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As we in Chicago repeat our silly tradition of dyeing the river green for St. Patrick's Day, I think it's a good time to remind people that our ancestors *reversed the flow of the river* to keep Lake Michigan, our source of drinking water, clean and safe.

And earlier, in the 1860's, the central core of the city and all of its buildings were *lifted by several feet* to allow for the installation of sewer systems which improved drainage and public health.

Remember that the next time someone says heat pumps and electrification are hard.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River#Reversing_the_flow 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago 

(edited b/c the buildings were lifted differing amounts) 

A lot of comments on the HVAC sizing video are implying that the fact that I live in a townhome is some kind of gotcha which invalidates the whole video. Rather than continuing to play whack-a-mole, here's a community post instead:

I was upfront about the fact that sharing walls with neighbors makes my home energy-efficient. So it's not like I was trying to hide that - it's honestly weirding me out how many people think I was trying to pull a fast one by "ignoring" that fact. But if you're under the impression that I'm "getting heat" from those shared walls - no. That's not how that works.

You don't include shared walls when doing load calculations because the loading on them is somewhere between zero and negligible: even if one of my neighbors were going buck-wild and setting their thermostats to 85 degrees, then there's only a 15 degree temperature differential across that wall and hardly any heat would move from their home into mine. Similarly, if they had left and turned the heat down to 55 degrees, then that *single* wall behaves as though the outside temp were 55 degrees. Some heat will move across it, but very little compared to the exterior walls (especially since our shared walls are insulated on both sides, but that's a particular fact of my home which I can't say how common it is in the grand scheme).

But most importantly, the dynamics in-play here were identical between using my furnace for heating and using the space heaters for heating. Heat is heat! Doesn't matter how it got there. If you somehow got under the impression that I shut off my heat and was mooching entirely off my neighbors - you must have checked out early.

Lastly, I want to address supplemental/backup heat. So so soooo many comments on both versions of the video don't seem to get how that works. Now, rather than be cranky about this, I'll put the blame on me and assume I failed to communicate this effectively. With a heat pump system with auxiliary heat (electric heat strips or even a furnace if you go dual-fuel) you have *two* sources of heat. Both of them should be sized to take care of your heating needs by themselves - ideally the heat pump holds it own, and the heat strips can also hold their own if they must. But when the system is operating normally, they can work together and double your heat output when you need it. So on those epically cold days? When you want to bump the temp up, you can absolutely do it even without whipping out space heaters. I included the line about "whip out some space heaters" because they're extremely cheap and anybody can do it, and I typically lean on the side empowering people to fix their own problems. But that apparently backfired since many people are under the impression I'm advocating for heating systems that barely work. That just isn't the case.

I'm probably paying too much attention to comments (particularly since some are clearly coming from folks who think I have an "agenda" and want to push "scams" on people), but this is a really important topic and we desperately need everyone inside the industry and out to recognize these new realities. I'm disappointed in myself for not staving some of those wonky misinterpretations off.

More Pumping More Now 

*looks at calendar*

oh no 

Hello!

I recently appeared on  @TomScottGo 's podcast Lateral with  @BerylShereshewsky  and  @NBTJacklyn ! I had a lot of fun being puzzled by puzzling questions.

You can find it here  https://www.lateralcast.com/  or, as they say, wherever you get your podcasts ;) 

Hey everybody! I forgot to include a clip of the two contactor coils together... probably because the 120V coil is wrapped and thus not really exciting. There's not a lot to see!

But in case any y'all were curious, well here's the only part that's meaningfully different between the two. 

Hello again! A few people asked what the EPCOT film was. Well, if you'd like to see it in its entirety, here it is. Plus it has the best Walt Disney Home Video bumper that hits me right in the feels.

Why share a VHS copy? Because it's genuinely better than the film. I bought the film on eBay hoping that it was going to be worth preserving, but as I watched it I realized things were... off. Frame rate seemed really jittery, the picture just wasn't that sharp, and I couldn't put my finger on why.

Well, I later realized that there was *video noise* in the dark scenes! That's right, that film was — for some reason — kinescoped, and the actual production happened on videotape. However, since some shots were originally captured on film, those were transferred onto tape with 3:2 pulldown and putting them _back_ onto film must be what caused the weird motion in some shots. Plus, the audio fidelity of 16mm film, while decent, just isn't up to snuff compared to VHS.

I can only assume it was put to film as it was early days for home video. Or possibly, on the film version it is presented by "Walt Disney Educational Media Company" so it may have been produced primarily for schools - although my particular copy belonged to a public library system. If this was ever released on Laserdisc that would be the best source for preservation, but it doesn't look like that happened.

I may attempt a better capture of the film and try and sync the VHS audio with it at a later date, but for now - enjoy! 

Merry Christmas, everybody!

If you're interested in seeing the entirety of that programming film, I've uploaded it on Connextras. This is the only reel I have, unfortunately, so I can't show you part 2 (or three? maybe? don't have a clue how many reels there were).

Anyway, enjoy! 

Hi! Remember the videos I made on that old jukebox? Well, I've put together a Sights and Sounds video on Connextras if you'd like to see and hear more of it! 

Hi! Aging Wheels has a new video in which a special guest (it's me!) goes on an EV road trip. We wanted to see what it would be like to take a not-Tesla on a long-distance trip in 2022. You can watch his video now, and I'll be back soon with a closer look at the charging tech! 

It's a Connextrasvaganza!

To close out the year, I'm putting a video out every day until 12/31. None of them are... great... but if you're lookin' for something to watch, I have you covered on Connextras! Here's the first video.