Is a Whole House Furnace Humidifier Worth the Money?

January 24, 2007 0 Comments

Furnace Humidifier

The air in Colorado is extremely dry, especially when the cold winter air is heated to 68°F. When you heat cold dry air, the humidity level drops considerably. Our first solution was to run three small warm mist and cool mist humidifiers throughout the house which meant changing a lot of filters and re-filling water. Even still, we would average about 11% humidity which meant every light switch, doorknob and button we touched produced a 1.21 gigawatt lightning bolt. That’s when I decided enough was enough and I needed something…
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Home Improvement

Harnessing Lightning and Using the Electricity

January 23, 2007

lightning strike prairie

The idea of harnessing lightning and using the electricity to supplement our power grid is nothing new. The difficulty has always been knowing when and where lightning will strike, capturing it, then releasing the electricity onto the electrical grid. Even if all these issues could be addressed, would it still be worthwhile to try and harness the power of a thunderstorm? There’s no question thunderstorms generate a tremendous amount of electricity. A typical lightning bolt produces about 10,000 amps. Some bolts, such as the one that struck the Apollo spacecraft…
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Weather Myths & Facts

Can Insects and Plants Predict Weather?

January 23, 2007 0 Comments

A lot of weather folk lore over the years has made claim that insects can predict the weather and that by observing the insects, we humans can make better decisions on how to dress, what crops to plant or whether to water the lawn or not. I have yet to read or see any evidence the confirms insects somehow have a better ability to forecast the weather than the local meteorologist on TV. Fact is, insects don’t predict weather. They simply react to its immediate changes. Take for example a…
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Weather Myths & Facts

Do Mobile Homes and Trailer Parks Attract Tornadoes?

January 22, 2007 0 Comments

tornado trailer park

Many joke how mobile homes and trailer parks always seem to get hit by tornadoes. Some truly believe mobile homes attract tornadoes. The fact is, nothing attracts tornadoes. They form and move based on wind and other meteorological variables, not the type of home on the ground. The reason people may think tornadoes target mobile homes and trailer parks is that immense damage seems to occur when they strike these places. Mobile homes and trailers are not securely fastened to their foundations and are usually structurally weak in comparison to…
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Weather Myths & Facts

Install House Wiring Inside Finished Walls

January 19, 2007 0 Comments

flexible drill bit

We have a DirecTV Dual Tuner Tivo in our bedroom, but unfortunately we only had one coax cable jack. So we couldn’t record one show and watch another at the same time unless we ran another cable into the bedroom from the basement. A daunting task because I didn’t want to run the cable around the baseboards and I didn’t want to run it all the way around the house and in through the outside wall. That leaves just one option, and that was to go up through the interior…
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Home Improvement

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BMW 650 GS Givi Top Case

January 17, 2007 0 Comments

When I bought my 2005 BMW 650 GS Dakar, I quickly realized I was going to need a top case for carrying some of my gear. The question was, do I go with the BMW case that is made for the bike or do I go with a 3rd party case? After speaking with some co-workers who have BMW motorcycles, none of them had many good things to say about the BMW top case. The two biggest complaints I heard were it was very compartmentalized which made storing larger items…
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Motorcycle

Melted Snow in Attic After Blizzard

January 12, 2007 0 Comments

snow in attic

The blizzard we had on December 20th, 2006 was probably the worst I’ve seen since living in Colorado Springs. The 10 minute average wind speed hovered around 45 mph for 3 hours and wind gusts frequently exceeded 55 mph. It was one nasty storm that caused a lot of problems all throughout the country. For us however, and most people I spoke with around town, the blizzard was troublesome for another less obvious reason. Due to the direction of the wind and the orientation of our home, the wind blew…
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Home Improvement