The "I just bought..." thread.

[igor_kavinski]

I just got my Imalent MS32. I previously had the MS18, but accidentally broke it. Planning to test it out tonight.

Why? Planning to test how and on what?

 

[lxskllr]

An igniter for my chipper. It's had a dead cylinder since I've had it. Hoping this works and I haven't overlooked anything.

 

[utahraptor]

I ended up not making a great video the other day, but I am going to try again tonight. I basically will just take a night walk into the local park. Its kind of scary in the forest at night, but at least I can see everything. What is interesting is one of my watch faces can break down the exact times it changes form day to civil twilight to nautical twilight to astronomical twilight to night. I will try to shoot the video when its officially "night."

 

[bbhaag]

I bought both of these house plants a couple of days ago. Over the past couple of years I've gotten into house plants. I'm really excited to add these two to my collection.

This is an Aglaonema pictum tricolor. The leaves look like camouflage. Pics don't do it justice at least mine don't. This is really pretty in person.


This next one is a variegated Monstera called 'Thai Constellation'. Another hard one to find but is really beautiful especially as they mature.


Here's a pic of both together.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Its kind of scary in the forest at night, but at least I can see everything.

Let's hope the light is bright enough to scare away Bigfoot

 

[utahraptor]

Let's hope the light is bright enough to scare away Bigfoot

Here is the MS32 in action last night:

Here is a previous video of the MS18

 

[Dr. Detroit]

2024 Ford Maverick Hybrid XLT - Carbonized Grey
CoPilot 360 + Hitch
$30,200 out the door after $3,400 in Price protection from Ford.

Original order date 9/17/22 - 539 days!!!

Drive home from the dealer netted me almost 40mpg.

 

[lxskllr]

yay...



Also, I'm glad I don't live in CA.

 

[IronWing]

However one might choose to use that in a way that would cause reproductive harm… ouch!

 

[repoman0]

New windshield, about four weeks later. I guess I didn’t technically buy it because it was free.99 but pretty excited to have my car back.

 

[Brainonska511]

View attachment 95119

View attachment 95120

New windshield, about four weeks later. I guess I didn’t technically buy it because it was free.99 but pretty excited to have my car back.

What's the story behind the break?

 

[repoman0]

What's the story behind the break?

Hit an enormous bird diving for roadkill in the wilderness of Medford MA. I could have sworn it was an eagle although I don't think they will normally go for dead things. It also left talon marks in the hood that I was able to polish out and avoid a paint job.

I saw it flying away in the rear view after so hopefully it was fine whatever it was.

 

[Brainonska511]

Hit an enormous bird diving for roadkill in the wilderness of Medford MA. I could have sworn it was an eagle although I don't think they will normally go for dead things. It also left talon marks in the hood that I was able to polish out and avoid a paint job.

I saw it flying away in the rear view after so hopefully it was fine whatever it was.

Ooof. Not surprising to see such large birds around though with Middlesex Fells right there. So much wildlife just packed right there.

 

[repoman0]

Ooof. Not surprising to see such large birds around though with Middlesex Fells right there. So much wildlife just packed right there.

Spot on. My place is pretty near that so I've seen big coyotes, deer, eagles, falcons, foxes ... very odd right in the middle of a busy city with I-93 going right through.

 

[lxskllr]

Bald eagles will definitely go for roadkill, but they don't seem to like roadkill on the road. They'll grab deer that got hit, and ran a little way off the road before dying.

 

[Brainonska511]

Spot on. My place is pretty near that so I've seen big coyotes, deer, eagles, falcons, foxes ... very odd right in the middle of a busy city with I-93 going right through.

I'm also near the fells. I've heard the coyotes from my place when we have windows open in the fall. Some people around my complex have even reported seeing them every now and again. I've certainly seen lots of wildlife in the area though: foxes, turkeys, owls, herons, deer, and muskrats.

 

[repoman0]

I'm also near the fells. I've heard the coyotes from my place when we have windows open in the fall. Some people around my complex have even reported seeing them every now and again. I've certainly seen lots of wildlife in the area though: foxes, turkeys, owls, herons, deer, and muskrats.

Forgot about the muskrats! My neighbor and I were joking (?) about sitting outside all night with rifles because those bastards were eating both of our tomatoes.

I would love to see an owl .. still have never seen one in the wild.

 

[Brainonska511]

Forgot about the muskrats! My neighbor and I were joking (?) about sitting outside all night with rifles because those bastards were eating both of our tomatoes.

I would love to see an owl .. still have never seen one in the wild.

There is a brook that runs adjacent to my place, running into the Malden River eventually. Saw the little guy swimming around in it.

 

[bbhaag]

2024 Ford Maverick Hybrid XLT - Carbonized Grey
CoPilot 360 + Hitch
$30,200 out the door after $3,400 in Price protection from Ford.

Original order date 9/17/22 - 539 days!!!

Drive home from the dealer netted me almost 40mpg.
View attachment 95122

Congrats! We love our 2022 XLT. Had it for around 2 years and put a little over 12,000 miles(19,000 km)and it has been a great little truck.

 

[Red Squirrel]

New Furnace (95% efficient Payne PG95) and hybrid water heater (AO Smith HPTU-50N 50 gal hybrid).

Cha Ching!

Furnace: Around $4,960 total after taxes
Water heater: Around $5,000 after taxes (didn't get the bill yet so going off quote)

Was not my idea to spend almost 10k on hvac this year but the furnace died and water heater was on it's way out and I had been contemplating getting a heat pump one for a while due to high natural gas cost and getting out of the rental fee, so just decided to get both done and rip the bandage off. I had about 6k in my saving account that I was going to put towards my off grid property and server room DC power upgrade but guess I'll dip into credit line. Was originally going to DIY the water heater but considering I was already spending lot of money and I was not confident in transporting it and bringing it down the stairs alone decided to just hire it out. Water heaters are kind of fragile as they have a glass liner. Also had to unhook the gas from the old one so would have ended up having to hire that part anyway. Gas is one of the things I rather not touch myself.

The old tank was next to the furnace but decided to put it in that new location instead, it actually opens up that room much better now. I just need to fix the floor where the old tank was.

I'm kind of juggling different options on how to optimize this setup along with the server room and wood stove, but I may opt to just leave it as is. It runs maybe a few hours a day so not worth doing anything too elaborate. I did punch a small supply vent in the duct above the water heater though, so that warmer air enters this room. I might put a sail switch on the water heater exhaust so that when it activates it also activates the furnace blower if the furnace itself is not calling for heat. This water heater will make more sense once I start to use the wood stove since right now it's basically gas powered with extra steps. Still more efficient than the old gas heater though, no heat going up the chimney and furnace itself is just more efficient at making heat.








I still need to run a drain line for the pan. That was a last minute thing and I said to not worry about running it, I just wanted the pan under it since it was now or never.

 

[bbhaag]

Wow @Red Squirrel that looks really nice.

 

[Charmonium]

I'm surprised that a str up heat pump works better than gas where you're at.

I want to do something similar here but only with an open loop ground water feed

 

[Charmonium]

Got a one year sub to The Financial Times. I have a feeling that I'm going to regret this

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm surprised that a str up heat pump works better than gas where you're at.

I want to do something similar here but only with an open loop ground water feed

This uses indoor air so as long as the air is like above a certain point (7.2c I think) if not it falls back to the elements. I have heard of some that use outdoor air but I imagine they would be even more expensive and not work well here.

It does run for a long time though, like several hours after a shower but then it never comes on again throughout the day, that I've seen so far. While the gas one would kick on and off throughout the day and always had the pilot light going too. Now I just hope they don't hike hydro like they did with gas... but at least I can in theory run this on solar. I would need to get a bigger inverter though and one that can do 240v. If the elements go on it's 4,500w so I would still want at least a 5kw inverter. That would cost about as much as the tank did lol. So no plans for that any time soon.

 

[Brainonska511]

I'm surprised that a str up heat pump works better than gas where you're at.

I want to do something similar here but only with an open loop ground water feed

Modern heat pumps (aka, bidirectional air conditioners) can operate at efficiencies >100% down into negative double digit degrees Fahrenheit (provided you buy the right one), and for the few days a year they can't quite keep up, some supplemental emergency heat should be fine.

For the water heaters, it isn't such an issue since they just use inside air. But they are also a great way to save money in the long run. They might be slower to hear, but a big water heater tank is a giant thermal battery. And if you have time-of-day energy pricing, it opens up interesting possibilities to choose to heat your hot water only in off-peak times.