Audiophile Furnace?!

[RSB]

I was sitting listening to music one night and being irritated by the fan from my furnace going off and on and making a hell of a racket. I thought it was silly to take such pains to have a server without a fan with all that background noise. Almost as bad as the ticking clock that I banished.

 

Not long after that my furnace began to have problems and I was given the choice by the HVAC contractor to repair or replace it. (It must have felt my bad energy.) One of the options to replace it was an energy efficient model with a variable fan! After I thought about it a bit I decided this was just the ticket!

 

The fan runs continuously at a very low speed, occasionally adjusted to maintain the house temperature. Bottom line is, now I have a furnace that runs so quietly that I rarely hear it. Improves my listening to music a lot!

 

I have not seen this idea anywhere so I thought I would share it.

 

Randy

 

[wgscott]

Thanks for posting this.

 

It is especially gratifying when an audiophile-friendly utility actually saves you energy (and therefore presumably) money.

 

I have to sabotage the clock over the mantle, turn off the heat, unplug the fish tank and refrigerator, and never use any water, lest it trigger the well pump. After doing all this, the neighbors usually have a chain saw party. I thought moving out into the country would be peaceful. I wasn't counting on living amongst the Orcs of Isengard.

 

[RSB]

I love that Orcs of Isengard with chain saw image. Cracks me up! Thanks!

 

Randy

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

I have an HVAC system in the other room, walled off from the listening room, but connected via a return. All the HVAC noise, therefore, comes right into my listening room. Yikes. Yes, I can "sound proof" the space between the two rooms, but the return will simply tunnel all the noise directly into my listening area. Rerouting the return is another idea, but there's nowhere else for it to go. Some truly great engineering here! Stupid assholes. I spent way too many hours slapping my head asking the heavens "what the f*ck were they thinking?" Which is pointless, because obviously, no one was. Thinking, that is.

 

I looked into getting and inserting a baffle of some kind, something that would swap out the return for something that has multiple turns/folds to deaden/eliminate the sucking and general machine noise, but that's not only cost prohibitive (got quoted $1000 just for the one insert that would go into the return), but also useless as I don't have enough space to install such a wonderful device as the furnace is too close to the wall and the return is punched right through it. Did I say "return"? I'm sorry, I meant "hole in the wall with a grate over it". Urgh.

 

So, what's an obsessive to do?

 

I went down to my company's shipping and receiving department and relieved them of several hundred cubic feet of foam packing material and just piled it strategically. Worked! But looked like ass and the wife made me remove it all. Urgh.

 

Luckily, I have a couple of "extra" room panels that I now stack in front of the return so that the sucking noise and general HVAC noise from the machinery is at least partially blocked/baffled. When the wife complains, all that can be moved. Half assed, but it works.

 

Of course, when I need or want to do "critical listening", I just turn all that shit off and swelter or freeze as the weather dictates.

 

I should note that I spend a lot of my waking hours daydreaming of building my own house and designing my layout and systems in a way that would resemble "good engineering" instead of "some shit slapped together by a drunk who's over budget, way past deadline and is constantly flogged by a coke addict".

 

I love general contractors, don't you? Here's to hoping yours are a few (hundred) cuts above the yahoos that built my house.

 

[RSB]

Those are creative solutions! Bad designs suck, especially when something elegant could have been done for the same cost, with just a little thought.

 

FYI, when I put in the new furnace I also put in a set back thermostat. I have it set to go down at 9:00 pm - and the furnace doesn't run at all after that for a few hours unless its really cold. Automatic quiet. Saves $/energy, too.

 

Randy

 

[latitude94941]

Good to know--thanks for posting. As it is, I turn off my forced air heat when listening. When it comes time to replace the furnace, I'll likely go this route. I like the idea of not having to choose between good sound and freezing.

 

[bleedink]

Anyone know a trick for turning off your roommates?

 

[wgscott]

Try listening in the nude. However, depending upon your roommates, it could have the opposite effect.

 

I think the most practical approach to all this is just to turn the volume up.

 

[bleedink]

I guess that means I have to open the door to my room for that to be really effective! I have found that lots of hip hop tends to send them away but unfortunately I'm not a huge fan!

 

Or did you mean they need to be naked?

 

[thesurfingalien]

The mute button on your remote control does not work on them?

 

Peter

 

[bleedink]

Curiously it doesn't work on this site either! :-)

 

[cjf]

One of the best things I have bought for my house was a mini-split ductless heat pump made by Mitsubishi...aka Mr Slim.

 

These are wall mounted units that provide heat and air conditioning. I have one in my listening room and when running it only puts out 17db. Even during the most quiet passages of a listening session I can't hear it. It also helps to keep the main heating system from cycling on/off as often as it used to.

 

 

 

[DigiPete]

A few suggestions.

 

Refrigerator

Old refrigerators become more noisy because the rubber compressor feet hardens.

New ones will lower the noise back to that of a new fridge.

Ask your local whitegoods store if you can buy four new ones.

 

You may get lucky and find a new refrigerator with a variable speed compressor.

That will lower the noise even further. It will probably be European.

 

 

A/C and heat pumps

Buy equipment with variable speed fans and compressors.

They will most likely be japanese.

 

Heating

Heat distributed by hot water to radiators are completely quiet, especially if fed by district heating.

Alternative is a condensing natural gas furnace, they can be made more quiet than running on oil.

The best ones will be european as well, sorry.

 

Room mates

Europe: give them some weed.

US of A: Shoot them

Asia: Get headphones.

Australia: go live in the bush.

 

Fix the problem at the source,

don't try to fix the symptom.

 

[Audio_ELF]

Love it DigiPete ... Especially roommates

 

[wgscott]

"Room mates

Europe: give them some weed.

US of A: Shoot them"

 

OK, I like you again.

 

[bleedink]

DigiPete--Does this mean you are taking on new clients for a pest removal service?

 

[Brian A]

... flatulence works in all cultures. Eat more beans.

 

[crisnee]

Room mates

Europe: give them some weed.

US of A: Shoot them.

 

So, what are you sayin exactly?

That weed isn't strong enough to shut'em up in the US of A?

 

Or that the penalty for weed feedin' is worse than murder in the US of A?

 

Or is it that you'd just as well get rid of a bunch of Americans anytime you have the chance?

 

-Chris

 

[DigiPete]

It was a joke, however:

 

A World Health Organization study in 2009 found the following:

 

1 per 100,000 murder rate in Western Europe

4 per 100,000 murder rate in USA

 

Americans own over 300 million guns. I think the guns pose a threat to public safety.

I don't think Americans are worse neighbors than Europeans.

 

Savey?

 

 

 

[crisnee]

"It was a joke, however:"

 

I know it was a joke, or at least if it wasn't you better say it was, as otherwise one or two of those extra murderers might come after you.

 

Actually I thought it was very funny. But I was and still am curious why you chose murder for Americans and weed for Europeans. As to Americans making good neighbors, yeah, I did have one good neighbor once, many years ago.

 

And speaking of murder, one neighbor, when I lived in New Mexico, did threaten me with a shotgun, pointed at me, "Git off'n my land or I'll blow your f**kin' head off." I of course, after visualizing all the music I was going to miss if he did indeed blow.... got off his f**king land. Notice how I pronounce the "g" in that undiscernable word, as compared to the murderous dolt.

 

-Chris

 

[Audio_ELF]

Actually I thought it was very funny. But I was and still am curious why you chose murder for Americans and weed for Europeans. As to Americans making good neighbors, yeah, I did have one good neighbor once, many years ago.

 

Do you not have similar national stereotypes in America...

 

http://blogoscoped.com/prejudice/

 

[crisnee]

I like the world prejudice map.

 

Are you asking me something too? or...

 

-Chris

 

[Audio_ELF]

Don't you like how I answered your question with a question?

 

Eloise... Or is it?

 

[crisnee]

No ma'am, I don't. Or, Yes'm I do. But do I have a clue?

 

-Chris

 

[crisnee]

And where's DigiPete when I really need him?

 

-Chris