6-8 really means 12

Good morning.
Once again, the weekend is over. Yesterday, I did some more house cleaning, worked on the puzzle, and made a tasty barbecued chicken dinner with noodles Alfredo, and broiled marinated asparagus. I also called on the status of our Consumers Energy rebate for our new furnace. Craig submitted the paperwork back on Nov. 30th. The paper said 6-8 weeks to process. I can't believe they're getting so many rebate requests, that it takes 6-8 weeks to get to yours. But anyway, after holding for 12 minutes, I finally got a live person on the line. She took my information, and put me back on hold. Fairly quickly, she came back and said mine had been processed, and I should receive it in about 4 weeks. 4 weeks to mail a stupid check? I didn't say that to her, but wanted to. So instead of 6-8 weeks, it'll take 12. At least they got it and it's working it's way through their system. Craig is always very good about writing down rebate info, such as the address, and phone number and the date he mailed it. And he makes copies of all the paperwork, just in case it gets 'lost'. I swear, companies tell you 8-10 weeks just so they hope you'll forget you ever even mailed it.
And this morning, I have to clear the driveway. We got a couple of inches of snow yesterday/last night. Then I need to get to the Salon to damp mop, and clean more of the grid. And all that's before I start work!
So I better get going!

a snowy but we're nice and warm in mid Michigan

Good morning from a snowy Lansing.

We currently have about 6 -8 inches on the ground right now. Got another 1-2 inches yesterday, so had to go out and clear the drive again. This is a picture out our driveway looking across the street. We have a golf course across the street.
I didn't do much else yesterday. Was going to, but somehow managed not to. hehe. I did do some more research on summer travel ideas, and did book a trip to Indiana Dunes this summer. Meeting up with our camping friends from Wisconsin, Tom and Dean.
I also finally got my first full month energy bill since we put in our new furnace.
For the month of Dec. our gas usage was 9.2 MCF.
For Dec of 2008 we used 15.0 MCF.
That's quite the reduction! But wait! 2008 was an extremely cold winter so what about 2007?
For Dec 2007 we used 12.0 MCF.
So still nearly a 25% reduction due to a 94% energy efficient furnace! yeah!
And I did do some more caulking and sealing, so that probably helped some too.
Craig was concerned because the furnace was running a lot compared to the old one. But this one is different. When you set the thermostat at 72, the temp stays at 72. The old one wouldn't turn on until the temp dropped to 71, and would run until it reached 73. So your getting a cooler period and a warmer period. This one runs more often, but not as long each time. Also this furnace has a low fan speed and a high fan speed. It only uses low fan to maintain the temp, but will use high fan like when we first get home from work and crank the heat up from 64 back to 72.

So we're pretty happy with the furnace.

And for dinner, Craig made a variation of his beef stir fry. Yummy!

Out with the old, in with the new

We've got the new furnace completely installed. It took a lot more than I thought. Here's the old one.
And here's the new one.

You can see the new one is shorter and wider than the old one. You can also see 2 pvc pies coming out the top. They go through the roof. One is to vent, the other is an air intake. They don't vent out chimney anymore since at 95% efficiency, all that's expelled is water vapor. And that would apparently not be good for the chimney.

They also had to put a liner in the chimney for the water heater for some reason also. And notice that the old furnace had an air return on the front beside one in the back behind the water heater. He thought the one in the front was to close to the water heater, and the increased inflow might suck out the pilot on the water heater. So he had to move that to the right and out the wall for better air flow. Now I have 2 air filters to replace. I'm amazed how quiet it is sitting right in the dining room/hall. So this year, we've replaced both the water heater and furnace. Not to mention new tires for the mo-ho, and a new roof top heating/air conditioning unit for the Salon.. I hope this is it for a while.

Oh, and that disk thingy above the chimney isn't a flying saucer, it's our omni-directional antenna. We don't have cable or satellite, but with digital, we get roughly 30 channels. Good enough for us!

the good and the bad

A couple of updates.
First, the good. Our new furnace is almost completely installed. Of course, with no basement, Our furnace sits in a closet in the middle of the house with the water heater. Not much extra room in there. The new furnace is shorter and wider than the old one, so there was quite a bit of work to get everything in place. He did get the furnace running before he left, so we do have heat, but he's coming back this morning to finish the air return ducts. I'll have pics when he's finished.
And while Craig did his running around, I pretty much spent the entire day on the puter. Read blogs, surfed, and played games. Have you tried Bejeweled Twist? Pretty addictive.
And now the bad.........Also I got the new cmos battery for my lap top, installed it, turned it on............nothing, keyboard lights up, fan spins, but no windows. So I turned it off, and decided I need to call Bill. He's the husband of a customer of mine who's pretty good with puters, and very reasonable. But......... this morning, just for the hell of it, I tried the puter again. IT BOOTED UP! Yaa! Don,t know why, but don't care, it's back! So I downloaded and installed updates, and then rebooted...........
And now again........nothing..........WTF is with this piece of crap! Okay, now I'm calling Bill this morning.
I'll update when I know more.

A lazy Sunday

Good morning.
So far November has been a very nice month temp wise. It has allowed me to get all of my out side projects done without freezing my fingers off.
Today, I've all ready cleaned the Salon. And after I take my shower, get lazy bones Craig up, have our coffee and read the paper, we'll go out and get our 3rd turkey. They're soo cheap this time of year, we like to stock up on them.
We also are having a new furnace put in on the 30th. The quote came in very good. $2750.00 for a 95% efficient 2 stage furnace, installed, with a programmable thermostat. We'll get a $819.00 tax credit, plus a $360.00 rebate from our gas company. That makes the new furnace only $1571.00. A pretty good deal I would say. And, it should bring down our heating costs some. So a win, win.
And as far as today goes, I think I'm just gonna take it easy. Maybe a little dusting, but not much else. I'm feelin lazy today.
So that's all for now!