Oyster Posted December 18, 2009 Report Share Posted December 18, 2009 I have not seen our resident builder from Maine around in a while. Hope things are okay up that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Potts Posted December 18, 2009 Report Share Posted December 18, 2009 Oyster, I hope you get an answer to that. I noticed a while ago that a lot of Ray's posts are gone but nobody volunteered any information when I mentioned it. Ray - Where are you, Buddy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted December 18, 2009 Report Share Posted December 18, 2009 I guess it was a month ago that Ray mentioned he would become scarce and that he asked Frank to remove his posts. Ray said it was personal and asked that all just respect his privacy. I really have no clue myself, or whether he will be posting in the future, that is just my recollection of what he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Ray is still with us, but wants to maintain a much lower profile than before. I am sorry he feels that way, but respect his wishes. I occasionally see him on Facebook, therefore I think he is okay. He will pipe in here when he feels it is appropriate I guess. I miss discussing things with him. I have my current Bosch table saw because of Ray posting about his. There are probably other tools and techniques I now use that were learned from Ray too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyster Posted December 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 I wish him well in his decisions and choices. I know that these forums can also be a bit trying sometimes. But thats just the nature of them. We have our good days and out bad ones too. If Frank wishes to delete this thread, then thats fine too. Thanks again guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckpierce Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 I have seen his posts on some of the other forums recently-Don't know what is going on, but think that he just made the decision for whatever reason not to participate here for a while.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Frechette Jr Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 I am fine. I check the boards every few days or so and post when I feel I have something of value to provide. Lately the boards haev been awfully slow. Since financial crises in fall of 2008 hit business has pretty much fallen off the face of the earth as far as boatbuilding businesses go. Talked to some shops that had 17 guys in 07 who have skeleton staffs now of 2-3 and those get laid off from time to time too. Most of my time is spent working on improving energy efficiency of 2 6 unit apartment houses I own. I used to burn 7000 glalons of heating oil a year when I bought them and oil cost 0.69 a gallon. Last year I was under 6,000.00 gallons and my goal is to further reduce to 3000 gallons within 2-3 years. Chipping away at consumption spending money and time as both allow to get that consumption down before the next big oil price shock coming down the pike. I have an empty apartment right now with cast iron radiators in it. Last unit in the building with them. I am pulling them out and studding up a new wall 8 inches in form old wall and filling new wall cavity with insulation and sheetrocking it and replacing cast radiators with baseboard radiators. This will allow me to replace old massive furnace in basement that has a 14 inch flu pipe with a much more efficient low mass oil furnace with a 6 inch flue pipe in this building in the summer. As we have done upgrades to building efficiency we have been downsizing oil nozzle feeding old furnace . Old furnace was installed in 1967 before building was insulated. It consumed 7000 gallons per year back then. This building alone is under 2500 gallons per year now. Swap of furnace alone should reduce consumption by about 30% due to less stack losses and lower thermal mass issues. 750 gallons of #2 saved should yield me about 1700.00 a year savings. materials to retrofit thsi apartment is runnning at about a grand, and furnace swap will cost me about 2 K. so payoff should be pretty quick. New wall insulation in this unit will add to savings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lathrop Posted December 19, 2009 Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Hi Ray. The new economy is affecting the boat business all round. Graham still has lots of work to do though. Hope the retrofitting is keeping you warm. That level of oil use does not compute very well down south. Good to have some alternative means other than boatbuilding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyster Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Thanks Ray for checking in. I surely understand and I am not sure when or if things will turn around as more working people have a bulls eye target on their chests. Good luck and hang in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Frechette Jr Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 The new economy is affecting the boat business all round. Yeah, But at least we have Hope and Change. Hope the retrofitting is keeping you warm. Warm? Not really. First floor rents have radiators pulled out so only heat is solar gain during day and what comes up from Cellar, and what comes down form upstairs aparmtents. Temps in empty rents hovering in the 50's. Anxious to see what temps hover around when new wall insulation is up before I get radiators back in. That level of oil use does not compute very well down south. Then again we are talking about 12 units being kept warma nd about 16 individual provided with domestic hot water. And we have somewhere around 7000 heating degree days per year here too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Frechette Jr Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Thanks Ray for checking in. I surely understand and I am not sure when or if things will turn around as more working people have a bulls eye target on their chests. Good luck and hang in there. I think personally we are in for years of rough sledding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Luckett Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 I think personally we are in for years of rough sledding. You having snow there too? Seriously, Ray, I agree with you. :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Frechette Jr Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 We had snow past few weeks. And it is istill on the goround. No meltage. None this storm though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyster Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 When will it end? Heck we just had a complete closure of the snapper grounds after loosing to one of the famous enviromental groups that has been fighting the working watermen for a very long time and has a history of using faulty reports and unrelated films and photos of unrelated draggers and also working hand in hand with the NMFS. Several generations of working watermen and charter boat guys that make their winter money have been placed on the unemployment roles, some that have homes and still have to pay insurances and such on their boats. These types of people have to use their limited funds and continue to fight to work while those do nothings do nothing but vote themselves raises. What a mess for sure. If you are willing and have always worked, you are now a target with a bulleye on your chest. This whole area has been closed using fake data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirilonde Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Years of rough sledding is an understatement. Big business has been repackaging the same hot air and selling it over and over again for years. The executives of these companies have been giving themselves huge bonuses each year for doing such a good job of it. And now our economy is collapsing because we have finally started to realize we don't make much of anything any more. The working man is standing in the unemployment lines and yet these executives still control the money. Yup, it will take a few years before we see improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyster Posted December 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 [quote author=Hirilond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Nelson CS#35 Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 The governing class want us to hate business and capitalism. But you show me one country that is doing better under the socialist model than capitalist. The money has to be generated by someone and government doesn't do anything except collect, print or borrow. Support business, small and big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Turpin Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Support business, small and big. I'm doing my part by single-handedly keeping the boat building supplies industry flush with cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hagan Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 This will allow me to replace old massive furnace in basement that has a 14 inch flu pipe with a much more efficient low mass oil furnace with a 6 inch flue pipe in this building in the summer. As we have done upgrades to building efficiency we have been downsizing oil nozzle feeding old furnace . Old furnace was installed in 1967 before building was insulated. It consumed 7000 gallons per year back then. This building alone is under 2500 gallons per year now. Swap of furnace alone should reduce consumption by about 30% due to less stack losses and lower thermal mass issues. You would think the energy tax credits would apply to rentals as well as single family homes, but I guess they don't, so you don't get your share of the "stimulus". Yet you will save more energy with your retrofit than 4 individual homes. Some of the "direct vent" units are pretty troublesome, as well as being pricey. I would recommend a standard low mass boiler that will still save you quite a bit if a vertical vent is not a problem (it sounds like you can install one through the larger vent pipe easily enough). The best forum I've found on HVAC topics is http://hvac-talk.com/ Some of the guys there recommend the $5,000 boilers, but geez, it takes a while to get a payback on those (plus, they are often expensive to maintain.) I'm not in that business any more, but three years ago the payback for installing a new boiler could be as low as a year or two. Now, if you want a RF filter using patented high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology with a proprietary cryogenic cooler and a low-noise amplifier, even if you have announced plans to deploy Frequency Division Duplexed (FDD) based Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in the 700 MHz frequency band, I'm your guy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom151 Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 Now, if you want a RF filter using patented high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology with a proprietary cryogenic cooler and a low-noise amplifier, even if you have announced plans to deploy Frequency Division Duplexed (FDD) based Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in the 700 MHz frequency band, I'm your guy! Would it be possible to get one before Christmas? Can you have it engraved "To Lucille on our 45th Christmas" and gift wrapped? Thanks a lot, P.S. Can you price match to the $49.99 price advertised at BestBuy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.