HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: saseph@hal.unx.sas.com (Ed Hughes)
Subject: Re: Garage Door Openers
Originator: saseph@hal.unx.sas.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:23:00 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


In article <1993Jan04.193527.40965@watson.ibm.com>, oasis@jcwrs.watson.ibm.com (GA.Hoffman) writes:
>A month or so ago a thread began on garage door openers ..
>I didn't catch the recommendations.
>
>My need is for a 2 car wide, sectioned, fiberglass door.
>
>I see Home Depot has 1/2hp openers on sale each for $133;
>a Stanley chain-drive and a Genie screw-drive.  Any pros/cons
>or recommendations would be appreciated!
>
>Happy New Year!
>
>g
>--
>gary a hoffman
>RISC Systems, Watson Research

We have a Genie 1/2 hp opener and it works like a champ!
Quiet, too.  Installation is straightforward; the instruc-
tions are good and there's a toll-free helpline.  The only thing
that's annoying is that Genie STILL only includes the hardware
needed to attach the opener to a WOOD door.  Have they noticed
how many metal/fiberglass doors there are now?  Guess not.
It's no big deal, though--you just need to buy some bolts and nuts.

Make sure you get an opener that obeys the 1993 regulations,
which as I heard require one of the following:
 1. Electric eye to stop the door from closing on an obstruction.
 2. Button that must be held down during the entire downward
    traverse of the door.
 3. Pressure-sensitive tape on the door edge.

Ours, bought in March 1992, didn't have any of these.  However, we
bought the Genie "Safe-T-Beam" kit (option 1 above) and I installed
it on Saturday--EASY!  This thing is supposed to be included with all
Genie openers now.  Make sure that Home Depot isn't trying to get
rid of last year's openers.  If they are, you can just buy the extra
kit to make it legal.  Shop around, though--I paid $9.88 at Lowe's
for ours, and saw it at HQ and Builder's Square for around $35.

Good luck, and buy a Genie!

--Ed



-- 
Ed Hughes, SAS Institute  | "I'm human; now shut up and pass the salt!"
Cary, NC                  | --Crow, "Rocketship X-M," MST3000
                          |
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com (patterson,george r)
Subject: Re: Heating a house
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 01:40:08 GMT

In article <1993Jan05.233534.507@news.mentorg.com> philip@mentorg.com (Philip Peake) writes:

>Forced hot air was new to me too.
>In fact, it does seem to work well - remember that the air doesn't
>have to conduct the heat - the air is HEATED by being forced through
>a heat exchanger.

In fact, whatever system you use, it's the air that is heated in the end.
Everything else is secondary.

>As to the cycling - well, you can do as I have done, and leave
>the circulating fan on all the time. Once it is a constant, the noise of
>fan/air soon dissapears into the background.

You might not want to do this. I did this the first year I owned my house.
The next year I put the fan on automatic. Comparison of the utility bills
(PSE&G makes this extremely easy to do) show that my heating system uses
about $30 worth more electricity each month during the heating season if
the fan is constantly on. The heat also stays more balanced when the fan
is on automatic, but the system could be tuned differently.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    |
George Patterson -  | Of course truth is stranger than fiction; after
                    | all, good fiction must make sense.
                    |                        Samuel Clemens
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: al@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Alan Peterman)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Asbestos around heating ducts
Keywords: asbestos
Date: 8 Jan 93 05:47:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1993Jan8.054732.14050
Distribution: usa
Organization: SCN Research/Qic Laboratories of Tigard, Oregon.

You are lucky it's the 90's.  In 1977 we decided to replace our
gravity air furnace.  The company that did the work removed the
old furnace, ducts and grey asbestos insulation by slamming it
with sledge hammers to smash it into pieces small enough to
get out the window and door.  We had a thick coating of dust over
the whole basement and most of the house.  As we were there during
the removal we also got to live, and breath, the dusty air during
the removal, and I got to vacuum the dust up.  It wasn't until about
5 years later that I connected the insulation as being asbestos..

I suppose I have a lot of asbestos in my lungs.  I'm glad I don't
smoke, but I still worry about the long term effects.  Sometimes
I'm tempted to contact the company that did the work to see if the
people who did the work are still alive...



-- 
Alan L. Peterman                                 (503)-684-1984 hm & work
                       al@qiclab.scn.rain.com
It's odd how as I get older, the days are longer, but the years are shorter!
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: oasis@jcwrs.watson.ibm.com (GA.Hoffman)
Subject: Garage Door Openers
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 93 19:35:27 GMT
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

A month or so ago a thread began on garage door openers .. 
I didn't catch the recommendations.

My need is for a 2 car wide, sectioned, fiberglass door.

I see Home Depot has 1/2hp openers on sale each for $133;
a Stanley chain-drive and a Genie screw-drive.  Any pros/cons
or recommendations would be appreciated!

Happy New Year!

g
-- 
gary a hoffman
RISC Systems, Watson Research
From: rstern@col.hp.com (Richard Stern)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Paying off your mortgage early
Date: 9 Jan 1993 00:00:00 GMT
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpcslb1.col.hp.com

stevem@newsbase.cs.yale.edu (Steve Morytko) writes:
> Some posters have been indicating that they can get better return on their 
> dollars by investing in a mutual fund that pays (or rather, historically has 
> paid) 9%/year. One major point that seems to be overlooked by this advisor
> is that one must pay capital gains (for most of us 28%) on that money when 
> we cash in reducing our net to about 6%. Seems to me I'd rather pay off 
> the 8.5% mortgage.

Don't forget that the 8.5% mortgage interest is deductable, so that you're
really only paying about 5.5%.  But on the other hand, you're only 
saving the difference between your itemized deductions and the standard
deduction, which means the 8.5% is probably costing you 6-7% depending
on the size of your loan.

Historically, most decent mutual funds have paid well over 9%, but the
future holds some BIG unknowns.

Richard Stern
rstern@col.hp.com
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: jonesey@advtech.uswest.com ( Doug Jones)
Subject: Re: Woodburning Stoves - outlawed?
Organization: U S WEST Advanced Technologies
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 23:51:24 GMT

In article <1993Jan2.185214.15617@sfu.ca> richard@sfu.ca writes:
>In article <1992Dec28.130252.1882@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil>  
>jberlin@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil writes:
>> 
>>    An article in Sunday's real estate section proclaimed that home builders
>> in the Dayton area are refraining from installing woodburning fireplaces
>> and inserts in new homes and condominiums because of *possible* future
>> legislation against the burning of wood.  Is this a trend nationwide?
>> Does a 1990 EPA rating or use of a catalytic unit in the stove circumvent
>> any such legislation?  Are old units grandfathered? 
>

I live in Boulder, Colorado.

Basically, in the areas both north (where i am) and south of Denver, there
are restrictions on wood burning.  If you have an EPA rated stove, you can
burn anytime.  If you have any other type of wood burner, including a plain
fireplace, you can only burn when the Department of Health says so, with 
the following 2 exceptions:

1) wood is the primary source of heat for the dwelling.
2) the dwelling is located above 7,000 feet.

Generally, more than half the days in the winter are no-burn days.

Of course, gas fireplaces can burn anytime. In fact, the city and county
give some kind of tax credit for installing gas fireplaces.

doug jones
From: tvervaek@col.hp.com (Tom Vervaeke)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Noise on phone line when using modem
Date: 7 Jan 1993 22:11:55 GMT
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division
NNTP-Posting-Host: itchub21.cs.itc.hp.com


Two ideas:

1. Can YOU easily unhook the cable from the home to see if this
definitely eliminate the problem? Or perhaps he bumped something else
while doing the cable that is not the cable itself?

2. Can you hear it on the phone itself? If not, I suggest RFI (radio
frequency interference) from something he put in your house.

3. Call the phone company!




( ___ )------------------------------------------------------------( ___ )
 | / | Tom Vervaeke           Email:tom_vervaeke@hp0800.desk.hp.com | \ |
 | / | Technology Specialist  Snail: 1900 Garden of the Gods Rd.    | \ |
 | / | Hewlett Packard Co.           Colorado Springs, CO 80901     | \ |
 | / | Colorado Springs, CO   Voice    : 719-590-2133               | \ |
 | / | USA                    Fax      : 719-590-2117               | \ |
 | / |--------------------------------------------------------------| \ |
 | / | Quote of the week...                                         | \ |
 |___|           Quote deleted do to lack of creativity !!!         |___|
(_____)------------------------------------------------------------(_____)
   ^                                                                  ^
From: davek@informix.com (David Kosenko)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Asbestos around heating ducts
Keywords: asbestos
Date: 7 Jan 93 18:33:28 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

Mark Day writes:
>
>As far as the [asbestos] abatement itself goes...
>The health risk from well compartmentalized asbestos (such as inside of a wall)
>is negligible compared to other risks we encounter, such as driving a car, or
>wearing a Dodgers cap to Candlestick park :-).  In fact, if the removal isn't
>done properly, the exposure from the removal process itself if much riskier
>than living with well contained asbestos.  If the incremental cost to remove
>the additional asbestos from the wall ducts is not that significant, then by
>all means go ahead and have it done. My guess though, is that this will cost
>at least several thousand of dollars.

Indeed, my understanding is that the trend now is toward containment rather
than removal.  So you may be just as likely to see the asbestos wrapped up
in some non-porous material as to see it removed.

It is also my understanding that the problems with asbestos exposure result
after prolonged, higher-level exposure, and that more "casual" exposure is
not as big a risk as the abatement companies would have us believe...

I wonder how much of the concern is the result of all those This Old House
projects, where MA law *required* abatement for any restoration project.

Dave
-- 
Disclaimer: These opinions are not those of Informix Software, Inc.
**************************************************************************
"I look back with some satisfaction on what an idiot I was when I was 25,
 but when I do that, I'm assuming I'm no longer an idiot." - Andy Rooney
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: johne@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE (John Eaton)
Subject: Re: When does it make sense to reduce the
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:49:26 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard VCD
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

In article 2Ir@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu, prange@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Henry Prange) writes:
: >I have been advised on more than one occasion to stay mortgaged to the limit
: >I can afford. The agrument being: pay off the principle in "cheap" dollars
: >i.e., deflated value per dollar due to inflation, later rather than to use
: >your expensive dollars now. The principle will only become relatively cheaper
: >with time and the deduction for the interest is a bigger benefit. 
:------------
That stategy worked great in the 70's and 80's. The reason it worked is because
we had high inflation and high taxes. Guess what? The rules have changed!!!
The goverment is no longer kicking in 50-60% of your interest cost. Your house
is no longer inflation at 10%. Take that money out of your 3% Money Market and
pay down that 8.5% loan. You will be better off.

Some people still haven't a clue that the game has completely changed. Tax
deductions are out. In many cases you are better off taking the standard
deduction. Change with the times or go the way of the dinosaur.

John Eaton
!hp-vcd!johne

 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com (patterson,george r)
Subject: Re: size's, gallons, and Cubic Foot
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 18:27:42 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.152242.4618@news.ysu.edu> af905@yfn.ysu.edu (Ed Shanks) writes:
>
>>About Hot tub design and measurements:
>
>>>............Total weight of water would come to 17666 lbs, 
>>>which is 30% less than your rough estimate. However, it sounds
>>>like yocould drop at least eight people into the tub 
>>>comfortably, so you might add 1200 lbs to that number.
>
>>Eureka!
>>If you drop 1200 pounds of people into that tub, you'll displace
>>1200 pounds of water.
>
>Sorry, George, but I don't understand. Won't the water displaced
>by the 1200 lbs. of people just rise up the side? Or are you 
>figuring that it will spill out the top? I'm not being facetious
>(for once!), but I am curious.

That 17,666 pounds was calculated as being the weight of the water if
the tub is filled to the top. If you dump in 1,200 pounds of people
into a full container of water, you will displace 1,200 pounds of water
over the top of the tub (people have very close to the same specific
gravity as water - just a tad lighter). If the tub is not full, then
you don't have 17,666 pounds of water in there. One way or the other,
the weight of the inhabitants is part of that 17,666 pound total.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                    | The human race likes to give itself airs.
George Patterson -  | One good volcano can produce more greenhouse gases
                    | in a year than the human race has in its entire
                    | history.                - Ray Bradbury
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: kenk@sdc.com (Ken Konecki)
Subject: Re: Gray flexible water supply pipe OK?
Organization: Systems Development Corporation
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 18:57:21 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.211932.8337@donner.SanDiego.NCR.COM> davel@booboo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (David Lord) writes:
>Just a word of warning, around here at least PB pipe will definitely hurt
>the resale value of your house...
>I've talked to several other people who also
>say they would never consider a house that wasn't plumbed with copper.

This is like saying that people won't ever buy a house wired with fiber optic
cable instead of twisted pair copper.  As a material for supply pipes,
PB is superior to copper in virtually every aspect, so I don't understand
why it would lower resale value.  I would think it would increase resale
value since it's so much easier for do-it-yourself homeowners to work with.

Cheers,
    -Ken K
-- 
Ken Konecki
e-mail:kenk@sdc.com    -or-    ...!uunet!tellab5!sdc!kenk
"Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery"
From: ahd@alpha.sunquest.com (Art Dyer)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: How to handle crack in slab?
Date: 12 Jan 93 18:44:37 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems Inc., Tucson

Upon removing the old carpeting in one room, I find that
there is a crack in the concrete slab.  It runs clear
across the room (and perhaps beyond), and is about 1/16
inch wide.

I don't consider this surprising for a 20-year-old house
(should I?) but I'd like to know if I should try to fill
or seal the crack before the new carpeting goes down.

This house is on high ground in a (usually) dry locale.
Despite the near-record rainfall and flooding that Tucson
has experienced over the past week, there is no sign of
water ever having come up through the crack.

Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house,misc.rural
From: varney@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (Al Varney)
Subject: Re: Power company easement
Organization: AT&T Network Systems, Lisle, IL
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:18:59 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.181752.225@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com (patterson,george r) writes:
>In article <1993Jan12.153819.29688@bcars6a8.bnr.ca> colette@bnr.ca (Colette George) writes:
>>In article <JCH.93Jan12084820@mitchell.cit.cornell.edu>, jch@jch@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu (Jeffrey C Honig) writes:
>>|> Our local power company (NY State Electric and Gas) just contacted me
>>|> to request an easement to put a power pole on our property.  Are there
>>|> any liabilities or disadvantages if we agree to this?  
>>|> 
>>Well, I don't know too much about this subject, but I saw a program once
>>where a farmer's livestock became sick and died off one by one when a
>>hydro tower was installed on his property. 
>
>I saw the same thing. The problem is that it was fiction, but people's
>memory gets hazy and they start to think it was fact. Had some neat
>tricks like the guy that stands under the tower holding one end of a
>flourescent light bulb and it lights up.

   Gee, George, I'm not so sure...

   I spent a couple of summers working on a "wheat harvest crew" (Texas
to North Dakota).  In one small section of ND, they had a strip of hail
come through, which, combined with low moisture, knocked the yield down
to about 3 bushels/acre.  (Only fields we ever cut in 4rd gear.)

   Anyway, the strange thing was that the THINNEST sections were under
these huge power lines.  No, really!!  Maybe they dried up the rain or
sucked up the pollen or somethin' worse...

   [The fact that the lines followed the highest ridge in the area, over
the rockest part of the field, just couldn't be a factor .... could it?]
  :-):-):-):-)

   Seriously, as an EE student at the time, I was a little concerned that
those big Gleaners might be a shade higher than the power-line folks had
in mind for farm equipment on 98 degree August days  -- the sag on them
was tremendous!

Al Varney - just MY opinion
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: breland@cobweb.mcc.com.mcc (Mark A. Breland)
Subject: Re: When does it make sense to reduce the
Reply-To: breland@cobweb.mcc.com.mcc
Organization: MCC
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 18:37:48 GMT

In article 1ifg93INN6da@hp-col.col.hp.com, rstern@col.hp.com (Richard Stern) writes:
>johne@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE (John Eaton) writes:
>> Take that money out of your 3% Money Market and pay down that 8.5% loan.
>
>Lots of mutual funds are still gaining over 8.5%.  If you can find a
>mutual fund that averages even 8.6% over the long term, that's a better
>investment than paying off your 8.5% mortgage...

I dunno, I tend to agree with both Richard and John, but more so with John.  If
you're paying an 8.5% mortgage, but realizing the benefits of an 8.6% mutual
fund, that's only .1% of just the amount you're throwing into the fund.  Not
much worth the bother if you ask me (e.g. .1% of 80,000 = 80).  I'd much rather
pay off the mortgage in half the time, gain some peace of mind, and invest all
that previous payment amount in a new investment during what would have been
the second half of the mortgage payment period.

---
Mark A. Breland
breland@mcc.com

Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: perley@cabot.balltown.cma.COM (Don Perley)
Subject: Re: Relays (was Tying 2 Switches to Common Load?)
Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 14:03:56 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.165353.10245@dg-rtp.dg.com> eliot@dg-rtp.dg.com writes:

>That's all fine except try to figure out a way to install the relays that
>doesn't violate code.  In general, low voltage wiring can't be in the same
>junction box as 120-v, for the obvious reason.  So how are you going to have
>the 120-V contacts on the relay properly protected (e.g. inside a junction
>box), and the low voltage contacts isolated from the 120-V?

There obviously must be some exception, or you could never even mount
a 120->24 volt transformer.

The relay I bought for a thermostatically controlled fan came in a junction
box with partitions between the 24 and 120 volt sections.

-don perley

-- 
perley@balltown.cma.com
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
From: breland@cobweb.mcc.com (Mark A. Breland)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Miracles do happen (was CREDIT REPORTS: They don't...)
Date: 5 Jan 93 16:22:13 GMT
Reply-To: breland@cobweb.mcc.com
Organization: MCC

For all those suffering at the mercy of credit reporting agencies, take heart...
sometimes they *do* respond quickly.  I recently requested copies of my credit
record from TRW, Equifax, and TransUnion.  Those sent by TRW and Equifax were
correct and accurate.  TransUnion had an erroneous entry that really belonged to
someone else.  I had found the same wrong entry on my TRW report back in '88,
had corrected it with them, instructed the credit issuer to notify all other
credit reporting agencies, and went my merry way thinking all was well.

Obviously, the credit issuer had NOT notified all agencies as requested, or
TransUnion had ignored any such notification.  So anyway, last month I wrote a 
request to TransUnion to remove the wrong entry, citing and including copies of all
my previous correspondence with TRW and the credit issuer back in '88 (yeah, in 
matters like this, I save copies of EVERYTHING).  Their response merely updated
the balance on the bad entry.  When I phoned them to ask what the deal was,
they said the credit issuer had merely sent *them* the updated balance with no
additional identification as to who the account belonged to (no name, SSAN, etc)
other than a billing address, where I have never lived.  When I explained the
situation verbally (just as written in my letter to them) the rep put me on hold,
conferred with her supervisor, got back on and told me they would remove the
entry.  Their reason?...the credit issuer did not respond to their inquiry with
sufficient identification that it belonged to me.

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes it's not necessarily the credit
reporters screwing up your credit, but the credit issuers instead.  BTW, Equifax
was the most courteous and convenient, TRW the fastest in turnaround, and
TransUnion the most responsive yet also the most archaic.

---
Mark A. Breland - Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)
Ada Fault Tolerance                               | voice:    (512) 338-3509
3500 West Balcones Center Drive                   | FAX:      (512) 338-3900
Austin, Texas 78759-6509   USA                    | internet: breland@mcc.com
From: davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: "balancing" a power panel
Date: 6 Jan 93 15:30:58 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.


So far all the posts I've seen have taken the obvious approach that
the two sides of the 220 need to be balanced.  That may be the face
value answer, but is it the right answer?  The two sides of the 220
zig zag their way down the panel so that every other breaker uses
the same side.  That way a 220 breaker does not have to span the
width of the box and it does a good no brainer job of balancing
the 220.  Also, consider that the 220 loads such as water heater,
stoves, etc are going to be pretty well balanced.  And with the
power zig zagging down the panel the lights are going to pretty
well balance out.  So, I really don't think that balancing the
220 is what the electrician was planning to do.  What he was planning
to do was do a per breaker power budget so that no breaker would
be over loaded or under utilized.  When I did my house I did it
with a spread sheet program.  Entered formulas for amps per sq ft
and watts to amps.  Then juggled my spread sheet around until
everything balanced out nicely under each breaker.  That is how
I balanced out my power panel.  I have yet to pop a breaker under
overload.

DaveB