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Most consumer grade lawn tractors are going to need some work to make it to 2-3000 hours. I know my Husqvarna certainly did. I don't know about the EGO, but at least you don't have to do the 'regular' maintenance like oil changes.

Our neighbor has the EGO one, and they love it - no gas, no oil, no belts and super quiet and surprisingly fast. They went all in on EGO after they got this as the other tools are pretty cheap if you don't need to buy batteries. I also love how quiet it is, as their teenager likes to mow at...

I am not an HVAC tech, but I have installed or helped install a few minisplits. I have access to UHP nitrogen so I have done a positive pressure test, but I have also never found a leak this way that didn't also show up on the vacuum test. I think my sample size is about 4, so I am not...

If you have time, you can probably skip the micron gauge and even the nitrogen test. You can spend some time vacuuming the lines to get them as evacuated and dry as possible, then leave them under vacuum for at least 24 hours (or preferably longer) to make sure you have no leaks. A micron...

To me, the 2nd option is likely the easiest. You can use slightly smaller wires from battery to junction - and is you ever need to remove or isolate a single battery, it is easy. You can also use premade cables of the same length, which could save some time/money.

This is the resource you need: https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/The_Wiring_Unlimited_book/43562-Wiring_Unlimited-pdf-en.pdf From section 3.3:

There are plenty of Prius out there with 20 year old batteries (including our old one), and those are using older technology in a much harsher environment than a home battery. My camper LiFePO4 battery is approaching 14 years old and still tests out at >90% capacity. I am not really that...

I have coiled my rope in a butterfly many hundreds of times, and have never ever found the middle of the rope to do so, although I also mark the middle of all my ropes. I start with both ends, measure out two arm lengths and set them aside for the tie off/backpack straps then follow the...

I have two 200A panels with a Emporia Vue on each, and two Emporia EV chargers. You can now combine the the 200A panels together as well as nesting sub panels. It works very well. For my garage sub panel I am only measuring the feed off one of the main panels, but it only has 6 circuits so...

I think you could make something like that with some copper tube bent to shape, or some plastic tubing secured to a 2x2" wood frame? You would need to work fairly quickly as it would gum up as it dried, but maybe it would work for the areas you can't drill small holes to access. Or, could you...

This seems like the right approach - is there anyway you can insulate just the perimeter and rim joist? Maybe spray foam and a really long wand from the crawl space? Or drill holes in from above or outside to add spray foam? Then lay a couple of inches of foam board on the slab? That way...

I have a similar situation with a very tightly built house heated only with a heat pump in a cold, dry climate in CO. Based on our experience with our prior house, a 1970s 'masterpiece', where humidity was always an issue we had a central humidifier installed during construction. The HVAC...

Luckily the minimum design temp for the Twin Cities is -8F - so no worries there.

Not if you choose the right minisplit for the job. A cold climate or 'hyper heat' should produce close to it's rated output down to 0F or lower. For example my Gree 24k is above 24k down to 5f and above 20k down to -15f.

I had almost the same issue with my air line plumbing - I mounted a pex to NPT drop ear elbow 'upside down' with the drop ears away from the wall, then used some ~1.5" standoffs to attach the drop ear to the wall. A ****** screws into the elbow and extends through the wall. This seemed like...

I think that is actually a rebranded Midea unit - that's not a bad thing, they are a huge OEM and are also make units for big names like Carrier.

Many minisplits have a 'do not freeze' setting, which on mine holds the temp at 46F, which is about perfect. It takes < 1 hour to get back up to 62F for actually working out there. What size service do you have at the moment? As long as it is 240V, you may not need to upsize for the...

I would be very interested to see 'government paper testing' of heat pumps. As far as I know, the testing for government programs like Energy Star is also conducted by third party labs, hired by the manufacturers, or is based on the AHRI testing. Again, I am not saying all the data from...

The current Midea and previous Gree units sold as 'Blueridge' efficiency is comparable to the Fujitsu/Daiken/Mitsu. I have the Gree Saphire version from 2024, and at the time, it was about as good as you could get for a 24k unit, and significantly cheaper than the main stream options. The...

This is the answer. If you really want to live in a barn, and think you will enjoy this more than a house, then go ahead. But if you are doing this to save money, then it probably makes more sense to look a little longer for the right existing house to come along, or consider buying a...