passionate gamers from all platforms (computers and consoles)

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Well sure, but I can try out three video games in a weekend (or could ;) I can't do three question-worthy projects in the same time period.

The Evil Greebo

What's StackOverflow average, question wise?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo kobalt 18-Volt lithium ion cordless i think

uhh

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ niiiiiice

Tester101

What is the quality like on those 15.5 questions?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

17:26

@TheEvilGreebo 4.1k.

@Tester101 really solid

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Cant say I'm surprised ;) It's a freaking flood over there

Steve Jackson

@Tester101 I only browse, but it's an excellent site IMO.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo AND answers come in 20 minutes. that's ridic.

For reference:

Home Improvement – diy.stackexchange.com

Launched Q&A site for contractors and (serious) DIY'ers

The Evil Greebo

I know - I'm a regular there since software is my day job

20 mins is slow ;)

Steve Jackson

But again the (gaming) field is huge and flooded with people who love tech already. DIY can do better, but it's not fair to compare it to tech-centric sites.

The Evil Greebo

17:28

agreed - just was curious about the stats

plus programmers are at a PC all day anyway so spending time there is easy

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

both are true, and I don't disagree!

hmm. let's look at cooking.

Steve Jackson

How do we match up against cooking?

Ha!

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

we're pretty much on par, actually

Food and Cooking – cooking.stackexchange.com

Launched Q&A site for cooks, chefs, anyone who can make a dish that can objectively be described as "mean"

but -- cooking is ALSO a chaos site.

The Evil Greebo

where do you get the stat info

Steve Jackson

Click on the first part of the link.

The Evil Greebo

17:30

n/m

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathan are those up to date, or are those numbers from beta?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

up-to-the-minute! they look about the same as these

The Evil Greebo

interesting stats

hrm

Steve Jackson

Cooking is kicking our butts on visits though. Twice as many.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

nodnod

strokes chin i'm going to ask community team about this. and! i'll bring one in here.

if they wanna.

The Evil Greebo

17:33

so people can actually submit ideas for new sites and see what kind of response it gets... neat

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo yep!

@TheEvilGreebo you're still learning about the network, aren't ya? It's cute, seriously.

The Evil Greebo

:P

I haven't done much in the meta realm no

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo understandable. our meta is pretty sedate, tbh. gaming and scifi had WEIRDLY ACTIVE metas. and MSO is an independent entity, so.

The Evil Greebo

technically I guess area 51 is the meta meta ;)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo the meta of metas! if you have surfed through there, you should. you can help get a site off the ground at the earliest of stages.

The Evil Greebo

17:39

Actually I just had an idea for one

rather surprised there isn't already a proposal for real estate investing - landlords, flipping, spec building, etc.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo we have money.se, but that's more personal finance.

The Evil Greebo

yeah this would be more like things dealing with, oh for example, lead paint laws in Maryland for rental property owners

how to spot good potential flips

dealing with problem tenants / problem landlords

hmm

have to think on that

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo you should totally propose and then start ~~spamming~~ seeding questions on money.se

The Evil Greebo

lol "What's the difference between a limited lead and full risk reduction certificate in Maryland?" really doesn't fit in money.se ;)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo sure, but a asking about spotting a good potential flip might.

The Evil Greebo

17:44

what's seeding do for the proposal?

there, I made one :)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

18:11

@TheEvilGreebo well, if they see that there's some demand for the questions (and if there's lots of and lots of them) it can help recruit support for a proposal.

Karl Katzke

18:28

Hey, there's people in here.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@KarlKatzke heeey there

Karl Katzke

@TheEvilGreebo I like the idea of a landlord/tenant SE.

@AarthiDevanathan Looking at your MS paint superhero on the right -- you probably don't want to know what I thought the screwdriver was.

(Let's just say that there's a REASON I'm dating a civil engineer who specializes in drainage and sewage. Her mind's already in the gutter, along with mine.)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@KarlKatzke :( i was hoping no one would go there

@KarlKatzke snicker

Karl Katzke

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Leave it to me :D

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@KarlKatzke pfft hahaha

Karl Katzke

18:40

:D

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

so how's everyone's Friday afternoons?

The Evil Greebo

Better now that my production rollout we started at 9:30 last night is finally done

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

...A+ ?

The Evil Greebo

@KarlKatzke I look forward to seeing you follow the proposal and submit questions! ;)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

as a gift to you all: a diy'ers dilemma

diydiva.net/2011/09/conversation-i-had-with-state-farm

Karl Katzke

18:46

@TheEvilGreebo Do you have a link to the proposal? I'm in the middle of doing a test rollout of a new xen host OS ...

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson weren't you redoing your kitchen? gohausgo.com/2011/09/opp-traditional-kitchen-with-modern-style

The Evil Greebo

@KarlKatzke here you go: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/35564/landlords-and-tenants

@AarthiDevanathanΨ LOL one of the closets is still in the same spot hehehe

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@TheEvilGreebo i liked this post a lot.

Michael

what's a chaos site?

btw

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@Michael ahh the classic question

Michael

18:58

i'm assuming it has something to do with SEO/promotion

some sorta marketing thingy

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

yes! gimme a sec....

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathanΨ Just patching a hole. The kitchen is quite nice from the neck down. My wife and I have fundamental differences on lighting and ceilings so it's going back the way it was.

Karl Katzke

Heh... nice from the neck down -- I'll have to use that next time I look at a house with a REALLY bad ceiling.

With the quality of roofwork and overhead galvanized plumbing here in houston, you see a lot of patchwork to already textured ceilings.

Steve Jackson

I am not looking forward to putting popcorn back up.

Michael

why put it back up?

we textured ours like our walls are textured

spackle smoothed over

Steve Jackson

19:01

My wife likes it. And the kitchen and dining room is too big to consider scraping and repainting a small project. I'm still trying to figure out an angle where we could glue tiles up.

The tin ones

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@Michael ah ha:

67

Q: What is the meaning of CHAOS? Is it related to the PSI (Ψ) character?

I've seen a number of users with a PSI character in their names doing strange mysterious things on some Stack Exchange sites. What does it all mean?

discussion announcements chaos

that was our original intro post.

The Evil Greebo

@AarthiDevanathanΨ How do you make links like that?

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

It's called oneboxing. just post the URL on its own:

blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/09/welcome-chaos -- becomes

Stack Overflow Blog: Welcome [Valued Associates That Make Up] CHAOS!

Posted by Alex Miller on September 15th, 2011

For the past couple months, we’ve had a new team starting up out of our NY office, CHAOS (or if you’re not into that whole brevity thing: Cheerful Helpful Advocates of Stack Exchange). You’ve probably seen them around some of the sites or run into them in one of the chat rooms – but here’s your official introduction:

CHAOS works directly with Joel and me to come up with, and execute on, new ways to promote all of the new SE sites and bring in new users. Looking at the original job posting we put up, you can get a bit of a feel for what they’ll be doing: …

The Evil Greebo

3

Landlords and Tenants

Proposed Q&A site for rental property owners and tenants - questions on real estate regulations, dealing with problem tenants/landlords, landlord/tenant rights, etc.

Currently in definition.

ah cool

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

A+!

The Evil Greebo

19:04

thanks

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

it works for xkcd, amazon.com, and all the stack sites

The Evil Greebo

I reject your arbitrary grading system and substitute your "A+" with "frumple"

Karl Katzke

Heh. Figures it would work for xkcd.

The Evil Greebo

lol <3 XKCD

Steve Jackson

@TheEvilGreebo three followers in a hour - nice.

The Evil Greebo

19:05

i recruit ;)

but we'll see how it holds up

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

Meanwhile: Hey @SteveJackson i sent you pencils today.

Steve Jackson

@KarlKatzke I worked the blog a little this week. Got @Michael here to volunteer content and @JayBazuzi will think about a post on his yurt.

Karl Katzke

@SteveJackson Thanks, Steve. I've been busy with work / traveling / sick and haven't posted the next step ... but we're pretty much there.

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathan cool! I'll hope to hit up a store next weekend then.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson take pictures of your cute son handing out awesome pencils

because they are awesome

@Michael i realized i never explained what it is that i do -- I'm assigned to DIY to help promote the site, bring us in more and better users, and just generally build up the site to a level of unparallelled awesome; basically make DIY.SE the SO of home improvement/diy online.

Steve Jackson

19:10

@AarthiDevanathanΨ we might have to stage the picture. Sharing of awesome things is a work in progress :)

Michael

rgr :)

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson aww he's a selfish one? ask about how to curb such behavior on parenting #CrossPromotion

Steve Jackson

@AarthiDevanathanΨ He's contrary like his mother and stubborn like his father. Awesome combination.

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@SteveJackson best combination.

Michael

things i worked on this week...

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

19:16

ooh shiny

Michael

The Evil Greebo

@Michael Very nice spot for solar.

Michael

bottom one has been redone since the picture... that's what we did this week... it "wasn't good enough" lmao

it's solar hot water... not PV :p

just in case anyone was like "WTF is that!"

Karl Katzke

You know what I think is funny? Found out that photovoltaic panels actually get less efficient as they get warmer, so they aren't the ideal type of panel in southern climates like Texas and Arizona

Michael

they're good here, but yeah, heat lowers their voltage

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

19:19

that IS weird. so what kind should TX/AZ use?

Steve Jackson

You figure you'd design for sunlight to be hot....

Michael

New Mexico is probably the best state for solar PV

if i had to guess

the heat doesn't hurt them all that bad, though... Texas is still far superior to NY/NJ

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

@Michael ahh my home state.

Michael

increased elevation also helps a bit btw :) closer to the Sun... less atmosphere to go through

Karl Katzke

@Michael Actually I read that states farther north (where it's cooler) would be better for PV

But that could've been propaganda. ;)

Michael

19:22

better per amount of sun, yes

but we get way more sun :P

Karl Katzke

ahh

The Evil Greebo

i'm waiting for the printed ink photovoltaics to come out

Michael

mapserve3.nrel.gov/PVWatts_Viewer/index.html

is a good little site to go to to see how your location stacks up

Karl Katzke

neat

arrgh. OK, I gotta drop out of chat. Too much distraction. getting this server to take this image is like feeding a two year old -- it won't even open up long enough to say NO

Michael

hot water, (if you can find a competent installer) is much better than PV for now... but once PV hits 25-30% efficiency... holy cow :)

cya later karl

Michael

19:38

working on a roof when it's 105 out is fun btw :) did three hot water systems at the peak of summer here in Texas :P

probably 130 or so on the roof :P miserable work lol

Aarthi Devanathan Ψ

19:50

speaking of miserable work, I'm out. see you all monday! /waves

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