Comments by "" (@HobbyOrganist) on "Old HVAC industry practices are holding us back and costing us money. But we can fix it." video.

  1. Those damn space heaters are GARBAGE, I had a small UL listed! "cube" 1500 watt unit plugged in, the internal fan failed and the plastic- PLASTIC!! case caught fire, I was awakened by my dogs jumping on my bed to seeing a 2 foot flame feet from my bed, I grabbed the power cord on the thing, yanked it out and carried the still burning heater to the front door and threw it in the snow where it burned until only metal screws, coil and the fan housing remained. I cannot fathom how they can legally make something like that with a flammable plastic case and be UL listed too! NO plastic, and NO 14 GA wire like they use. A former neighbor years earlier hired me to help print tee shirts, we were working on that and I stepped on the cord to the space heater he had running, and the cord shorted out! It had gotten hot enough running that 1500 watts that the rubber or whatever it was the cord was made of- softened enough that just stepping on it was enough to mash the wires together into a short circuit.
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  2. I replaced my old 80% 120,000 BTU gas furnace with a 96% 80,000 gas furnace I bought and installed myself. I have R 100 worth of insulation in the attic The 80% unit was 30 years old, it had an open 5" flue that cold air usually blasted down thru between cycles, and it took all the air from the basement for it's combustion which pulled cold air in from every gap and crack, so that 80% was more likely closer to 70% The 96% unit gets all its air from outside with a 2" PVC pipe, and no open flue, the 80,000 BTU is more than enough and kept the house at the 73 degrees I normally keep it at all winter, even when it dropped to 20 below zero for a few nights. Gas works even during power otages, NOT SO with anything electric, and while the gas furnace does require some electric for the controls and blower fans- I have a Vtoman 1,000 watt inverter battery that with a little additional modifications to the furnaces' electric cable- I can run the furnace off the battery during power outages. The 1,000 watt battery will run the furnace for many hours, and if the outage lasted longer I have a 1500 watt generator I can plug into the main breaker panel and run everything as well as charge that battery in about one-2 hours.
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