How to inspect furnace filters?

[Vic Smith]

So THAT'S where they came from! I've got a couple of them hanging in the kitchen. Used them occasionally too. Never looked into changing batteries in them. One is growing weak.

[Don Y]

They are particularly handy for throwing a lot of light *up*. Conventional flashlights don't stand on their ends, well! :>

Also has a magnetic back so you can "stick it" onto one of the metal workbench legs if you need the light in some other space.

And, you can store it hanging from a "teacup hook" screwed into the underside of the workbench!

I don't think I would ever *pay* for one of them (I think all I've ever bought from HF was utility knife blades?) but, "for free", the price is right! :>

[Ralph Mowery]

They have been doing that for years. Much of the stuff from Radio Shack seemed to be on the low end. I never did use very many of their components unless I had to get something going in a hurry.

I guess they probably still do, but many of the computer chips were tested and sold by price and the maximum speed they would work at. I think it was Apple that had a memory board that took a chip with the same number, but a 1 or 2 or A or B on the end. Half the memory was bad on enough chips that thwy were sorted as to left half or right half good , so to speak.

[Don Y]

In the early 80's (? maybe flakey meatware) you could purchase "32K bit" DRAMs.

No one *made* 32Kb DRAMs -- they were 4K, 16K, 64K, etc. But, there was enough "value" in a 32K device that vendors would sell 64K parts that had defects confined to one half of the array (telling you which half you could RELIABLY use).

Of course, there was nothing that prevented you from *trying* to use the entire array! You might get lucky and discover that just *one* cell was toast. Or, as many as 32K of them!

For a business, this was folly -- you can't engage in wishful thinking ("Hopefully *all* of the components that we get will have JUST ONE bad cell!"). But, as a hobbyist, you could get a real bargain -- especially when you needed 8 of them to do anything interesting!

[clare]

I used to have a battery powered VTVM Some strange 40 something volt battery that is made of 99% pure unobtanium.

[clare]

My generator will run the AC no problem - and a few other things at the same time if I run it on Gasoline. On Natural Gas the AC gets pretty close to it's limit (5500VA on natural gas or propane, 7200 on gasolinr with 9000 peak)

[Ralph Mowery]

Sounds like that FET volt meter I have. Uses some odd 8 volt battery . I have a friend that has an old Triplett VOM and it uses about the same battery, or it could be a 22 volt unit. He found one but it was about 20 or

30 dollars, so he passed on it. All it does is power the high value ohms scale so it is not a total loss.

[Don Y]

~4.5T unit so it would be close for your genset. Note have to run the compressor *and* the furnace blower. No idea how big the unit being gifted to me is. And, we'd have to stagger the compressor in the freezer with the compressor/blower in the ACbrrrr/furnace.

In any case, we can easily live without AC for short durations (days) as many folks here don't have dual cooling. And, if it's a dry part of the cooling season, the swamp cooler does a great job with a fair bit less power.

The real "need" is for the freezer -- too much $$$ stored in there to just let it thaw due to lack of power! And, trying to "cook everything before it spoils" -- on an electric range -- would just make an unpleasant situation that much worse! :>

[clare]

It needed a bit more work than just the battery so I passed it off to someone else who had more interest in it than I did.

[clare]

We wouldn't run the AC either - but it's nice to know I CAN.

[Tony Hwang]

My triplett VTVM is real vintage. It has vacuum tube. To use it has to be plugged in. FET is similar in characteristics to vacuum tube. Seldom fix MOSFET guitar or bass amps for son's friends. I still modify quality HiFi mono block tube amps to clone guitar amps and give them at cost. Poor man's Marshall, Fender, Boogie amps. These mono blocks are going pretty cheap at eBay. Always shipping costs more than price, LOL!

[DerbyDad03]

And what does all this drivel have to do with inspecting furnace filters?

Sorry...tried to resist, but just couldn't. :-)

[clare]

Mine had a tube in it for sure.

[Don Y]

I'd be leary of trying. My biggest UPS is a bit over 3KVA. And, it would be very useful to be able to use it to "heat up a quick bite to eat" during an outage. Yet, I'm not sure the microwave (1KW) wouldn't toast the UPS in the process. Too much to risk for too small a potential gain!

Granted, genset is a more robust device -- engine can absorb some of the peak overload -- but I wouldn't want to test it!

[I'm comfortable planning to use it for the freezer as my buddy has already used it for that purpose in the past]

[Tony Hwang]

Most of thread is like that as it goes, strays way off from original post. I compare NG to past century parlor or present day neighborhood drinking hole. Converssations always jump around.

[clare]

If you overload a generator it will just kick the breaker (at least on a decent one) Now when mine is on NG or LP it will stall the generator before it trips the breaker on the generator - but it will likely trip my input breaker at the panel.

[clare]

At least this still has to do with HVAC -----

[hrhofmann]

You could always build a bracket that somehow would fit in the available op ening, but permit you to use a smaller filter that was thicker. But, you h ave to be careful not to restrict the airflow very much as the furnaces ar e designed to be at their maximum efficiency based on a certain airflow. A lso, too low a flow could also lead to blower motor overheating.

[micky]

It makes a difference.

[DerbyDad03]

Tru dat!