Can anyone recommend a waterproof multimeter other than the Fluke 28II. as much as I’d like that meter, I not looking to spend that kind of money right now. Was looking at the Reed R5010 or the Extech EX505
Monthly Archives: January 2016
External gas shutoff needed to replace range?
We have a condo which still has the original gas range from the 70s or 80s. We want to replace it. When we recently replaced plumbing valves in the kitchen that required water to be shut off in the whole condo building. Is a similar shutoff usually needed to replace a range?
I was told that a similar job was done in the building next to ours by Sears when they delivered the new range and they did not need an external shutoff. I suspect the same might be true about our condo, but what if, for instance, the old pipe (i.e. whatever connects the range to the gas line) is old/rusty? Could it crack even when the old range gets moved from the wall?
City of Toronto outside workers closer to labour disruption
A legal strike or lockout date could be as soon as Feb. 20, Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong says after both sides seek No Board reports.
Blower schematic
Could you help me understand this blower’s schematic? Most of the schematics on the blower will show what each color wire represents. I’m used to working on residential units. Now I’m working for a commercial management company. All of our RTUs are Carrier.
Attached Images
Electrostrip [Plug in Receptacles] plugs
In need of 2 maybe 3 plugs for the Semens Electro Strip.. any help would be great.
Either humidistat or thermostat causes fan to run
Hey Pro’s,
So I have a new system that isn’t humidifying so well. Before I call a professional to take a look, I was hoping to understand what is technically possible with my equipment so I don’t accept any bad advice!
EQUIPMENT:
Furnace: G9MVE furnace (Two stage)
Humidifier: Honeywell HE100C, (bypass, installed on the return air duct). The
Thermostat: Nest V2
CURRENT WIRING:
See attached
THE PROBLEM:
Based on this setup, my humidifier only runs when heat is on. The problem here is that the house retains heat very well, so the heat does not come on often enough to maintain a reasonable humidity. I’m in Ontario, Canada so the cold weather saps all the moisture from the air and I’m around 23% RH but I’m looking for ~ 50% RH. Just put down $$$ of new hardwood, so maintaining the right humidity is very important!
DESIRED OUTCOME
When the humidistat recognizes low humidity, it turns on the humidifier + turns on the fan, (even if the furnace is not running). During winter I would set the humidistat, and in summer turn it off and close the bypass damper.
I’ve been reading online and it seems it could be implemented by connecting the EAC (110vac, which runs anytime fan is on) to a transformer (24vac) and connecting the humidifier to that, then bridging the fan on the thermostat to run whenever the humidity on the thermostat is low.
Is this even possible? Could it be solved with some clever wiring/bridging? I’d like to avoid paying for new equipment if it could be solved with what I have!
Thanks
Attached Images
New Laminate Storage
I am doing new kitchen countertops using Wilsonart HD laminate. I have the laminate on order and it should be here a few days. When I pick it up I am expecting it to be rolled up. Between fabricating the new countertop underlayment (particleboard) and other commitments it will be a few weeks before I will be installing the laminate. How should I store the new laminate? Leave it rolled up or lay it flat.
Thanks
Scarborough transit plan takes step forward
Mayor John Tory’s executive committee voted unanimously Thursday for city staff to study and report back on the plan.
3 Soon-to-be-Everywhere Social Media Trends You Can Profit on in 2016
What is the next big wave of social media?
Maybe it’s Peach—or another hot new social network. Maybe it’s a strategy like posting times or text faces. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
It’s really hard to say!
(And yet here I am saying it.) 
To ride the wave of the next big thing in social media, it often takes a lot of trial-and-error, a good deal of trendspotting, and some courage to try new things. I’ve spent some time reading up on what’s to come for social media and I’d love to get your thoughts on three new trends that might be monumental.
1. Social shopping
You can buy stuff straight from your News Feed!
E-commerce has felt a bit like a missing piece from the social media feeds. Sure, you can tweet/post/Snap about a product that you’re selling, yet your potential customers must still leave the social network they’re on to visit your site in order to complete the purchase.
Previously:
Social --> your site --> $$
Soon:
Social = $$
This is already in the works in some moderate ways, on sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
Pinterest has a “Buy It” option on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, where you can buy Pinned products directly from Pinterest. Available products have a blue “Buy It” button next to the standard red “Pin It” button.
Here’s a preview of how the process works:
Facebook has been testing a Buy button for well over a year now and has been slowly rolling it out to more and more users. Like with Pinterest, Facebook’s option allows shoppers to buy products without ever leaving Facebook.
And you might be familiar with Domino’s pizza emoji tweet?
Yep, Twitter shopping is a thing, too. In addition to the pizza emoji, Twitter has a buy button that users can access to buy and sell directly from the Twitter stream. Here’s an example of the experience with a Warby Parker set of sunglasses.
Buying and selling on social media feels like it may be on the verge of something big.
And whatever solution falls into place here could go a long way toward solving one of the Big Mysteries of social media marketing:
How can I accurately measure my social media ROI?
For some time now, one of the biggest challenges for social media marketers has been assigning dollars-and-cents results to efforts on Twitter, Facebook, and the like.
And though this new frontier of social shopping and e-commerce might be only part of the return on investment (there’s still the lead gen and funnel parts that are important to consider), it’s one of the biggest steps toward tying a direct, monetary result to one’s social media marketing.
If purchases take place on social media, ROI becomes clearer, social media’s position in the marketplace improves, and we all win—buyers and sellers.
Ways you can profit on this:
- Join the Pinterest waitlist or use “Buy It” straight away today if you’re on a platform like Shopify
- Check your Facebook page and ads center to see if you have the “Buy” option turned on for your call-to-action buttons
- Check Twitter’s list of partners to see if you’ve already got access via a service like Gumroad or Stripe perhaps
- For Instagram, you can look into services like Penny, which let shoppers buy straight from Instagram with hashtag #sold
2. Social media at work
One of my favorite topics to write on (and one that I probably didn’t have a really great answer to) is the split between who you are on social media inside of work and outside of work.
Well, moving forward, that might not be an obstacle any more!
Facebook at Work, announced last year, seeks to carve out a work-specific social media zone for coworkers to communicate with one another.
Like this TechCrunch headline stated: Facebook at Work lets businesses create their own social networks.
LinkedIn is interested in similar work-style social media, and like a lot of other Facebook features, it’s possible that this one will trickle out to a whole host of other networks, too.
Even apps like Slack and Hipchat have helped add distinction to the work/life split, making it easy to converse with teammates in a medium that doesn’t dip into personal life.
This new, explicit distinction between work social media and personal social media could represent a huge shift in how social networks are used. It’s quite early days with things (Facebook at Work is starting its slow roll out, available on mobile currently). Guessing at some of the effects here, you could see changes to:
- Ideal posting time: If the typical high-engagement window of 9-to-5 is spent with 9-to-5ers hanging out on their own private networks, optimal timing might shift.
- Message content: Instead of reaching folks at work and play, now a brand’s updates might be targeted toward one or the other
- Ad types: Will it be possible to get a message into a “work” network?
A lot remains to be seen here, but the early signs of work-centric social networks feels like too big a trend to miss.
Ways you can profit on this:
- Stay tuned into Facebook’s updates on the subject so you’re first in the door. (Facebook publishes lots of great updates to its Business blog.)
- Start honing your messages to different types of people and different times of day: Custom audiences and ads provide a good playground for tests
3. Messaging & chat apps
How to reach people who aren’t checking their feeds
When we go on our semi-annual Buffer retreats, we all stay in touch with one another not on social media but on messaging platforms: WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.
Is the same true for the ways you communicate with your nearby friends and family?
This seems to be a growing trend for a lot of the back-and-forth convos that take place. If social media is seen as a broadcast medium, messaging apps feel a bit more conversational.
And it’s possible that these two reasons might be why. With messaging apps, there’s:
- No algorithm.
- No ads.
Algorithms and ads have come to define social media more and more. Messaging apps are the complete opposite. For instance, on Snapchat (not quite a messaging app per se but disruptive enough in this sense), a user will choose to view a branded story and give it their full attention, whereas on Facebook the algorithm decides which posts the user might see.
So with people choosing a way around ads and algorithms, how does your content stand a chance of being seen?
This one definitely calls for some outside-the-box thinking. We’re currently spinning our brains with this one at Buffer and taking inspiration from folks who are charting new territories here already.
The WhatsApp newsletter
Alex Laughlin of the National Journal came up with a pretty neat experiment last year: She uses WhatsApp to send a daily newsletter to a group of subscribers.
The setup for the list is pretty simple. Here’re Alex’s instructions:
- Download WhatsApp
- Save this number in your contacts as Lunch Links: 706–604–5805.
- Send “Lunch Links” a message on WhatsApp asking to be added to the newsletter.
Essentially, people would opt in with a phone number rather than an email, and they’d get the newsletter messages straight away as chats. It’s a super interesting concept! And I quite liked this as the motivation for exploring this type of network:
If my fifteen-year-old sister’s social networking use is any indication, organizations should be hopping on these chat technologies — and quickly.
The Everlane Facebook messages
Online clothing retailer Everlane is one of the first to explore Facebook Messenger as a way to engage with customers and perform those standard e-commerce support roles with order confirmations, updates, shipping info, etc.
Customers can chat directly with Everlane support reps for any questions—even adding more items to an order.
(Here’s a bit more from Facebook’s announcement about their Messenger platforms).
The new wave of Slack, chat, and notifications
And then there’s all the many different ways to get a message into things like desktop notifications or a Slack chat room (the next frontier!). Here’re just a few options:
- Roost – Let folks turn on desktop notifications for your blog’s content
- Slackbots and integrations: This neat list on Product Hunt features things like a Slack bookmarklet for sharing links, plus lots of other cool marketing ideas
Ways you can profit on all this:
- Give people more than one way to hear from you: Offer subscription via text, Messenger, and more
- Survey your audience to find out what new technologies they’re using most, then adjust your strategies accordingly
- Not sure what some of these apps are? Give them a go yourself so it’s easier to empathize with how your customers might experience your brand
Bonus: A few extra social media trends
I originally researched more than 20 new trends that social media folks thought might be big this year. The three above are the ones that seemed really promising, and a bunch of these below were simply too intriguing not to mention. They are:
- Emoji responses
- 360 video
- Livestreaming
- Social media customer service
- “Everything platforms”
I’ve added all these to a new story on Buffer’s Medium collection.
Click to read more detail on any of these. (And feel free to follow us on Medium if you happen to hang out there some. We post cool stuff!)
Over to you
What trends are you keeping your eye on this year?
What do you see coming for social media?
I’d love the chance to learn from you with any thoughts you have on these items or any that I might have missed! It’d be awesome to connect in the comments or on Twitter.
The post 3 Soon-to-be-Everywhere Social Media Trends You Can Profit on in 2016 appeared first on Social.
$800 electric bill
Short & sweet, recently we changed out a reversing valve and since the electric bill has skyrocketed. The unit is a heat pump which even when running purely on electric heat the meter is registering around 8 kwh per hour. With the heat pump it can be slightly higher or round about. The unit is a goodman and thermostat is a Honeywell 1000. The heat kit is rated at 9.5 kwh and the unit is 2.5 tons. The Apartment is apx 1000 ft^2. The unit is short cycling when on emergency and when on heat and lets concentrate on that for now. The unit will run continuously cycle off with no call from the thermostat and cycle back in within a few minutes I should have timed it and then comes immediately on again with the heat cycle lasting significantly longer 10-15 min again should have timed it. This cycle averages with heat kits running apx. 90-95 of an hour. I went under the house and I checked the duct. Originally there was a split hard pipe 7″ apx 6 ft and a collapsed return apx day 15. Now after the Property management group sent the maintenance over to repair duct problems I seen there is a tear 10″-16″ next to a hardpipe sleeve for where the return was spliced and also the 90 coming out of the return box the take off is collapsed and there was no mastic used, there is a significant gap and the maintenance used duct tape which was very sloppy. I’m not 100% sure the problems lie with the duct or the thermostat but that’s where I would go with it.
to answer questions:
the daily reading was on average not vey high 1,2,3 KWH and between but there where some spikes that reached 5-9 for about 8 days in a 35 day period before the repair.
The CFM is 350-500 on all registers and delta t is 30 with electric heat.
No they have not had a problem like this before except a $280 in feb last year. The tenant is a single person no washer no dryer and the water heater is not leaking.
with the unit off kwh was negligible
Anyone ran in to this before no random opinions pros only not to insult anyone but I need to the bottom of this without bad advice.
