Need advice to keep marriage intact

[Angel Eyes]

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lock-Universal-Switch-Lockout/dp/B001925P6W

If Rev's ladyfriend is anything like him, she'll have that picked in no time.

[Firethorn]

On the topic of the space heater - what's your budget?  The $20 cheapies are indeed generally very noisy.  I'd recommend upgrading to something fanless.

I like radiant heaters for this - they'll warm a person directly if they're in line with the heater as well as warming up the air.  It's quite amazing to be in a hanger with big gas versions and be running around with your top off, perfectly comfortable, until you go under a wing or something and you realize that the hanger is still only a touch above freezing...

Unendorsed example of what I sort of have, nice because it can be wall-mounted.  Mine is a different make.  There are cheaper options.

For the pellet stove - I'd consider the characteristics of the fan noise.  Is it the fan making the noise, or the air moving around vents?
Some questions:
Is this fan attached to the stove, or is it a separate affair?  
Is there duct-work involved?  
What size is it?  
How fast does it spin(RPMs)?  
Is there a controller where you can turn the speed down?  
Does it need oiling?  Yes, I have a fan in my heating system at home that needs regular oiling.  The silicon stuff I started feeding it works really, really good.

Depending you may be moving more air than you need to, so slower would work better.  If you still need the volume, a larger slower fan carefully selected to be quiet might work better.  As a bonus, larger fans tend to be lower pitch and therefore less annoying still.

[vaskidmark]

Speaking of knives, and the need to sharpen them, I've always been an advocate of the Lanskey system.

The results can't be discounted, but they're something of a pain in the butt to use.

Recently I picked up one of these from Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/multifunction-sharpener-65579.html

I'm hesitant to use it on my really good knives, but I have to admit that it does a very nice job on my general purpose kitchen knives.

 

They're really nice for starting in on a dull blade, but my experience is I take too much metal off afterwards - even when using what is my lightest feather touch.

I was taught that once you put an edge on all you should do is strop or steel it to reset the edge.  I've sacrificed a single-thickness bullhide belt that holed out.  Stripped all the polish and dye, radiused the edges, and put a few otherwise idle hours working strop dressing in.  I just need to aware that I am not going for a shaving *edge on most of my blades although just for the fun of it I've taken my K-Bar there just to see if it could be done.

stay safe.

* - not merely hair-popping but fall over like a sythe in a wheatfield sharp.

[RevDisk]

Also depends on what is making the noise. Fan motor? Air on the intake side? Air on the vent side? What type of enclosure are we talking about here? Needed cfm and form factor for ducting etc?

Alright. House is an L shape. Pellet stove is in the living room, which is the part that sticks out from the rest of the house. The living room is probably 40% of the size of the house, and has two doors into the rest of the house. I open both doors, put the fan near one of them, and it has an awesome circulation.

Fan is : http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-20-in-High-Velocity-Floor-Fan-SFC1-500BI/202757016?N=5yc1vZc4ln
Or very close. Great fan, moves air very effectively. But it's apparently loud. Doesn't bother me a bit, but...  Yanno.

In the bedroom, I use: http://www.homedepot.com/p/SMAL-1500-Watt-Digital-Oil-Filled-Radiator-Electric-Portable-Heater-HAE84715/204239391
Or very close. Great heater, good control options, very safe and whatnot. But if you want to heat a room effectively, I aim a box fan at it.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lasko-20-in-3-Speed-Box-Fan-3733/100405665


That heats up the entire house comfortably. My oil furnace broke for a second time, and I didn't want to pay $2500 ish to fix it plus oil was godawful expensive. Got a Bosca pellet stove for around a grand with a 55 lb hopper that will run for 2 days straight, with an ash drawer that will go a week with ease. Apparently, by code, you're not really allowed to use anything but electric heat in bedrooms and it's the furthest from the stove.  The pellet stove itself can heat up the living room to mid 90's while the rest of the house is near freezing. The fan and two doors thing keeps the majority of the house amazing balanced.

If Rev's ladyfriend is anything like him, she'll have that picked in no time.

Uhm, it's a 5 pin normal Master lock with a fancy bodykit. She can bump it in about five seconds. I know I have an M1 bump key handy. 

http://www.bumpmylock.com/master-m1-padlock-key-bump-key.html

But yeah, if she was feeling like a challenge, she can open a five pin Master lock in about 30 to 180 seconds. She's done so with about a dozen near identical Master locks of that type, and probably a couple dozen times per lock.

[Balog]

We bought this for cooling purposes, and it is quieter than traditional fans. Certainly quieter than the floor fan you linked, although I would assume also lower cfm delivered.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ND5FGY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Maybe get two, put one at each door? Run the floor fan during the day when both people are gone in order to pre-heat, then use the smaller fan to maintain?

What is your attic situation like? You could run some duct work yourself pretty cheaply to the other areas then set up a proper squirrel cage fan to blow heated air from off the pellet stove directly to the other parts of the house.

ETA I really want to get a couple of those oil filled heaters to use instead of the damned baseboard heaters. Anyone have thoughts on make/model?

[Firethorn]

Huh.  Well, the oil filled heater should work even without the fan given enough time, but switching to a radiant might help get the heat out there quicker.  Both should be silent. If nothing else it's a ~$50 test for the ease of mind in your household.  Worst case, two 750 watt heaters will still produce heat more evenly  than 1 1500 watt one.

If your house is designed to be heated with an oil furnace, is there currently unused ductwork running through the house?  Modifying the ducting so that the living room is a return air that blows to the rest of the house might be an option.  That would help even out heat even more, make it quieter, and remove the need to keep doors open.

Just because the furnace is out doesn't mean that the fan necessarily is.  That would generally be quieter than HDX fans.  Anything 'high velocity' is going to tend to be loud.

[vaskidmark]

Why is it difficult to tell someone to leave the fan alone, or if they shut it off and then complain about being cold to tell them to go turn the fan back on?

Do it over and over and over again until they start doing those things themself or until you decide that you have run out of patience.

But I think you are really asking us to explain why wimmins do stuff.  The only decent answer I can give you is "Because".  From what I've heard, they will not even tell each other.

stay safe.

[wmenorr67]

Throw an extra blanket or two at her.

[K Frame]

If she's turning off the blower on the pellet stove, she's really messing with its efficiency and heating ability, I would think.

[K Frame]

"They're really nice for starting in on a dull blade, but my experience is I take too much metal off afterwards - even when using what is my lightest feather touch."

Yes. You definitely can, which is why I mentioned that I don't like to use it on my good knives. My inexpensive every day kitchen knives, I'm not so worried about. Those are a set of Chinese stamped "Sabatiers" that I got as an Amazon filler for $10. I expected them to be poo, but they're actually decent knives.

"I was taught that once you put an edge on all you should do is strop or steel it to reset the edge."

That's exactly correct. I have an 18" butcher's steel that I use. It realigns the edge. I realistically only have to sharpen my knives every couple of years when they are truly dull as opposed to just having a misaligned cutting edge.

[RevDisk]

We bought this for cooling purposes, and it is quieter than traditional fans. Certainly quieter than the floor fan you linked, although I would assume also lower cfm delivered.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ND5FGY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Maybe get two, put one at each door? Run the floor fan during the day when both people are gone in order to pre-heat, then use the smaller fan to maintain?

What is your attic situation like? You could run some duct work yourself pretty cheaply to the other areas then set up a proper squirrel cage fan to blow heated air from off the pellet stove directly to the other parts of the house.

ETA I really want to get a couple of those oil filled heaters to use instead of the damned baseboard heaters. Anyone have thoughts on make/model?

Thanks for the link.  And btw, I'm extremely happy with that specific model I posted. I can take a picture of the front panel. But it has standby, low and high modes. Low, Hi, 65, 70, 75, 80 temperature settings. The temperature settings are reasonably accurate if you remember that the unit's temperature setting is on the unit. There's also a timer which I use for the thing to run at night.

Home Depot also gives a 10% discount to vets.

Huh.  Well, the oil filled heater should work even without the fan given enough time, but switching to a radiant might help get the heat out there quicker.  Both should be silent. If nothing else it's a ~$50 test for the ease of mind in your household.  Worst case, two 750 watt heaters will still produce heat more evenly  than 1 1500 watt one.

If your house is designed to be heated with an oil furnace, is there currently unused ductwork running through the house?  Modifying the ducting so that the living room is a return air that blows to the rest of the house might be an option.  That would help even out heat even more, make it quieter, and remove the need to keep doors open.

Just because the furnace is out doesn't mean that the fan necessarily is.  That would generally be quieter than HDX fans.  Anything 'high velocity' is going to tend to be loud.

The heat exchanger is cracked. The fan is probably fine. Eventually, I'll probably replace the oil furnace and use it for supplemental heat.

Throw an extra blanket or two at her.

That's her preference, actually. But I prefer keeping the whole house tolerable than wear blankets everywhere.

If she's turning off the blower on the pellet stove, she's really messing with its efficiency and heating ability, I would think.

Not the blower. Fans to move the air around the whole house.

[charby]

Roasted a 12lb turkey in the oven tonight, did this one in a oven bag with a LOT OF ROSEMARY. Put in breast side down, I just cut it up from resting for about 30 minutes, breast meat is very tender and the whole house smells of rosemary. I made cornbread dressing and turkey gravy to go with it.

[zxcvbob]

What kind of cornbread?   

[vaskidmark]

What kind of cornbread?   

The kind made with sugar, of course.

And uses partially dehydrogenated margarine.*

stay safe.

* - that's a new(er) low I discovered from someone who is jumping on the "healthy eating" bandwagon.

[charby]

What kind of cornbread?  

Stovetop in a box, with broth made from the giblets which were chopped up and added to it.

If you don't like it, take a long walk off a short pier.  

[Boomhauer]

Stovetop in a box, with broth made from the giblets which were chopped up and added to it.

If you don't like it, take a long walk off a short pier. 

The man lives in the land of corn, which cornmeal comes from, and he could presumably lay hands on fresh ground cornmeal, yet he insists on...box mix.

I'll never understand some people.

[charby]

The man lives in the land of corn, which cornmeal comes from, and he could presumably lay hands on fresh ground cornmeal, yet he insists on...box mix.

I'll never understand some people.

Fresh ground cornmeal where?

[roo_ster]

Fresh ground cornmeal where?

The corn fairy.

[cordex]

The elevators here still have hills of corn laying out. Come by late at night with a bucket and you can have your full of dent corn to grind.

[charby]

The elevators here still have hills of corn laying out. Come by late at night with a bucket and you can have your full of dent corn to grind.

I'm not sure I'd want modern dent corn for corn meal.

I'll take some flour corn or flint corn.

[Cliffh]

The heat exchanger is cracked. The fan is probably fine. Eventually, I'll probably replace the oil furnace and use it for supplemental heat.

We light off the fireplace, then manually start the fan for the AC.  It's very efficient at evenly distributing the heat throughout the house.  And quiet.

I do keep a small electric heater in the master bathroom, for those late night trips after the fire's died down.