Satellite service to all TVs

[calewjohnson]

Originally Posted by Pirate

dryheat,

I'm wondering if you have and HD satellite dish and an HD DVR.

Our first DirecTV system was in the house, didn't have HD and thus coax cable would get the signal to all the TVs in the house, and even used a splitter to get it to another room.

But not HD, it requires HDMI cabling...which is just about impossible to even think of in an assembled Voltage.

I tried purchasing HDMI over Coax adapters...a lot of hardware, but all I got was pictures in the other rooms that were hot pink and lime green. So worked with the seller's tech services...and they couldn't figure it out and gave me back my money.

At home went to the Genie system. For the Voltage, from Solidsignal.com purchased a "wireless video bridge", two wireless mini-genie devices, I also bought an extra power supply for the Genie HD DVR and an extra for one of the wireless mini-genies.

Thus I have permanently installed power supplies where needed and can move the mini-genie devices between the three other TVs in the Voltage.

What pisses me off is that I could have as many of the old style HD DVR devices on my account as I wanted. The Genie HD DVR...only one per account. So we have to move it between the house and the Voltage when we travel. Want a second Genie HD DVR...you have to open a second account...and that costs as much as your first account...ain't happening!

But the way I and Cale have them set up..it works, and it works very well!

Pirate

Pirate,

You bring up an interesting point, we have not lived in a house in almost three years, as we are currently looking for land, thus a house, I am going to have to figure what options I want to do if/when we get out of the trailer....

Cale

[RVNevada]

Cale, Do what i'm working on, buy some land around 5 Acres, build a big garage, place the RV inside, then decide what and when to build a house

[Pirate]

Well...that's sorta what I did...but 94 acres, then built the Toybarn, a 40x60 steel building...but then the house and then came the Voltage.

But it rests on a 70'x17' concrete pad with a meter and electric panel and a water hydrant from the well.

Would like to build a building over the RV pad.....

All the years of hard work and traveling has done well by me...so far....

Pirate

[calewjohnson]

Private and Rich,

Exactly our plans...this was our last move and we are starting to figure out where we want to plant our bottoms... We don't want a huge house, as the kids will be gone in less than 10 years and everything around here is 3000 sq ft and bigger and half arssed built. Looking for some land to put the RV on then kind of a backwards go at it...a garage with a laundry room and bath house type setup, then on to the house. We found a great lead on 5 acres where a mobile home once stood...may be ideal since services are already out there...trying to see if the well and septic are still good...

Cale

[Pirate]

Cale,

Now, give this some serious thought as you plan the house...

I design our retirement home and had it built...it has a full basement...and the exterior walls from footer to top of the main floor are ICF (Insulated Concrete Form). Thus the walls are 2 1/2" foam, 8 inches of concrete, 2 1/2" of foam. Thus a 13" thick wall, rated R43. Has all the injection molded pieces in the form for rebar and attaching drywall.

ICF walls go up faster than frame lumber, are straighter than frame, and cost less that framing. Ours is 2345 sq ft on the main level. With a Tulikivi stove in the living room. Sitting at 5640 ft elevation...house kept at 68 during the day, 65 at night in the Winter. Propane central heat and AC. With 2" of spray foam on the underside of the roof sheathing....we use about 200 gallons of propane a year, for heat and hot water, and about 1 1/2 cords of pine firewood.

So an extremely efficient home, and just about bullet proof!!

Just something to think about.

Pirate yeah...no Private...geez!!!

[calewjohnson]

I spent a little while looking at ICF this afternoon...I like it! The nice thing about it, I can DIY a lot of the house...there seems to be a cult following on line. Read that some of the R values approach R75

Cale

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by calewjohnson

I spent a little while looking at ICF this afternoon...I like it! The nice thing about it, I can DIY a lot of the house...there seems to be a cult following on line. Read that some of the R values approach R75

Cale

Those things are pretty impressive, a bit surprised it isn't used more. Another one that I am familiar with is Superior Walls. It is a prefab concrete and extruded polystyrene wall system. Basically you dig the hole, put in gravel footers and set the walls. I think that the ICF is a better system though.

Aaron

[Pirate]

To be honest, I don't understand why they allow frame buildings any longer.

Concrete is cheap and easy. Doesn't cut down our forests...which are burning like crazy. Its a lot more stable and strong. Why would anyone want frame?

Pirate

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by Pirate

To be honest, I don't understand why they allow frame buildings any longer.

Concrete is cheap and easy. Doesn't cut down our forests...which are burning like crazy. Its a lot more stable and strong. Why would anyone want frame?

Pirate

Labor costs...

Here is an interesting paper on the "sustainability" of concrete. It is energy intensive, but not as bad as I thought.

Aaron

[Pirate]

A few thoughts...

ICF requires no formwork. So there is a savings of money and wood.

Concrete was made using up to as much as 50% flyash from subbituminous Powder River Basin coals. With the coming of stricter sulfur dioxide (SO2) removal requirements, came the "scrubber" with lime injection. That has completely ended the usability of flyash for making concrete. Thus instead of having virtually no flyash storage, now it is all stored in landfills on power plant sites.

Currently in my location, much of the concrete that is demolished in curb and gutter, concrete pad, and other concrete structures is crushed. Some to the formation of "road base", as the crushed concrete makes an excellent aggregate that digs in to the substrate and stays put. It differs from road base made with crushed aggregate in that its grey.

As time passes, we will see more and more electricity generated using natural gas as a fuel. That reduces some of the emissions from coal fired power plants. I don't know that the electricity for a cement plant kiln can ever really be produced by solar or wind. The start up current required is significant and the instantaneous loading would be difficult to manage with solar or wind without the risk of significant frequency swings. Which are detrimental to electrical equipment.

The paper is a comparison of concrete vs steel in construction members. Thus not really applicable to house construction. I have had a friend, and ace welder, think about building his house replacing all wood with comparable steel structural tubing. While the house would be incredibly stout...even 16ga structural tubing puts the cost out of reason.

One other comment on the construction of our home. All "wood" framing of the interior is Timberstrand...basically OSB studs. Incredibly strong, structurally sound, no warpage, no splitting...just nice straight walls. No time lost to framing and then waiting to see what splits, bows or other defects that require replacement.

Can ya tell I spent 35 years with a Utility in and around power houses?

Pirate

[wahoonc]

I hauled that paper out of my archives I work industrial construction, haven't worked regular residential construction in over 20 years. Every now and again I happen upon a residential site and I am not impressed. Thirty-five years ago I built several houses with a variety of construction methods. One was all steel framing. Another was real interesting; we did a combo pour of the footings and foundation walls (no basements in this part of the country), used glu-lam floor trusses, 2x6 exterior walls and roof trusses. That left us with a large open space box. Interior framing was light gauge steel studs. We built 4 of those houses and turned each one of them in 30-45 days. IIRC they were typically a 30'x60' footprint. Unfortunately the concept didn't catch on and those were the only ones built. The rest in that subdivision are conventional stick built junk.

Around here the power is usually provided by coal fired plants, even though they are starting to move away from that. We do have a couple of nuclear facilities, but they seem to spend more time off line than on line here recently.

When it comes to home building I think all options should be on the table, but unfortunately many of them require skills to complete and most builders I know aren't willing to pay the price.


Aaron

[T.R.]

Place your sat receiver at the main living TV. Sat cable to receiver. Use component cables from sat receiver into a "component to cable converter" found at radio shack. Then back feed the coach thru the cable in feed. Works on all other TV s but, they all have to be on the same channel as directed by the single sat receiver. Hope this helps.

[Soccerloco]

Thanks for the suggestion!