masterspace

Apple is such a piece of shit company.

While I agree that we should allow more six plexes and multi plexes in general, the entire housing problem is in reality a transportation problem, not a housing one.

If we built reliable, 24/7, two way trains out to Barrie / Peterborough / Guelph, and those cities had streetcar networks within them, then we would have an exponential amount more space to work with, and density would naturally follow the train lines as people try to live close to them.

It is problematic that our "solution" to the housing crisis is to tear down reasonably sized single family homes and replace them with cramped shoe boxes sized condos and apartments. Really rushing to all be miserable living in Tokyo and Manhattan rather than trying to build out more of the rather ideal streetcar suburbs.

Yeah for new installs but service for the existing unit might be like $200 for a cleaning and it’s certainly going to be cheaper to run in the long run

No, it's not necessarily.

From an electricity usage standpoint, it's cheaper to inefficiently cool one room than it is to efficiently cool a whole house.

Cleaning it also may solve nothing, it's $200 on a chance of it solving the problem. If cleanliness wasn't the issue, then you just wasted $200. On the flip side, you can find a used window AC for $200 easily, or buy a new one for $400 and then sell it when you're done with it and get $200 back, and it is guaranteed to solve your problem assuming you're concerned with a specific room.

Fuck off with this bullshit.

Showing support for people who are being genocided is not politics, it's human.

It is bullshit right wing false equivalency nonsense that tries to convince everyone that everything is politics and thus everything is subjective and equal.

It's not. There are very clear core human values and it's not hard to support them. People who call that politics tend to be evil.

Lmfao. The audiophile community would burn you at the stake.

The original paper's not on sci-hub so I can't read it, but I highly doubt that.

It seems to be based on survey data, so it's already suspect, and none of the coverage of this mentions the obvious question: did they also track for increases in purchases of grocery sized bags by consumers?

Because we got rid of plastic grocery bags here, but people still need to line their small home garbage cans, so they end up buying a box of small plastic grocery sized bags instead.

It may still have helped reduce their usage overall, as MD bags optimized as bin liners might be able to be thinner and less robust, but I seriously doubt they're tracking all that if they're seeing numbers like 91%.

He signed a contract with a fake company to build a private spa on public land, and part of that contract mandated that the government build them a massive parking lot within 650m of that spa.

Of course, because the spa is on a man made island in the lake, that vastly limits where that parking garage can go, and makes burying it extremely expensive, so instead they're proposing a massive wall of a garage that will block the view of the lake.

Flat out incompetence.

Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control, and Alan Wake 2, are all some of my all time favourite games.

Going to wait for the next patch before trying out FBC Firebreak, but I'm excited and can't wait for the Max Payne remakes and Control 2.

While the dual hose ones are better, I agree that these all kind of suck because you have the compressor inside and it's always the loudest part of an AC.

This isn't actually necessarily true if you just need specific cooling.

If for instance, you just care about cooling your bedroom for sleeping, then it can be more efficient to install a window unit in just that room and let the rest of your house be warmer. A mini-split would be more efficient than a window unit for that role, but they're also a lot more expensive and permanent.

So you have three options, I'm going to break them down just because I think comparing all three is helpful for long term planning, but skip to the end for advice on a specific window unit.

1. Upgrading your central AC and/ or it's duct work.

• Cons:
  • 💰 Expensive - central units are expensive
  • 🧑‍🔬 Installation - these require professional installation from certified technicians.
  • 🪚 Duct work - if it requires duct work changes then modifying the house to accomodate is a whole nother headache.
• Pros:
  • 😸 Efficiency / long term electricity savings - a newer central AC will be more efficient for cooling the whole house down. They typically have SEER ratings in the 15-18 range.
  • 🔇 Noise - you might hear them start up, but most rooms of the house hear nothing from the vents.
  • ☀️ Light - they don't impact natural window light at all
  • 🌡️Heat Pump - newer units are typically heat pumps that can efficiently and economically heat your house in the winter or at least shoulder seasons.

2. Getting a window unit.

• Cons:
  • 🌥️ Light Reduction - Blocks some of the window
  • 😿 Efficiency - Typically* lower efficiency ratings
  • 🔊 Noise - You'll inherently have more noise from a fan blowing cold air into the room (compared to a central vent), and because the outdoor compressor unit is so close, most window units* also have quite a lot of sound coming from the outdoor portion.
  • 🥶 AC Only - Typically no heat pump capabilities.
• Pros:
  • 🫰Cheap - Lowest up front cost
  • 👨‍🔧 Easy installation - DIY
  • ↪️ Portability - Can be removed or sold later if it's not needed.
  • 😸Efficiency? - while central AC units are typically more efficient on a per unit of cooling basis, if your window AC is in the right room it can actually be more efficient overall. i.e. if it's in your bedroom, even if the window unit is less efficient than a central one, you might use less electricity just cooling your bedroom and letting the rest of the house get warmer.

3. Mini - Split Systems - install a compressor outside your house and a blower unit in a specific room or hallway

• Cons

  • 💲💲Expensive - these are more expensive than window units up front by quite a bit.

  • 🙇/👩‍🔧 Installation - Potential DIY - while they do sell DIY mini-split systems that don't require professional installation, you'll be limited by the length of pipe / hoses they provide, so need a suitable spot for your compressor unit. Otherwise you'll need a pro to install it.

  • 🔉Noise - since the compressor is outside and separated by a wall you shouldn't hear it if it's mounted properly, but you do still have an indoor blower unit. It'll be quieter than a window unit but louder than a vent.

• Pros
  • ☀️ Light - no light blocking
  • 🐸 Efficiency - Mini splits often have efficiency ratings that meet or exceed central units, on top of the fact that they can be used to just cool the needed room.
  • 🌡️Heat Pump - these are also typically heat pumps.

If it were me personally, and I owned the house, and I was worried about cooling my bedroom, and I had the money and somewhere to mount the compressor, I would buy a DIY mini split system. I will always want my bedroom to be cold for sleeping and the rest of the house doesn't need to be that cold (and vice versa in winter since they're heat pumps that go both ways). The only real downsides are the very light fan noise from the blower unit, and the upfront cost, though that can potentially be mitigated if you live in a jurisdiction that offers some type of home retrofit or heat pump grant (worth checking!).

That being said there's a bunch of caveats and criteria there that I personally didn't meet, so I bought one of those Midea U shaped units that everyone talks about and am honestly very happy. There was a massive recall recently, but they're adding drains to fix the issue, and these units otherwise are way better than most other window units, though they only work with windows that slide up and down vertically.

*But unlike most other window ACs, the U shaped units have the window sit between the outdoor unit and the indoor unit which blocks most of the noise from the compressor, lets more natural light come in, and doesn't require blocking the sides. They're also very efficient with a CEER rating of 15.

Even despite the recall they're still what I'd personally recommend, you might be able to find one second hand.

Also note that I don't consider a portable air conditioner an option. They're terrible.

You also have to remember to have that adapter with you