Old and good.
DP Review reports on a recent record setting auction of Fox-Talbot’s early photographic prints and it makes for fascinating reading.
Of course, Fox-Talbot did not have access to Photoshop and a few seconds there make things much better:
Clever.
If your tortoise displays a curious bent, meaning he wanders off into the blue beyond now and then, a spot of epoxy and an Apple AirTag will see him found in record time, unless he just happened to be crossing the road at the same time as that Mack truck came trundling along.
It’s not as if aforesaid tortoise is going to struggle too much under the weight, but perhaps a more useful application is to deter theft of expensive toys. Like cars and cameras.
I recall years ago some buyers of high end cameras would have them engraved with their Social Security Numbers. It’s hard to conceive of a dumber idea. The thief is not about to stop his thieving ways because you engraved the camera, is not about to report it to anyone when he sees it and will use your SSN to loot your credit card, destroy your credit score, etc.
But if you could find some way of building this into your camera where it could not be removed, then you have a winner. Apple says the replaceable battery lasts 12 months. It looks like AirTags need an iPhone 11 or later to work in ‘high precision’ finding mode, or an iPhone SE, 6S or later for regular accuracy.
Pricing is $29 or four for $99, and you can read more here. And you can forget those megabuck installations in your car which claim the cops can find it once it’s been pinched. An AirTag does the trick. Bring your own gun. The cops are busy killing innocents with theirs.
The billion node network:
To avoid high power consumption, AirTags do not use GPS but rather depend on the worldwide one billion iPhone base of users to transmit location data using Bluetooth. Brilliant and not invasive.
The three day warning:
If your AirTag is out of range of your iPhone for 8-24 hours (this was originally three days or more, but Apple subsequently reduced it), the AirTag will emit a recurring beep. Does this not destroy its value as a theft tracker? Not at all. You should notice someone has stolen your $10,000 Schwinn before three days have elapsed, or you have more money than sense. Come to think of it, if you spend that much on a push bike you do have more money than sense.
Silencing the AirTag – update on Feb 4, 2022:
The AirTag is easily silenced if you are prepared to open it and remove the speaker. Most break the tabs holding the body together, and have to glue it back together. Not a process likely to enhance the Airtag’s water sealing. You can see a way of opening the back with no damage to the tabs here. I used this method and confirm that the AirTag continues to show its location properly but emits no sound. I used a very fine bladed Xacto knife to minimize scarring to the casing, which is invisible in use. The key is to identify the tab locations correctly.
Update June 15, 2023:
My iPhone just alerted me to change the battery, meaning the original CR2032 lasted 14 months. It’s in my (easily stolen) scooter and yes, it’s silenced.
Not trivial, but maybe essential.
The problem with this graph is that it’s incorrect. The last three years’ summer highs have been 115-122F, and while we have negligible humidity, 115F without a/c would see Phoenix and Scottsdale at 1900 population levels.
I have been grumbling about how unusable the garage is, for this committed mechanic, in the summer months. 5 years of complaining is enough. Temperatures soar up to 125F, rubber parts rot, batteries die (I wonder how many AZ Tesla buyers have contemplated replacement of their $10,000 batteries after 5 years?) and you enter the garage space at your peril.
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who only see problems and those who conjour solutions. My a/c maintenance guy belongs to the former population judging by his answer to my request for a quote to add a/c to the garage. A litany of “no can dos” only taught me two things. I need a new a/c guy and this is not nuclear physics.
So I researched the matter the way any good, numerate, engineer would and identified the following issues:
The air conditioner:
At the quality end of the spectrum three manufacturers dominate – Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Daikin. All come with long warranties and all claim to be made in Japan …. which means they are probably made in China. They use R410a freon, the version which claims to slow global warming from emissions. Uh huh. And I also have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, if you are interested.
My garage is 20′ x 36′ x 9′ high, and the typical recommendation is 0.0035 tons/sq.ft., meaning a 720 sq.ft. garage requires a 2.5 ton a/c unit. (2.5 tons = 30,000 BTU). Quite why square footage rather than volumetric data are used beats me, but that’s what everyone seems to do. For a small incremental cost of $700 I went with 3 tons (36,000 BTUs).
A ductless system keeps the compressor outside, with feed (liquid) and return (gas) rubber hoses to the internal evaporator unit, along with a 230v power cable and a drip tube to route the condensate to the outside. Scottsdale summers are fairly dry, but you still want any condensate outside, not on your garage floor.
I got a vast range of estimates on a 3 ton system, covering an installed price range of over 2:1. My final installed price, including the electrical work (230v 30 amps to the compressor, then 230v from compressor to evaporator) was $5,600 for a Daikin unit (RX36NMVJU/FTX36NVJU) which also includes a heater for the winter months. That includes 10 year parts and 10 year labor warranties, which may well be worth yesterday’s discarded cheese sandwich. I elected not to pay the $2,000 premium for a Mitsubishi unit, the claimed increase in efficiency taking some decades to recover in terms of energy costs. The Daikin can be purchased for $3,000 but you will lose the 10 year warranty which comes with installation by an authorized reseller. So that means I paid $2,600 for the 14 hours (2 men, 7hrs each) to install the unit and run 230v power. As the electrical work alone was separately quoted at $1,000 by another proponent, the labor rate for the a/c work comes to $114/hr, which includes the tools and expertise of the installers. I think that’s a decent price.
In addition to air conditioning the unit also includes 36,000 BTUs of heating, though that is not a major need in southern Arizona winters. We get snow twice a century here ….
Some added thoughts.
The garage door insulation is attached to the ribs of the doors using double sided tape. Your ribs must be scrupulously cleaned first, for proper adhesion. I used isopropyl alcohol. Additional bonding is provided by removal of the hinges/locks/handles/drive attachments by removing these when installing the insulation. Once replaced these help keep it in place. The rear of the insulation is silvered and leaves an insulating air space to the inside of the door. That’s good for energy efficiency. The material adds little weight, though I had to tweak the ‘down’ torque limiter on the motor box a couple of turns to prevent the door reversing. The small incremental load was causing the logic mechanism to think it was encountering an obstacle, causing reversing at the limit of its travel.
My son helped me with this installation as removal and replacement of the long cross braces on the double door is a bear. As the locating holes for the screws can no longer be seen once the insulating material is in place, you need to do some careful measuring to know where they are.
Noise levels? Here are the manufacturer’s specifications:
The electronics in the evaporator have an option to swing the baffles back and forth. I find that to be an irritant and have them set to stationary. There’s a button on the remote for a 15 minute ‘turbo boost’ of the a/c in the event a door is opened to move a car (or motorcycle!). Further, the electric eye on the evaporator senses motion, slightly accelerating the fan when you are working in the garage. All told, there is a good deal of programmability. Nice.
Theoretical incremental energy cost:
My electricity use for the home in the warmest summer months costs $480 per month. $360 of that is for a/c, comparing summer bills with winter bills. Winter electricity use is for the kitchen oven and lighting/appliances only. The home is heated by gas. These are AZ rates. If you are in TX, reckon one half of these amounts. If in MA, NY or CA, double them.
The volume of the garage is 32% of the home.
Therefore, I conclude that the incremental electricity cost for the garage air conditioning system will be:
$360 x 32% = $115, assuming the garage is maintained at 76F, the same as the home.
An alternative approach is to compare the tonnages of the garage a/c versus that of the home system. Those are 3 tons and 2 x 4 tons, respectively. Thus, you would expect the ductless system to consume 37.5% (3/8) of the energy used by the home system, which gives an incremental energy cost of $360 x 37.5%, or $135/month. A similar result.
Whatever it turns out to be, it’s going to be a whole lot cheaper than lying on the loony doctor’s couch. I find wrenching to be far more of a salve for what is between my ears.
Actual incremental energy cost – update August 29, 2021:
With four months’ bills on hand, the incremental average monthly cost has been $132. Daily highs have been in the range 90-117F. For the summer of 2022 I will program the unit to allow 90F overnight, which should see some modest savings.
The highest daytime temperature recorded so far this summer is 117F and the system had no issues with maintaining all areas of the garage at 80F.
Here’s the garage door outside (116F ambient) and inside:
The evaporator (the unit inside) has three removable air filters under the decorative flap. The maker says these should be removed and flushed with water monthly. My setting has very low airborne dust and I have found that a quarterly cleaning frequency is fine. It took me a couple of minutes to do. At the same time I also hosed the fins on the compressor (the outside unit) with a water to clear detritus and maintain optimal ‘breathing’ of the unit.
iPhone 12 Pro Max images.