Tag: electricity

HVAC Failure: Smells and Sounds to Watch out for

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HVAC failure is not only annoying because you lose your climate-controlled environment but it can also be costly to fix or replace the system. It’s a good idea to know the warning signs so you don’t lose money by not getting the repairs done.

Grinding Sound

A grinding sound is never good when it comes to your HVAC system. If you hear a grinding noise when it starts, when it’s running or when you turn it off, it might be time to check with a professional.

Humming or Buzzing When the System Turns On

Many people think a humming or buzzing noise is normal when their air conditioner is running. The professionals at Master Service Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration see this a lot, but it’s actually not a noise that’s supposed to happen. If you have humming or buzzing in your system, you might have a problem.

Hot Smell When Your Heat Is On

If it smells hot when you turn your heat on, you could have a problem Your heating system should not smell hot when you turn it on. If it has a hot smell to it, then it could be burning up energy and could be causing problems for your system. It could also make it harder for your system to work which could cost you money.

Popping or Hissing Coming from Your Vents

It might be time to upgrade your HVAC if you hear a popping or hissing sound coming from your system. The HVAC system shouldn’t really make much noise while it’s running even if your air conditioner is working hard to cool off your home.

Gear Noise When You Turn the Air Off

Once you turn the air off, all noises should stop. If there’s something in the air conditioner making a noise like a gear going, you might need to replace your system. The gear noise is usually just the system doing what it needs to power down, but it can indicate a problem if it’s not something that normally happens.

When you know what to look for, you can better prepare to make sure your system is working the way it should. It’s always a great idea to check and make sure you don’t have any leaks or other problems with your HVAC system when you hear one of these noises or smell something off with your heating and cooling system.

May 25, 2018
How to Convert Wood into Charcoal and Electricity

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How to Convert Wood into Charcoal and Electricity is a step by step (with detailed illustrations) guide to building a masonry furnace to convert wood into charcoal.

Just his alone is worth the price of the book, however, Mr. Buxton then shows how to extract, filter, and condense the woodgas byproduct and use it to run an internal combustion engine to produce electricity.

This is a very well written and easy to understand manual. Do not let the small size fool you, this is great material and well worth the read.

This book is something that I have read and reread dozens of times. I plan on making a decent sized set up to make charcoal in the future. Charcoal is needed for my foundry so I can melt aluminum, and it will also be needed when I finally build my blacksmith shop area at the land.

Besides that, I can have some bragging rights (not that most people would brag on this), but I would love to be able to say I am eatting BBQ from a pig I raised and butchered, on a grill I built, using charcoal I made.

This is one particular project that is very high on my list of projects.

March 8, 2018
USB Rechargeable AA Battery Review
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I bought this on a whim when I was searching through amazon. I was trying to find something cheap to allow me to buy an add on item I needed.

This product is a USB Rechargeable AA Battery. It uses a USB port to recharge so there are not cords to keep up with.

I like rechargeable batteries, because they are easier to store than hundreds of batteries, and I have several solar setups to recharge these batteries.

Here is some basic information about this battery:
- Rechargeable——500 guaranteed recharges,applicable to all device with AA battery such as wireless. mouse, keyboards, clock, game controllers, electric shaver, remote control, household products.
- High capacity——1450 mAh each battery and 1.2V nickel performance, suitable for any device which are using AA battery. Due to the high capacity it needs over 5 hours to full charge.
- Easy to use and Charge from any USB Port——Recharge hundreds of times, at home, in the office. As long as there is an USB port, and then you can charge it.
- USB Rechargeable Battery——Charging via USB interface, while they are charging, they are a red light flashes and get a little warm. When they are fully charged, the light goes blue and will get cool immediately.
- Green & environmental——Long life, which can be charged 500+ times, a great substitute of traditional batteries.
If you like this product, remember I am an “amazon influencer” and have a page of other great items on Amazon that I use to make these videos, or just like having around. Please visit my influencer page on amazon, it won’t cost you any more to purchase those items, and the revenue I get helps me run this website
February 18, 2018
Basic Electricity

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One thing the military does better than anyone is technical training. In the military they take a raw 17 year old and in the course of a few months teach them highly technical skills that the young soldier or sailor must do under times of great stress.

This military based training manual on basic electricity is something every farm, homestead, or prepper library should have on the shelf.

This is an expanded and revised U.S. Navy training course text provides thorough coverage of the basic theory of electricity and its applications. It is unquestionably the best book of its kind for either broad or more limited studies of electrical fundamentals.

This book is divided into 21 chapters and an extensive section of appendixes. Chapters cover safety, fundamental concepts of electricity, batteries, series direct-current circuits, network analysis of direct-current circuits, electrical conductors and wiring techniques, electromagnetism and magnetic circuits, introduction to alternating-current electricity, inductance, capacitance, inductive and capacitive reactance, fundamental alternating-current circuit theory, direct-current generators, direct current motor magnetic amplifiers, and synchros and servomechanisms. Appendixes acquaint lay readers with common terms, abbreviations, component color-code, full load currents of motors, and cable types; they also supply trig functions, square and square roots, basic formulas, and laws of exponents.

This book supplies the reader with a complete basic coverage of all important aspects of electricity. And, drawing on its ample funds, the Navy was able to fill this text with dozens of illustrations so that the book becomes almost a multimedia teaching process.

This is an excellent text for classroom use or for home study. Students will also find it a valuable supplement to courses in which theory is emphasized while little attention is paid to application; it will also supplement a course in which this situation is reversed. In addition, Basic Electricity serves the lay reader who simply wants a knowledge of fundamental concepts of electricity or wishes to study more advanced concepts and applications. 1969 edition.

August 18, 2016
Quick and Dirty Transformer Design and Construction

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Quick and Dirty Transformer Design and Construction is a small book of48 pages.

Basically it reprints two articles for transformer builders:

1. Design and Building Transformers, Technical Service Bureau Bulletin D-111, 1938, second edition.

2. Induction Coils by Charles Underhill, extracted from Standard Handbook For Electrical Engineers, 1922.

Basic understanding of transformer design is a very useful bit of knowledge to have. I used a very rudimentary understanding to create a spot welder by rewiring a microwave oven transformer.

I have also seen people create small power grids using home-built transformers.

If you can design transformers you can take the power you have and transform it to the power you need (within reason).

If you have high voltage at low amperage, and need low voltage at high amperage you can do that or the reverse. It is really just simple math that this book easily explains.

I have this book in my library, and I use it as a reference, when working on circuits. but it really isn’t something I use all of the time, but it is something I think would be invaluable if society ever had to rebuild itself.

December 10, 2015