Hello Antti, Sorry it has taken so long to write. I have been away much of the summer. Thanks for asking about the trachies. Unfortunately it has been a rough summer for the palms. My father in law was here early in the summer and was meticulous in his weeding - so much so that some young palms dissappeared. I guess they looked like weeds. Of the frozen trachies, only one survived. There were 4, one was very weak to begin with and died. One was "weeded out", and the other, a fairly strong one, died (looked like fungus). The one that was deep in a glacier of ice actually survived and is slowly recovering. Not sure it can make it through another winter since it did not grow much. This year I must protect the trachies MUCH more than before. Of my other palms / bananas, etc... nothing did well this summer. I always count on a good hot summer to help house plants bounce back from low light. This summer was very cool and damp. It rained all the time and we never had a good spell of heat. As a result, nothing has grown well. The bananas are a fraction of their normal late summer size. The trachies, phoenix and dracaena pushed out fewer fronds, and the European fans are frail from too much water. How about your palms? How did they do this summer? Matt.

I have a 1086 square foot house with a 4 inch pipe perimeter heating system. My house was built in 1956 and the 4" duct system was designed as per the National Warm Air Heating and Air Conditioning Association (Manual 10 1956). In 1968, the NWAHACA dissolved and became part of what is now known as the Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute (ARI). My house is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and is cooled by a 1 1/2 ton 13 SEER Ruud unit. The evaporator sits on top of a 80,000 BTU Ruud up flow furnace that's designed to produce enough CFM (1259) for a 3 ton air conditioner at .5" total static pressure drop. The main supply duct supplies 16 - 4" branch ducts. The house is quite comfortable in both winter and summer (upgraded insulation, doors, windows and weather stripping). The AC is over-sized at 1 1/2 tons (17,400 BTU ARI rating) as manual J indicates a total heat gain of only 12,600 BTU. The only problem with the AC and furnace combination is the minimum fan setting (CFM output) is too high for the recommended 400 CFM per ton of AC. At just over 7" total static pressure (with a wet evaporator coil) my CFM per ton is 481. The outdoor temperature today was 86 F with a humidex of 98.6 F and I was able to maintain an indoor temperature of 72 F at 42% humidity. Some time ago I calculated my air conditioner's efficiency to be 86%. My cold air return registers are located at the bottom of the walls and my supply air grills are located 10" from the bottom of the walls so I suspect part of the drop in efficiency is due to a percentage of cold supply air flowing across the floor and into the cold air returns. I've had central air in this house for 22 years and had a replacement installed in 2007 even though my old system was operating satisfactorily. However, 22 years ago I had a problem of too much supply air flowing across the floor into the cold air return so I installed a couple of ceiling fans essentially providing some lift to draw the cold air up. This help and inspired me to seek additional lift for the supply air at the source, the grills. After a bit of investigation I settled on Imperial RG0291 10" x 6" Multi-Shutter Registers with an AK of 0.28. The adjustable shutters provide for directing air down for heating and up for cooling. This made a considerable difference and combined with the higher than recommended CFM per ton fan speed I was able to adjust the lovers to get the cool air near the ceiling where the previous registers only directed the air towards the floor.

Seems to use a reasonable amount of water, as you can always see it sloshing around in the drum. Every so often, there are some fabrics or items that seem to retain the detergent suds more than other loads. Then it is a simple matter to flip the "extra rinse" switch on. For a bulky sleeping bag, for instance, we've learned to use the extra rinse, since we don't like any detergent perfumes to remain in the bag. The machine controls are so basic, however, that you must remember to flip the "extra rinse" option off for the next load as it does not reset to a "default" off setting. To counter that, we developed the habit of scanning ALL the control settings (as in all three; big deal) prior to walking away from the machine. Simple, but effective.

Hi - I am Renee, a transplanted Northerner now living in Central Florida. I first moved here after 9/11 and didn't think I would stay but I love it now - except for the hurricanes. I am 48 and single, have a wonderful BF and live with four kitties - Jack (orange and white tabby), Ernie (fat brown tabby), Lola (brown Maine Coon) and Kaci (black and white Maine Coon mix). I have recently taken up two fun hobbies. The first is raising Monarch butterflies. I just had another girl yesterday morning. I am mesmerized by the whole process. The second is geocaching. My love of rooting through thrift stores and garage sales makes me a natural at this form of treasure hunting.