Evaporative Cooler Pads - Aspen versus Blue Foam

I was in line this morning at the local Hom-Mart with a huge roll of aspen cooler pads under my arm. I had left a trail of small white noodles all the way from the cooler aisle, and the guy in front of me turns around and says, "I use the blue foam ones, they don't make all that mess"

I wanted to tell him what I do for a living, and how I know about clogged cooler pumps, baskets and distributor tubes. I wanted to tell him about those speedometer cables to clean out the water lines.  The blue foam does not have the same surface area, so they don't cool as well. I use the blue foam on our commercial rentals at work only because we don't have the manpower to keep up on the maintenance.  I want Aspen on my garage because they work better.  I'll clean it out once a month.

I smiled and said, "I love the way the Aspen smells".  He paid for his stuff & left.

Flash back 2 days. My dog Max has been pretty aggressive trying to get in the garage door the past few days.  It has been around 100 outside, but I have a swamp cooler on the wall in the garage also.  It should be cool out there, what is his deal?

I could feel a wall of heat when I went through the garage door. No wonder Max wants inside.

I took out my trusty laser thermometer & shot at the throat of the cooler.
The photo sucks because of the flash, but the display says 89F.

That's NOT good. It's only 96 Outside. Only 7 degrees drop?

I checked the supply temp on my main house cooler:

That number looks right.  It's about 96F outside, and humidity is in the 20's. I'm getting a 30 degree drop on the main cooler, so what is going on with the garage?

Must be a pump problem, right?

I pulled a pad frame on the garage cooler. The pump was running full blast, but the outer surface of the pads was dry. Only a small ribbon of moisture went down from each drip hole in the top of the frame. Everything else was bone dry.
No water, no evaporation, no cooling.

My main cooler has aspen pads, so that's why I was at Hom-Mart earlier.  I knew that Aspen cooled better, but I had never measured it in a controlled test.

I dumped the blue foam, installed the 3 Aspen pads & wet them a bit with the garden hose before I put them back in.

The ambient temp went down a little while I went to the store:

This is the garage cooler about 5 minutes after I put it back together. The pads were not fully soaked yet.

This is final temp check, about 15 minutes run time. Pads were fully wet & the float had stopped hissing. Getting 22 degrees drop. I'm pretty satisfied.

You may ask, why is the main house cooler so much cooler? That photo showed 30 degrees temp drop from ambient.
The reason is the main unit is a 5000CFM down draft.  There are 4 pads, so the airflow is slower over more surface area of padding. Longer contact time allows more temp exchange. The garage cooler is a wall mount 4000CFM. There's only 3 pads, and the air is moving faster.  Less contact time. That's it.

So the next time you're at Hom-Mart in the cooler aisle, you can answer with confidence.  Aspen pads cool better. You read it on the Internet, so it's true right?

Do I really need that new smartphone?

I broke my Android, again.

My faithful T-Mobile G2, one of the few that Google had worked to keep all the “bloat” off of. That was why I bought it, plus it had that weird flip-slide/hinge/keyboard thing. It was quite cool, it had a full keyboard, but not really, because it looked at first glance like a full QWERTY board. Until you try to use it and realize that no key is where you think it's supposed to be. Everyone knows that the ! is above the 1, right? Or the ( and ) are over the 9 and 0. Well they are NOT THERE! And I don't know where they are! or the @ or the % or the &.

That's when you give up and close the keyboard, and now you have a stainless steel computer jumping around like a fish in a kid's hands at camp.

And let me tell you it jumps!


So it jumped, and I dropped it.

Again.

And the screen died, and this is the 3rd time.

I had a previous warranty replacement for charging / battery issues, then I replaced the screen myself after the warranty expired, and now I've dropped it again. This time the screen's dead again, but now I'm having issues with the power switch also. I'm still looking into it, but until then I need a daily driver. So at this point, I'm going to abandon this phone.

The first urge is to go get the new “Universe-1000” from my current carrier for a "small" monthly fee. I must admit, I have that urge.

I think of all the apps and the stuff I have on the Android. I must replace all those apps on the new phone, right? Why? Do I really need all those apps? What do I really need?

I need what I need.

I do not need what big business tells me I need.

This is where they take my money, or I keep it.

How much tech do I really need?

I need to keep in touch with my family.
I need to keep a few funny moments on video / film.
I need to avoid a traffic jam.

If you boil it down, What I really need is:
E-Mail
Internet
Media Playback
Text
Voicemail

That's not much, but it is a lot of technology if you sit back and contemplate it.

Since my Android kicked the bucket, I  have been using a phone that was made in 2007. But that's what all the advertising is about. They want me to believe that I MUST have the phone they just released yesterday

But that doesn't work for me... I can chose to buy into the new model frenzy or to deliberately reduce my new tech spending.

I have technology that has worked just fine since 2007, and still does.  In reality, no one I know had these things on their phone before 2007 anyway.  So as I see it , right now, I have the advantage.

So I have decided to I re-use old technology. 

I will use it until it doesn't fit MY needs, and only purchase new tech when necessary.   I will recycle it when it has served it's useful life, and I will NOT be influenced by the flood of corporate advertising.  And please don't ask me to post anything on Facebook!

Switch from Windows to Linux - So far, so good.

It's been about 6 months since I switched to Linux.  Right now I'm quite happy, but there were a few bumps.  I'll make this quick, but let me point out that I will NOT be using terms like AVG, Avast, ESET, MSE, Norton, or even the word de-fragment.  Just a reminder that it's more secure, but not bulletproof.  Read on to the end. 

I tried Xubuntu first, because it uses XFCE, a very lightweight desktop (faster on old hardware), but forget about getting the video card drivers working.  Not exactly sure why.
I tried Linux Mint, which found the additional drivers necessary for my AMD video card within minutes of getting the networking up. It seemed to perform well, but I had problems with the screen turning back on after sleeping.

So I finally settled on Ubuntu Studio which comes packaged with  XFCE desktop, and I've got the drivers going on my video card. This distro is built more for graphic & audio/video use, but It's working just fine on this old machine (Single Core AMD 64 3400+ 2 GB RAM, AMD 4650 Graphics)

In addition to all the A/V and graphics apps, I've got all the essential stuff like Libre Office, Chromium Browser, Media playback, and basically everything else one could imagine on a traditional Windows machine.  I've added a remote desktop client (Remmina) to control my WinXP NAS/print server/backup machine. I believe it works with less lag. Dropbox works exactly the same, Teamviewer remote works flawless when I'm at work and need something, and the Ubuntu Software Center is catching up to the Google Play experience (slowly).

I use box.net for work files, and I was shocked to learn there is no Linux equivalent to box sync for Windows. That's because Linux doesn't need an app.  The file system supports WebDav out of the box.  With a catch, though.  I had to learn about WebDav, read a few forums, and edit a few files.  It was worth the work, and now it mounts just like a removable hard drive. Done.

Here's the problem.  Crashplan.  When I made the decision to re-install after the original hard drive failure, I knew I had backups within the last 24 hours.  No risk, I thought, just get Crashplan running on the new machine, and restore my stuff.  As of today, I don't have that working yet.  I have gone back to get a few individual files as they come up, but no full restore.  At this time Crashplan is not running on this machine.  I'm not bashing Crashplan, I'm just having some issues.  In reality, I've only needed a few files in the last 6 months anyway.  The point is to keep looking, keep reading, and eventually I'll find someone who has done it and can get me through it.

I would usually check the Ubuntu Forums, but not today, because someone hacked it and ran off with everyone's info, so I'm off to Linuxquestions.org, or maybe even Google+

After I change my Ubuntu password...

After dinner I thought I would check my e-mail, etc...

But my Lenovo won't boot.  I just got through a couple of tests, I'm pretty sure the hard drive is gone.  I'm actually kind of happy about this.  Let me explain.
First, I'm not worried about data loss, the last backup (Crashplan) was about 8PM yesterday. As far as the OS, I have the OEM drive stored  (been running on a clone of it for years). I could swap drives & be back up before midnight. Not to mention at least 100 other ways to try and recover the drive.
 
But I'm NOT going to...

I've been tinkering with Linux since around '06, mainly with under-powered machines & laptops.  I've learned a lot from the community, & I really believe in the opensource movement. But I feel kind of hypocritical because even my old laptop is a dual-boot because I could never figure out the Linux wifi drivers.  So today I'm going to make the "Daily Driver"commitment and make Ubuntu my main machine (my son too, he just doesn't know it yet)

How to Measure...Anything - Part 3

This week I’m going to try to convince you to grab a tape measure before starting any project, especially something as important as ADA compliance.

Remember your first Bicycle?

Roller Skates?

Skateboard?

Wii?  Kinect?

Oh, that brings back some good memories…

Remember limping around with bandages/casts/crutches/splints for the next 4 weeks?

Well, I remember tripping across the gas station parking lot because I couldn’t hit the right buttons at the pump. Then my crutches got caught in the automatic doors and tripped an inattentive bystander. I remember my signature looked like a seismic readout because I had to use the wrong hand.  I saw every door as a new and dangerous obstacle. I didn’t want to go anywhere. 

Okay, those weren’t all on the same day, but they did happen.  It is truly a very different world for a person with a disability. As a result I am now convinced that there is a very legitimate reason to change the way we design, build and renovate buildings.  It is our obligation to afford basic human dignity to each other.

So the back-story for this episode is a bunch of old buildings and an obvious need to make them user-friendly for persons with disabilities.  The current term of choice is “accessible” so I will stick with that for this article. But what is accessible?  How high? How wide?  What about the door at the gas station that tried to kill me?  How much force is too much to open a door?  As you can imagine, the list can go on forever.  Wow, I have a great idea!  Someone should really put this into a usable standard. Any takers?

In reality there are different accessibility standards released over the years by different entities (not all are governmental) and each has its own interpretation and jurisdiction.  There are also mandates specifying who, what, when & where these apply, and who enforces them.  Maybe you have seen these: ADA ANSI, FHAA, UFAS? At this point, I should warn you about the acronyms.  Don’t try to remember these; the point is that there are already too many; and in 2010 we got one more, the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG). 

First, a little history as it relates to the construction and rental industry. 

Many people think this was inspired by the civil rights act of 1968 because it addressed discrimination in the housing and rental industries. While it is undisputed that this was a major milestone in the fight to end discrimination based on race and several other factors, the reality is that private industry had been at work on inequalities in the building industry for some time by then.

In the late ‘50s, ANSI had gathered input from over 50 organizations representing builders, designers, handicapped people, manufacturers and rehabilitation professionals.  The consensus was released in 1961.  Officially known as ANSI A117.1, “Specifications for Making Buildings and Facilities Accessible to, and Usable by, Physically Handicapped People”.  That’s right, no acronym. And nothing changed in the construction world.

In 1968, the four Federal standard-setting agencies (GSA, DOD, HUD, and USPS) developed the Architectural Barriers Act.  The intent was to help physically handicapped persons have ready access to all buildings that received Federal funding. In reality, only new buildings for those 4 agencies would be designed for accessibility, and since each agency had its own standards, the private sector now had 5 to choose from. So nothing changed in the construction world.

So in 1973 Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act.  Section 504 mandated all common areas (public access, walkways etc.) of Federally funded buildings be accessible, and Section 502 authorized a board to act as an enforcer. This was the Architectural & Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (ATBCB).  Eleven Federal agencies sent representatives and the President appointed 11 public members. And nothing changed in the construction world.

They revisited this in 1978, amending Section 502 to add more responsibilities to the ATBCB, mainly to write the minimum guidelines and requirements for the 4 standard-setting agencies.  To you and me, that means “at least this many”, “at least this wide”, or “not more than”.  This finally came to an agreement in 1982 with the final “rule” published in the Federal Register.  It’s at 47 FR 33862.   And nothing changed in the construction world.

Up to this point, we’ve been working on this over 20 years and still have at least 5 standards, including ANSI A117.1-1980 with research funded in part by HUD.

The first real attempt at uniformity was aptly named the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS), published in 1984.  This followed the ANSI format and all four of the standard setting agencies adopted this into their own code by mid-1985.  And nothing changed in the construction world.

About 1990, the Americans w/ Disabilities Act became law.  But this was different.  Unlike all previous attempts, this was not just another construction mandate; this was now a “civil rights” law. So what's the difference?

Money. A lot of money.

Did you catch the “civil rights” part?  This is not a simple code violation.

The legal firms know the difference, and they have been making a good living on your taxes for over 20 years now.  There is an urban legend about a paraplegic crawling up the steps of city hall, lawyer in tow, claiming discrimination and winning a very large settlement.  You might say to yourself, “I remember that case, that’s not a legend”.  Well, you are correct.  I used the urban legend phrase because it has happened too many times to count.  What’s scary is that this is not limited to government.  The private sector is especially vulnerable.  Every week there is a news piece about a business in a historical building that shut their doors to avoid the massive civil penalties. Some would call it legal extortion.   

Like I stated in the beginning, it is truly a very different world for a person with a disability.  It’s just unfortunate that the legal profession has smelled blood in the water.  Sadly, the reason to change the way we design, build and renovate buildings is not human dignity, but money.  It is no longer our obligation to afford dignity to others, but to avoid litigation.

Are you aware that your building is not accessible by persons with disabilities?

Are you planning modifications to avoid future litigation?

Do you want to do this only once?

Wow, I have a great idea!  Someone should really put this into a usable standard. Any takers?

Finally, the Federal Access Board has distilled all the different standards we discussed earlier down to one manageable document.  It's not perfect, but at least we are all reading the same guidelines.  

To start, download a copy of the 2004 ADAAG guidelines from the Access Board website. 

That's enough for today.  Next time we will use the tape measure, I promise.

.

I’m a little late getting back to this blog.  My initial plan was to post once a month regularly, just to see if I could keep it up.  Apparently I can't keep up monthly, but I haven't given up.

A lot has happened since the last post, which interfered with my writing, but every day brings “new material”. I'm working up some new stuff. Stay tuned!

How to measure... anything. Part 2

Good measurements can make budgeting and estimating more accurate and make your money work harder.
Not enough to finish the job, or a pile of mismatched junk in the backyard?  It's your choice...
Everything you need to know is locked up in the tiny little lines printed all over that tape measure.  It's your secret weapon. 

But that's the problem. Every where I go, every time I need it, It's not there.  It's secretly somewhere else. A secret weapon, indeed.

The plan was to hit a routine company function on the way to an install. We showed up on time in our service truck, loaded for bear.  All good so far. I was hoping to get out quick and get on the road.
After the meeting, someone in a suit & tie (I'll call him "Suit A") decided someone else in a suit & tie (we'll call him "B") needed a new built in cabinet (who or why or how much is not the point of this blog).  I've got to admit, "Suit B" had really thought this through.  There were post-it notes on the wall at each corner, and a bunch of binders left out as samples to make sure the shelves were the right size.  After a brief discussion about the basic style, color palette, and rough size, they all look at me and say, "what do you think?"

I'm caught off guard.  "I need to get some measurements", and ease out the door towards the parking lot.  I've got a service truck loaded with every carpentry tool imaginable, but I can't produce a tape measure.  The next 60 seconds felt like an hour. 

A clerk from the office next to us presented a prized 99 cent store version, stored in their desk drawer, waiting for the moment to impress anyone with a suit on.  And today was the day.   I made a few jokes about it - something along the lines of "you get what you pay for" - but I stopped mid-sentence. 

Something caught my eye.
Tiny little lines printed all over that 99 cent tape measure...


I sent over a drawing, we made a few color samples, the thing was installed, everyone's happy.

So I just got back from the dollar store.  I spent $10 on 10 tape measures.