Now With Reduced Bandwidth!

06:07 Friday, 15 May 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 44.44°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 7.43mph
Words: 936

I spent the last few days at what my friends and I call a "Beer Summit." This was the third such gathering in the past several years, the most recent one before this one was three years ago, which was the first one I attended.

We had more guys last time, just four of us this time. We get together at an RV and cabin campground in Barnesville, PA. Last time I was there I contracted Lyme disease (not at the campground, probably during a hike at a state park).

I made an error when I was reviewing my route choices from Apple Maps. I thought I was selecting the same route that brought me to Barnesville. It avoided Route 81 and kept me on mostly divided highways. But apparently my fat fingertip selected the "shortest" route, which, to my dismay, kept me on back country roads for the entire route.

It might have been a pleasant drive, except for the state of my bladder about 90 minutes into it. I was in a wooded area with no real shoulder on the road, with a 55mph speed limit. I asked Siri to find me a gas station, she told me to find a cell connection. Sometime after I passed the highest point on my route, 2490 feet according to the sign I passed, I spotted a kind of turnout not far up ahead. As luck, or lack thereof, would have it, there was a car right on my bumper. I signaled and braked hard, he or she swerved to pass me and I pulled off onto the dirt.

I wasn't going to wade into the weeds to go find a tree, conscious as I am of ticks, so I stood there next to the truck and relieved myself. No cars passed for what felt like interminable minutes. Comfort restored, I resumed my journey. I was still cursing myself for picking the wrong route.

All three routes were about the same amount of time, three hours and a few minutes. The shortest route must have been significantly shorter, because much of it was in towns and villages with speed limits of 25, 35 and 40 mph. (None of which were in the section of the route where my bladder began to complain.) The benefit, though, was the fuel economy. When I got home and shut off the truck, it reported 46mpg! That was since the stop to pee, which was shortly after passing the highest point on the route. So presumably it was all downhill from there as well. I didn't note the fuel economy when I stopped the first time because I had other things on my mind. That was presumably all uphill, so that fuel economy was likely not as impressive.

When I got home there were two excavators and a bulldozer in the yard. Not long after that, Brad arrived with a dump truck and a load of stone he was placing in a French drain he'd extended. He mentioned that his partner with the shale pit would be arriving soon, and they'd begin building the driveway.

We'd altered the route of the driveway to allow for a more gradual approach. Brad had spoken with a guy who drives one of those cement pump trucks and he took a look at the proposed driveway and said it wouldn't work. So we're routing it around and behind the garage and taking a wider, less steep approach.

Not long after they began removing the soil, the internet went out. Brad thought the fiber went under the driveway farther back. It was only buried about six inches deep anyway. They're supposed to be out here sometime today to fix it.

While we were in Barnesville, we watched the plebes climb Herndon Monument in a ceremony that's been taking place since 1950 on YouTube. I was using my laptop, linked to my phone's wifi hotspot. So I managed to use all of my hotspot data in Barnesville. Awesome. I'm running on about 500kbps "reduced bandwidth" now. Good enough for text, I guess.

On the drive down and back, I listened to a couple of podcasts about hydronic heating and cooling, and I'm now persuaded it's really the best solution for maintaining comfort in the house. It's pretty much standard practice in much of Europe, and though it was invented in America, it's hardly used here in residential construction anymore.

The epiphany was decoupling. I'm not an expert (yet), but the use of a buffer tank, allows you to make your hot or cold water when it's most efficient (least costly), store it, and then use it when it's required. This is ideal for people with time of use pricing, and for people with rooftop (or yard mounted) solar arrays. Even without those considerations, you can simply cool or heat the water during the time of day when it's most efficient to do so based on the outdoor temperature.

Similarly, moving heat is more efficient with small circulator pumps rather than large fans.

And then there are the climate implications, as current refrigerants have three orders of magnitude global warming potential over CO2. A mono block air to water heat pump uses a fraction of the refrigerant that a mini-split uses, which must pump refrigerant long distances into the house.

It does come at a price premium, partly because we lack the economies of scale in America with few qualified installers.

I told I was back onboard with Team Radiant, and he's excited. Now I just have to figure out how to do this without busting the budget.

✍️ Reply by email