I just had an abortive OS upgrade on the web/mail server. This produced an outage that lasted longer than predicted because someone changed something in the new Ubuntu Focal (or, should I say, Fecal) LTS, where postfix and dovecot can’t authenticate a connection to mysql database, which is interesting because PHP applications authenticate just fine, and it’s not an account/privileges problem because that’s the first thing I tried and it did nothing. Fortunately, I created a snapshot of the working system on AWS, and after two attempts of re-installation, I threw the towel and restored everything to Bionic, which is why everything works now. I think Linux and IT community in general have a problem with SJW infestation, and they are more preoccupied with trigger warnings, preferred pronouns and similar bullshit nobody cares for, instead of actually making shit work, or, to be more precise, keeping things functional and not fucking them up in newer revisions. Nobody gives a shit whether you think you’re saving the world by consuming copious amounts of soy and avocado products and driving electric; just don’t break postfix/dovecot connection to mysql, and it will be fine.
In addition, the condo I’m renting was damaged by the Zagreb earthquake in March and the damage keeps manifesting in various ways, from plaster occasionally falling from the ceiling, to, more worryingly, hydro-insulation on the roof being cracked, which resulted in two separate points of water dripping through the ceiling after strong rains, and it’s now rain season. I initially reported the damage to the landlord more than a month ago, still no repairs. I’m both fixing stuff that keeps falling apart around me (for instance, yesterday I changed the faucet in the kitchen which fell apart, and the washing machine is so loud it’s actually worse than a jet plane on takeoff, which hints at bearing failure in the near future), and trying to have backup plans, but this is really not something I want to be dealing with now, when the economy is about to shit itself and everybody seems to be preparing for some kind of a genocidal world war.
I almost forgot, the water here turned out to be diluted sewage – a neighbor did a bacteriological test and you don’t want to know, so I had to subscribe to a service that delivers 19l water tanks on demand so we at least have a source of good drinkable water. Oh goody.
🙁 Officially, about half (!) of water in Zagreb leaks out into the ground due to old pipes. Unofficially, official numbers are hugely understated. And my source is a guy who among other things installs water filters on city fountains so they don’t clog. Especially in your part of the town – actually, in the whole northern part of the town, water gets pumped to a higher ground, and in the process gets contaminated with sand and dirt from leaky pipes. In my part of the town (downtown), I regularly find lead when I have the water filter cleaned, even though officially lead pipes were used only for sewage long before they were banned everywhere. And my building doesn’t have lead pipes, lead pipes are upstream below the streets.
Well, on the plus side, my drinking water supply in case of an emergency that includes utility disruption has now been increased by four 19l tanks, at max, and one at minimum. Also, I had the washing machine fixed. But I am definitely going to retry getting a mortgage loan and GTFO before the building crashes on my head. Also, in case of any kind of emergency, the logistics of this condo are terrible; for instance, there’s almost no storage space, everything is utility-based, so if the utilities fail, there are no backups or failsafes. It’s definitely not what I would have designed, this is designed under the assumption that everything will work great forever, even the kitchen is not designed for people who actually cook their own food. The assumption of the condo is a wealthy family that wants lots of open clear space and light, but everybody’s at work for most of the day, and then they eat out or order pizza. As it was originally designed, if there’s no utility gas, you have no heating in the winter, and thermal insulation is so terrible I probably have the world record heating bill per square meter. I improved things by getting four additional AC split systems, one for each room, which gives us the option of granular heating, just the amount needed in just the right rooms, which reduced the heating expense over the winter so much I think it already paid for the AC units; also, it was absolutely terrible in the summer, completely unlivable with temperatures above 40°C, with only one token AC unit in the kitchen that is absolutely laughable for the volume of the place. Basically, the design is the exact opposite of passive, and if the utilities fail it almost immediately becomes unlivable. Also, I don’t have a garage so the cars are parked under trees and are constantly filthy and under some form of decomposing biomatter. All in all, I’m not terribly happy with the situation in the normal circumstances, but after the earthquake and the damage it became very marginal, where I would immediately bail out if a realistic option showed itself, but I’m not happy about renting something else again, I’m too old for that shit and it introduces a significant risk factor of the landlord, who can be an asshole and then things have a tendency to go sour.
I’m not happy with the situation: winter is at the doorstep, and I have a leaky roof, and earthquake-damaged building structure, and I also have marginally drinkable tap water. Oh yeah, I forgot, black mold forms on the windows in the winter months due to condensation, and I have to treat it with bleach to keep it under control, and it just can’t be healthy; some of my health issues in the last decade look like they can be traced back to black mold poisoning and hormonal/immune system damage. Now people will say, why didn’t you GTFO already, it sounds terrible. Well, it’s kind of terrible, yes, but you try to move five people, two of which are children who went to primary school up until this fall, so moving them would introduce more problems than it would solve. They are both in high school now so the situation is more flexible. Also, I need lots of space for five people to live comfortably and that isn’t the easiest thing to find here if you’re renting, at least not for normal amounts of money; I made calculations and it turns out that a mortgage loan for buying land and building the entire thing from scratch would actually be cheaper than renting, that’s how bad the prices are. It’s apparently assumed that if you need to rent that much space, that you’re an embassy or something similar, loaded with money, so they try to milk you dry.
So yes, that’s the stuff I’m dealing with.
DT> Oh yeah, I forgot, black mold forms on the windows in the winter months
DT> due to condensation, and I have to treat it with bleach to keep it under
DT> control, and it just can’t be healthy;
You may improve that by controling humidity – some years ago, I’ve had old warped wooden drafty windows and balcony doors replaced with plastic ones – gone were the drafts, thermal isolation got better; however, as you say – condensation and mold growth appeared. After few monthly bleach treatments, i’ve got this dehumidifier (and some hygrometers like these to measure the effects) – it works almost every night and sucks a couple liters from the air, it is better than dehumidifying AC mode; no more condensation, humidity by the windows dropped from 80+ to under 50%, and mold got under control – I still have to bleach off few 1-2cm spots from coldest corners, but just 0-2 times a season.
Also, a pharmacist recommended 3% H2O2 instead of bleach, if you don’t appreciate that swimming pool chloral miasma 🙂 It’s allegedly equally effective – I’ll try that next time.
(Edit: sorry, can’t seem to format links to disqus’s satisfaction)
Hi Nenad. 🙂
That’s a great point, humidity is a huge issue that’s basically ignored in both new and the old buildings. In the ideal world, every room would have a recuperator, which is radiator+slow fan that brings in the fresh air, while recycling room temperature to pre-heat (in the winter) or cool (in the summer) the outside air. Basically, you don’t even need to open your windows and lose heat in the winter or bring in hot air in the summer to have fresh air, and it also eliminates this type of mold that happens when you hermetically seal the room with the new windows with high R-values. Of course, this is pretty much impossible to install when renting, as it typically requires drilling a hole through the facade. This link provides a good overview of the subject; I apologize for Croatian, I wasn’t able to find a good link in English, partly because in the US, this is usually done with a whole house humidifier/dehumidifier.
And of course, even the best radiant low-temperature heating system will reduce humidity during winter months, so you have to humidify it. I try to avoid cheap evaporators because they will typically over-humidify the air. Also, with hard water, you’re also likely to have white dust from scale on your furniture. Humidifier such as this one (disclaimer: I haven’t tried this specific model), that basically blow cold air to evaporate water naturally, work much better. And if you have ceiling fans, they can help with heat distribution by mixing air in the room during winter (if they can be set to turn the other way).
Hi Domchi 🙂
good link; it led me further to wiki with this bit on Herr Pettenkofer: (paraphrased) “in conflict with Koch’s theory, he consumed bouillon laced with large quantity of vibrio cholerae…” – you rarely see such scientific integrity today 🙂
Anyway, it is interesting what forest of fans and wind speeds would you need to have inside a home with such “thermal bridges” for windows as Danijel has to achieve thermal and moisture balance.
🙂 Alas, I suspect his case is a lost battle. I had a similar setup at one point, thermally efficient kitchen windows mounted in a metal frame. Frame was dripping wet during the whole winter.
I have 3 Xiaomi air filtration units strategically placed around the condo, because the pollen allergies are a real problem for most of the year and it also helps to remove dust from the air, and they report temperature and humidity, and it actually isn’t high enough during the winter months. It’s in the low 60s for most of the year, and falls to the mid-50s in the winter, and when it gets lower than that we actually have to additionally humidify the air to help with breathing. The reason for the condensation is that, in their infinite wisdom, the architects put aluminium windows on the building, and, as one would expect from one of the most thermally conductive materials in the universe, it gets very cold and then, of course, all the water from the air condenses on the windiws, which also explains the terrible thermal efficiency. As water condenses there, the humidity inside of course drops, which becomes obvious because static electricity starts sparking everywhere and I count myself fortunate for not having fried equipment with it. Also, as humidity drops, the dry air irritates the eyes and the upper respiratory tract, and, of course, then there’s the mold. So, I don’t have to dehumidify the air, the windows made of heatsink material do that for me with incredible effectiveness, to the point where lack of humidity is such a problem I have to actualy introduce more water with the Oskar evaporators.
Wow. Well, so much for that as a quick and easy fix for the mold. Though, since you already have a home full of gadgets for microclimate, what’s a few more – have you looked into UVC light (not literally, obviously 🙂 ? I’ve had tentative plans to kludge some portable gooseneck lamp with UVC LED, but that got postponed indefinitely, since dehumidifying solved the problem.
Only now I accidentally found that disqus held this message “because it contains a link”; I manually approved it now. God forbid something contains a link.
I actually considered UV light, but such a thing would be harmful for the eyes and I decided not to play with it.