Cell phone.

As you may or may not know my current cell phone isn't working to well these days. I can only talk on it in speaker mode since the standard talk speaker is broken, occasionally the ringer simply goes silent not actually in silent mode or the volume turned down, the phone simply stops making any sounds. The only way to reset it is to make a speaker phone call. The screen colours are all off, and I fear it will simply stop working soon. I need a new phone, I just wish it would have lasted longer for a supposedly tough phone.
    The thing is work covers a fair share of my cell phone bill ($50 a month) if I have a "MIKE" plan. MIKE is a direct connect walkie talkie service. I actually do like it. It's quicker than a phone call and unlimited so no need to worry about minutes. It's nice to have with my line of work because sometimes you just need to ask a quick question. You send an alert, if the guy can answer he will if not you simply keep working or whatever till he responds, unlike a regular call where you call let it ring leave a message and so on. It's kinda like texting.  If I get a non MIKE plan work will only give me $10 a month.
    The choice seems simple stick with a MIKE phone right, well there are issues with that. The phones available for use with the MIKE plane are pretty limited, and only one smart phone is available, the Blackberry Curve, not a bad phone, but I would like a DROID but none are available with MIKE and if I decide to go without I lose $480 a year, not a small amount of money. Even if I do decide to go with the Curve, I was told the data plan was unlimited, "That's sweet" I thought, the thing is data on the MIKE network is really slow, so yeah it's unlimited but that's because you would never use all you data anyway.  So the whole point of a smart phone becomes pointless. There is also the toughness issue I mentioned earlier. I work in a trade, I crawl around in tight spaces, my hands get dirty, I get caught in the rain regularly. I need a phone that can handle such things without breaking. That is what my current one is supposed to be built to handle yet it barely coped with it after two years. I just don't see a smart phone lasting all that long either.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Summer is here and it's flying by.

I can't believe that June is almost over already. Summer just started and yet it seems like it will be over soon. I have no official travel plan or anything like that but I think it will be a busy summer. I do have some MINI events of course, a pic nic this Saturday. I do want to do some camping at some point even if it's just for the week end. I actually prefer multiple short trip to a big one. Sadly I likely wont be heading up to Killarney for any of these trips.

I do need to get back on the bike though, I have been seriously lacking in motivation department. I enjoy once I am out there, but getting motivated to head out is hard. I am still thinking of joining a martial arts class of some sort, I just need to find a good place. It's my understanding that many of them are run by douchebags. There are good ones out there though.

I also want to explore the good food opportunities in the metro Detroit area. Toronto is good but it's a far drive just for dinner. Ethnically Sarnia is dead, I like pub food but the variety just isn't there. I like the local sushi place but I also find it a little pricey. 

Have a good summer folks, hope we all have a good time.

New friend

Greetings all.
Yesterday I was given some calls just like any other day. Now my boss decides who gets what call, I am not sure if he did it on purpose but one of my calls was for a neighbour of mine. This is the second time this year, might be a fluke since I don't know if my boss actually knows what street I live on. Anyway I get to my neighbours house and introduce myself. I am not normally chatty with neighbours, just a friendly wave when I see them. He is actually new to the street, having only moved in last October. He has an insurance program on his HVAC equipment only requiring a $50 deductible per service call.
The problem was his blower wheel on his furnace was packed with old dust and the evaporator coil was quite dirty reducing air flow, and his insurance does not cover any cleaning. I can understand them to a point but this dirt was due to the previous owners neglect, you would think before accepting equipment into their program they would have it inspected. I was able to convince them to cover a replacement belt as the existing one was getting very worn out. The cost to get everything cleaned was going to be around $100, unfortunately due to a car crash a few months ago he is unable to work, and money is tight. I thought about how to proceed and decided to help him out for free.
I could not do it right away since I have to account for my time, but I told him I would return after dinner. I returned around 18:00 and got the blower out, he took it outside to clean it while I tackled the evaporator coil. We got everything put back together, and it is now working much better, not quite 100%, but it appears to be the original system from roughly 30 years ago.
While the repairs were going on we were chatting and he seems to be a real nice guy. After all was complete he gave me a beer and a headlight flash light as a thank you, we continued to chat for a bit, joined by his girlfriend. I will be soon getting an invite for dinner, she is Chinese and apparently quite the cook. I am not sure how far this will go, but a couple new potential friends does make ones week a little brighter.

Lots to say but can't say it

This is my final attempt at a post tonight. I seem to have lots of things to say, but I start writing and then nothing. What I have on my mind is more of a two way discussion that a narrative. I have a few things to bitch about but I want to avoid such matters for this blog. 

I did just finish watching an interesting movie(my spell checker does not seem to recognise movie).  Garden State written/directed/starring Zach Braff. It was more of a film really, not normally my style. I enjoyed it though. I don't really like describing movies since I don't want to give too much away but you can check out the trailer if you want Garden State trailer it does make it look more exciting than it really is, and as with most trailer does give a little too much away. 

I am not sure of my week end plans just yet, aside from no gravel involved this time, but I think it will be an exciting one, if it is I will be sure and let you know how it went.

Science time with Prof Jay

As you may or may not know I work in the heating and refrigeration field. I figured I would do a post about how refrigeration works.

First off you can't make cold. Cold is the absence of heat, so if you are hot you want to take some of that heat away. The term heat pump is generally used for an air conditioner that can also be used to heat your home, but basically any type of refrigeration is a heat pump. What we are doing with refrigeration (this includes air conditioning) is removing heat from a location where we don't want it to an unobjectionable location. 

How is this accomplished? Well that is where the refrigeration cycle come in. The first step is compression of the refrigerant vapour. Once the compressed vapour leaves the compressor it enters the condenser. The condenser is a coil of copper tubing that is finned that acts as a heat sink, a fan helps pull air through it. As the refrigerant vapour cools is condenses into a liquid the pressure remains the same. One thing you may not know is that this change in state actually requires lots of energy, much more than a simple change in temperature. This liquid now goes through a metering device for this discussion we will only cover the fixed orifice. This is basically a restriction in the system, this is where the refrigerant enters the evaporator pretty much the same thing ans the condenser, at this point the pressure drops. This pressure drop changes the boiling point of the refrigerant, just like if you are high in a mountain water boils at a much lower temperature. As mentioned earlier changing state requires lots of energy. This is where the magic happens. As the refrigerant boils it requires this energy where does it get it? From the hot air in the conditioned space, as this hot air gives up some of it's energy it cools down. Now the refrigerant is a vapour again and returns to the compressor, to start the cycle again. The energy it picked up inside ready to be released outside through the condenser. 

If you noticed something I have yet to mention Freon, well Freon is actually Dupont's brand name for their line of refrigerants. The name is no longer used because of the bad press because of the ozone depleting characteristics of some refrigerants, they now call it Puron. Refrigerant comes in many types for different applications, Your home AC likely has R22, older cars and refrigerators had R12(the first refrigerant to be banned) newer fridges and cars use R134A. 

Contrary to popular belief refrigerant does not need to be topped up regularly, yes it can leak out but if there is a leak it should be repaired before adding more refrigerant. One of the most important and easy maintenance requirements for any refrigeration system is to keep both the condenser and evaporator clean, the condenser (the part outside) by hosing it off with water, be sure not to bend the fins over, and the evaporator by regularly replacing the filter.

The secret Life of Machines did a great episode on the refrigerator check it out http://www.techno-fandom.org/slom.shtml    actually all their shows are great. 

Feel free to ask questions I will do my best to answer them.