My wife and I are fostering a wonderful dog that was abandoned at the dog park. He is very well-behaved and has eyes that would make a Fremen proud. Behold Boon, the atomic dog…

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new phone. This message and image were created using the phone. I’ll follow up with a more detailed review tomorrow…

This morning I was reading my usual RSS feeds when I was reminded of the Real ID Act: that, among other things, mandates the information that states must include/require on/for drivers licenses and requires the linking of state drivers license databases. Some would argue that the act turns state drivers licenses into national ID cards… And I would agree with them. However, I don’t think opponents to the act are making the right argument.

You see it everywhere, “It is a violation of civil liberties.” But the truth is that a national ID card in itself doesn’t violate civil liberties. It is how and when the card data is used that creates the problem. Instead of banning national ID cards altogether, I think it would be better to turn this into an opportunity to create laws that specify how and when private citizen information may be accessed and also legislate more power into the hands of citizens when it comes to protecting and ensuring the accuracy of what is essentially their data.

What we need is a Privacy Bill of Rights. When the government looks up my information in a national database, I want to know about it… And I want a justification. I also want the ability to challenge it so that future violations of my privacy don’t happen again. There are ways to do this that balance the ability of law enforcement to protect the citizenry while at the same time ensuring that private citizen data is not so easily searched and seized.

click the title to read my proposed legislation

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The Security and Privacy Rights Act (SAPRA)

An Act

To establish the rights of United States citizens to protect their privacy.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Security and Privacy Rights Act of 2006’.

SEC. 101. PREVENTING THE UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF CITIZEN DATA.

(a) No governmental body, appointed or elected official, or persons working under their authority, shall obtain or update citizen information stored in any database,

1. Without the citizen’s consent;
2. Without authorization as granted by a judicial subpoena or warrant;
3. Without the approval of the citizen’s legal guardian or person granted power of attorney over that citizen’s data;

1. Or for any reason other than those specified in section 101(b) of this act.

   (b) Citizen data contained in any government database may be updated or obtained,

2. If there is probable cause that the citizen has committed a felony criminal offense;
3. If the citizen is being cited for a violation or infraction of the law;
4. If the citizen is being placed under arrest;

1. or as part of regular database maintenance.
   

   SEC. 102. NOTIFICATION AND DISCLOSURE OF DATA.

   (a) When a citizen’s information is accessed or updated by a governmental body, appointed or elected official, or persons working under their authority, that citizen or their legal guardian shall be notified of the access and if and what has been updated,

2. Within one year of the access;
3. Of the data that was requested;
4. The purpose of the access;
5. And of the persons or governmental body that initiated the request to update or access;

1. Unless the access falls under the exceptions listed in section 102(b).

   (b) Citizens do not need to be notified when their data is accessed or updated if one of the following conditions are met:

2. The data was accessed or updated as part of regular database maintenance.
3. Disclosure of the access or the data itself poses a threat to national security in which case the data must be reviewed every 5 years and disclosed to the citizen when said disclosure is no longer a threat.

1. The data was accessed in such a way that the citizen from which the data was obtained cannot be identified. Example: The gathering of demographic information for statistical purposes.

   (c) The government must provide, upon a formal request, all data retained on a citizen to that citizen or their legal guardian or any persons who have been granted power of attorney over that citizen’s data,

2. Unless Disclosure of the data poses a threat to national security in which case the government may omit such data and is not required to disclose that data has been omitted;

1. Within a reasonable amount of time as it takes to retrieve and send such data.
   

   SEC. 103. RIGHT TO DISPUTE DATA.

   (a) The government must provide a means for which citizens can have errors in their data corrected. Within reason, the burden of proof that the information in the database is correct lies on the government.

I was just reading a “post on Slashdot regarding Total Information Awareness”:http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/25/1413241 and was impressed with a number of interesting comments. “One person”:http://slashdot.org/~jasonditz made some “very insightful commentary”:http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=178514&cid=14800332 regarding the Bush administration’s track record of ignoring (read: “reinterpreting”) the law. Every day there’s something new to piss me off so it is easy to forget just what has occurred in the past. Here’s a rundown (with links if you’re in denial):

# “They’ve seized American citizens and imprisoned them in foreign countries without charging them, incommunicado, for indefinite terms, without a court order or judicial review.”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Padilla
# “They’ve been wiretapping American citizens without a warrant, without judicial oversight, and without public debate or review.”:http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/02232006/news/89202.htm
# “They’ve risked national security by leaking classified information in order to discredit/attack dissenters.”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020902117.html
# “They’ve been torturing people _suspected_ of terrorism-related crimes via international flights.”:http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6
# “They don’t believe that the law banning torture applies to them.”:http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0126-06.htm
# “They’ve been kidnapping foreign citizens in their home countries without notifying their respective governments (Italy). They then purposefully appropriated misinformation (lied) to mislead the local authorities… Creating an certain amount of distrust among U.S. allies and lowering the United States reputation globally.”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120400885.html
# “They’ve been spying on peaceful protesters (also without a warrant) because they were critical of the administration’s policies”:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/
# “The Senate ordered the largest (illegal) domestic spying program in the history of the world shut down (Total Information Awareness) in 2003… The Bush administration didn’t shut it down and possibly used it to spy on John Kerry and his campaign staff before the election.”:http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/11/tia-lives/
# “They may have wiretapped a CNN reporter who leaked the story on Bush’s wiretapping (it doesn’t get much more ironic than that)”:http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/06/nsa.amanpour/index.html

Last time I checked, the President wasn’t above the law. So why hasn’t he been impeached? Can the Republican party really be that partisan? Are they just “corrupt”:http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060220/blumenthal? Do they fear retribution from a president that very likely could have been spying on them and collecting every one of their dirty little secrets?

Where did our freedom go?

Just wanted to announce that I’ve setup an online store to sell T-shirts. I have T-shirt ideas all the time so I needed an outlet =)

http://www.cafepress.com/wickedhacker

Let me know what you think of my designs!

Update: I changed my store name and link.

I might be posting some ideas regarding the Federal Budget in the coming days, so I figured that before I do that I should at least provide the facts. Here’s the 2007 (proposed by The President a few weeks ago) Federal Budget ($2.7 trillion):

Broken down by percentage

• Social Security: 21%
• Medicare/Medicaid: 21%
• Military: 19%
• Discretionary spending (non-military): 18%
• Other: 12%

• Interest on National Debt: 9%
  

  Where it (historically) comes from

• 48% Citizen Income Taxes
• 34% Social Security
• 10% Corporate Income Taxes
• 4% Other

• 4% Excise Tax

  There’s no way to know the exact percentages for 2007 yet. These percentages are from the 2004 budget.

I just dugg this story on how touch screen systems have replaced cashiers at one Taco Bell/KFC combo restaurant. I’ve been wanting this for YEARS! However, just from looking at the picture I already see major problems with the implementation.

In this article I’m going to complain about the current state of ordering and payment technologies we all use every day. Enjoy!

Read about it | Digg story

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There’s three types of this crap we have to deal with in our day to day lives…

1. ATMs
2. Credit card payment machines (cash registers, kiosks, etc)
3. Automated check out systems (supermarket, Home Depot, etc).

No human should be faster than the machine

Before I drill into detail about my complaints, I’d like to point out the biggest problem with all of these systems: They’re all slower than people! A human should never have to wait for an electronic system. When I was a kid, electronics found in cereal boxes could calculate a transaction faster than today’s order/payment systems!

I remember cashiers at department stores ringing up products faster than you can place them down on the counter and then slamming credit cards through imprint machines faster than you can say, “Where do I sign?”

ATMs

The worst violator of them all: The Automated Teller Machine. On some ATMs, I can bang my head against the machine twenty times before it prompts me for my PIN number. Then I have to tap the touch screen (a.k.a. the “influenza screen”) at least 5 times to register any given button and then wait 5 seconds for the next screen to come up.

Worse than all that, once I’m done pressing “Fast Cash->$40” I have to wait yet again for three things that, for some reason or another, don’t happen simultaneously:

1. Spit out receipt (I’ve always wondered how much of the machine would survive if it gave me a receipt without proceeding to step 2).
2. Spit out money.
3. Spit out debit card.

All three of those should happen simultaneously

The reason why ATMs are the worst of all order/payment systems is because there is no excuse to be that slow. ATMs are often sitting on the side of the damned bank which has a high-speed dedicated connection straight to your money. No middleman, no dialup connection, no excuse!

Credit card processing machines

Ahh, the wonder of modern technology… Where we wait, wait, wait, and then waste our time signing non-legally-binding mini-contracts!

In case you live under a rock, here’s a rundown of your typical credit card transaction (either retail stores or restaurants):

1. The cashier scans in your items.
2. They tell you the total (which is usually displayed on at least three screens in big letters all around you for everyone to see) and then swipe your credit card (or, if you’re lucky they let you scan it yourself on one of those impossible-to-read, irreparably-scratched, uncalibrated, stylus-attached touch screens).
3. You wait, wait, wait for the machine to dial up some remote modem (which gives that audible modem screech half the time) and then, assuming it didn’t error on scanning your card, it will proceed to print out…
4. Receipt #1. This is the vendor’s copy… That they will file away forever in case the transaction fails (so they can manually re-enter it later). This is the genius system that allows industrious employees to aggregate loads of customer credit card numbers and addresses for later use in identity theft, yay!
5. Receipt #2. This is the copy you have to sign. Why are you signing? Well, credit card companies did away with the signature requirement ages ago… So these days, if you look closely, it is actually a little mini-contract that says, “you agree to pay us this total no matter what.” These have been tested in court and failed to hold up… Yet we all still have to sign. Why?

…and then you’re on your way.

If you use this same system in “debit card” mode, it is even more fun:

1. Scan card.
2. Enter PIN.
3. Would you like cash back? Yes/No
4. $8.32 Total OK? Yes/No (What happens if you say no?)
5. Wait.
6. Wait.
7. Error scanning card…
8. Scan card.
9. Enter PIN.
10. Would you like cash back? Yes/No
11. $8.32 Total OK?
12. Wait.
13. Wait.
14 Error scanning card…
…
22. Would you like cash back? Yes/No
…
Cashier: “Let me try it (on the other scanner attached to the register).”
1. Cashier scans card.
2. Enter PIN.
3. Would you like cash back? Yes/No
4. $8.32 Total OK?
5. Receipt starts printing

…and you’re on your way. The next customer walks up and runs through the same problem. The brilliant cashier waits for 10 more customers to have the same problem before he reports the bad scanner. I have to re-scan my card at least 1/4 of the time. So much for reliability.

The obvious question is this: Why does it ask me all those questions before it tells me it couldn’t scan my card?!?

Then there’s: Why the hell are we still using dialup modems for this stuff?!? The Internet: Use it! I can order $3000 worth of electronics online in 10 seconds. Why does it take five minutes to do the same thing at Best Buy?

Self-checkout systems

Oooh, these really piss me off. First let me state that I’ve used two kinds of self-checkout systems: Ones that are decent, and ones that are unacceptable.

Decent systems: You scan your items (bar code) and place them on a conveyor belt (the same kind in use at every grocery store). The items move through a scanner where those little security tags are disabled/registered and your items end up in a bagging area. If you’re buying something like bananas (which don’t have a bar code) you can search/select your item on the touch screen and then weigh the item on the bar code scanner. It all goes fast and smooth. Essentially you’re just doing what the cashier does… Fast and effective. You still run into the credit card/ATM scanning debacle at the end though.

Horrific systems: These are the type in use at Wal-Mart and Home Depot. They seem simple enough: You scan your item and place it in a bag. The bag sits atop a scale that weighs each item as you place it in. If the weight of the item doesn’t mach whatever is entered into the database, it gives you an error and makes you re-scan the item. For most items you can “skip bagging”, but if you press that button too many times it locks the system and states, “please wait for assistance”.

Here’s the rundown:

1. Scan item
2. Place in bag.
3. Wait for touch screen to indicate that it noticed the item being placed in the bag.
4. Scan next item.
5. Place in bag.
6. ERROR! Unrecognized item in bagging area. Please re-scan item.
7. Re-scan item.
8. Place in bag.
9. ERROR! Unrecognized item in bagging area. Please re-scan item.
10. Re-scan item.
11. Press “skip bagging” button.
12. Place item in cart (you can bag it after).
13. Scan next item.
14. Place in bag.
15. ERROR! Unrecognized item in bagging area. Please re-scan item.
16. Thinking it might be the already-bagged item causing it to screw up, you remove the bag from the bagging area and place it in your cart.
17. Re-scan item.
18. Place in fresh bag.
19. ERROR! Please wait for assistance.
20. The assistant-in-wait then proceeds to scan in a bar code and makes you go through the process again… You’ll end up “requiring assistance” at least once more.

This weigh-every-item thing SUCKS! The items never weigh what the program thinks they should because they get covered in gunk, they might be wet, they might not sit right in the bag (half-hung on the bag rail), or there could be a mistake in the database which could throw off all the other scanned items.

Not only that, but the “bagging area” for these types of systems is horrifically small, poorly laid-out, and generally not user-friendly.

Then at the end of it all, you have to deal with one of those “scanner/stylus/touch screen” devices that have a tendency to fail.

Why is it taking so long to fix these problems? These systems aren’t exactly new, yet they’re never improved upon. Does someone have a patent on common sense in this area? What is the deal?

The other problem

There aren’t enough machines

One look at that picture revealed two touch screens. That means two old people, the un-initiated, or generally slow/picky people can slow things down for everyone. In order for these systems to be most effective, you need plenty of them. Why have order/pay lines in your restaurant when a couple extra machines could do away with lines forever? People could walk up, order/pay, and then leisurely meander about while they wait for their food. Better yet, make kiosks that can dispense cups so people can fill their drink while they wait.

This project took me nearly a month and a half, but it is finally complete…

The problem:

• Vehicles were regularly running over the sprinkler heads along the edge of the driveway, breaking the buried PVC pipes (since the sprinkler heads were directly screwed into the T-fittings). This essentially rendered that whole sprinkler zone useless.

• The well pump was regularly turning on when the sprinkler system was not running indicating a leak somewhere in the buried pipes (pressure loss).

  The plan:

• Dig up the PVC pipes along the driveway and replace them with flexible PVC (hose).
• Use flexible/shock-absorbing risers for the sprinkler heads to reduce potential pressure on the buried PVC.

• Find the leak and repair it.

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  UPDATE: I’ve added images of the project to my gallery. Click the image to see them all:

  * WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

  Why not just call the sprinkler guy?

  Because he’s come out numerous times to fix the problem before and never once suggested a permanent fix. He also charges far too much ($60 for a $30 sprinkler head, $40/hour labor, etc), imagined up “potential problems” (i.e. “This valve is really old, you should replace it before it causes trouble”) to get more work, and he is just an old-fashioned business scumbag. He could have “done the right thing” and suggested that we replace the piping along the driveway LONG ago, but instead relied upon breaks occurring so he could gain regular business from us.

  I had never worked with a sprinkler system before this project so it’s inner workings were a great mystery to me. Now that I know what I do, I know just how much of a rip off “irrigation” experts really are. Unless you have a golf course’s worth of grass, you’re elderly, disabled, or have loads of money and are extremely lazy, there’s no reason to pay a sprinkler guy. It requires neither strength nor technical ability to service one or, for that matter, completely install one from scratch.

  The prep work

  Before I ran to Home Depot to buy the tools/equipment I needed, I dug up the PVC along the driveway and unscrewed the heads. I used chalk to mark the locations of the sprinkler heads so I wouldn’t have to make any measurements later (the water coverage was fine before). Any heads that I knew had been run over were placed into a separate pile in case they needed to be replaced.

  The process of digging up the pipes took me about a week. In total it was about 4 hours worth of careful digging (didn’t know what else was buried or where the incoming pipe to the valve box was). It took me a week because this time of year I only have about an hour of daylight available after I get home from work (and I procrastinated a bit, hehe).

  As I was digging, I found the pipe that runs under the driveway to the valve box. I suspected that this was the pipe with the leak, so I kept digging it up until I found the fracture. (only about 3 feet from the driveway). Details on this are at the end of this article.

  Once everything was dug up I figured out that I needed the following:

• Flexible PVC (3/4 inch since that was the pipe size I was replacing)
• 7 Threaded T-fittings (3/4 inch with 1/2 inch “head size” thread female connector)
• 1 Elbow threaded fitting (for that last head at the end)
• 8 flex risers
• 8 clay donuts (i.e. sprinkler head protectors)
• 2 3/4 inch couplers (to fix the leak)
• PVC pipe cutter
• PVC cement
• PVC primer

• PVC cleaner

  Like an idiot, I went to Home Depot and purchased this exact number of items. In the end I wound up going BACK to Home Depot (numerous times) for the following:

• 2 more 3/4 inch couplers because my “leak fix” broke again after I re-buried the pipe.
• Nitrile gloves (because the PVC cement/cleaner/primer are harsh chemicals)
• Another 50 foot length of flexible PVC because I needed about 12 more feet (sigh, they don’t sell it in smaller lengths).

• A new sprinkler controller because the existing one broke (it was probably broken for a long time but I never noticed since we water 3-4 AM—essentially it was permanently stuck on zone 3).
  

  The actual work

  The very first thing I did was to attach a T-fitting to the end of the pipe that I cut (coming from the valve) at the top of the driveway near the garage. This was going to be my first sprinkler head location and the start of the hose. For reference, the driveway is about 65 feet long and the sprinkler heads were of the “half circle” sort and only needed to spray water a distance of ~5 feet, 180 degrees. The last head at the end of the driveway was adjusted to spray 90 degrees as to not water the street.

  The flex risers I bought were short—only about 6 inches long, but that was enough to make the first sprinkler head stick 6 inches farther out of the ground than it did previously. Fortunately I found a much smaller/shorter head in my garage when I was working on my hot water heater. I screwed that one in and now the head only sticks up about 2 inches out of the ground. Just barely above the protective donut. I have no doubt that this will not be noticeable once the grass grows back. It doesn’t matter anyway since it is highly unlikely someone will run over this particular head due to it’s proximity to the garage.

  Note: I didn’t have to worry about the height problem with the rest of the heads since I could bury them as deep as I wanted thanks to the flexible PVC hose.

  I cemented the hose to the T-fitting and ran it down the driveway to the location where the next head would go (as identified by my chalk mark). I cut the PVC and cemented on another T-fitting. I then attached the hose to the other end and continued this process down the driveway. Lather, rinse, repeat.

  Note: The cement I purchased recommended 30 minutes curing time for “safe handling”, so this process took a while. Also, the cement won’t cure properly if the temperature is below 55 degrees. So there was about two weeks where I could not do any work on the system at all.

  Once I was satisfied that the cement was cured between two segments of hose, I proceeded to bury the hose, bury the flex riser (with sprinkler head attached), and then carefully bury the head so that the flex riser was straight (to maximize its shock-absorbing capacity). I left about an inch of the head above the ground because I know that the grass will raise the ground a bit over time (there’s one head in my back yard where I wish this was done).

  I repeated this process over the course of several weeks… taking my time and going to Home Depot for parts here and there when I could (I had to stop what I was doing twice because I needed yet another thing from the store). If I had bought the fast-drying cement and bought parts in bulk, I could have completed the job in a weekend (assuming it wasn’t near freezing).

  The leak

  Almost forgot… There was a leak in the pipe that ran under the driveway to the valve box (from the pump in the back yard). This was causing the pump to turn on for a minute or so every 10 minutes costing me unnecessary kilowatts in my electric bill (doesn’t sound like it would be that much, but that is about 4300 minutes of pump run time a month!).

  Fortunately the leak was not actually under the driveway but was instead about three feet away next to a bush. When I first tried to fix the leak, I used a cut section of the pipe I dug up along with two couplers and sort of angled/forced them together (with cement of course). This was a mistake. As soon as I re-buried that pipe (yes, I let the cement cure) my fix job broke apart. In order for the fix to hold, the pipe must enter the coupler completely from both sides.

  Since I had loads of extra flexible PVC (about 38 feet thanks to Home Depot’s minimum sizing!) I simply dug up a large section of the pipe in question and re-ran it. Now I won’t have to worry about a heavy car causing another leak (which is how I suspect it was caused in the first place).

  How did I find the leak? When I dug up the sprinkler heads and related piping I noticed a small flow of water into the ditch. I just followed it’s path with the shovel.

  Lessons learned

• Buy in bulk. PVC fittings are like $0.25-0.33/each. They sell 10-packs of almost everything and having extras around is worth it (and they’re cheaper per item). It’ll save at least one trip back to the store.
• DIY on a sprinkler system is so worth it. I performed one of the most complicated tasks you can do to an existing system and it didn’t cost me much at all in time or dollars. I was even lazy about the whole thing. An hour here, an hour there…
• Buy the quick drying PVC-only cement instead of the “works on everything” cement. I thought that it would be worth it to have cement that can work on PVC, CPVC, ABS, etc, than have PVC-only cement. I was wrong. It would have gone a lot faster with the 5-minute stuff.
• Flexible PVC is much easier to work with when it is hot. Let it bake in the sun while you’re working on other stuff (as opposed to leaving it in the garage).
• Purple primer stains everything it touches purple. Even driveways.
• PVC cleaner will freeze your fingers if you spill it.

• People bury things they shouldn’t. I dug up half an old jacket, at least 20 misc bits of PVC pipe, misc PVC fittings, broken sprinkler heads, old beer cans, and batteries. Yes, someone actually buried “poison the water supply” lead acid D-cells next to my driveway. They didn’t fall into a hole and buried by accident. They were intentionally buried there with lots of other “building materials” trash. Being the good citizen that I am, I brought them into work and put them into the “battery disposal” bin.

I just want to say thanks to Solid for helping me install a new water heater yesterday. He has a black belt in “house fu” and wields the tools of this ancient art like a seventh-kyu Okinawan “Master of the pipe”.

We finished around midnight last night (started late around 7-ish and had a 1.5 hour break for dinner at 9) and after about 20 minutes of waiting the water coming out of the hot tap was considerably warmer than the water coming out of the cold tap so we assumed success. Solid went home and I went to bed. Needless to say, I washed away any stress I had about the new water heater with my hot shower this morning.

My trials and tribulations of swapping out a propane water heater with an electric one can be found in the rest of this post (along with lots of statistical info, prices, and wisdom).

click the title to read the whole story
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Old Water Heater – Why We Needed a New One

We had a “made in 1992” A.O. Smith “Energy Saver” 30-gallon propane water heater. When it was new, it was probably about 70% efficient (a “blue light special” even at the time). Nowadays, not so much. My guesstimate is around 40% efficient (meaning that most of the heat generated by the propane went right up the vent). Essentially, the “pilot light” burned about as much as a back yard grill and when it kicked into “full money burn” mode, you could feel the oxygen in the house being sucked into the garage. It had an effect not so dissimilar to that of that vortex ball thing in The Arrival. At least it gave us hot water… For around $270/month ($3/gallon)!

New Water Heater – Propane?

I did a lot of research and figured out that the most efficient propane hot water heaters are the new tankless models. At around 87% efficiency, they looked like they could take a huge chunk out of my propane bill (no residual heat loss and infinite hot water). However, at $700 for a 4.2 gpm model (enough for ~2 simultaneous showers) I had to ask myself, “Is propane even worth it?”

A couple of things to note about propane tankless water heaters:

• They require a wider propane feed than would be typically required for a tank heater.
• They require a larger vent than would be typically required for a tank heater.
• They require an air intake vent (i.e. it will turn your garage into a vacuum).

• They generate loads of CO and CO2 which is bad news if something goes wrong.

  Considering that my existing vent was only 5 inches wide and my propane feed line was too small, I’d need to A) Install a new vent and widen the current hole, B) run a new propane line ($$$ from the gas company), and C) spend a fortune to have someone come out to do it since I don’t want to mess with propane lines. All this added to my skepticism of propane. Besides that, propane is made from oil and prices are only going to go up

  Propane VS Electric

  But how much does it cost to heat water with propane VS electric? In order to figure this out we need to know some things:

• How much does 1 kilowatt of electricity cost in your area?
• How much does 1 gallon of propane cost in your area?
• What is the incoming water temperature for your house?
• Conversion equations, BTUs, etc.

• Efficiency ratings on equipment.

  For me, electricity is $0.098/kilowatt, propane is about $3/gallon, and the incoming water temperature is 68 degrees (Jacksonville, Florida). With that in mind, here’s the other statistical information:

• Electricity = 3,412 BTUs per kilowatt
• Propane = 92,310 BTUs per gallon
• 1 BTU will heat 1 pound of water 1 degree F.
• 1 gallon of water = 8 pounds
• 8 BTUs required to heat 1 gallon of water 1 degree
• For example’s sake, we’ll assume a 87% efficiency propane water heater (highest they come).
• For electric, we can assume a 100% efficiency rating on the heating coils since there is no heat loss (and the figure is the same for all heating coils if they’re new/maintained).
• Target water temperature is 140 degrees.

• We’ll assume we’re heating 50 gallons of water (which is my target tank size—30 was too small).

  The beginning calculations (basic):

• 80,310 BTUs per gallon of propane at 87% efficiency.
• We need to heat the water 72 degrees (140 – 68).
• 28,800 BTUs are required to heat 50 gallons of water 72 degrees.
• 0.36 gallons of propane required to get a 50 gallon tank to 140 degrees (68 degrees in).
• 8.44 kilowatts of electricity required to get a 50 gallon tank to 140 degrees (68 degrees in).

• That’s $1.08 in propane, $0.83 in electricity.

  As you can see, heating your water with electricity is significantly cheaper. Also note that electric water heaters are a lot cheaper than propane ones.

  My Choice: Kenmore Power Miser 12 (50 gallon)

  I originally thought about getting a tankless electric, but they are not as efficient as tank heaters nor are they as quick to heat up as propane models. I also decided that I wanted to upgrade from 30 gallons (which would run out of hot water regularly if my wife and I took showers quickly in sequence or if we had guests) to 50. Then there was the matter of efficiency. Being the geek that I am, I would not settle for anything less than the highest insulation rating (to reduce standby heat losses) and a fast recovery time (the time it takes to heat the whole tank if it is filled with cold water).

  Before I checked anywhere else, I looked at Sears. Why? Because they are the “big sponsor” behind Extreme Home Makeover and I prefer to spend my money at stores that support such good causes. I was even willing to pay a little extra. As it turns out, they have the cheapest AND the most efficient water heaters! Their Power Miser 12 series has the highest insulation rating I’ve seen (R24), two anode rods (makes the tank last a lot longer), and a 12 year warranty. I ended up paying $270 for a 50 gallon model (signed up for a Sears card and got 10% off). Compare that with a $347 Maytag 50 gallon model that isn’t as good.

  Installation

  The existing water heater was sitting in the corner of a closet in my garage on a platform/drain basin combo. The water pipes came in from behind the unit and the incoming line was literally affixed to the top of the unit. In order to get it out, we had to cut the copper pipe. The propane line came in right next to the copper water pipes (which were sitting on top of CPVC—on a wooden block—unsecured to the wall!) and was attached to a T fitting that continued on to the furnace.

  Before we started removing the old water heater, we ran a 4-wire, 8-gauge electrical cable through the joists across the wall and hooked it up to the electrical box which was only a few feet away. There was an existing dual-20 AMP 220V circuit already in the box for a hot water heater. I suspect that an electric unit was installed before the propane one. What was kind of scary was that there was existing wire hooked up to this 220V circuit and it was only 12 gauge! We have no idea where that line runs, but I’m going to be doing some careful inspection today trying to figure out if there’s anything else in there that is equally as unsafe.

  The 8-gauge cable for the new hot water heater was too thick to fit through an existing opening at the top of the box so we had to re-route some wires. This was annoying and time consuming as we were a cautious sort and only moved one wire at a time. Once the cable was run, we left it unconnected in the box for when we were done hooking up the new water heater.

  Once the electrical prep was done, we turned off the propane at the tank, turned off the water coming into the house, and hooked up a garden hose to drain the water heater. Draining the tank took forever. It is amazing how slowly water moves when there’s no incoming water pressure. While it was draining we cut off the end of incoming water copper pipe and disconnected the outgoing hot water hose from the other one (outgoing hot). We also disconnected the propane pipe, cut it in half, and Solid soldered it shut (capped it). We then re-attached the capped propane pipe to the propane line and tested it for leaks via soap & water. No bubbles, no propane smell. I will be buying a real screw-on cap later this week regardless.

  When the tank was sufficiently drained, Solid threw it over his shoulder and hauled ass out to the edge of the driveway where he triumphantly tossed it for the trash pick up. I’m not sure what he was trying to prove… That he would easily risk seriously injuring himself for trivial tasks, or that he was strong enough to do it. I’ll leave that exercise up to the reader =)

  Once the old tank was out, I cleaned out the area behind it (~15 years of gunk build up) and Solid began work on replacing the fitting we just cut off. He’s surprisingly good with a MAPP torch and lead-free solder. Once it was on, we moved the hot water heater into the closet for a quick double-check before we started permanently attaching things. Turns out that the hoses we bought were just a smidge too short! We needed to raise the water heater a few inches in order for the outgoing hot water hose to reach. Since it was far too late to head to Home Depot for concrete blocks, we had a scavenger hunt.

  I thought I remembered where there were some bricks in the back yard… After scouring the yard with a flashlight for a few minutes, I was surprisingly able to come up with enough bricks to safely support the heater! Oddly enough, there was a whole cache of bricks scattered about at one corner of the yard next to the fence.

  Once the bricks were in place, we laid the drain basin down and then lifted the (much heavier) hot water heater on to our brick platform. It sat very sturdily as we proceeded to hook up and tighten the hose fittings. Once that was done, we proceeded to hook up the electrical wire and enable the “optional 5500 watt” heating element feature (since I bought above-spec cable and have enough amps). This required removing some panels and screwing in a bizarre little metal clip into the side of the heating element controller (note to Sears: WTF?).

  When everything was hooked up and we felt satisfied with the look of things, we turned on the incoming water and were delighted by the sound of the filling tank. No leaks. Compared to the near 45 minutes it took to drain the 30 gallon tank, it only took about 10 minutes to completely fill the 50 gallon one. Once it was filled, we hooked up the wiring in the electrical box and threw the switch to turn it on. Nothing happened.

  I’m not sure what I was expecting. It was extremely anti-climactic. A green LED light on the heater would certainly have been helpful. So we waited.

  After ten minutes, we checked the hot water in the kitchen (which was a bad idea since it has to be the slowest flowing faucet in existence). After about 5 minutes of air sputter and solder-smelling gas coming out, we had warm water! It was a success. The rest is history… Or at least a really long blog post.

  I’ll post pictures later since my wife is monopolizing the machine with the card reader at the moment.

  Some mundane details I didn’t mention:

• We hooked up an electrical box next to the hot water heater and had the 8-gauge wire coming out of it inside some really nice cable armor (flexible PVC tubing). Very professional-looking and it would make those “safety first” people proud (you know, “them”).
• Solid showed me a neat trick when we unhooked the vent: He duct-taped a plastic bag over the end of it and cut a small hole in the bottom. He then proceeded to fill the entire vent with Big Gap foam creating an air-tight seal. Very cool way to seal an open vent… I don’t have to worry about tape coming off or a cap falling down.
• I set the thermostat on the heater to 140 degrees. Why? Because if you set it to anything lower than 133 degrees, legionella bacteria can thrive inside your tank and possibly give you Legionnaires’ Disease. If you have small children I do not recommend this as it is in the “danger zone” for scalding.
• A 1/2 inch drill bit is good enough for 8-gauge, 4-wire electrical if you wiggle it around a lot.
• We used copper U bolts to permanently affix/support the copper piping to the wall. The previous tank installer did a real crappy job.
• The “main valve” coming into the house is far too unassuming. It looked like your typical garden hose spigot. It would have been much easier to find if it were more like the main valve in Joe Versus The Volcano. Now I can empathize with Joe.
• Electrical hot water heaters are absolutely silent. No more “whooooof” and hissing flame sounds.

• My garage is now a huge mess. I need to clean and put stuff away.

Umm… Way to be discreet: After publishing an article reporting corruption in the local police force, Wu Xianghu was beaten to death by FIFTY police officers. Obviously the problem of corruption isn’t limited to a few individuals. What were the police accused of? Charging “illegal bicycle fees”. Obviously the police have a bit more to answer for now.

I’d say, “Don’t let the Man get you down.” but it appears it is too late. THIS is the country we’re sending all our money to?