Cheap Good LED Bulbs - Welcome to the Future

March 13, 2016 by Evan Hart in electrical, lighting

The house was well designed for its time with more than average windows for the '20s. However, lighting is minimal and the redwood ceilings are dark so we need to leave lights on most of the time.

LED lights use about 15% of their incandescent counterparts for the same amount of light. This is due to LEDs producing very little heat, which is where most of the energy goes in an incandescent.

I have been replacing a lot of the light bulbs with LEDs and have added some LED track lights and recessed cans as well. This helps me feel good about having lots of light in the house, which I have noticed has a substantial effect on my mood.

The only problem is when LED bulbs first came out the color was harsh and they cost about $20 for a 60w replacement LED. All of those prices have gone way way down, especially the generic 60w bulb.

When I saw that Home Depot had a mountain of these at the checkout stand at 4 for $10, I had to get a couple packs. $2.50 a bulb is so cheap and they'll pay for themselves in no time. Are they decent?

They totally rule!

They look just like regular bulbs.

8.5W LED on the left with 43W incandescent on the right.

I'm very impressed with these, especially at the price. There is no reason to get regular incandescent 60w bulbs anymore. They're even making LED Edison bulbs so there will be no reason at all to get anything but LED in the future. Looks like the LED bulb has finally become the true replacement for all residental bulbs.

Even the LED Edison bulbs are good!

Below 4W LED (60W replacement) on the left compared to 100W incandescent:

Sneaky Microwave Pantry Closet

February 27, 2016 by Evan Hart in construction, diy, electrical

I didn't want to change up the original redwood cabinets in the kitchen but the refrigerator was a problem. The space for it was 34" wide, 22" deep and a few inches too short for a standard fridge which is 70" I think. I was able to modify the cabinet above to get a few more inches in height. They do make a counter depth fridge which is 24" deep but a standard fridge is 30" deep. Common widths are 30", 36", 42" etc but a 33" is also made.

We looked into 33"x24" size fridge but they have the about the same capacity as a standard 30"x30" fridge which is apartment sized and pretty small for a 3 bedroom house. My solution was to move the wall behind the fridge back so we could put in a 33"x30" which is a little bigger.

That left us with a tiny pantry closet and Christina came up with a clever solution. We found a 24"x48" rolling shelf from Costco that fits in there pretty snug. I had to put an outlet in the closet and I made a short extension cord to get power to the microwave. I had to also change the wheels to a smaller size so they wouldn't bind up on the walls. For light I put in a motion sensing LED which is perfect since there isn't a switch. It's a neat little system that saves limited counter space. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Panasonic Wall Whisper Fan

February 26, 2016 by Evan Hart in electrical, construction

What do you do if you have exposed beam ceilings through most of the house and need ventilation?

No matter how historic your house, ventilation fans are critical for reducing moisture and odor. If you want your original bath to last forever, you need a vent fan.

Fan retrofits can be tricky since houses weren't built with fans in mind. The standard vent fan is about 12"x12" and fits in the ceiling with a 4" vent duct to the outside. Two of our bathrooms have beam ceilings and the original bath, which we are trying to leave mostly original where possible, has a flat ceiling.

Therefore I was thinking we would need one ceiling vent fan and 2 wall fans for the beam ceiling bathrooms.

However, I cut a pilot hole where the fan would go in the original bath and there would be no room.

Corner near the shower... The fan shouldn't be directly above the shower or the moisture will damage it

Hard to see but the floor framing is shallow because the observation deck / master closet is above and there's a 2" vent pipe for the toilet going right through.

So I will need 3 wall mount vent fans. I got three of the gold standard Panasonic Whisper line. These are expensive and the best deal I could get was 3 for $500. It's a lot of work to install a vent fan and you want it to last as long as possible so you should get a good one.

Super nice Panasonic Wall Whisper fan. It's really cute, isn't it?

It should fit nicely into the corner.

It's venting out here near the top left corner of the window

The only problem with the whisper fan is that it's so quiet that people don't turn it off. I got a high tech switch so that it turns off automatically. You can get a moisture sensor built into the fan but this system is easier to service if the sensor fails.

I'm getting ready to install this fan and sensor switch into the back bathroom after the plaster is done. I'll update this post if it doesn't work as well as expected but it should be the bees knees.