I left the house at 7AM this morning, 7 days ago, and the question was
whether to leave the fan on or not.

I once had a fan that caught on fire, so I'm wary. Now that fan I got
at a yard sale and it had a thin, flat, square base with holes in 4
corners and must have been riveted to some piece of machinery in a
factory, so it was probably 40 years old or more when they stopped using
the machine, and ten years went by before I bought it, years earlier. So
it was 60+ years old, ready perhaps to wear out. It sat in the window
frame above my bed. Even when I had AC, I rarely used it, preferring
fresh air and fans.

But it squeaked so I oiled it, and I had to oil it over and over, until
the the base and the body of the motor had a layer of oil, and if it
squeaks, that means it's getting hot and sure enough one morning I woke
up to see flames about an inch high coming from the motor. So I don't
use that fan anymore (although I'm still looking for a replacement
motor, since it fit so nicely on the window sill.)

But my house still didn't get very hot, even upstairs, because I had a
roof fan. The first year I lived here it was so hot, I couldn't go
upstairs when I got home from work. I'd sleep in the basement and in
the morning I'd wash and get fresh clothes. Despite what people on AHR
told me, the roof fan fixed that.

But the roof fan motor has oil holes at both ends of the motor. How is
one supposed to oil the top of the motor??????

I never did and motors lasted me about 8 years, although one failed
after 3. And the last time a motor stalled, I didn't replace it, 2 or 3
years ago.

So now the 2nd floor really is hot during the hottest summer days (and
I'm home more because I'm retired). But I have a fan in the bedroom and
one in the office/spare bedroom, and there are really only about 4 days
that are too hot for me, even in Baltimore.

Until this year.that is. I don't know about global warming, I only now
Maryland Warming, and that seems to be for real.

Five years ago I realized that I have a laundry chute that leads from
the basement. The basement is always cool and eventually I found a fan
that fit the 2nd floor opening to the chute. I ran an extension cord
down the chute and plugged it in in the basement, drilled a hole in the
2nd floor faceplate and ran a wire 4 inches from it, with a line switch
at the end. So now I have basement air to cool the upstairs.

People here told me it would never work, that the basement air would
turn warm after a few hours. But I can run it from 9 or 10 AM until 8 PM
and that never happens. Sadly, it's right next to the steps, so half
the cold air falls down the stairs, but my impression is that it takes 3
to 5 degrees off the upstairs temperature, with 5 on the very hot days
and 3 on the hot ones. Even the bedrooms at either end of the hall (an
average-size townhouse, with my bedroom in the back and 2 smaller ones
in the front) are cooler. Closing the bathroom and 3rd bedroom door
also helps.

So today, that is 7 days ago, I woudn't have turned the fan on except
it's supposed to by 94 degrees, and I'll be back home at 1 or 2, with
the hottest part of the day still coming.

So I left it running even though it might overheat and start a fire. Was
that wise? (This launcry chute fan is only 4 years old and only used 20
or 30 days a year for 8 hours.)

So I get back at 2, open the front door and hear buzzing. OMgosh, it's
the smoke alarm!!!!! (the hardwired alarm in the ceiling of the upstairs
hall, that came with the house!!!!!). My worst fears have come true....
although I don't smell smoke.

I go upstairs and the fan is still spinning, the air is still blowing,
and I still don't smell smoke or burning, even when I put my nose next
to the fan..

Now the smoke alarm had gone off maybe a dozen times in the last 41
years, mostly when I overheat oil or fat in a skillet or broiler. (I no
longer put the skillet's electric burner on maximum, so that problem is
solved.) In fact I can't remember any other time. And it's loud. When
I've gone upstairs to wave a newspaper and spread out the smoke to stop
the fan, it's loud. But today it appears to have gotten louder, much
louder after a while (who knows how long?).

I could barely stand it, but I stiillhad to use the computer at the end
of the 2nd floor hall to ask, Which breaker controls the hard-wired
smoke alarm? There was no time to ask you guys. Do you know the
answer?

The answer is what I thought: There is no special breaker for the smoke
alarm, whatever the electrician wants.

So I get a 3-step ladder and try to remove the smoke alarm. I did this
once, but that was 40 years ago and now it won't come down. The noise
is even louder when I'm next to it. Pressing something makes it stop
but for less than 2 seconds.

Finally I force it down from the ceiling at one end, and it's silent.

And there still is no sign of fire or smoke.

How did the smoke alarm, after 41 years of working well, choose to break
on the one day in 41 years that I left the house with a fan on. How
does it know these things, and what did I do to it that it wants to
torment me?

Is it an amazing coincidence, or are there demons that arrange these
things? That knew I left the fan on even though I was worried about it?

I wonder if that TV show could use this as a plot!

Am 14.07.24 um 02:14 schrieb micky:
> I left the house at 7AM this morning, 7 days ago, and the question was
> whether to leave the fan on or not.

Why do you think such crap is on topic in an Android-group?

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Ovid)

Jörg Lorenz wrote:
> Am 14.07.24 um 02:14 schrieb micky:
>> I left the house at 7AM this morning, 7 days ago, and the question was
>> whether to leave the fan on or not.
>
> Why do you think such crap is on topic in an Android-group?
>
I know various magazines that would publish this as an article; and pay
decent money for it. (:-
Ed

Am 14.07.24 um 10:45 schrieb Ed Cryer:
> Jörg Lorenz wrote:
>> Am 14.07.24 um 02:14 schrieb micky:
>>> I left the house at 7AM this morning, 7 days ago, and the question was
>>> whether to leave the fan on or not.
>>
>> Why do you think such crap is on topic in an Android-group?
>>
>
> I know various magazines that would publish this as an article; and pay
> decent money for it. (:-

I strongly disagree: You will never find a review of a Porsche Turbo in
a Better Homes & Garden. *LOL*.

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Ovid)

In comp.mobile.android, on Sat, 13 Jul 2024 20:14:34 -0400, micky
<NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

>I left the house at 7AM this morning, 7 days ago, and the question was
>whether to leave the fan on or not.

Darn, I posted to the wrong group, again. It has to do with the way
Agent 5 works, that it seems it's one group but it's another. Probably
too complicated to explain the details.

Sorry.

On Sun, 14 Jul 2024 08:48:18 -0400, micky wrote:

> Darn, I posted to the wrong group, again. It has to do with the way
> Agent 5 works, that it seems it's one group but it's another. Probably
> too complicated to explain the details.

It's not Agent, it's PEBKAC.

--
s|b

Am 15.07.24 um 15:56 schrieb s|b:
> On Sun, 14 Jul 2024 08:48:18 -0400, micky wrote:
>
>> Darn, I posted to the wrong group, again. It has to do with the way
>> Agent 5 works, that it seems it's one group but it's another. Probably
>> too complicated to explain the details.
>
> It's not Agent, it's PEBKAC.

+1

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Ovid)