Gentle persuasion over time

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

Post by JR. »

terkio wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 2:46 am
JR. wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 11:56 am My heat pump works much better with 30's outdoors than teens.
JR
That is the big trouble with air air heat pumps, the efficiency drops at lower air temperature.
That is a bit paradoxical, it is good when it is not so cold outside.
That is a known known... My heat pump can still extract heat from the outside air down to something like -4 degrees (F), but clearly as I observed there is a lot less heat to harvest at 15' then in the 30s'. But another known is typical temperatures for the region (15' is pretty abnormal).

I could have fired up my old in wall resistance heaters, but I don't like paying for 1x resistance heat when I can enjoy using a several X heat pump.

As I probably already shared my last month's electric bill revealed that I was using roughly 50% of my typical neighbor's electricity consumption and 15% less than the most efficient 20% of my neighbors.

It is even worse, at very low temperatures; The outdoor heat exchanger can freeze, so to present that the heat pumps runs cycles in reverse, cooling inside to warm up outdoors.
In use the outdoor heat exchanger is driven even colder than outside ambient (its how they work), from time to time I can hear it cycling to deice itself. I do not notice it blowing cold air inside. It is a mature and competent design. Net net it is reducing my energy bills a bunch.

An alternative to the air air heat pump is to use deep underground temperature instead of outdoor ambient air temperature. This is still subject to thermodynamics second law issue but to a lesser extent because of better temperature conditions.
More efficient, but more costly at installation.
I am all to familiar with ground sourced heat pumps, as noted installation is way more expensive, and unneeded for the rare very cold events where I live. Probably smarter to oversize the heat pump for the application, and in my case live with it slipping a few degrees. Did I mention I'm cheap?

A friend of mine who built a huge house outside Atlanta had to dig a pretty deep water well and he put the heat exchanger for his heat pump down deep under his house in the well water. The ground water probably stays in the 40s year round (guess).

===

Since I have standing water in my crawlspace right now I probably wouldn't have to dig very deep or large hole for an effective ground based sink, but still not worth it IMO. For a modest investment I could add a second heat pump for my back bedroom and turn off the main house heat pump at night... that would probably reduce my consumption even more, and provide extra capacity for rare weather events.

Now I need to try to burn some of those pine logs I have in my yard. My neighbor got his phone line fixed this morning.

I had a professional tree guy trim my pine trees a couple years ago, looks like I need to call him again. I came very close to losing power this time.

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JR.
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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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last_tree.jpeg
I have started cutting on what I plan to be the last tree I drop... This one is tall and leaning in the wrong direction so hopefully I won't take out the store next door's power drop. I meant to take it down a couple months ago before it picked up a bunch of new growth higher up. The several trees I already removed have empowered the remaining ones with more sunlight.

I got a quote from my tree guy to grind up 10 stumps at one pass. That will make mowing easier.

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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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Tree is down and only casualty is that my chainsaw bar is bent, and the strap pulled out of my come-along.

I was working on the final cut and should have had more tension on the come-along line. First the tree clamped hard on my chainsaw, then the tree just continued falling the way gravity had it pointed. The steering line released like a wet noodle.

The come along isn't broken but I need to rethread the strap into it.

I swapped in my back up bar and chain, so saw is making sawdust again.

Big burn pile tomorrow. 8-)

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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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Tree is down.
Great. Job done.
I understand the steering line had no effect.
I doubt more tension would have make it effective, this rarely works. A steering line can make things more dangerous.
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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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terkio wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 6:01 am Tree is down.
lastTree.jpg
I am relieved
Great. Job done.
I have at least a day's worth of clean up
I understand the steering line had no effect.
I doubt more tension would have make it effective, this rarely works. A steering line can make things more dangerous.
The come along was fully extended to reach the anchor. I had a 50' nylon tow rope on one end and 15' towing strap on the other, because the anchor was pretty far away. If I had cranked in a couple turns on the come along the strap would not have released there and the guide line would have had a chance to work. Usually when the saw cut gets tight, I can adjust the tension to pull it free, but this time the tree just kept going. As soon as I realized what was happening I exited the vicinity ASAP. Letting go of the chain saw may be why the bar bent, I did have time to choke it stopped, but I did not linger.
bentBar.jpeg
The good news is the tree didn't reach the power lines but did almost reach the far end of my back yard.

Today I will be making much smoke.

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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

Post by terkio »

The troubles with steering lines: Nylon lines are too stretchy to pull hard when the tree starts to fall following gravity. Steel lines are stiffer, but damn dangerous, if it breaks, the backlash is deadly.

I know a way they use in Australia. They use a steering line that goes at a pulley at some low anchor point, then hooked to a heavy vehicle ready to tow.
They saw cut the tree, up to the point, it is near falling.
Then, the line is towed to break and fall the tree.
This way, there is no slack on the steering line, while the tree is falling, this gives a better steering pull.
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JR.
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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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terkio wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 3:55 pm The troubles with steering lines: Nylon lines are too stretchy to pull hard when the tree starts to fall following gravity. Steel lines are stiffer, but damn dangerous, if it breaks, the backlash is deadly.
understood... I have had steel lines slip their swages but not catastrophic failure.
I know a way they use in Australia. They use a steering line that goes at a pulley at some low anchor point, then hooked to a heavy vehicle ready to tow.
They saw cut the tree, up to the point, it is near falling.
Then, the line is towed to break and fall the tree.
That was like my actual plan. Use the come along to pull down the tree in the direction I wanted. I have done this successfully before. The flaw this time was that the come along was fully extended, and I didn't pre-tension it to relieve pressure on the chain saw blade which inadvertently made the grip on the come along strap too weak. While I was cutting the last cut, it went from gripping the saw blade to the whole damn tree falling down in several seconds. :oops: The steering line in tension had no chance.... upon reflection falling the way it did was OK.
This way, there is no slack on the steering line, while the tree is falling, this gives a better steering pull.
The pulley trick is so they don't pull the tree down directly on top of themselves.

The good news for me is that this is the last tree I plan to cut down (this lifetime). No blood lost and only one bent chain saw bar.

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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

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Tree is down off the stump so all that is left is cutting big wood into short liftable pieces.

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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

Post by terkio »

I understand the relief when the last one is down.
I lived this at a place of mine and the place of a son.
One uses to keep the most difficult tree, last.
As you had, nobody hurt ( and a chain saw blade bent ).
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Re: Gentle persuasion over time

Post by mediatechnology »

I'm glad you're OK JR.

I had a large arm on an Oak in my backyard drop this weekend during one of our many rainstorms.

My big problem is trying to figure out what to do with all the brush since I can't set it out curbside for collection until June without the risk of getting cited.
Dallas has a work-around for storm-related debris set out for collection early: You put it out then report your own code violation.
An inspector comes out and then decides whether or not its legitimate.
If they figure you're on the up and up they report that they didn't find any evidence of a violation and close the ticket.
The ticket-gaming system worked pretty well until I got a dumb-ass inspector who was unaware of the "policy."
Dallas is a remedial jobs program incorporated as a city.
His big mental barrier was "Why would you turn yourself in?"

I've always sent pics of the downed material and evidence of a break.
They like to see a log with a jagged, broken end as well.

I'm keeping the firewood.
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