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Yup! People need to stop buying houses with uninsulated concrete slabs. They are perfectly designed to make you cold and wick heat out of your house 24/7 forever. 2" of insulation under the whole slab. Add $100 worth of tubing and you have the most comfortable maintenance free system going...

The 35% figure is what we were told in my Solar training classes. It was based on DOE studies of the National electrical grid. But like all statistics, it's an average and depends upon the actuals and will vary in specifics. Age of the plant? Age of your wires? What's the boiler design...

Jim, A good deal on a Generac vs. expensive high maintenance batteries for occasional power outages? Hands down the Generac! And if you have an extended power outage, your batteries are dead anyway. Net Meter and use the grid as your nightime battery.... Talk to your BIL about a ModCon hot...

You 're right and wrong. Two types of solar, really 3 if you count passive solar construction. Solar thermal circulates fluid through tubes in the collector to increase the fluid temperature. This heat gain is then used for various things. It involves tanks, pumps and sensors. Many...

Thanks for the read. I had no idea

Good points Bkat. The solar fields suck up all our funds, leaving crumbs for residential use. Makes the connected developers rich, but only raises our rates to subsidize them. The money for small residential jobs is sucked up within a half hour of the offering. Then I'd have to tell the...

Bernard, 1) Centralized power is not very efficient. After generation and line losses, transformers etc., it's only about 35% efficient. Distributed power (everyone produces their own and shares excess) is the basis of the "Smart Grid". Grid improvement is a major part of the new federal...

Personally I would keep my powder dry and wait for Biden's next Trillion dollar give away. Green Energy freebees. The economics are all about the roof, site, and State/ Federal incentives. Every state is different. Revolving funds, Grants, SRECS, etc. The current tax credits are sunsetting...

Mike, the 25 yr metric is an industry standard for degredation of the panel. They shouldn't "die". 15% or 20% is to be expected.

Some Italian vineyards were blending a red and white a couple of years ago. Created a scandal resulting in a French law outlawing calling it Rose`. Probably some French/Italian wine rivalry played into it....

Did a pail of Sauv. Blanc with a second run of Shiraz skins. I wouldn't call it a Rose, but it was delicious

As one who is farther down the learning curve than most on this site, I'm thankful for all opinions even though they often differ.. Learning as much from the differings as from the consensus. It just seems logical to me to submerge the skin pack. Half the product floating at the surface, vs...

Maybe later this evening thanks. It sounds as you found that twice daily punching, and then cleaning through a 6" hole is more of a hassle than the convenience of not racking after AF. But a good choice for a juice bucket/ kit (at least for now) man like myself. Doing my patriotic duty and...

Thanks Crush. Muslin bag ,or not at all with fresh or frozen grape? I read that you don't use them for the primary at all? Stainless pots are great, but I'm still on the bucket level... why transfer at all? Do you have a source for the muslin? Paint filter bags? A conical would seem ideal...

I wonder why the manufacturers don't use an EVOH coating on the outside of the fermentation vessels? It's commonly done as an oxygen barrier coating for pex tubing. It adds about $30 to a 300' roll. Looking at the chart, it seems very effective

Considering adding a 7.9 Conical to the equipment room... Some use them, most don't seem to. Any more thoughts on them either way? Are they hard to clean of the cap if one wanted to try a 2nd run? Would adding some marbles to the cup make sense to minimize wine waste?

What you have there is a potable water recirculation pump. German. Very good at what it does, just not for wine. It is designed to circulate hot water continuously to a remote bathroom, in a loop, so as to not have to wait for the water to heat up. It's a "wet rotor impeller", hard piped...

Thought of a cap submerging plate, maybe stainless wire mesh, and once again here it is already.... Seems like at best only half a regular cap is in contact with the wine. The other half is just drying out in the CO2, necessitating punch down. If the goal of punching is to increase the...

I think I get it. The increased temp is a by product of the increased wattage possible due to the smaller filament used in the halogen. It's more about size than spectrum. The 4000K to 6000K is just where the filament and gas are happiest.

This thread got me thinking.. Has anyone used a glass lined hot water heater for an aging tank? It's a readily available 20-120 gallon ceramic lined steel tank. Stainless tanks are available. Plenty of fittings. Insulated. Some have internal stainless steel or copper coils for heating or...