Improve your quality of home life by simple tried and tested modifications

How to install your own PhotoVoltaic panel system

2018-04-30T14:19:00.001-07:00

I recently installed and activated my own Photo Voltaic System (PV) with some help from a licensed electrician and a handyman. If I could do it, you can too.

Here's the step by step guide:

1. Equip yourself with lots of time to read and watch online videos. If you're reading this, I assume you're already good at this.

2. Go to your utility company's portal and pull up the usage for last 12 months in Kilowatt Hours. It would look something like this:

3. Now head to https://pvwatts.nrel.gov to design and estimate the size of your system. Your aim is to have a system big enough that brings you to the tier 1 consumption from your utility company. Say your monthly average usage is 700 KwH. You want to produce at least 500KwH average per month such that your net consumption from the grid is in tier 1 price. Here is what mine looked like for a 9.88 KW system.

That is almost as much I pay per year to my utility company. So if my consumption goes up in the future say I get another Electric Vehicle, I will hopefully be still in Tier 1 consumption.

3. Now you start online shopping (not buying). There are many websites who give you an idea of how much a package will cost based on size. Create your spreadsheet and sort them by $/watt. In the San Francisco Bay Area there is a local wholesaler Solar Electric Supply. There are many others but I ended up buying from Wholesale Solar in Mount Shasta, CA.

4. So based on the above you now have the size of the system you need. Spend as much time in the above 3 steps till you approximately get an idea of how big the system will be and how much it'll cost.

5. Call the top 2 vendors for the systems. All of them have system design services for permitting available to purchase. They will give you every document required to obtain a permit.

6. Purchase the design and submit the documents to your local building department for approval. After a few back-and-forth, you'll have a permit on hand. Cost is very low.. ~$150 for residential.
The most important is the wiring diagram that will look like this:

7. After extensive reading about regular vs SolarEdge Optimized vs Enphase micro-inverter technology, I decided on SolarEdge optimizer system. I was advised that Enphase micro-inverter installation is much harder and Optimizer and Micro-inverters provide almost same amount of optimization.

8. Purchase system and start watching the installation videos:

Rack mounting:

SolarEdge Optimizer installation:

SolarEdge Inverter installation:

9. You must want to connect your SolarEdge inverter to the portal:

10. The skilled help you need to hire are a really good electrician and a roofer/handyman. My electrician who is really skilled but had never done a PV install before did all the wiring connections according to the electrical code. My handyman who is also very skilled implemented all the things that I learnt from the manuals and videos.

Ultimately we have a functional system. Its really not rocket science.

11. Call for inspection from the building department.

12. File for connection with your utility company.

13. Turn on and enjoy the Sun-powered electricity.

Here are my results:

In conclusion, I'd say its very DIY-able. The speed of implementation will definitely not be as getting a pro crew and getting it up and running in 2 days. It only took me 1 yr 8 months from planning to activation as I was working on this 1 days per week. But I saved about $1/watt ~= $10,000 for a 10KW system and I still get the Federal tax credit.

Please leave comments and questions here.

Enjoy a cool house A/C free, with 100F outdoor temperatures

2017-06-19T21:52:00.001-07:00

San Jose Bay Area temperatures this week are hitting 105 F. And I want to remind everyone how you can enjoy a cool house at a whole lot less money (initial and ongoing) than an air-conditioner.

Install a Whole House Fan. Its a no-brainer. Simple steps to follow:

1. Turn on the WHF when outside temperature is lower than indoor and open the farthest corner windows a little. Typically after 5 or 6 p.m. This week (end of June) its taking upto 9 p.m for outside to cool down.

2. Leave it running all night, on a timer, at lower speed after the initial 30 minutes of high speed.

3. Close windows in the morning and preserve the cool temperature indoors by keeping curtains and blinds closed. And I assume the house insulation is modern.

4. Optional: Have active attic ventilation which can run a solar powered attic fan to push out hot air from the attic before it can start heating the house.

Refer to my prior post on how WHF works

My favorite WHF nowadays is by QuietCool which is more CFM/$.

Crawlspace vapor barrier for insulation, bug-free dry storage and dust free ventilation

2016-12-16T10:13:00.001-08:00

A Whole House fan. A simple concept with extra-ordinary cooling results.

2013-05-27T11:40:00.003-07:00

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area in a single story house and we have no air conditioning. Every summer there will be at least 1 or 2 weeks where the temperature will be as high as 100F and we still don't need an AC. How do we do it, you say?..

A few years ago I had bumped into this "Whole House Fan" thing via the PG&E energy rebates website. There is usually a $100 PG&E rebate.
I poked a bit more and found that it costs around $800-1500 depending on the size of the house and it was hailed to be very efficient.

The benefits:

No/infrequent need for air-conditioning when combined with other energy efficient features in the house like Double pane windows, blinds/curtains and good attic ventilation.
Personally verified temperature difference between indoor and outdoor upto 18F.
Not noisy.
Runs on 110V with no special wiring. Its just a fan.

After researching a whole bunch I found Airscape and Tamarack as the brands that make the WHF's with motorized insulated flaps that stay closed (save energy in winter) when the fan is not in use.

I chose Airscape 1.7WHF.

The concept:

If you live in an area where the temperature outside becomes much cooler after 4 or 5 p.m, then you can benefit from a WHF.
It is a fan that sits in the attic and through a cutout in your ceiling sucks in air out of the house. At the same time you are supposed to have one or more windows open very far from the ceiling cut-out, such that the outside air gets sucked in through the windows and twists and turns through the house while cooling it down.
Whether you have a WHF or not, it is always a good idea to have adequate attic ventilation. I have 1 solar powered fan and 2 whirlybirds for a 1400 sq. ft. house.
The fan operating at full speed will typically empty the old warm air inside the house in 20 mins or so.
After running the fan for 30-60 mins at full speed, keep running it at the lower speed which is also the silent mode all night till early morning(use a timer switch). This will cool down the floors, ceilings and walls.
Now your house will start out much cooler in the morning of a hot day.
Rinse and repeat.

Car seat office chair

2011-10-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

A very long time ago I had built a racing simulator chair that could also be used as an office chair.

Version 1.0 yr. 2001

When my Mom had visited us in 2005, she loved sitting in that chair because it supported her back so well. Last year when I was having lower back pain and the new Ergo chair (replacing the Herman Miller Aeron) at work didn't help, I thought of building my office chair from a racing seat. Car racing seats have countless hours of research go into them to make them comfortable for long drives/races, so they would be perfect for day-long office jobs.
And so, I bought the seat from O'Reilly Parts local store for $150. Went to the local hardware store and created a frame to adapt it to a regular office chair casters. Here are results.

Version 2.0 2011

A few tools used

I have been using this chair for 6 months, full time at work and my back thanks me and I look cool in front of a computer, typing all day.

Save money and the Earth by using Cloth diapers

2010-03-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

Money and environment saving Diaper experience(if you have your own washer at home, you can do this too):
Advantages:

Low risk of diaper rash
Probably cotton feels better to babies, and its more breathable that paper/plastic diaper.
Saves ~$80/mo. If wash at home. If using diaper wash service, it costs the same as disposables.
Very good for environmental footprint. Each disposable diaper takes about 500 yrs. to decompose. And each baby uses about 300-400 diapers/mo. ~= 3000-4000 diapers/yr.

CAUTION: Do not get ambitious and move straight from disposables to cloth diapers washing yourself. Take it one step at a time. Learn to cloth diaper using a diaper service and see if you like it. Then try washing them yourself.

Watch this video, its very easy: http://tinytots.com/ds/learntodiaper_boyvideo.html

Here is what we did and do now:
We ordered 4 wks. Of diaper service from www.tinytots.com because we didn’t know anything about diapering, let alone cloth diapering and washing. It cost us $88 for 4 wks. Of 80 diapers/wk. service. We became experts in using cloth diapers, but one week we found ourselves short on supply, so we had to wash a few on our own. So I read up: http://www.zany-zebra.com/wash-cloth-diapers.shtml and tried once. I found that our 5 yo. Washer had an option where we could configure the entire cycle and let it run for 3 hrs. I use the following options: Sanitary wash, pre-wash, stain cycle, extra rinse and heavy soil. I add baking soda in the pre-wash compartment and use a small amount of seventh generation detergent and vinegar in the softener compartment. 3 hrs. later I put them in the dryer and bingo, fresh, clean stain-free diapers ready for re-use.
This is how we washed our cloth diapers:
If the baby is on milk-only diet, its okay to wash the diapers directly in the washer. If the baby is taking external food, you'd wanto to get rid of the solid waste from the diapers as much as possible during diaper-change time.

Set the washer to Sanitary wash mode, with pre-wash, extra soil, extra rinse. result 2 hr 46min cycle on our LG washer.
Fill the washing powder an pre-wash compartments with baking soda.
Fill the softener compartment with Vinegar.
Run the washer.
Dry them in the dryer.

After this I did a few things:
Ordered 6 doz. factory-seconds Diaper-service-quality 4X8X4 (If the below link doesn't work, google prefold factory second cloth diapers and make sure to buy the 4X8X4 layered) https://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/pages/prefolds
Cancelled the diaper service
Ordered snappi clips (you need about 2 to hold the diaper), diaper doublers (for nighttme extra absorbency) and fleece liners and flushable, disposable diaper liners. The flushable diaper liners will contain solid waste when he starts eating solids. The idea is to flush the soiled liner in the toilet and wash the diaper just like the non-solid-food only times. But our toilet got clogged when flushing the paper liners, so we stopped flushing them but they are an awesome help anyway.
Also ordered 6 doz. 4X8X4 bigger diapers for 15lb-35 lbs baby.

So now, I'm all set to save appx. $1000-2000 in the next 2 yrs. Hopefully, you can save too and maybe also tell your family and friends about your experience.

Special thanks to Kasturi, who gave us the courage to use Cloth diapers.

Should you install a Water Softener? If yes, which one?

2010-01-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

Recently, we installed a Water softener at our San Francisco Bay area home. The result: Lets just say, the wife is impressed.
Benefits of soft water:

Nice lather in shower with soap and shampoo.
No more white spots on dishes from the dishwasher
No more white spots in the bathroom faucets, shower walls and sinks.
Skin and hair feels soft after shower. Also, no need to shampoo every day.
Wife says, it has reduced her hair-loss.
Laundry comes out nice and soft. No more additional softener needed.

Once you use soft water you will be a fan of a water softener for life.

After researching a lot, I figured that Fleck brand is among the top softener makers in the business. They have the econominder line which has a programmable valve which runs the regen cycle based on usage. While looking at Fleck model, I found that Clack brand is new in business (8-10 yrs.) but equally reliable and also it seems that maintenance does not require any special tools like the Fleck does. Also, Clack has a water & salt saving model called the ProSoft1. So I bought the Clack ProSoft1 with 40,000 grain capacity from Quality Water Treatment. They seem to have the best package price and customer support. For us it serves a 4 adult + 1 baby household with no problem and needs to run a regen cycle about every 15 days.

Dont worry too much about the grain capacity as you can upgrade the grain capacity later by buying more resin. The hardware and unit is the same.
Cost: about 46 gallons/15days. 12-14lbs salt. We use Potassium salt which is about $15/40lb bag vs Sodium salt which is about $4/bag.

How Water Softener works

Solatube Skylights installation

2009-10-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Installing skylights can be one of the most face-lifting and energy saving modification you can do. Traditional skylight installation is very invasive, very labor intensive (hence expensive), sucks heat out in winter and brings heat in summer.
Tubular skylights solves all of these problems because:

It needs one hole in the ceiling drywall and one hole in the roof. No structural rafter cutting is necessary.
Each skylight can be installed start to finish within 1.5-2 hrs. if you are okay using a few power tools and can walk on the roof.
Energy star skylights bring in light without transferring heat from inside or outside.
Solatube skylights bring in about 30% more light because they use hard tubes with elbows instead of soft dryer vent like tubes.

I installed 5 Solatube skylights: 3 X 14" and 2X 10". 4 of them are fitted with the bulb option and 2 of them (TV room and bedroom) are fitted with the dimmer option.

Use the following instructions in conjunction with the supplied installation instructions that come with your solatube. I have purposely skipped steps that are very well described in the installation instructions. Use the following at your own risk.

Assemble the Light kit in the tube:

Find the rafters near the desired location in the ceiling

Cover the ceiling after drilling a hole through the center of the desired location and pushing an aluminum coat hanger wire.

Go to the attic and locate the coat hanger wire and cut out the circle based on the size suggestion in the installation manual.

Find the roof location that is vertically above the ceiling hole center and drive a nail through the ceiling. Mark a circle by placing the flashing centering the nail with carpenter's crayon.

This is how it looks with the top dome installed. This is a temporary install as my roof was planned to be replaced right after I did this.

I repeated the above steps 5 times throughout the house.

Roofers ripping out roof.

Bare roof:

Roof shingles delivered

Roof almost done

Solatube domes on new roof installed

Assemble the Spectralight Infinity reflective tubes

Put on protective clothing and mask to prepare for attic work.

Install the connecting tubes according to instructions so that you connect the top dome with the ceiling opening.

Now the results:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

With dimmer

No more need for turning on lights during the day. And these tubes are Energy star qualified so the count towards Federal Tax credit of 30% upto $1500 if installed in 2009/2010.
Other Links:
http://www.getwithgreen.com/2008/08/16/daylighting-systems-a-solatube-installation-review/
http://news.cnet.com/Solatube-brings-daylight-indoors/2100-11392_3-6167223.html
http://www.ebuild.com/articles/961741.hwx

"I want to buy a beginner's SLR to take pictures of my kids. Which one should I buy?"

2008-12-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

This holiday season I am repeatedly getting this question from people around me. "I want to buy a digital SLR. I dont know much about taking pictures. I just want to take photos of my kids. Which camera should I buy?"

Let me start by saying that buying an SLR camera is quite different from buying a popular point'n'shoot to just click, click, click, upload, share, repeat. If you don't have time to learn the very very basic principles (f-stop + ISO + shutter speed = Exposure) of picture taking, then you would just be wasting your money by buying an SLR kit available on sale at your local retail store for an "awesome deal". This is based on personal experience. I used my Canon rebel XT Kit as a point'n'shoot for about a year before I woke up and took control of my pictures.

First things first. You need to answer 2 questions first. What will you use your camera for? What is your starting budget?

Most people use a camera to take people pictures. It is certainly the most popular kind of photography. So I'll assume that the most common answer for the first question is "Kids pictures, playing, partying etc..".

For budget, let me set 2 price points: $600-1000 and $1000+.
Initial disclaimer: I have reasonable first hand knowledge of Canon Lenses & bodies. I have extremely limited knowledge about Nikon or Pentax or other brands.

Now that we have set our budget and subject lets take a few moments to get familiar with a few basic concepts. I'll barely touch on these. You can get detailed info and lessons from the books that I have mentioned in my previous post.
When a camera clicks, it creates an exposure on digital sensor or film. An exposure comprises of 3 factors, we'd like to call the "Golden Triangle", Aperture (f-stop), Shutter speed and ISO (originally known as film speed, but now digital sensor sensitivity). Lets imagine an exposure to be a bucket that needs to be filled with water. In that case the size of the bucket is determined by the "light meter" (all new cameras have one built-in). The light meter determines how much light is available in a particular scene. Now in order to fill this bucket you can use different sizes of hose which will determine how long you will have to hold the hose to fill the bucket. So let say we have X amount of total light available in a scene. This X can be used to create an exposure in a variety of ways by varying the 3 factors, ISO, aperture & shutter speed.
e.g.
ISO 100, f/4, 1/500sec. = X
ISO 200, f/4, 1/1000 = X (notice double ISO, half the time)
ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec. = X (notice double the aperture opening, half the time)

{f-stop go in this order(smaller the number, bigger the opening): f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32 and so on}
All the above setting will yield different kinds of photos though. If you can only remember a few things then here are the cram notes:

Higher the ISO, worse the noise and color saturation. So start with the lowest ISO setting first. Increase the ISO only when other options are not available.
Bigger the Aperture (smaller the f-number), smaller the depth-of-field i.e. more blur background.
Faster the sutter speed, less motion blur. Sometime motion blur is desirable other times not.

Now, coming to our favorite subject: Fast moving restless kids. Most of the times we find the kids indoors running around in low light. This means you need a lens with a BIG maximum aperture(a.k.a Fast Lens) like f/1.4, f/2.8 etc. Since I know about Canon lenses, I'd recommend a few lenses in this category:

Canon EF f/1.4 50mm USM (appx. $250 used)
Canon EF f/2.8 100mm USM MACRO (appx. $350-450 used)
Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD ($250 used)
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM L ($800-900 used)
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM ($800-900 used)

Some of my portrait pictures taken with a combination of the first 4 lenses above are here.

Canon lens and equipment reviews site.

note: Good quality Lenses in good scratch free condition do not loose their value, so if you buy used you can sell for the same price and not loose any money.

Read my experience with Canon lenses here.

Dont be scared of fixed focal length a.k.a prime lenses. For the money, fixed lenses are very fast, very sharp and very reliable. Use your feet to zoom in and out. Most people freeze when looking through the viewfinder. Please dont. Use your feet to move around, it will reward you immensely.

You can find similar spec lenses in Nikon, Pentax, Leica etc..
Once you have decided on your lens, check what brand of camera it fits on. Canon lenses fit on Canon camera bodies, Nikon on Nikon, Petax on Pentax and so forth.
Let me take the Canon path again, you know why.
For Canon bodies, I'd recommend getting a camera body with a self-cleaning sensor like a Rebel XTi (~$450 used), XSi or a 40D (~$650 used), 50D, if you intend to use more than one lens on the camera and switch lenses quite a lot. If you think you will be using one lens or will be changing lenses occasionally indoors, then you can get away with using a Rebel XT or 30D. Using an older model like Rebel XT(~$350 used) or 30D (~$450 used) can save you a few hundred $$ to invest in a better lens. Main difference between the Rebel line vs the x0D line is that the Rebel line is a consumer grade plastic body whereas the 30D, 40D, 50D have magnesium alloy body. Also, the higher the price/quality of the body, the better the high-ISo performance.

e.g. combinations
30D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 ~= $750
40D + Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 ~= $1550
40D + Canon 100mm f/2.8 ~= $1100

I am personally biased towards the Menu and Button system of Canons. I have a Nikon Coolpix E5700 and found that I had to read the Manual in great detail to figure out some functionality. But that maybe just because I am much more familiar with Canon menus and have read many of those over the past few years.

For more detailed comparisons lookup DP Review.

A few things that I know about Pentax & Nikon.
Pentax K10D, k20D has Image Stabilizer built in the body, which makes every lens an image stabilized lens, regardless of its age. In contrast, Canon & Nikon make a whole bunch of money by selling Image Stabilization(IS)/Vibration Reduction(VR) with each lens.
Nikon D40 & D40x that sells in Costco these days for real cheap. In my opinion, these are missing one of the most important features Auto-Exposure bracketing (AEB). You will look for this feature when you will want to do some "insurance-shots" or High Dynamic Range(HDR). We'll explore these terms in a future article.
Also, Nikon just released the D90 which also takes HD video, but you pay for it dearly. With a good lens, you will probably end up around $2K.

At the end of the day, what matters the most is how familiar you are with your camera that you bought and how to use that knowledge in composing the best pictures. So remember, Creative Composition and Knowledge will give the biggest improvements to your photos. Also, I highly recommend you check out the pictures that can be taken with any camera on Flickr.

Also, I recommend you set aside some budget for a good camera bag like the Lowepro Slingshot, a good sturdy tripod for Landscape and low light still shots. You might also want to have spare batteries and at some point get a Battery grip which helps fps of continuous action shots, makes portrait shooting easier and of course gives huge numbers of shots before changing batteries.

Hope this helped without confusing the heck out of you. Until next time...

Dont forget to check my photos on flickr

My Canon Lens upgrade history and lessons learnt

2008-08-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

We all grew up with the knowledge that "Photography is an expensive hobby". In the film photography world, it is more true than in the digital world. The majority of the expense in Film photography came from the recurring cost of each frame shot. Somewhere I read that each frame cost about 22c. So if every time you'd want to click a shot, you'd have to think if it was worth the 22 cents. Now in the digital world most of the cost is up front with getting the Digital camera and the right lenses for it. You dont have to worry about paying for every worthless frame you shoot as an experiment or practice. That is a huge advantage for folks who want to learn to main skill in photography : "Art of Composition".
In 2005 I sold my Nikon N70 Film camera and started with a Canon Rebel XT body, 18-55mm Kit lens and a Canon f/4.5-5.6 75-300mm USM lens. Since I had no technical knowledge about photography, I kept taking mediocre pictures most of the time with a few accidental good ones.
At one point I got frustrated and decided to make good pictures happen by intention and not by accident. Since then I have done many things to improve my photos that I would love to share with everyone.
Let me start by equipment.
I will try to outline my journey from a Film SLR to a Digital SLR to a 20 lb Photo equipment bag.
I read a few guides on eBay (one here) about the right cheap lens upgrades. So I decided to test the waters and see what the lens upgrade from kit lens and cheap zoom lens would do for me. I sold my 18-55mm kit lens ($60 appx. net) and replaced with with a Canon EF 20-35mm USM and 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM MACRO. Then I replaced the 75-300mm (sold at appx. $150) with the 100-300mm 4.5-5.6 USM. At this point my Lens expense was at around $700 (-$210 sold lenses). I also wanted to experience the fun ofa prime fast lens. So I got the Canon Ef 50mm f/1.8. I decided to supplement the equipment upgrade with some reading too. i looked online and found 2 complete free books which gave me a headstart.
Digital Photography Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks
50 Fast Digital Camera Techniques
Then I made the trip to India with this knowledge and equipment. This resulted in quite a bit of visible improvement. Flickr Albums

Well, after this with a lot of compliments from friends and family, I got addicted to this. Next I started eyeing the "L" line of Canon lenses. So it was time to swap out the 100-300mm with the reasonably priced Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM. It can be had on Craigslist or ebay for around $450-500 in used/mint condition. I found one and took the plunge. The taste of an "L" lens is like tasting fine wine. It is super addictive and I was hooked. Next was to swap out the 20-35mm for the Canon EF 17-40mm USM f/4 L. It sells used for around $500-600. Now I needed to standard range 28-105mm upgrade, but the 28-105mm f/4 L is some $900+ used. So I looked for alternatives and found excellent reviews for the Tamron f/2.8 28-75mm Aspherical Di XR LD MACRO. It usually sells for around $250-300 used. So I was all set for the zooms but the Canon EF f/1.8 is such a thrill to shot with that I wanted to upgrade the 50mm to a fast USM lens. So I sold the f/1.8 and got the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM.
Then one fine day, I thought that the 100mm f/2.8 USM MACRO was pretty cool lens, so I bought that one too. Now I was carrying 5 lenses with me, so I thought of consolidating a few. So decided to part with 3 of my favorite lenses to finance the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. check out the images with this lens here.
Oh, while I was swapping in and out these lenses, I sold my Rebel XT for a 30D (saved money from 40D). Brand lenses like Canon and Nikon retain their value very well, but electronics like camera bodies dont. So be careful while keeping up with the latest camera bodies.

Thats one side of the story so far. I will post another story about the books that I have read so far. Until next time....

How to Quickly improve your Photos

2008-07-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

My other photos: Flickr: Photos & Video from StartingOut

Follow-up material:
1. I started with these. Fully accessible online. No need to buy these.
http://www.photoworkshop.com/photo101/fast50
http://www.photoworkshop.com/photo101/simplified

2. I recommend buying the following 3-4 books (used is fine)

http://www.amazon.com/Photography-Art-Seeing-Perception-Workshop/dp/1552636143/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216672645&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=pd_sim_b_3
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Photography-Book-Scott-Kelby/dp/032147404X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216517920&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-See-Creatively-Composition-Photography/dp/0817441816/ref=pd_bbs_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216672645&sr=8-6

They are thin books with lots of pictures.

Home loan terms and meanings

2005-04-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

ARM, points, closing costs, negative points, zero closing costs, balloon payments, PMI etc.... As if life was not complicated enough before hearing all these terms. You can do google search on these terms and go through pages and pages of explanation. Let me just summarize the info for you.

ARM = Adjustable rate mortgage. e.g 3/1, 5/1, 7/1. The first number is the number of years the rate is going to be fixed for you. The second number represents the interval at which you rate will be revised. If your 5/1 ARM rate is 5.5% that means, you will pay 5.5% interest for 5 years. At the end of 5 years you rate will be revised based on the economic conditions and will keep getting revised at a yearly interval after that. i.e. if you do not sell or refinance before that.

Fixed rate: 15 yr, 20 yr. 30 yr. fixed. These rates are usually higher than the ARM because the lender is saying that "I will absorb the rise and fall of economy for the next 30 yrs. for you, in lieu of a small increase in the interest rate." So you have a fixed interest rate forever.

Typically, people in America live in the same house for an average of 5 years. People either sell, upgrade, move, downgrade etc. for various reasons. That is why paying higher interest rates for a virtual security does not make much sense. Whay pay high rates for 30 yr. fixed if you know that you are either gonna refi. or sell in the next 5-7 yrs.. Rule of thumb says, 5/1 ARM is a safe bet because, 3/1 is too aggressive or risky and 7/1 is too safe. Also, they say, plan to live in the same house for at least 5 years. This way you can usually ride out the lows in the market if any.

You can read further on various websites. www.bankrate.com is quite useful. Here is another nice link.

There is also something called balloon payment. Which means they give you a lower rate based on the assumption that at the end of the period you will make a big payment to pay off the remaining balance. Thats a whole new story.

As for points, let me put it in simple words. You buy down your interest rates. One point is equal to 1% of the loan value. So if you pay point you are paying the lender that much money up front, so that they give you a lower rate overall. Its a math game. All you have to figure out is how long do you think you will keep the loan. Do you think you will be able to recover the cost of paying up front through the difference in monthly payments? One thing to note is, points are tax deductible, whereas most other closing costs are not.
Negative points or zero closing cost loans are the reverse concept. They will give you money back, either in the form of cash or credit towards closing costs, in lieu of higher interest rate. Its all about, who want to take more risk.

Pre-payment penalty. Some loans come with a PPP. This means, that the lender had expected a certain amount of income from you over a period of time. If you pay off the loan too early, the lender is offended and wants you to pay a penalty. Avoid it like the plague. Well.. maybe sometimes you just cant avoid it. The offer might be too lucrative to pass. Also beware, even no PPP loans have a hidden clause for 3/4 mos. PPP, which seams reasonable to me. Its basically saying that "Hey we did all this up front work in expectation of interest income from you and now you are ditching me within 3 mos. for another lender?"

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI): Lenders want you to insure the loan if the down-payment is less than 20%. But look theres a loophole as big as the Pacific ocean. Usually the second loan in the form of secured credit (credit card like HELOC or 2nd mortgage) takes care of that 20% clause, so you dont have to worry about the PMI. And after you close your loan dont forget to regularly trash those junk mail asking you to buy PMI.

This article is already too long... Let me wrap up quickly..
The biggest chunk of closing costs for a loan is the title insurance. In my personal opinion title insurance is one of the biggest legal scam that is going on right now. It is a way for the title company to gouge money from you. They say, its an insurance against any problems with the title of the house. Well, in that case it should really go with the house... But no it goes and stays with the lender, I think and this fee has to be paid fresh every time you finance/refinance the house.

Until next time....

This is the Upper Front Strut Bar I was talking about..

2005-04-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

The shiny aluminum alloy bar keep the front chassis stiff against G-forces.

Its just these 5 nuts. Dont worry, nothing will fall off when you remove these nuts during installation. The weight of the car is pushing the strut up. DO NOT JACK UP THE CAR FOR THIS INSTALLATION. Most Suspension nuts are tightened with all four wheels on the ground, i.e. loaded.

Extremely simple and inexpensive mod for your car

2005-04-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

If you have a regular passenger car like Civic, Accord, Camry, Corolla, Altima etc., you can install a Upper Front Strut Bar and make a noticeable difference (even the wife noticed it) in the handling. This trick is one of the oldest for all those Rice-boy cars you see on the streets. But you dont have to look or sound like them to squeeze a little better handling from your car.

The cost of the mod: $24.02 from ebay.
Time to install: 30 mins.
Tools required: 2 wrenches
Skill level required: Novice
No Jack required.

A strut bar is a stiff metal bar that connects two fron or two rear struts on a car to prevent the chassis from twisting under G-forces in turns. I had asked my auto teacher if they really work like you read online and he confirmed. They are good things to have.

So I bid on this strut bar on ebay for 99 cents and got it shipped for $24. To install all I had to do was to remove 5 nuts from the top of each front strut and put in the bracket and tighten the nuts back in to the torque spec. These are accessible from under the hood. No need to get under the car or jack up the car. I will post pictures soon. There is absolutely no downside to this modification. Actually it is not a modification, its just addition. It strengthens the chassis of the car. More expensive cars come with the whole strut bars sets installed from the factory. This is one of the reasons you get that "tight" feeling on those expensive cars.

It is totally worth that $24.

Here are some pics & instructions for reference. Just read the 4 bulleted steps before "What is camber?".

Collision vs Comprehensive Insurance

2005-04-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Comprehensive e.g. theft, Vandalism, baseball falling on the car, rock through a windshield, landslide, fire, etc..

Collision e.g. You hit something or somebody, Some idiot hits you in the parking lot and runs away, shopping card dings, door to car dings.

So moral of the story: Hit'n'run is under "Collision" but no-fault. So collision deductible kicks in but insurance premium doesnt go up, since it was not your fault. If you discover a big dent on your car after you come back from a restaurant, tell the truth to the insurance claim agent, that you "dont know who made that dent and how." The insurance adjuster will figure that out after the analysis.

Change your thermostat. Recover cost in 2 months.

2005-03-31T10:42:00.000-08:00

Do you live in an old house that has a 20+ yr. old thermostat? I used to have one of those old round thermostats.
My monthly gas heating bill used to run to around $100. It was mainly because the heater would be running all day when we were not even home.
Then I installed a programmable RiteTemp thermostat from Home Depot for $41. It is extremely easy to install. Just 2 screws and 3 wires. It has 4 time-slots for each of the 7 days plus a special day. It comes pre-programmed with defualt settings. I just adjusted the timings and temps. to our schedule and liking.
First half month, it was in action, it dropped my bill by about $30.
Then last month, my gas heating bill was some $30. It was partly because of the weather but a lot of it was also due to the thermostat. It does not let the heater run unnecessarily.

Good investment.

How to avoid getting a Traffic Ticket in California..

2005-03-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Let me share my thoughts on traffic tickets based on first-hand experience. I have been pulled over many times out of which I was let go with warnings many times and the ones that I wasnt let go, I was given a big break on the written speed. Out of these, I took traffic schools online for most of them and have managed to keep my record clean for insurance purposes. In most of the cases, the LEO agreed that I was not endangering others' lives, but I was breaking traffic laws and that he had to do his job. The tips I am outlining here are not to encourage violating traffic laws but to avoid getting singled out when everyone around you is doing the same thing e.g. going 75-80 mph on most Bay Area freeways with the flow of traffic. Most Bay Area freeways posted speed limit is 65MPH but usual speeds are between 70-80mph depending on traffic.

So the first trick is to not get caught. I have noticed that cops here in the Nor cal area are generally tolerant and do not bother people if the general flow of traffic is 10-15 even 19 mph over the limit (I'm talking highways & freeways not residential). If you do stupid things to attract attention, then chances are very high that you will get caught. Things to attract attention are, changing lanes rapidly, driving alone on the extreme left lane and driving 20-25+ over limit, having stupid racing stickers and/or loud exhausts and/or heavily modded body panels compromising road safety. In case of motorcycles, these include full race plastics, no turn signals, hidden license plates, extremely small or no mirrors etc.

If you have still managed to get pulled over, most of these things will score points with the officer:
1. Pull over as fast as you can to show respect.
2. DO NOT imply that the officer is lying by saying "I was not speeding." Usually they ask, "Do you know how fast you were going?" DO NOT answer that. Ask politely, if you were really going that fast. On the motorcycle, I usually say, "I was too focussed on the road and traffic and potholes etc., so I havent checked ny speedometer for the past few minutes and there was no traffic around for speed reference." If you are in the car with kids in the back, never say, "I was too distracted by the kids in the back." or "I had to get up too early in the morning to get the kids ready to take them to school." These show that you were not focussed on driving.
3. On the motorcycle, after pulling over, immediately turn off the ignition, dismount, take off gloves and helmet. This assures the LEO that you are not going to take off.
4. If you are in the car, turn of ignition and put your hand on the wheel and roll down the window.
5. Address the LEO as "Officer".
6. Always have your papers in order.
7. Finally, a clean record helps and you can ask for a "warning" and ask him, "Can you let it slide this time, Officer?".

With all this chances are you will either be let go, or get a speed break on the ticket.

Drive safe with eyes on the road and both the hands on the car controls.

Making a deck. Simple

2005-03-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I made a 3 ft. X 12 ft. deck to serve as a step between our converted Patio door (from a window) and the concrete patio. The total labor time was 1 hr. 45 mins. for me alone with a little help from the wife. Total materials cost around $200 including a $7 leveler.

Initially, I had thought that I'd have to dig 6 holes and fit 4x4's in them and fill the hole with concrete and also bolt the deck to the wall. This thought gave a lot of inertia but I found the ad of Dek-blocks at Home-depot. That made it really tempting. It seemed there were no holes to dig or need for bolting to the wall. All I had to do was place the blocks and level them.

Although, I didnt exactly buy the Dek-Block (because the deck would not attach to the blocks), I bought similar blocks which had a wooden block attached on top of the concrete block. I bought 6 of them. Then I got 8 planks of 2"x6" 12 ft long. I already had a powered miter saw and a power drill. I bought a $7 leveler.

Thats it. I placed 2 rows of 3 blocks each about 5' apart. Connected each column of blocks with 3 35" planks. And then layed the 12ft. planks on top. After a test fit of all the components, I just screwed them in with #8 X 3" deck-mate exterior screws (rust-proof).

Easy.

My Virtual car racing cockpit, I designed 4 yrs. ago.

2005-03-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

I needed a setup that would work both as my PC chair as well as a console racing seat. Also, we used to live in a 1 br apartment so had storage issues. I had to come up with a design that would make it disappear when not needed.

Steering height and distance is adjustable for comfortable driving for any person of any height. Pedal distance also adjustable. Inverted beer caps have been super-glued to the bottom of the pedal stand so that it won't slip on the carpet. The tilt angle of the pedal stand can be adjusted according to the pedal type. Any type of wheel can be mounted on the platform.

Seen above with the Dreamcast wheel.

The circuit board & speaker from Intensor LX 350 (above) has been transferred here.

Above, used with my PC.

ACT Labs performance pedals.

The shift knob is a pilot leather knob from Pepboys bought for $20. I sawed off the shifter shaft by a half inch.
The lowering of the shifter has been done with the simplest implementation. I bought an aluminum plate and cut them and bent them to make 2 z-brackets. Since its aluminum, its very easy to bend.
I drilled 2 holes on each arm of each of these z-brackets and attached them to the metal plate that comes with the shifter. So this is as easily removable as it was before.

The design of the simulator chair is such that it can be used with the computer as a work-chair, or a PC racing chair or a console gaming chair. During console gaming a steering wheel mount can be attached to the chair which is height & distance adjustable.
The new hybrid chair also retains the tactile-feedback technology from the LX-350 with less noise and more vibrations.

Entry into the world of motorcycle riding

2005-03-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

If you are thinking of buying a motorcycle (I will refer to them as Bike from now on beacuse its easier to say and type) then here are some starter points.

So you probably have a budget. First thing to do should be to take the MSF course and motorcycle license. Then buy the protective gear. Then with the money left, shop for a bike.

You MUST take the the MSF course. It costs appx. $200 but worth every penny. It will save your life and will also waive your DMV road test.

For the protective gear:

Get good DOT/Snell approved helmet. The prices range from $100 - 200 -500 and on. From safety point of view any helmet that fits good and is DOT approved is as good as the others. The extra money is for additional features like weight, noise, venting etc.. Try not to buy the first helmet online. I buy from Santa Clara Cycle Accessories in Sunnyvale near Wolfe/El Camino. They are very nice people. Some other stores are Cycle Gear, Fremont Cycle Salvage etc.
Next you need are good jacket, pants, gloves and boots. If you temporarily use work boots until you get your riding boots, make sure you always tuck in your laces. Laces can cause some embarrassing stand-still falls. A good website for that is NewEnough. Their prices are excellent and their return policies are great with great customer service. Santa Clara Cycle Accessories also has good prices and you shouldnt mind paying a few dollars more for the option of trying things out with personal advice and returning them for exchange. For jackets & pants there are the textile and the leather versions. Leather gives the best protection and lasts forever but is at least twice in price than the textile. Textile gives you adequate protection but will need to be replaced after an unfortunate crash. Investing in good protective gear is like investing in your skin. A lot of times people think a helmet is going to save life. Thats true but what about the painful skin rashes on elbows, legs and back? You survived but are getting skin grafts. That doesnt sound too nice. SO DO NOT SKIMP ON GEAR.

Two of the used motorcycle buying resources are Craigslist and Bay Area Riders forum. Some of the good starter bikes are Suzuki SV650, Kawasaki Ninja 250/500 and Suzuki Katana. Try to stick to a bike with lower power until you get very experienced in handling turns and traffic. Also, a light weight bike is good in case you ever get a little disbalanced while standing still or just moving the bike around during parking. A bike with little or no fairing is good because no matter what, you will definitely drop it at some point if you are a beginner. Fairing damages are ugly and expensive to repair. Also, the price of in and around $3000 is a right starting point. Dont go too cheap or too expensive (for the bling factor). Save the extra money for the next bike.

Now that you have a bike next thing is insurance. In the SF bay area, I found McGraw Insurance (Pacific Specialty) the cheapest option. Look them up in the yellow pages.

Now enjoy the AWESOME CALIFORNIA MOTORCYCLE ROADS. Forums I visit the most for motorcycle talk is South Bay Riders and Bay Area Riders Forum. Also, Doc Wong's riding clinics are free and fun.

Next time I'll post about motorcycle maintenance. Enjoy the ride.

How is monthly payment calculated on a Principal & Interest Loan?

2005-03-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

I have been asked this question multiple times.

So if you are brave and you dont want to ask any online calculator.....
Its a complicated derivation but here is the formula.

x = ( ( i / ((i+1)^n) -1) + i) * P

where P = initial principal loan amount
i = periodic interest rate = r / 1200 for monthly payments. e.g. 5% = 0.004167
n = number of months of the loan term
x is of course your monthly payment.

Or for all you programmers out there, use the brute strength of a CPU and use a loop for n months to calculate.

Which console to buy? Playstation 2, XBOX or other

2005-03-14T20:32:00.000-08:00

I personally prefer playstation 2 based on the sole reason that PS2 supports the Force Feedback technology. I play a lot of racing games and for those games just a stupid vibration rumble of the controller doesnt do it for me. I want the complete road and G-forces feel through the game. XBOX games only have the vibration which is just annoying. No feel for the turns, grass, gravel, bumps, tires pulling or loose traction.
Also, for the PS2 there is more game developer support and more games. Nintendo gamecube has already lost the battle. They primarily have small kids games.

So if you want a PS2, the best way to get one is buying a bundle from Costco or someplace. The newer slim PS2 have built-in IR receiver for the remote, Progressive scan DVD playing and in-built network adapter and modem. These features were not there in the earliest versions. The non-optional accessories you must buy to realistically use the PS2 is a second controller and a PS2 memory card. A remote is nice if you want it to be a DVD player. Buying a good quality component video PS2 cable and optical audio cable helps a lot in a/v quality. I have Monster Cable brand for the PS2 a/v cables.

Some good games on PS2 are Tekken Tag (fighting game, family entertainment), Gran Turismo 3, Gran Turismo 4(simulation driving with 100s of real life cars with real physics), Burnout 3 (adrenaline rush, crazy driving fun), Soul Calibur 2. I usually buy them used from either Blockbuster or ebay or www.craigslist.org. I have never paid full price for any game.

Please post comments on what topic would you like to be elaborated.

Traffic ticket: To fight or not to fight

2005-03-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

When you get a traffic violation ticket, you have multiple options.

Pay the fine by mail and do traffic school if eligible.
Or fight the ticket by mail.
Or go to court to plead guilty and ask for fine reduction and traffic school.

The first option is what most people take.

The second option is lucrative but it has a lot to do with your luck. You can read all about it at Ticket Assassin and I got a ticket . I have personally had no luck with it but I know 3 people who after learning from me, fought the ticket by mail and won. For one the officer wrote the wrong county in his statement. Case dismissed. Second guy, won just by his pictures and explanation, stating that from the position the cop was in he couldnt have seen the light turning red. For the 3rd guy, he was found guilty in trial by written declaration but the cop didnt show up at the Trial de Novo.
Third option, go to court and plead guilty and ask for fine reduction and traffic school. This usually work out. I know people who got their fines reduced.

If you are feeling unlucky then use the second option only when you do not qualify for traffic school, because if you go to trial, they take away your right for traffic school.

Gran Turismo 4 on PS2 and my Red Logitech MOMO wheel

2005-03-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

I can't curse Sony/Polyphony Digital enough for actually making extra effort to cut out support for the Red Logitech MOMO wheel. This wheel is a beautiful Italian Leather grip wheel with steel paddles and center plate. Excellent Force Feedback. It was sold as a PC wheel but also worked with most PS2 games like Gran Turismo 3, F1 2002, WRC, Midnight Club 2, Need for Speed Hot pursuit 2 etc..

But for GT4, Sony made an intentional effort to NOT support this MOMO wheel since they didnt get money from Logitech for licensing this wheel.

I did not know this before buying and opening the game. Now I cannot return the game. The game is otherwise excellent with more than 500 cars and hundreds of tracks. It has Dolby Digital II sound and 480P/1080i HD output. Check out the review and screenshots at IGN

So now, I have to sell off my MOMO wheel and buy another Logitech wheel which is meant for this game & console. I cannot buy the next wheel without selling the MOMO, cos I already have 4 sets of wheels. If you are planning to buy GT4 make sure you know what you are getting.

Home buying basic answers

2005-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

I know a lot of people already are homeowners or you already know the answers, but this is for the people who dont know yet.
Q:What is included in the final sale price of a home?

A: Scenarios:
1. buyer & seller both have agents: price includes buyer agent's commision (2.5%), seller agent's commision (2.5%), seller's closing costs (appx. 1%). I have also heard a simpler calculation which is 3% each for both agents, but I have encountered more than once that an agent has asked for 2.5%. So either way, it seems the seller eventually gets about 94% of the proceeds.

2. FSBO with buyer's agent: price includes 2.5% commision for buyer's agent, seller's closing costs. In this scenario, seller saves 2.5% seller's agent costs. Personal experience.

3. No agents(not recommended for buyer): Seller has to pay his/her closing costs. I personally, think its a good investment to pay a good buying agent.