Dec 2022 low temps and blizzard or storm across the US

[bczoom]

No wiring up there that is not inside conduit. So not squirrels.

I'd try a new breaker. I've had a few of them trip like that and won't reset and in all cases it was the 20+ year old breaker itself.

 

[Doc]

But now I have a fuse blown in my family room, storage room and reading nook. Not sure why, nothing is currently plugged into any of the outlets. Breaker may have gone bad? Or something else is shorting it out. I click the breaker and it immediately trips.

Had a breaker do that to us a week ago. Wife plugged in a nightlight and the breaker tripped. Breaker would not reset, it would trip as soon as I switched it. Figured out all the outlets on that breaker and unplugged everything (I had missed a couple outlets on the other side of the wall in our game room). Once everything was unplugged the breaker reset like normal. Plugged in everything except that nightlight and all is well. Can't explain why but it worked.

Note, my breakers are 22 years old.

 

[FrancSevin]

Sun is out. Wind is down. 5 degrees F outside.

House is finally at 70 F.

We have two areas where things are under remodeling-construction. Most of the heat losses were there.

However, our house is a very open concept design so, we felt the cold throughout.

 

[tiredretired]

Does it cost a lot more to keep feeding it pellets instead of wood? I know the pellets are made of wood so I suppose the chimney needs cleaned same as with wood. Right?

A ton of wood pellets will give 16 Million BTU. A cord of firewood around 20 and up depends on factors such as type of wood, moisture content of the wood and the wood burning appliance. So, on average i would say no problem getting more BTU from a cord of well seasoned good quality cord wood. Easily.

What I like are what I call the convenience factors. Easier to handle and stack in my shed. Very low moisture content so no issues with creosote whatsoever even when the stove is running on low. Auto electric ignition to start a fire without a torch or starter fluid. Easy to control heat output as my stove has a tstat and when the tstat no longer calls for heat the stove goes into "Maintainance Mode where it feeds just enough pellets to keep a small fire going until it calls for heat again, avoiding the automatic ignition process and speeding up the call for heat. Unless very cold I fill the hopper once a day. Ash pan needs emptying once a week.

I use double wall stainless inner wall 4" ICC pellet pipe guaranteed for life, 600F silicon gaskets and 1" clearance to combustibles. The outer pipe gets no hotter then about 50 degrees more then domestic heating pipes from a boiler.

Chimney gets brushed once a year whether it needs it or not. No joke.

Personally i see it as much safer and much more convenient that burning cord wood.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

The snow has let up here but the wind...WOW. Some spots in the driveway are bare. Others have 4ft drifts. There's been a few big pile ups on the highway closing one of two highways that connect us to the rest of the province to the south. Lots of people are stranded along the highways and in airports as flights have been canceled.

 

[tiredretired]

Yep, wind has been brutal. It was just official Mt. Washington recorded a wind gust yesterday of 151 MPH!!! Now that is some serious breeze.

 

[FrancSevin]

No wiring up there that is not inside conduit. So not squirrels.

I actually used painters tape on a couple windows and 1 door.

Fortunately BEFORE this storm was even predicted I had put new foam insulation behind a lot of my exterior wall outlet and light switch covers. I'm sure that helped with the breezes. When I built this house I used high efficiency everything; 28 years later it showing its age and needs to be updated. Took a hell of a bad storm to show me how much work I need to do.

My house is a former display house-burnout I bought in 1976 to flip. Budget to flip for resale was about $24K. We had $7,000. We did the minimum required for occupancy and then moved in. I spent the next few years upgrading everything. Wiring, insulation, HAVC, The house is solid.

In1990's I began another "flip" wherein I added the lower-level finish, a huge front porch, and the back Solarium porch. We also added a second-floor loft. All of it overbuilt.

We took out 13 feet of a backwall into the solarium which, as a three-season room, has minimal insulation. The walls are 80% glass. Insulation is a 1/8"foam panel behind the siding. It is the reason the house is cold.

 

[pirate_girl]

My son Ty had to go to Findlay to get a car out of a ditch.
His breath froze on the lens of his glasses.

 

[chowderman]

but you can tell when it's really cold - your contacts frost over . . .