The weather

[DavidBarkey]

The water softener was put in before I bought the house. It's got a separate pipe that goes out a different direction from the septic into the yard maybe 20' from the house. I can see where the pipe goes because the yard sunk.

Good . What is your heating source ? Heat recovery unit? Trying to understand why yours is so dry . We get periods of dry air , but nothing like what you describe . We do not have a a humidifier either , but everything is natural gas .

We heat with propane. It's a forced air system with two zones located in the attic. The heater is your typical builders special 80% efficient unit and the ac is also your typical builders special inefficient unit. Water is propane on demand.

I'd like to look into a heat pump system. National grid has Grant's for up to $10000.

Are you on slab or crawl space or basement ?

[Gordy]

I hope the discharge from the water softener is not going into your septic tank . Hardest thing on a septic system is a water softener .

The water softener was put in before I bought the house. It's got a separate pipe that goes out a different direction from the septic into the yard maybe 20' from the house. I can see where the pipe goes because the yard sunk.

Good . What is your heating source ? Heat recovery unit? Trying to understand why yours is so dry . We get periods of dry air , but nothing like what you describe . We do not have a a humidifier either , but everything is natural gas .

The colder it gets outside the drier the air inside, at least for me. My LP furnace has 2 fresh air intakes, 1 for combustion and the other is a 4 " flex duct going into the suction side of the main blower. There are 3 built in places for pressurised air to escape, 2 bathroom vents and the kitchen range vent, plus God knows how many construction gaps and cracks I have tried sealing the former, but still getting mice and bugs in the crawl space. I did the smoke test on the range vent with the furnace off, since it vents straight up through the roof it acts as a chimney and always drawing some air.I used a mirror to look up it there is NO damper just see the sun reflecting of the underside of the rain cap.

I know air exchange is important but figuring I have too much, I built a simple hinged door for the range vent. A couple neo magnets glued to some 2" strips of banding that stick to the steel blower housing of the vent. The banding is drilled to except 1/8" rod and act as a hinge, the rod is duct taped to beer case cardboard that covers the filter area. Smaller neo's are taped to the cardboard to hold it in place when closed. Finally a duct tape tab as a handle for opening it.

The 4" flex tube on the furnace goes straight up into the atic and over to the eves, this area of the roof is ALWAYS the first to melt, so warm air is backdrafting up and out. I got some more of the flex tub and made a sink like trap from the top of the furnace down to the floor and back up to where it goes through the ceiling. This helped a lot but still getting some back draft action. Need to add a damper, but the furnace is in a tight fitting closet and is a huge PITA to work on the top rear of the furnace.

Anyway before doing this our humidity in -0f weather could be 20-25% with a humidifier going. Now no problem holding 30-32%.


Gordy

[MattA]

Dave - I have a full basement. House was built in 2014 and like Gordy's house, it came with the typical builders special ventilation. I'd be here all night if I told you about all the cracks I've caulked or spray foamed over the years. Some of the issues I found were so bad that I literally had to turn the heat down 2°F at night... twice.

Anyways in June 2021 I applied for and got a grant to upgrade the insulation in my house and air seal my house. They added 2-3" rigid foam around my master bedroom closet which is out over the garage, blew in probably 8" additional insulation in the attic, air sealed in my basement and attic with spray foam and moved both upstairs bathroom vents from the soffit to the roof (the fan check valves were literally flapping in the breeze leaking in tons of cold air before moving the vents). I paid 25% of the project, around $800.

National grid would not do anything about my downstairs bathroom vent issues (the check valve flaps in the breeze or the leaky builtin propane fireplace. I sealed the fireplace to the tiles around it with a one of those heat shrinkable window kits. Made a huge difference. The floor where my kids play is no longer cold. This winter I sealed up the attic and master closet to above the garage access panels with the heat shrink window kits. Seems to have helped. The national grid upgrades and sealing the fireplace saved ne around 100 gallons of propane or about $200 for the year. I have no data on the average winter temperature from year to year.

No stove vent here but I have a couple of failing builders special windows

I've also had some adventures with frozen pipes in multiple locations I've got that sorted out at this point

[propane1]

Woo hoo, it’s Ground Hog Day. That means winter is moving along and only couple of months left till spring.

This is a Ground Hog Day ramble. Have a good one members.


Noel

[DavidBarkey]

@MattA
Matt our house before this one was a builders special as well . Went through a lot of what you are talking about . One thing that made a big difference was to seal all the outlets on exterior walls and ceiling light fixture boxes on the top floor . The vapour barrier booties get cut open by the Sparkies/ electricians and just a piece of tape slapped on the cut / never seals . One circuit (one breaker on the panel )at a time I shut down and pulled the receptacles out of the box leaving them hooked up . Stuffed a rag tight in each box , then making a small hole with a screwdriver at the outer edge of the box between it and the drywall for the door/window spray foam tube to go in . Do this on the end where the wires are coming in to the box , both end if needed . Spray a little foam in each . Let set for an hour then pull rags out and put back together . This will seal a major cold air infiltration in your house. People don't realize home much is coming in and out through them as a total , but there are so many in a house these days it adds up big time .
All these lessons we learned there we put into this century old farm house we have now when we rebuilt it . We tightened this old house up so much that I had to put in a HRVU so the range hood would work . I have it on a simple bathroom fan timer and turn it on for a hour each morning in the winter ( they can run to much ) .
Why would I care to share . Money spent on heating a house is not spent on GT's , kids , Grandkids .

[Timj]

Woo hoo, it’s Ground Hog Day. That means winter is moving along and only couple of months left till spring.

This is a Ground Hog Day ramble. Have a good one members.


Noel

They just jerked Phil out of his hole ( poor little guy ) and he saw his shadow.
Still dark here but it's clear sooo...... Looks like 6 more weeks of winter.

[propane1]

Sunny here today. So I guess, fill up the gas tanks and check the oils.

Noel

[MattA]

@DavidBarkey I installed foam cover plate seals on all of my switches and outlets about 6 years back. I also pulled back the carpets in the bedrooms upstairs and sealed the floor to the wall with caulk. This made a huge difference especially in the master bedroom closet out over the garage (had to turn the heat down at night after doing this). I also pulled apart all of my kitchen cabinets on the floor and sealed the floor to wall with caulk or spray foam if the gap was big enough. The floor is still cold by the corner cabinet but at least the cobwebs under the cabinet are no longer blowing in the breeze.

[DavidBarkey]

Goes from a high of -2 C /29 F to -28 C / -20 F in less than 12 hours ,with wind chills near -40 C/F Thaaaaattttts cold. Going to stay that way all today and tonight . Not starting to warm up until late tomorrow morning . Then goes back up to +4 C / 40 F with rain on Tuesday . Old man Winter is have a with his brother Jack Frost . I think Mother Nature needs to intervene before the .

How is it in your neck of the woods ?

[DavidBarkey]

Well it's 40 below and I don't give a . Got heat in the house and I am NOT off to the rodeo . I am not going anywhere cause it is too dam cold cause I am too dam old .
Well thats my new version to that old one .