Status: I’ve fallen terribly behind in my postings because I’ve been working on a house project that just got out of hand. I’ve also spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where I stand on the Portland Oregon protests. We are sheltering in place with plenty of food and supplies. I have not employed all the new bullets I have in this blog. (I thought I’d have more time… LOL)
Plans: Work on my Blog. I’ve not filled it in for several days and it would not be fruitful to just make something up.
- Progress
- 07:00 Cleaning up my Blog of days that I haven’t completed.
- 08:00 Checked on my Instacart order this morning.
- Cleaned up the unfilled days in my blog and moved them into the future.
- Completing the previous blog entry.
- 09:00 Checked out the news, Portland protests are being subdued, albeit slightly.
- 10:00 Updating this blog page.
- 11:00 Evaluating solar charge controller. (It doesn’t recover very well with clouds)
- 12:00 Time for a nap.
- 15:00 A couple NodeMCU’s have stopped sending data… Added 2nd DHT to them…
- 16:00 Talked with Instacart, they’ve given me $5 and reported it to their IT.
- 17:00 Did a bit of browsing the Internet and updating the Virus info on this page.
- Could not find details if the Feds are going to rebuild the fence in Portland.
- I like how they always refer these as “Mostly Peaceful” demonstrations… LOL
- 18:00 had two slices of bread, making some soup for dinner.
- Added a smart plug on the air handler, it will record the power usage which should correlate to the Air Conditioner usage pretty well.
- 19:00 Decided to have ham and beans for dinner.
- 20:00 Played a game of scrabble with the wife.
Narrative: First thing i’ve started doing today was moving the days that I hadn’t blogged into the future since I won’t need them. The best I can hope for is to remember what I have done for the last four days and post it here.
Our air conditioner has been acting up for several weeks. One time it stopped working in the evening for several hours before it jumped back into life again. I had taken the outdoor unit apart and was looking at the wiring when it came back to life.
We paid a repairman to come out and look at the unit on Monday 20 July. The assessment was that the evaporator in the air handler was oil logged and needed replacement for $1500. The replacement of the entire system was about $8000 so we’re planning undergo that in September.
Until September we have to stretch the performance of the air conditioning as much as we can. I put several NodeMCU’s to work recording the temperatures of the air to find out what’s actually happening. (I thought it was freezing up, there’s no data to support that assumption.) The only performance problem I have is that the supply sensor is saturated most of the time at 100% humidity with the moisture coming off of the coils.
As you can see below the most dramatic problem was that the thermostat was not holding the temperature.
I took the thermostat off the wall and found that the batteries installed in the unit had leaked corroding the area pretty badly.
I took the unit apart and used lemon juice to neutralize the alkaline battery acid. I then rinsed the circuit board with water to get rid of the lemon juice. Next I rinsed the board with alcohol to get rid of the water. Dried it off, remounted it and found it to actually work. (I thought I might have to buy a new one, they’re not cheap!) There are small artifacts in the screen, but it’s legible and it works!
Here’s the small temperature swings after fixing the thermostat!
I also used a hair dryer to cycle the expansion valve in the evaporator core to flush out the oil that had collected in the tubing. It helped a little, but the oil flows the other way when it’s heating the house? I also checked the power consumption hoping that the thermostat was the cause of the slightly higher electric bills. It’s a little lower, too soon to actually know the results though.
I’ve been using NodeMCU’s and Home Assistant to log the temperatures I am using to assess the air conditioner. Occasionally they just stop sending data. When I’ve looked them with an O Scope the challenge from the NodeMCU is correct, but there is no response from the DHT22. There’s so many possibilities for interrupting the DHT I’ve doubled up the DHT22 sensors on each NodeMCU except the garage. (3 of them)
Feelings: Portland protest violence has to stop!
Retirement: I get my first Social Security check in three weeks.
Protests of Racial Inequality: Portland demonstrators tore down the fence around the courthouse last weekend. They were not challenged by local police for destroying public/government property. Now other cities are suffering because demonstrations for Portland have sprung up across the USA.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
*Did My Best To