Paul’s musings

I’ve decided to start a new section in my blog, entitled, “Paul’s Energy Saving Tips.” As an energy auditor, it’s my job to find ways for people to save energy in their homes. Some things are easy and cheap (or even free), and can save a person significant amounts of money on their home heating costs. To illustrate this, I’m going to start off with replacing the door sweep.

The door sweep is usually made out of a combination of hard and soft vinyl, and runs under the door leading to the outside.  Its job is to provide an airtight seal under the door, while still allowing the door to open and close easily.  Because it is dragged across the threshold every time the door is opened and closed, it can wear out.  Because it’s made out of vinyl, the soft part can harden and crack over time.  Then there’s the fact that, over time, a house settles; so what may have been an airtight seal a couple of years ago in a new house has now become a small gap.

Many people do not realize that a door sweep is usually easy to adjust, and cheap and easy to replace.  Many also do not understand how important the door sweep is at preventing cold outside air from infiltrating the house, even if there’s a storm door installed.  Using an inexpensive digital temperature reader, I will illustrate.

Base reading of the door

First, a base reading of the door is in order.  This door provides a thermal barrier between the inside of the house (at 21 degrees Celsius), and the outside of the house (at minus 6 degrees Celsius).  It’s a standard steel foam core door with a storm door installed, and the inside surface temperature of this door is measured at 18.7 degrees Celsius.  My goal is to have the door sweep come as close to this as possible.

First sweep reading

I discovered that this door sweep is performing extremely poorly, as the temperature measures only 10.3 degrees Celsius at the door sweep.  It is around 12 years old and has never been adjusted.  My first test involves loosening the screws and lowering it so that it can make a tighter seal, which costs nothing but a few minutes of time.

Door sweep after adjustment

That simple adjustment made a considerable improvement, by nearly four degrees Celsius, demonstrating that adjusting the door sweep is a worthwhile task.  New good quality door sweeps aren’t very expensive (around $10 each), so I decided to replace it and see what kind of improvements that would yield.

Thermal reading of the new sweep

Not quite as dramatic as the adjustment, the new sweep improved thermal resistance by two and a half degrees Celsius.  That’s within roughly 2 degrees Celsius of the foam core door, which is acceptable.

Not only does this procedure help to reduce heating costs, it also makes the area near the door considerably more comfortable to be around when it is very cold outside.  Both adjusting and replacing are jobs many people could do themselves in a few minutes, and mean that you may be able to put off replacing a drafty door.  It’s just like money in the bank!

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Had I taken this picture five seconds before I did, you would have seen a ray of light shining down from the clouds onto the train. Alas, I missed the moment; but the photo still turned out nice.  Besides, it’s all I got for today.

CN Rail

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We received a lot of wet, heavy snow overnight last night and throughout the morning. This meant I was charged with the unpleasant task of shoveling the driveway. Yes, I have a snowblower, but the motor needs fixin’. I decided to use the “Ergonomic” shovel I bought last year to clear the many tonnes of wet snow from my driveway.

Shovels

I had completed approximately 1/4 of the job when the blade snapped off the handle of this rather expensive shovel.  That’s when I turned to the old plastic and wooden handle cheapie I bought 13 years ago, which finished the job without breaking.  Lesson learned: Cheap shovels are tougher and last longer than expensive ergonomic shovels.

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Today’s Photo Du Jour comes to you from my back yard garden.

This is a dead chive flower dusted with yesterday’s snow.  There are still many seeds in this flower which will seed the soil next spring; when the snow melts, it will provide the water the seeds will need.  The blanket of snow will ensure those seeds are protected during the harsh winter.  Knowing this, how can anyone hate the snow that protects and later feeds life?

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My father suggested I change the name from Picture Du Jour to Photo Du Jour, because it sounds better. I’ve taken his advice.

Winter arrived

The skies have changed dramatically from the clear blue sky of yesterday.  We got a small icy dose of winter today, as you can see.  These are the fields out behind the Durham College Whitby campus.

I think I like winter.  I don’t like shoveling the snow from my driveway, but I do love watching the landscape transform into a clean sheet of white.  I also enjoy playing in the snow with my family and, unlike some other drivers, I enjoy the dynamics of winter driving.  The air is so clean and refreshing, and the snow feels good crunching under my boots as I walk.

I confess, I feel fortunate to live in a country that experiences all four seasons.  I look forward to each season as we creep up on them.

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Today, I took my son and mother-in-law to the Courtice Flea Market, located near the corner of Courtice Road and Bloor Street. I decided to take a picture looking across the back lot of this flea market towards two of the barns.

The barns at the Courtice Flea Market

This flea market is a time capsule which represents what flea markets once were.  Part yard sale, part gray market products, complete with a wide variety of food vendors, its charm is the fact that it is often disorganized.  Unlike the modern day flea markets, which seem to have become homogenized and offer a limited choice of products, this one is like discovering the basement of an eccentric who collects and saves absolutely everything.  When the video stores had shut down, this is where their video tapes ended up, which is a boon for anyone still using VHS; a person could build up a significant library for very little cost.  If you’re still enjoying your Atari 2600 but are interested in further expanding your collection of video games, you will find them here.  There is vinyl galore.  Not only that, but if you find you need to replace your old turntable or Atari 2600, you can buy another one here.  There’s plenty of tacky neon signs and products to decorate your recreation room, bringing back almost any era you want; from the 30′s up to the 80′s.  A fairly new addition is the army surplus, which has some great stuff.  I love their winter jackets.

I’ve found my own treasures here.  It’s where I’ve found a Vic 20, some games for my Atari 2600, and today, my son and I picked up a $5 game for X-box.  There’s plenty of junk to dig through, but ultimately it’s a fun way to spend a Sunday morning.

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I’ve decided to try out something different for my blog. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to keep my camera with me and take one picture each day of something I find interesting. I’ll then post it here and talk about it.

A house decorated for the Festivus

To kick things off, I’ll start with this picture I took while on a walk with my family tonight.  It’s a house decorated for the upcoming holiday season, in keeping with the ancient traditions of setting out candles and lighting bonfires during the very long nights leading up to the winter solstice.  Even though we’ve replaced the old sun god myths with new ones like Santa Claus, it’s still nice to see such colour light up the early and long nights around the neighbourhoods of the city.

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The end of my first semester of the Renewable Energy program is fast approaching. I’m pleased that my average remains in the mid 90′s, and I’m caught up on all my assignments. I decided to take a bit of a time out and reflect on my journey so far.

The most difficult thing in my life has been to decide what I want to do.  I learned a good work ethic and the value of a dollar doing the typical high school student summer and after-school jobs of delivering newspapers, working at a garden nursery, gas station, grocery store, and fast food restaurant.  Upon graduation, I tried pursuing a career in security, but found myself hungering for more.  I loved computer technology, so I went back to school for Information Systems and pursued a career in that industry.

My career in Information Systems went very well, and I absolutely enjoyed every aspect of it.  I’ve often regretted leaving that industry; but it’s awfully hard to say no when General Motors offers you a $35/hour with benefits full time permanent assembly line job.  It’s even harder when your current job is going to be outsourced to India or some other foreign country.  I don’t regret the decision I made, but I do regret being forced to make that kind of decision.

Six and a half years on the assembly line helped me to realize that there was more to life.  When I was presented with an opportunity to leave with a generous buyout package, I didn’t have to think twice about it.  However, that decision did lead me back to my original problem: What was I going to do with my life?  Go back to IT?  I considered many options, and the decision was not an easy one to make; but after wrestling with the problem over a period of two weeks, I knew I had to get into renewables.  It’s a new industry full of new opportunities.

So, here I am, facing the end of the first semester of a brand new program in a brand new industry.  I can honestly say it’s been worthwhile.  I now know things about houses I never knew before.  I understand the aspects of performing energy audits.  I know what problems to look for, and what solutions will work best.  I find myself understanding the cause of problems in people’s houses, and telling them exactly what they need to do to correct their problem.

I like to think that IT is my “Backup” plan, but I’m really enjoying renewables.  Clearly, my problem with choosing a career path was due to the fact that this career didn’t exist until now.  As I wrap up the details of my capstone project, I eagerly look forward to next semester.

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After discovering I could get a really good deal on Windows 7 Ultimate and finding the reviews of Windows 7 to be generally positive, I decided to take the plunge. I upgraded my hard drive first, which seemed like the sensible thing to do.

The computer upgraded is my Compaq C700 notebook, which has a 1.6 Ghz Pentium Dual Core processor. It originally came with Windows Home Premium, 1GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive. It’s been upgraded to 2GB of RAM and 500GB of hard drive space. My laptop is my primary computer, so it’s loaded with a lot of different programs and games.  I depend on this computer for everything.

In the past, I would perform a “Clean” install of a new OS. This entailed backing up all of my data, clearing off the hard drive, and installing the new OS. This time, I decided to try the “Upgrade” route. This means everything is left intact on my system and nothing needs to be reinstalled. I wanted to see if anything would go wrong, because if something does go wrong, it’s more apt to happen with an upgrade installation as opposed to a clean install.

The first step was to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It was able to identify programs that were known to have issues with Windows 7, and provided direct links to the necessary upgrades for these programs. I did as the program advised, and upgraded those programs. After that, I ran the installer and let it figure out everything for me.

It took roughly three hours for the entire process to run, but it was entirely automated until the end, when I had to enter the product key. After that, it finished up whatever detail work it had to do, and I was presented with the Windows 7 desktop. My wallpaper, icons, and programs were all where I had left them. Everything worked fine, from the open source software I run to Outlook 2003 and the other Office 2003 applications.

My impressions are that this version of Windows is very responsive. I never had any issues with Vista, but everything seems quicker with Windows 7; from the startup and shutdown times, to the times it takes for applications to launch, to the responsiveness of the applications. I also really like the tweaks they’ve made to the looks and behaviour of things like the start menu and the bar across the bottom of the screen; they’ve really cleaned it up.

To summarize, while the upgrade took a long time, it required very little effort on my part. The entire process was painless and trouble-free. The upgrade is worthwhile, because it makes improvements only where improvements were needed. Overall, very nice work by Microsoft.  I’m sorry, Mr. Jobs, but I’m not going to switch any time soon.

Next up: I just got a great deal on Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, which will be the next upgrade.

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Windows 7 is here, and Yours Truly gets a special deal on Windows 7 Ultimate. I’ve been using Vista Home Premium long enough, so I’m ready to upgrade. I ran the Upgrade Advisor, and it suggested I needed to free up 16GB of hard drive space. I use my notebook for a lot of things, and keeping even 10GB free on my 160GB hard drive is a challenge. I knew it was time for a hard drive upgrade when I discovered I could buy a 500GB SATA hard drive for my notebook for only $94.

A quick Google search made this seem like a daunting task, running some obscure command in Windows, re-running the Windows installation from the original disk, and contacting Microsoft to “Re-register” Windows. This is definitely the “Hard way” of doing things, and the reason why Windows and PC’s get the unwarranted reputation of being difficult. The truth of the matter is, this upgrade is much easier than most people realize. I knew I had to share this information with the rest of the world. I now present to you: Paul Quirk’s easy 7 step guide to upgrading your notebook hard drive.

Step 1: Purchase the hard drive and an enclosure. Notebooks only have one connector for a hard drive, so an enclosure to attach it as an external drive is necessary. I bought my 2.5″ SATA enclosure brand new for $15.

Step 2: Go to the web site of the manufacturer of your hard drive, and download the appropriate image software. Since my drive was made by Western Digital, I downloaded the Acronis True Image software for free.

Step 3: Put the new hard drive in the enclosure, and connect it to your computer’s USB port. If it’s brand new and un-formatted, it shouldn’t show up; be sure to not do anything to it to make it show up.  This means don’t initialize it, format it, or anything else.

Step 4: Run the imaging software. Use this software to “Clone” your disk. Select the appropriate options to ensure you are cloning your smaller hard drive to the bigger hard drive. The software should automatically choose the best settings, so your hardest choice will be to accept the license agreement.

Step 5: The software should automatically configure your system and request a reboot. When you reboot, it should load into the imaging software and start copying your data over to the new drive.  This will probably take a couple of hours if your system is anything like mine.  You can go off and do something else while your computer is busy doing all the hard work for you.

Step 6: When the software is done, shut down your computer, remove the old hard drive from the computer, and install the new hard drive from the external case.

Step 7: Turn on your notebook.  Your system should work exactly as it did before, except now you’ll have more free space.

That’s it.  No call to Microsoft, no re-registering windows, no running the Windows installer.  The upgrade could not have been easier.  I put my old 160 GB hard drive in the enclosure I bought for extra portable storage, which is a bonus.

Next step is to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate.  Here’s hoping it’s as easy and painless as upgrading the hard disk drive!

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