Okay...it might seem like I've been amiss. Not really, heck I just started this thing a couple days ago. Since I started this blog to have mostly a tech and travel theme, and nothing has happened the last few days in these arenas I haven't posted.
This week has been mostly been about two things: 1. Recovering from Jet Lag and 2. Getting new AC and Furnace installed in my house. I'll cover these today.
1. Recover from Jet Lag.
This is pretty much a constant process. A few of the airplanes I fly for my company are based in Japan, so I airline from Los Angeles, CA to Narita, Japan at the beginning of most trips and then back at the end of the trip. Most trips last from a week to 10 days or so. It's 5400 or so Nautical Miles (A Nautical Mile is used in aviation and ... well ... nautical settings. While a statute mile is 5280 feet, a Nautical Mile is 6000 feet.) and 8 time zones between the two places. The airline ride from LAX (Los Angles) to RJAA (Narita) is about 11 hours, and coming the other way it's about 9 hours. This is due to the winds blowing from the west to the east. (All these numbers and times change based on the time of year. Usually the winds are stiffer during the winter and lighter during the summer.
Anyway, the whole poorly attempted point of the previous paragraph was to illustrate the Jet Lag Potential (JLP) of each of my trips. We sometimes joke when we board the LAX-RJAA flight that "This is the last time we'll feel normal on the whole trip." That statement is a bit of a hyperbole, but the effects of Jet Lag can be detrimental. I've been doing these routes for a while, so I've kind of gotten used to the effects, and recognize them as such. Wherever in the world find myself I always TRY to stay up until a normal bet time. Sometimes this is impossible, and if your body decides it's going to shut down fighting it can be futile.
I'm often amazed how consistent the effects of Jet Lag are between people. For instance, usually the first morning in Japan I wake up around 0300 - 0400 and can't get back to sleep. NO MATTER WHAT. There is a gym at the hotel in Narita that is open 24 hours. I've actually met my crewmates in the elevator on the way to the gym....we both woke up at almost exactly the same time, tried to get back to sleep, gave up, put on our gym gear and walked to the elevator at the same time. I've seen this happen so many times I almost expect it. Everybody ends up meeting for breakfast within 10 minutes or so without planning. Erie.
Enough about Jet Lag...
2. New A.C. Unit!! Yeah!!!
I live in Southern California - it get's hot here and electricity is EXPENSIVE. I have a 2200 square foot house and had a 20 year old air conditioning system. The builder who built our subdivision had to be the biggest cheapskate on the face of the earth. The piece of crap 3 ton AC unit we had was the cheapest, most inefficient one he could find I'm sure. (See bottom picture - the ugly round one)
Last summer was a hot one, and in July I opened up our electric bill. $650!! I almost puked...and vowed to replace the aging unit. I never realized how expensive and involved changing the AC unit would be.
Trying to be fiscally responsible homeowner I decided to get a few quotes. First guy showed up - he had the biggest add in the direct mail (usually "direct-to-trashcan" mail) - and he stayed for almost 2 hours....evidently we needed to replace the condenser (the thing outside), the coil (a silver box on top of the furnace), the furnace (might as well do it all together) and the line-set (the copper lines that connect the condenser to the coil.) It seems that a house our size requires a minimum 4 ton unit (I guess that number describes the amount of air it can move in a set amount of time) and the 3 ton unit that the jackass builder installed uses 3/4 in copper line-set, but of course the 4 ton unit requires a 7/8 inch line-set. Gosh...well I got a pretty good tax refund this year how much can all this cost? First estimate - 11 THOUSAND Dollars. I basically told him he was smoking crack and sent him on his way. 4 estimates later we got some more realistic numbers....ended up doing it for half that. (The new condenser is the top picture - square box)
I'm sure this is COMPLETELY boring, but I learned a bunch about AC systems. If anybody is looking at doing this, here is my advise:
A. Get LOTS of estimates. Some of the guys who came over actually looked a bit peeved when they found out I was getting multiple estimates. Well, La-Ti-Da!
B. Plan to do the overhall in Feb-April timeframe if you live in a hot climate. There are deals to be had this time of year, but I'll bet when it's 115 in July the deals will be gone for the summer.
C. Think about what you really need. If you live in Southern California and your furnace only kicks on about 5 times a year you probably don't need the $5000 super-dooper 99% efficent plasma furnace. Opt for the cheap furnace (with a good warranty) and get a high SEER rated (SEER is how they measure efficency - we got a 14 SEER unit, the last one was 8 SEER when it was new, probably around 6 when they took it out.)
D. Check references of who is proposing to do the work and use resources such as angies list.
E. Be around when they do the work. Don't let them leave until the area is clean and everything was done to your specifications.
That's all I have for today. I'm going to have a glass of wine and see what's on the plasma!
(I'll try to make the next post a little more interesting.)
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