Recent content by troyks

Goodyear Galaxy is a darn good AC hose, but it's use in residential AC systems would generally be a bad idea because it's not available in certain sizes which are pretty standard for central air (like 3/8" for the liquid line), and the 5/8" and 3/4" sizes that are common for suction sides have a...

Absolutely correct. If you grossly oversize the AC as some are suggesting then you'll cool the room far too quickly which wont remove humidity, and then the room will just feel cold and damp, very uncomfortable with the humidity down in LA, also it'll short cycling the equipment which shortens...

I'll echo the don't skimp on insulation, since that's not done yet it's dollar for dollar your best bang for the buck to simply get as much insulation in there as you can, that reduces the size of the equipment you need and how much energy it's going to use. I'm not far from you in Wichita and...

And here I am debating between a 13 or 14 SEER to replace my old central air unit. When I get around to finishing my garage and adding HVAC I'm definitely going the mini-split route, those are amazingly efficient.

A couple of the non-standard outlets I've added in my house are 1) areas where wall mount TV's are/will go (directly below and to one side of where the mount bracket would be placed), 2) along the joists in the unfinished areas of my basement near the HVAC/water heater and in my indoor shop...

For the rusty nail heads you need to spot coat them with an oil based primer, if you use latex the rust will just bleed through and eventually the paint will pop off because latex paint allows moisture through. Once they're primed and allowed to dry (24 hours usually) then topcoat with quality...

40 pints is plenty for a very damp 1,000 sq. ft. space, you could go as low as 30 pints and still be golden. I wouldn't spend a lot on a bigger unit or more features, dehumidifiers these days with their cheap compressors using R410 seem to last a few years at most, so a sufficiently sized cheap...

Gas powered RV refrigerators still use ammonia for a refrigerant, so try calling around RV service places and they may be able to point you towards someone who knows how to work with it.

If you can spend about $350 on one the Harbor Freight 29 gallon compressor would really be your best bet, at 5+ CFM @ 90 psi it can provide enough air for basic usage of a die grinder or cut off wheel, and the few extra gallons of air will reduce starts and stops of the compressor a bit. The...

The threshold of human perception of a shock is only around 1 mA, so there are instances where a GFCI could be working fine that you could still feel a tingling sensation. 6-10 mA is the point where a shock starts becoming painful, and is above where a standard residential GFCI should trip.

Since you've already got metal boxes for the junctions there's no reason to replace them. Plastic boxes aren't any safer than metal, I would just remove the electrical tape and replace that with appropriate wire nuts and call it a day. Millions of homes still have original metal boxes with...

If it's the common reinforced fiberglass insulation used in commercial buildings that's around R-10 for 3" bats which is pretty minimal. If you plan to heat and cool a building that size it's definitely worthwhile to bump that insulation up.

To me the $3,800 deal doesn't sound out of line, but the $1,300 sounds like a plan to just get you the upgraded service by taking shortcuts. There's no problem using existing poles and adding guy wires if they're in good shape, but not upgrading the transformer might be an issue if it's already...

I leaned to pre-twist wires, but anymore I've found that if you use quality wire nuts and twist them down properly on non-twisted wire they actually perform better for me. When pre-twisting I've found it can be hard to get the nut started on occasion, and when comparing the two methods side by...

I have a Hobart 190 on a 30 amp breaker on #10 copper, my run is probably 60-70 feet. I did a voltage drop calculation for mine and at my distance I have around 1% voltage drop @ 21 amps (what the Hobart 190 pulls at full load). Up to 3% voltage loss is generally considered fine, so with the...