Why are tank-style water heaters generally installed on a 2-3 foot (~0.6-0.7 meter) tall pedestal?
123844
I saw a water heater stand at Home Depot but it's about 15" high. That's a bit too high for my basement. Can I just make one with 2x4 and plywood that's only 4" tall, basically just enough to be able to drain water off the drain tray? Or does the code require it be higher?
64618
We're definitely not DIY-types in our household, so would love an answer from those who know the answer: We have a gas water heater in the basement, and will be traveling for over a month this summer. No worries about freezing at this time of year, but the water heater is aging and we'd rather not have a flood if it should fail while we're gone. Our thoughts are to turn off the water at the main, &amp; drain the pipes to avoid any possible leakage problems. What do we do with the water heater? Normally we don't shut the water off, so we usually just turn the water heater to "pilot". Suggestions?
69357
I'm a little OCD when it comes to traveling. I have learned from experience that when I am away, I constantly have visions that a pipe in the wall had burst and that the water is slowly filling the house. Having been through this enough times, I am tempted to put my worries to rest by simply turning off the main water line (in the garage) before we leave. My new fear with doing this, of course, is that I will cause something else bad to happen.  So I am curious, is it bad to turn off the water and drain the pipes prior to leaving for a week? In addition, what other precautions should I take aside from turning down the water heater? A few details - our house is two story, copper pipes, and we would be traveling in the spring time so temperatures in the house would stay at around 70 F.
62530
I am in the process of building a one level home in PA. After the formed concrete walls were poured and the framing began, I noticed that on one side of the house that the sill plate was flush with the edge of the foundation wall in the rear, but, by the time the sill plate got to the front it was 2 1/2" away from the edge of the foundation wall. In summary, the sill plate walks from flush with the foundation wall at the rear to 2 1/2" at the front. This happens over about a 50' run.  Any thoughts or concerns would be appreciated. Any recommendations on what sorts of questions to ask when I meet the site supervisor on Monday?
114026
Might be super obvious, but I've not encountered one of whatever this little dude is before:    I figured some sort of vacuum tube, but no idea beyond that. The two poles aren't linked. Found inside a heating control panel. Help would be greatly appreciated!
11614
Note: This is intended to become a canonical post.  I got a dedicated graphics card of type XXX and it claims I need at least a YYY Watt PSU.   How big does my PSU really need to be?
4637
I have attempting to make a fin tube for two days and it is killing me.  Fin tubes are pipes that have a tight spiral of flat fins sticking out all around them. The spiral wraps around the circumference of the pipe. They are used in heat reclaimers among other places.  I made a spiral using the extra shapes add-on and scales pretty tight. And then I set the scale.  I made the fin shape and set its scale. I added the curve modifier and it jumped around a bit. I set its origin point to one end face and finally got it going the right way off the beginning of the curve.  Then I added the array modifier and moved it to the top  of the stack. It all looked good for the first loop, then the fins started to tip. The outside edge aimed upward steadily as the inside edge seemed to continue to be oriented at the center base of the curve.  How can I keep the darned things at 90 degrees to the z axis? Or should I be using a particle system? I haven't learned that one yet, sigh.
108782
I recently moved into an in-law unit of a large old house.  In the kitchen, there are two pipes coming out of the wall (one protruding out a little more than the other).  I had assumed they were gas lines to connect my stove.  But since the stove only connects to one pipe, I'm now wondering if they're actually water lines. Can anyone explain how I can tell the difference? On the other side of the wall is a large closet with the air conditioning system, water heater, and what I think is the gas shutoff valve.
37571
I wouldn't lose sleep over this, except the unexpected and fierce sound startles my girlfriend and cat every time.  So I just replaced the refill valve on our toilet (using a kit, so everything from the lock nut to the overflow spout, but not the plunger or handle).  It works great. No signs of leaking (at least not on the floor or walls). It does a full refill every time right up to the refill line printed on the back of the tank. The overflow spout is above, not inside, the overflow pipe.  Every so often (maybe once an hour), the toilet shrieks for a half-second, like the float drops just enough to cut on the flow and then rises with just a squirt of water.  My first thought was evaporation, but 1) I'm surprised it's that sensitive and 2) I know our old fill valve didn't do this (at least I don't remember it doing it, and I'm sure both gf and cat would have mentioned it if it did).  The one thing I didn't tweak was the water level screw, because the critical point line and overflow pipe were the specified 1 inch apart (eyeballed) and the water fills to exactly the above-mentioned line.  If it is the water level, is this spontaneous and short burst indicative of needing to lower or raise the water level?  And can someone explain why it happens at all? I imagine the water-level adjustment changes where the float "floats" so if the water level is where it should be after a refill, why would it run 30-60 minutes later for a short burst?
98409
Since the cross sectional area is smaller in the middle the water flows faster and experiences a smaller hydrostatic pressure. Additional mass is sucked in from the middle tube and gets accelerated so that the speed of the fluid at the exit should be less than at the entry.  Is the kinetic energy of the fluid at the exit equal to the kinetic energy of the water flow at the entry?
116241
when we bought our house, it had a very used 40" gas range. now that range has died. replacing with a new 40" range is very pricey ($2k+), and our cooking needs don't justify the size anyhow.  i'm looking for ideas on how to fit a smaller range. i would imagine that extending the counter top and cabinets would be a pretty extensive change. we've found we can get a 36" range for around 1/2 the cost. would it be feasible to add some sort of storage along side the smaller range to fill in the space?  thanks. i know this is an open-ended question with no specific answer, i'm just looking for ideas.
106672
I am attempting to run a Molybdenum heat coil. The best I can tell it is 0.3-0.4 ohms per rack and I would like to run say two racks at 230V at 3.9KW (so it doesn't trip my 230V 20 amp breaker).  Does that mean, assuming a value for two racks is a total of 0.8 ohms, can I add a ~12.7641 ohm resistor for a total resistance of 13.5641 to run it at 3900 watts at 230 volts?  If not, how is it possible to run these? Do I need a lower voltage supply with more current?
17358
The atmosphere pressure is 10 meters of water (approx). This means that it is impossible to lift water higher than 10 meters with vacuum or сapillary action (on Earth, under normal conditions).  There are trees higher than 10 meters.  How do they lift water to their tops?  UPDATE  In other words: how cohesion-tension theory can be true if it apparently contradicts the laws of physics?   UPDATE 2  Atmospheric pressure helps to rise the water, not resists rising. What is resisting is water weight. When water column is 10 meters high, then atmospheric pressure can't help anymore.   Any adhesion/cohesion mechanism can't help here too, because it acts only in thin molecular layer. To transfer action force further the pressure is required, which is insufficient at 10 meters.  UPDATE 3  If we had capillary small enough to rise water to 10 meters and then we will build smaller capillary which we expect will rise water higher, we will fail. Water column will break and does not climb higher than 10 meters.     Menisci acts like small piston and can't help rising water higher than 10 meters.  UPDATE 4  Common pressure distribution in capillary is follows:    $P_0$ is atmospheric pressure. As you see, right under menisci, the pressure is lowered by $2 \sigma / R$ where $R$ is the radius of menisci and $\sigma$ is surface tension. The entire term is called "Laplace pressure". As you see, it can't supersede atmospheric pressure, because water continuity will be broken in the case.  I.e. no any menisci can rise water higher than 10 meters.  The existence of higher trees PROVES that there are some other significant mechanisms, not adhesion/cohesion, not capillary.  UPDATE 5  Current version, as I understood it, is based on a declaration, that a water, if put into thin capillary, can behave like a solid body. Particularly, it can resist tension up to minus 15 atmospheres.   This is a tensile strength of concrete, so I don't believe that without additional proofs.  I think it is just not hard to make thin tube, put water into it and check, how high it can climb.  Was it done ever?
32078
This adapter is attached to an outdoor spigot:    It is near the location of a former hot tub so I believe it has something to do with pressure control. When I attach a hose to it and turn it on if the hose is not flowing (e.g. a closed nozzle at the end) the water leaks (more like squirts, lots of it) from this adapter, it appears to be from the holes and not the connection to the spigot or the hose.  What is this thing? Is there a way to utilize it? I'd like to remove it so I can use this spigot but when I try to unscrew it with a wrench it does not budge - in fact the spigot itself starts to rotate. I wasn't really able to tighten a pipe wrench to the spigot due to the available clearance &amp; pipe width.  There appears to be a rivot on the under side of the adapter but it is difficult to tell, it is somewhat rusted over.  Follow Up  My original concern was water leaking from it when it was used. While a plumber was on site doing a different job I asked him to look at this to see if something was wrong. He said the vacuum breaker wasn't working properly and ended up replacing the entire hose bib (with new vacuum breaker), I presume because he was not able to remove the vacuum breaker as well or it wasn't salvageable. Now no water spews out when it is used.
80676
I'm going to mount my 47" LCD above my fireplace. I'm not looking for arguments against this decision. I'm looking for wiring solutions. The diagram below should help explain the situation.   _________________________________________________ |     |     |    | |   |   |   | |    |     |     | |     |     |    | |   |   |   | |    |     |     | |     |     |    | |   |   |   | |    |     |     | |     |     |    | | p |   | m | |    |     |     | |     |     |    | |   |   |   | |    |     |     | |     |     |    #################    |     |     | |     |     |    ##             ##    |     |     | |     |     |    ##             ##    |     |     | |    P|     |    ##             ##  m |     |P C  | |_____|_____|____##_____________##____|_____|_____|    | = stud # = fireplace brick P = existing power outlet C = existing cable outlet p = new power outlet m = new media outlet   Essentially, there is an existing power outlet on either side of the fireplace and a cable outlet on the far right side of the fireplace. I'm intending to put my non-TV media equipment on the right side of the wall and the television above the fireplace. This means I need two things above the fireplace: power and HDMI. I don't want to just run an HDMI cable in the wall. I'd prefer to have some sort of conduit to simplify replacing the cable or having a second (with one of these on each end: ). I only need to drill through two studs that are 6" apart above the right side of the fireplace in order to access the vertical space where I want the other end. For the power, I need to drill through two 6"-spaced studs above the left-side of the fireplace, but then another 2 full-height studs.  There are a couple of caveats:   This is an externally facing wall, which means there's insulation. I'm assuming this will make things more difficult. I'd like to refrain from cutting more holes in the wall than is necessary for the outlets (to reduce drywall damage/repair).   I've considered a couple of options:   Cut the openings for the outlets above the fireplace, and use a flexible drill bit to drill through the studs above the fireplace. This minimizes dry-wall damage, but how difficult is this with insulation in the wall, how can I feed the conduit through those holes, and how would I drill through the full-height studs on the left for power? Cut a wide section of dry-wall (4" high?) from the desired media outlet to the right until reaching the gap above the desired lower outlet. This results in some dry-wall damage, but would allow more control for drilling holes in the studs and running conduit. This still doesn't solve the problem of getting through the full-height stud for the power. For the power, I would need to extend the cut-out two studs further.   What should I do?
78058
See title. Obviously the maximum base is determined by the perimeter, but the maximum height is not specified.
1996
Almost all of the radiators (forced water) in my house heat up fine. However, a single radiator needs regular bleeding (~1/day) in order to heat. Note, this radiator is not at the highest point in the house (it's a split level; I'd say it's around 3/4 of the way up), and radiators higher up are plenty hot.  Also, there no obvious water/corrosion stains around this radiator.  What might be causing this problem, and how do I fix it?