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Home Improvement - Undoing Previous Owners "Landlord" Specials

aparch

aparch

Well-known member
Imma going to need those a little wiser than I to help in what I'm looking for. And yes, it's a previous owner "special." I have two gang boxes next to each other, one is a GCFI outlet, one is a switch for the dining room light. But, the outlet is horizontal, while the switch is vertical.

--l

The wallplate for the outlet was trimmed to allow the full switch wallplate to be installed.

Shy of having someone 3D print what I need, is there a three gang wide wallplate that would accommodate the outlets and the switch? Ideally one that hides the screws, but a beggar isn't choosy.

*edit* Not feeling adventurous enough to make the electrical gang box vertical, as I don't want to patch the drywall hole and repaint the wall.
 
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2 single gang boxes?? Even if the receptacle box was vertical it wouldn't matter as the spacing wouldn't be right for a 2 gang plate. You would need to install the switch and the recept(vertically) in a 2 gang box for spacing to be correct. Why a horizontal recept in that location? Very weird. I 'm assuming the gfci is their because its fed by old 2 wire(no ground).
 
Xcel Energy installed the smart meter for electrical over the weekend. Got it up and running and feeding into Home Assistant.

I thought it was going to provide 15-minute snapshots. I was so wrong. It provides about 15 endpoints all real-time. So I can see what happens when I turn on a light or when the microwave power cycles during defrost. It's crazy.

Only been a day but already I'm gaining insight into power use.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Xcel Energy installed the smart meter for electrical over the weekend. Got it up and running and feeding into Home Assistant.

I thought it was going to provide 15-minute snapshots. I was so wrong. It provides about 15 endpoints all real-time. So I can see what happens when I turn on a light or when the microwave power cycles during defrost. It's crazy.

Only been a day but already I'm gaining insight into power use.
Click to expand...

That would be a great tool to track things that "leech" power... Things like TVs, Video Game Consoles, PCs, etc.
 
RaceBoarder said:
That would be a great tool to track things that "leech" power... Things like TVs, Video Game Consoles, PCs, etc.
Click to expand...

Exactly!

looks like I've got about 150-200W of vampire load. Which is a lot! I'll be flipping circuits over the next several days to help isolate them.

IIRC, it's about $1/yr per watt.
 
So I'm having some serious drainage and basement seepage issues. I just scheduled one company to come out and survey the area. Complicating matters is that I have a beautiful weeping cherry tree, some buried power lines, and an installed irrigation system right in that area, so it isn't just a matter of digging a trench and putting in a french drain.

I expect this to cost $NASA, but we'll see. Hopefully I can get a couple of quotes.
 
Doing some work on the fence and my Milwaukee drill broke this weekend. I happen to have another drill by chance because my FIL happened to acquire a free one through luck last year, a downgraded version of my drill. I’m lucky to have this other drill, but it feels…dirty and insufficient.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Xcel Energy installed the smart meter for electrical over the weekend. Got it up and running and feeding into Home Assistant.

I thought it was going to provide 15-minute snapshots. I was so wrong. It provides about 15 endpoints all real-time. So I can see what happens when I turn on a light or when the microwave power cycles during defrost. It's crazy.

Only been a day but already I'm gaining insight into power use.
Click to expand...

Ok this is starting to make me think in different terms. We're running the electric dryer for the first time since the meter was installed.

I knew it was going to be high, but wow. Every load is like $0.75. I know that's small in the scheme of things, but I've never really thought about it before.

going to be interesting once they start doing time-of-use billing. No more mid-day dryer use. (We already avoid this in the summer for obvious reasons.) That same load would cost $1.50, or more!

I can't wait for TOU. We already precool the house and run the dishwasher in what are considered off-peak times. Moving the dryer to off-peak won't be terrible either. We could cut the bulk of our high energy demand to half the cost it currently is.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Ok this is starting to make me think in different terms. We're running the electric dryer for the first time since the meter was installed.

I knew it was going to be high, but wow. Every load is like $0.75. I know that's small in the scheme of things, but I've never really thought about it before.

going to be interesting once they start doing time-of-use billing. No more mid-day dryer use. (We already avoid this in the summer for obvious reasons.) That same load would cost $1.50, or more!

I can't wait for TOU. We already precool the house and run the dishwasher in what are considered off-peak times. Moving the dryer to off-peak won't be terrible either. We could cut the bulk of our high energy demand to half the cost it currently is.
Click to expand...

Clothes line
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Ok this is starting to make me think in different terms. We're running the electric dryer for the first time since the meter was installed.

I knew it was going to be high, but wow. Every load is like $0.75. I know that's small in the scheme of things, but I've never really thought about it before.

going to be interesting once they start doing time-of-use billing. No more mid-day dryer use. (We already avoid this in the summer for obvious reasons.) That same load would cost $1.50, or more!

I can't wait for TOU. We already precool the house and run the dishwasher in what are considered off-peak times. Moving the dryer to off-peak won't be terrible either. We could cut the bulk of our high energy demand to half the cost it currently is.
Click to expand...

They'll never go to time of use or other demand-based rates for standard residential service unless and until electric cars become adopted by 80%+ of the population, and even then they may try to work around the car charging angle somehow. They may already offer a voluntary ToU rate for residential customers, but adoption levels for that are so miniscule currently that Iowa's second largest utility hasn't had a single residential customer opt in even though it's been in existence for at least 5 years.

You try explaining to elected officials and appointed utility commissioners that they can't run the tv, the dishwasher, and the electric range at the same time without jacking their demand charge up, especially if they've got kids. Especially if they're on electric heat, too.

Hell, I'd bet no more than 10% of officials know what a demand charge is.
 
unofan said:
They'll never go to time of use or other demand-based rates for standard residential service unless and until electric cars become adopted by 80%+ of the population, and even then they may try to work around the car charging angle somehow. They may already offer a voluntary ToU rate for residential customers, but adoption levels for that are so miniscule currently that Iowa's second largest utility hasn't had a single residential customer opt in even though it's been in existence for at least 5 years.

You try explaining to elected officials and appointed utility commissioners that they can't run the tv, the dishwasher, and the electric range at the same time without jacking their demand charge up, especially if they've got kids. Especially if they're on electric heat, too.

Hell, I'd bet no more than 10% of officials know what a demand charge is.
Click to expand...

They're already doing it in parts of the twin cities and good chunks of Colorado. This is the ultimate goal for Xcel as I understand it.
 
I absolutely get uno's point though. I explained to my wife what was coming and she had the same reaction as uno "wait so we get charged double? What if we need to do something during that time like wash kids clothes or run the dishwasher?"
 
My house has a chain link fence. We acquired a small dog that likes to yap. At everything. Including leafs on the ground. Worst of all is the very aggressive barking at people walking past the house, and my house is near a popular park, so it’s pretty much a parade of people with strollers and dogs.

All of that said, my wife charged me with placing a wooden facade on the front of the chain link fence, which is proving more complicated than it should be because the prior owners were minimal-effort people even when putting in some effort to the point that they placed fencing that covered about 2ft of the house instead of ending the fence with a post at the corner of the house. I think it would’ve been less work and made for a better overall end product, but more money, had I simply torn out the old fence facing the street and put in a traditional wooden fence there. I don’t know, I’m on the fence about that.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
I absolutely get uno's point though. I explained to my wife what was coming and she had the same reaction as uno "wait so we get charged double? What if we need to do something during that time like wash kids clothes or run the dishwasher?"
Click to expand...

The usage charge on a TOU rate isn't going to be the killer - generally the per kWh charge during peak times is similar to current standard rates or only moderately higher - the off-peak usage charge is just heavily discounted because overnight load drops so low that marginal pricing can turn negative at times (but the generation keeps going because of production tax credits).

It's the demand charge for maximum peak usage that will be killer. Random weeknight in August you get home from work and crank up the A/C, start a load of laundry and cook dinner while the kids shower (causing your tankless water heater to run), turn on a TV and a computer, etc. and your peak demand spikes. Even if every other night you space out your usage, that one spike will fark your bill for the month/quarter/year depending on the utility's tariff.
 
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