Proper thermostat usage

[tonyb]

I hesitate to tell young people what I paid for rent when I was their age, lest they think I’m lying or, worse yet, trying to make them feel bad about how much larger a share of their income goes to keeping a roof over their heads.

 

[belfastboy]

I hesitate to tell young people what I paid for rent when I was their age, lest they think I’m lying or, worse yet, trying to make them feel bad about how much larger a share of their income goes to keeping a roof over their heads.

My first home: paid $26,500 in 1972 ....long sold as it was only 650 sq feet would likely be sold now for somewhere around $1.5 million. ....land value only.

 

[tonyb]

My first home: paid $26,500 in 1972 ....long sold as it was only 650 sq feet would likely be sold now for somewhere around $1.5 million. ....land value only.

I thought Seattle real estate was nuts, but it’s a bargain compared to Vancouver and environs.

Just about every homeowner I know says they couldn’t afford to live where they do if they hadn’t bought in decades ago.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I hesitate to tell young people what I paid for rent when I was their age, lest they think I’m lying or, worse yet, trying to make them feel bad about how much larger a share of their income goes to keeping a roof over their heads.

I say the same thing about my college tuition. It was $4/credit hour. A semester full time was a whopping $60. Tack on fees, books and such, and a 4-year undergraduate degree totaled about $2,000.

 

[belfastboy]

I say the same thing about my college tuition. It was $4/credit hour. A semester full time was a whopping $60. Tack on fees, books and such, and a 4-year undergraduate degree totaled about $2,000.

I think my tuition ran $15 per credit in the late 1960's. After my first semester as an eager beaver buying all the books on the list and then learning that many/most of them were irrelevant I only bought as needed, or borrowed, or read in the library I graduated with zero debt, enough money in the bank from a good summer job to buy a house as I lived off my 16 hour per week (4 nights x 4 hour shifts per week) job in the cafeteria at a few cents over a buck an hour (union job for what that was worth).

 

[HudsonHawk]

I think my tuition ran $15 per credit in the late 1960's. After my first semester as an eager beaver buying all the books on the list and then learning that many/most of them were irrelevant I only bought as needed, or borrowed, or read in the library I graduated with zero debt, enough money in the bank from a good summer job to buy a house as I lived off my 16 hour per week (4 nights x 4 hour shifts per week) job in the cafeteria at a few cents over a buck an hour (union job for what that was worth).

The idea of borrowing money for school never entered my mind. It’s sad that crippling debt is the only path for so many these days.

 

[belfastboy]

The idea of borrowing money for school never entered my mind. It’s sad that crippling debt is the only path for so many these days.

As I recall student loans were a government invention that started about the time I started uni. As the front end of the boomers there were a lot of us and the government of the day thought offering cheap money was a good idea to get us into uni.

 

[HudsonHawk]

As I recall student loans were a government invention that started about the time I started uni. As the front end of the boomers there were a lot of us and the government of the day thought offering cheap money was a good idea to get us into uni.

Cheap money is fine, as long as the total is not so overwhelming that one can never repay it. The problem isn't the low borrowing cost, it's the exhorbinant amount one has to borrow. I was in school in the late 80s, and while there were loans available, and I knew students who took them, they were on the order of $3,000...$5,000...the notion that one had to borrow $200,000 for a bachelor's degree wasn't on anyone's radar. Higher education is no longer viewed as a collective benefit to society...it's a money making scheme.

 

[Turnip]

…and it ensures the dominance of the wealthy.

 

[tonyb]

And the schools, many of them, have all too eagerly bought into this model of making academic credentials the key to reasonably remunerative employment. Education itself is a commodity. In that regard, they’re all trade schools now, even if the trades don’t involve getting one’s hands dirty.

The mailroom to the corner office? Nope, not anymore. Gotta go get yerself a few initials next to your name.

 

[belfastboy]

And the schools, many of them, have all too eagerly bought into this model of making academic credentials the key to reasonably remunerative employment. Education itself is a commodity. In that regard, they’re all trade schools now, even if the trades don’t involve getting one’s hands dirty.

The mailroom to the corner office? Nope, not anymore. Gotta go get yerself a few initials next to your name.

I consider myself most fortunate as I went to university with the pretense of being a 'scholar' not in the pursuit of a career/profession.

I had no idea of what I wanted to be when/if I grew up but I wanted to rid myself of the constraints of high school and study humanity's big ideas at the feet of learned men. It did not take me long to be disavowed of that notion. Most professors (not all) were run of the mill pedants that had earned PhD's not out of scholarly brilliance but just dogged determination to slog through the 7-9 year long hoops. Most were like my high school teachers.....middling minds punching a clock earning a decent salary. But I did get to hang out in the lounge discussing big ideas, solving the problems of the world, smoking copious cigarettes and drinking gallons of the 10 cent coffee. It was a glorious time in my life. Graduated and then went back to doing what I knew how to do.....working in the carnival.

 

[Bugguy]

My wife and I both had student loans and payed them off - we never considered asking for forgiveness.

Back to thermostats, however, I recently embarrassed myself and cost us a HVAC service call. First... I've never owned a heat pump. I was going to impress my wife by changing out the old mercury switch thermostat with a new programmable one. I researched them all and got a well rated one for heat pumps. I sweated the wiring and got it hooked uo correctly. It ran well, and ran, and ran and ran. I rechecked my wiring and couldn't find a problem. Finally, I called out a local HVAC contractor and he immediately diagnosed the problem as an amateur mistake. The air conditioner was running this winter for several weeks and only the auxiliary heating strip was heating. I had a monster block off ice in the condenser unit. In all my research, I missed the part about a tiny switch that indicated to the thermostat that it was wired too a heat pump. $147 later and now it works fine. The contractor suggested the previous owner did it before he sold the house. I ended up with a significant electric bill for the unit trying to melt the ice with a heat strip. Dumb!

And before you ask... the contractor conviently left before I could fess up. My wife, however , was less than ammused.

 

[Turnip]

After about 20 years we’re going to replace our natural gas fired central condensing heating and central boiler with something newer, maybe slightly more efficient on same fuel. Looked around a bit for a supportive heat pump and photovoltaic equipment. Heat pumps currently got a lead time of about two years here and considering our age we’ll probably just replace heating with boiler this year, add some photovoltaic and leave that heat pump thing for the next generation…

 

[Edward]

All those whistles and bells just means there's so much more to go wrong.

Always was my view with cars. I liked having an automatic choke, but when I last drove a car in 1999, there were innovations I hated with a passion - automatic gears, power windows, and *especially* power-assisted-steering. I'm not by any means a luddite. I'd love an electric car, were I ever to need / in a position to afford one again, but I wish it was still possible to buy something as simple as the likes of a Minor 1000. The last 70/71 era of the Minor except with an electric motor would be ideal.

 

[Turnip]

Exact opposite here.
I really do love the RWD eight step automatic, adaptive chassis, LED curve lights with automatic high beam, automatic AC, built in navigation system with connected drive, heated seats…of my car.
Thinking back on my first car, VW Golf I, it is quite fun what a crappy clunker that has been, compared to a modern BMW.

 

[Edward]

Exact opposite here.
I really do love the RWD eight step automatic, adaptive chassis, LED curve lights with automatic high beam, automatic AC, built in navigation system with connected drive, heated seats…of my car.
Thinking back on my first car, VW Golf I, it is quite fun what a crappy clunker that has been, compared to a modern BMW.

Rear wheel drive, now that's something that really should have stayed the standard. Never cared for front wheel drive, though it's not for me a deal-breaker like power-steering or an auto box. Dad had a couple of autos - one of those was the last car I drove. Hated it. It was like driving a dodgem on a computer game - far, far too "easy".

 

[Turnip]

The funny thing is that the more advanced cars get the more responsive the servo steering systems can be set. Even my MKII Ford Focus had already three (adaptive) presets for the steering, from one finger action driving to „sports“ mode which had nothing at all of a spongy, wobbly feel.