​Fans (and segue to shop carports)

[Guest]

As fan backstory, we do not have (much) air conditioning in our home; a separate “club room” addition with a wall unit as a mid-summer escape area, and a window AC unit that goes in my shop, mostly for humidity control.

Fans we got, an awesome big (and loud) whole house fan that blows off the hot attic hat on summer evenings, ceiling fans in every room and a variety of portable oscillating, box and window fans.

I am a fan of fans. I sleep with a small fan running whenever possible, even in winter, mostly for the white noise factor. In the tripping truck I run a little fan for white noise and air circulation/condensation elimination. Hell, I’ve taken a fan summer tent camping in parks where every site had electric. And brought a Mr. Coffee machine too; if I’m paying extra for electric I’m glamping it.

I just spent 11 hot, humid buggy days in the swamps of coastal North Carolina. Yeah, I know from experience that mid-June is not the best time for swamp living in NC. The deer flies were insane, the mosquitoes getting bad, I picked off a few ticks. . . . . and got into some chiggers the last day or two and will now itch maddeningly for a week. Ah, to be in the South River swamp now that June is here.

Revelation #1. I had electrical outlets and extension cords available. I knew the tiny truck bed fan wasn’t going to cut it and brought a cheap 8 inch box fan from home. It proved kinda weak on the breeze, inadequate at moving enough air for summer sleeping under the cap and it didn’t fit well on the tripping truck side shelving.

Nope, I can do better. On a beer run to the big city (Mayberry-ish Elizabeth City) I found this:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cool-Works-VE-230X-9-3-Speed-Black-High-Velocity-Metal-Floor-Fan/55331527

It blows like a little jet engine set on high. And is almost as whirring loud (the two lower speeds are much quieter). I don’t care, that little fan moves a LOT of air. It also fits atop the side shelves in the tripping truck and I can aim it up or down at any angle.

Revelation #2. It was hot, humid and buggy as hell. There are several large box fans stored at the NC shop/barn. I set one up inside the (garage-door-open) shop and one outside under one of the shaded carports*.

That was enough breeze to keep me sweat evaporating cool while I worked, and enough “wind” to keep the flies and skeeters away. Eh, it was also enough breeze to blow the occasional errant wasp into my body, but they were all civil enough to simply bounce off and be on their way.

Revelation #3
I run an exhaust fan in the shop when doing stinky work, but since getting back I emplaced a couple little personal breeze fans, one aimed at my shop bench and one near my office desk. I’ve used breeze cooling fans in the shop occasionally, but for the next few months clearing a fan location and leaving them plugged in ready to go makes sense. I don’t need to find a fan, clear space or plug it in. Just switch on and breeze. Yeah, well, duh!

*About shop carports. I love that NC shop/barn. Huge two story barn, the back half a separate storage room with stairs to loft floor above, 20+ foot ceiling in the shop area, shelving and cabinets everywhere, hand sink inside the shop, utility sinks and hose bibs outside, good lighting, electrical outlets where dang where. Oh to have a working slop sink in my shop. I have shop envy every time I visit.

But mostly I have carport envy. That barn/shop has massive carports on two L sides, on concrete slabs large enough to park two vehicles each.



Shade, rain protection and a nice, contiguous hard level surface. I can stage projects “outside”, where I’d usually rather be working, especially if creating cutting or sanding dust, my tools don’t get scorching hot in the sun, I can leave projects there and work “outside” in the rain.

Actually those carports are my favorite places to not work as well, but just to sit dry and protected, watching and listening while a thunderstorm whips the treetops and rain hammers the metal roofing. I really don’t want to be inside and miss the delights of violent weather. Bring it, I got a roof with a view.

I’ll add a carport to my shop someday, but it dang woulda been so much easier to incorporate one last time around. Hell, I might even park a couple cars under there, unbaked in summer or ready to drive away free of snow and ice in winter.

The latter part of this carport envy rant was intended for DougD and Alan Gage, and anyone else contemplating a new or renovated shop. Having a carport off the shop is a wonderful thing.

 

[southcove]

Or you could be the unlucky beneficiary of some builder or designer who didn't take the direction of the summer sun into account or the size of a vehicle that no one but a 3 year old could barely clamber out of without banging doors on the main part of the garage. Then you would also realize that the area around the garage/carport funneled the days' heat underneath and trapped it... none of those pesky details really mattered most days, but at other times, the lack of proper design, placement and size was just a deal killer and infuriating to behold.
Been there, lived there...always wondered how hard it would have been to get it right. My father, who owned the place in CA's Sierra foothills for 20 years, would just mutter about 'missed opportunity', and 'idiot builders and cutting corners was what they did best...'

 

[lowangle al]

All you need is a generator and a canoe rigged for sailing and you'd be the envy of everyone on the lake.

I've thought about using a fan for skeeter control in the yard but haven't had to try it out yet.

 

[Odyssey]

I'm a fan of fans too. We have ceiling fans in our bedrooms. There's nothing like falling asleep to an artificial breeze on a hot summer's night, or any night for that matter. When it gets cold outside I'll crack the windows and turn on the turbine, snuggle deeper under the duvet and revel in the difference, cold and warm, tingly and torpor, bracing and zzzzzzzzz. I have three small plastic fans for work. They push enough air to speedily dry painted surfaces, being mindful of the dust of course. Interestingly enough they're considered a seasonal item on store shelves. Can't find them in winter. I used to get proud and fussy about their brand new appearance cleaning off paint spatters from their shiny black bodies. After the initial oops I stopped caring. A fogged airless spray combined with errant drips have left them as matching Jackson Pollack pieces, kinda like Mike's crock patterned feet. I'm ashamed to admit I have one other fan. It sits in the laundry/furnace/cat parking station room. In one window we've packets of potpourri right above the constantly cleaned cat boxes, and on a shelf in front of the second window a fan. On particularly pungent evenings as we sit in the next room with door closed watching television (even though there's nothing on) I turn the fan on up to setting 3 to exhaust that room's unique aromatics of laundry soap and cat farts. By the time we've given up searching for anything to suffer through on the idiot box that other room is once again sweet smelling and innocent. I turn everything off before we trudge upstairs to our armchairs and books. Mr Farraday is somewhere looking down feeling smug and satisfied, yes thank you sir for AC and everything it's brought us; meanwhile Bastet the Egyptian goddess of home, domesticity, women's secrets and cats is looking down and laughing so hard her eyeliner is smearing. Yeah, well I hope you've got 30,000 kitty ghosts keeping you company wherever you are. You're gonna need a fan.

Carports. I used to think them half built garages. Why'd they give up just as they were getting started? Now I know better. I used to have an attached garage in the last house we owned, but I squandered it's space filling it with work junk and detritus. Stupid me. Now I have none, just a large paved drive. I do have an outdoor plug providing me with electrical, and it is a handy place for projects especially if I tarp it, but being so close to street and sidewalk gives me the creeps. I don't trust the neighbourhood. lol I'm nervous of leaving my power tools unattended while I step inside for a coffee refill or to make room for one. With only 20 feet of lawn and a 3 foot fence there's not much between a jerk and temptation. So I work at the opposite end of the house where I've laid a pad of old reclaimed sidewalk slabs under a spreading big spruce. Cool, shady and dry. Almost what a carport would be like if I could be bothered to build one. There are issues regarding power stack location and ancient oak tree proximity making carport construction difficult. A carport may have to wait. This neighbourhood of ours dates from the 60's, and has a variety of bungalows with and without carports, and the odd garage here and there. I'm pretty much happy with what I have and don't have. There's half the battle.

 

[Guest]

Or you could be the unlucky beneficiary of some builder or designer who didn't take the direction of the summer sun into account or the size of a vehicle that no one but a 3 year old could barely clamber out of without banging doors on the main part of the garage. Then you would also realize that the area around the garage/carport funneled the days' heat underneath and trapped it... none of those pesky details really mattered most days, but at other times, the lack of proper design, placement and size was just a deal killer and infuriating to behold.

I have seen a lot of WTF mistakes from builders, but disregarding the summer sun when trying to provide shade, or the dimensions needed to access a garage parked vehicle seems Design 101 elementary. A developer layout out houses probably doesn’t care, not their house.

When we put an addition on I spend hours with a 3-D Home Architect program tweaking the location of doors, bedrooms, closets, hallways and windows to maximize usable space, storage and cross ventilation. Simply changing the planned location of doors and closets added space by reducing the length of hallways. Being able to drop and drag a wall here, move a closet there, add a window here and here made it easy.

There was also some economy of materials in those drop and drag considerations beyond incorporating shorter lost-space hallways. Most of the new closets are on opposing sides of the wall and share studs. It was well worth playing on the computer for a couple or three evenings to get it all just so. OK, it was actually more like a couple weeks; I am not architecturally farsighted and needed to keep playing with the layout before space maximization and economy became obvious.

I am not surprised that the NC barn/shop was laid out in good orientation; the guy who designed it was a smart cookie in that regard. Having two carports in an L shape off the barn means there is always a shady area, and usually a side that is exposed to catch some breeze.

Sometimes even the less farsighted get lucky. The clubroom addition we built forms the foot of an L off the back of our home, with a ground level deck in between. That was pretty much the only orientation available, so it didn’t require much thought.

Our property is heavily wooded in the back. We used to have to rake the fallen leaves off the back yard at least three times every fall. “Used to”; the prevailing winds now form a perfect vortex in the corner of that L.

We got us a vertex vortex. In the fall when the winds blow and the leaves drop there is a mini-tornado of swirling red and gold in that corner. All of the back yard leaves end up wind deposited there. I still rake a couple times a year, but now it is a readymade 3 foot tall pile collected nicely on one corner of the lower deck. Easy peezy.

What used to be a lengthy lawn chore is now a 5 minute job on the deck. The back lawn stays wind cleared of leaves, and the swirling vortex of foliage is visibly through the sliding glass door. In high winds it is fascinating to watch; the leafy tornado can easily reach 6 feet tall, and is perfectly V shaped.

I've thought about using a fan for skeeter control in the yard but haven't had to try it out yet.

Consider the selection of a campsite in bug season, where some exposure to the prevailing wind is a boon. Fans do work to help keep the bugs at bay.

To wit, there is a large outdoor bar at the NC place. That bar started off as a carport and has since been extended and well furbished. Note the ceiling fans.



When I say “bar”, I meant a real gimme a shot and a beer bar.



In addition to the ceiling fans there is one of these at the bar

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FFT0BA...t=&hvlocphy=9007871&hvtargid=pla-311202522869

The force of that fan will dang near knock you off your feet if you get too close, but the skeeters and deer flies don’t stand a winged prayer. The civility of your windblown wasps or hornets bouncing off your body may vary.

 

[Odyssey]

Whew! That's a nice resort! Only hard work to be done is staying on the stool.

 

[Guest]

Carports. I used to think them half built garages. Why'd they give up just as they were getting started?

Brad, I am reminded of my father’s last home. He was a builder, and the last house he built for himself seemed very odd to me at first; a single level rancher with cathedral ceilings. Quite unlike his usual style.

Codes where he lived didn’t require a permit or inspections to add a simple carport. He immediately added an oversized 2-car carport off one side of the house. I didn’t get it.

A year later he had surreptitiously enclosed that carport to make a laundry room (complete with grey water system) and two car garage with wall cabinet storage. And built another carport off the side of that now garage, extending the same roof line. I still didn’t get it.

A year later he had enclosed that “carport” to make his expansive shop. And added a carport to the backside of that shop, which a year later was enclosed to create his home office and dedicated poker room.

I finally got it.

Whew! That's a nice resort! Only hard work to be done is staying on the stool.

It is one of my favorite places on earth. It is listed as a sanctuary, and has for decades been one for me. Four plant communities, 65 native species of reptiles and amphibians, 52 species of freshwater fish on the river frontage, 33 mammals, 105 native birds. Spanish moss, long leaf pine, 3 species of goatsuckers, alligators, 3-4 species of ticks, rattlesnakes, chiggers and fire ants.

What’s not to love? To be clear, it is working man’s “resort”. There is always lots of work to be done, and I like doing it there, as in 10-12 hours every day. Starting at dawn. With occasional beer breaks.

One more outdoor fan use. There is a firepit near the NC bar. It rains a lot there, and most of the wood is greenish pine. It can be a challenge some nights getting a fire started.



Those are cypress logs seats. With backrests made from discarded car headrests and antique kayak seats. Redneck chic.

Hmmm, how to get a wet pine fire started? Hmmm, here’s a small fan. And an extension cord. Screw pumping a bellows or vigorously flapping away with a box top, watch this Edison effortless oxygen supply take hold.



Always fun to blaze one up at the bar.

 

[Sven]

I am also a "fan of fans".

My garage has a flat, black rolled roof. In the summer I leave a 4" vortec fan running 24/7...if I don't, it gets crazy hot in there! I also run a 16" oscillating wall mounted fan almost all of the time. If I am working in the shop I also run a 20" box fan placed in a open overhead door for circulating fresh air in or out, based on whether or not I am sanding/making dust.

Love fans, but also hate that they are sold as a seasonal item at 99% of stores.

 

[Odyssey]

Mike, sounds like your dad was planning ahead, way ahead. Smart guy. I was just watching an archeology doc last night about the owners of a 13th century home wondering if there were older origins to their place. Well, after a team of specialists ripped up the hall floor, entrance floor, front lawn, back lawn and drive they concluded yes. The site was possibly King Canute's dining hall in the 9th c, later rebuilt in 11th c for the next happy homemaker. Pretty cool stuff, although it all just looked like stains in the ground to me. Hundreds of pot shards from broken cooking and drinking vessels dated the site through it's various remodelling phases. Just goes to show we've all been renovating our homes down through the centuries to make ourselves feel kings of our castles. And yes, King Canute would've had a carport but they couldn't find it. They called them stables back then. lol
I really like the looks and sounds of your hideaway in the NC woods. Lots of odd jobs to keep a fella occupied, tremendous wildlife to keep everyone on their toes, and blazing one up at the bar only seems appropriate.
Don't work too hard. Oh, and don't forget to put those plumbing tools away.

 

[Guest]

Freaking Wal-Mart

I should know better than to shop Wal-mart for any inexpensive electrical device, but it is the nearest big-box retailer of any sort.

A few years ago I bought a D-cell battery op & 110v transformer fan there for the truck bed sleeping compartment. It was kaput when I first tested it. I retuned it and the replacement did not work on battery power. Back to Wallyworld for a third fan. Having now driven 100 miles for a freaking fan, I unboxed and tested both on battery and 110v power at the return desk.

I bought a small window AC unit from Wal-Mart. It proved to be so ill-designed that the accordion panels on the sides do not actually seal the window, but leave quarter inch gaps top and bottom. Seriously, we have standard double hung windows, and that is pretty basic AC design to keep the bugs out. WTF!

So, stupid me, I bought a second of those high velocity fans for shop use. It would not run on the low setting, and the high setting is a long dang ways from jet engine high velocity in comparison to the one I bought in NC. Back it went, two trips, 80 miles total.

Freaking Wal-Mart. I was already holding a grudge for what their price point demands did to Rubbermaid quality a decade ago. We have two 20+ year old rectangular (don’t blow around in the wind when emptied) Rubbermaid trash bins. When those finally neared worn out I bought two seemingly identical new ones, which split, cracked and fell apart in 6 months from UV degradation.

I’m done with Wally-World, unless it is some (non-electrical) product I am confident they haven’t fucked up quality-wise. But their purchasing power is such that I’m probably buying the same Chinese made products at Target or Home Depot or Lowes

 

[Odyssey]

And just as Mike's done with WallyWorld I've only started with Wally-World. This despite the fact last year my wife had declared "There's no way we're shopping there, not now, not ever." I'm not sure but I suspect it had something to do with corporate ethics and lax labour laws, but maybe I'm imagining things again. It might've just been because she hated the colour of the shopping carts, I dunno. All I do know is she was never going to cross that lowest and most common denominator of thresholds; she meaning we. So it came as a complete surprise when I was thinking outloud at the kitchen table last night "Hmm, we're gonna need another baby gate with the grandkids coming tomorrow. One to keep the kids from tumbling down the back stairs and another to keep the friggin' cat from pissing in the front closet cause it's so scared of the kids." When I heard a female voice from across the table proclaim "I bet they're pretty affordable at Walmart." I was stunned; I even looked up to see who the lady was who contradicted my wife's anti-Wally proclamation. Yup, same lady, how about that? I guess it's true what they say, a lady changing her mind is her prerogative.
Anyway, fast forward to us standing in Wally's place looking over the stark selection of baby gates. Funny. There were at least a dozen to choose from on-line. Here in the store there was a whole lotta jumbled jostled junk, but only two types of gates. One kind I think I wanted, another kind I would've liked to look at except if I tried to pull one out of the large box the whole aisle shelf threatened to collapse?! Okay, I'm happy with the first one, let's go.
There's an awkward kind of conversation that only gets sweet and comfortable between two older marrieds, and that's the underwear discussion. When you're young and not yet hitched, it's always hot and hormonal, when you're less young but married it's still sexy and suggestive, but when you're much older, it's more like the plain speak between a car mechanic and a customer. Hardly charming, mostly pragmatic. So it goes and so it went
"I'm out of underwear. I might just pop over to the men's department."
"Whaddaya mean?! What are ya wearing?!"
"I'm commando tonight. Still waiting for you to do the laundry."
"What the...I can't take you anywhere!"
"This ain't loose change in my pocket honey!"
"I'm waiting waaaayy over there."
And so I found myself alone (my wife a safe distance several miles away in the produce department) I standing looking at the dazzling displays of men's under garments, or at least where they should've been if they were in stock. Empty hangers and hooks stared back at me. Just then a redheaded young lady spoke to me "Can't believe the prices?! And they don't make any sense?! Two for eight bucks? Four for eighteen, one pair for seven?!" My head spun for a moment, confused that a young attractive woman with frazzly fantastic hair was even speaking to me, and without a "I'm calling the cops" look on her face. So naturally I kept right up with the banter, all the while a cartload of kids kept whizzing by at the end of our aisle first one way then the other, a trailing "mmoooommmm" voice echoing over the men's department. Every time it passed a different child was "controlling" the cart and passengers of kids hurtling by like an express train bound for glory. Her and I tossed funny comments back and forth about elastic and cotton, colour and style, eventually she plucking a couple packages from the shelf and expertly grabbing the passing cart like a professional calf roper at a rodeo "Okay kids. Let's go get popcorn!" No sooner was she out of sight than a hefty guy walks up to me and starts a conversation about buying underwear "Hi, howya doin? Thought it was time I bought some underwear", moments later another lady sauntered up our aisle and joined in "Whatever happened to plain white cotton?" I really wondered if I'd stumbled on an impromptu meeting place for lonely hearts, or maybe a secret aisle for trainee ToastMasters. I dunno. I like to talk sometimes, but surrounded by lime green briefs and plaid boxers started to weird me out. Is it always this friendly in Wally's or is it just the underwear department? I retreated to the safety of our vehicle, where I exchanged experiences with my wife. I'd encountered several friendly extroverts, she'd floated through it all relatively unscathed. Hmm. Maybe I ought to buy underwear more often. You only get so much of a social life at my age.

 

[frozentripper]

Just a quickie while it's still cool... all those third world residents in India, Africa, South America, Asia, Antarctica, well, maybe not Antarctica, that will want their cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, stoves, Starbucks coffees, and much more in the way of consumer marketing as they force their way into <cough> hot, smoggy cities, wanting yes, more, MORE SHOPPING... much, much more... will need prices to be cheap. Prices right now for developing nations aren't cheap enough it seems, so producers and retailers will need to bring prices down further, since the world wants cheap retail. Those cheap goods will also be available here since it's a global market we're buying in, unless somebody imposes import price tariffs to keep prices high (and of course you know who that is). Yep, more plastic canoes and really, really cheap, whatta deal.

 

[frozentripper]

And Odyssey... moaning and pissing on the internet is not going to change the quality of service at any of these world-devouring multinational retail giants. There is an accepted protocol already in place to correct poor corporate behaviour. Remember the mantra from the sixties... "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" so take the time to fix the system by using the right corporate channels... here you go, this will get you started. Best wishes and good luck.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cSpVWlUR5Os/U_Q8TTgws_I/AAAAAAABhbE/RzKKsNvQ2SQ/s1600/Untitledcomplain.png

 

[Odyssey]

complaint form ... lol.

Who would've thought there'd be so much history to the fan? http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Fan_(implement)
So now I expect Mike to make the appropriate adjustments at his luxury camp by replacing all those electric fans with humans waving ostrich feathers. From the axe/shovel-sexual thread I saw he's got a bevy of beauties standing around his shop with nothing much to do; they'd pick up feathers and get to work (if he paid them enough).

 

[frozentripper]

Can't resist on commenting further on the trend to cheap retail, but first things first... the anticipated bevy of beauties waving ostrich feathers cooling the shop. I suggest putting unemployed Las Vegas showgirls to work. The New York Times reports that these exotic creatures are finding it hard to find work and what better way to add to the job search and CV than assisting in the shop with those feathers cooling things off. Payment would be in carbon credits since no electricity is needed for these types of fans.

Now, much more boring but still good to know... computer-assisted design has brought down the cost of retail items and since we are talking about wildlife in this thread, including the exotic creatures above, wildlife watchers using binoculars for a closer look have been able to purchase quality optics at much cheaper prices. What used to be thousand-dollar quality is now available for a couple hundred... computers, engineering, mass production and mass marketing making the goods available round the world.