I can't even spray down my outside windows or vehicle because the water leaves hard water spots all over surfaces. It is quite bad here. I lived somewhere with soft water before so I definitely noticed a difference. @Binary mentioned the hash browns in the waffle maker thing. They are awesome but now I need to go thrifting and find backup waffle makers so I can make a ton of hash browns all at once.
Oh, good point. After my first water heater ate through the sacrificial anode rod in 5 years (there is a longer life one recommended for hard water, but I didn't have that), and then the bottom was gone after 7 years, I replaced that mofo with a Rheem Marathon water heater. If you have an electric water heater, I recommend this above all others by a mile, but if you have electric water heater AND hard water? Not even a question - never use anything else. Lifetime warranty, more energy efficient, heats up faster, stays hot longer, no sacrificial rod, etc.
Damn, I just looked that up. Those are badass. The price is incredible considering they say one could last 90 years. I don't have hard water and our water heater that popped over the summer was a little over 19 years old. I wish I would have looked into those a little more.
A lot of the power companies, especially if they are co-ops, offer $400 - $500 rebates, if you install one, because they are so efficient. They usually coat $4-500 more, last time I checked. I ordered a large one for my house from Home Depot, but bought one for a house I flipped from a small power company in the next county over. Totally worth it. I've had mine for 15 years and it's rolling on bulletproof.
One thing I think is coming is the idea of using household appliances, in communication with a smart grid, as a form of "heat battery". Things like water heaters, and even whole home house/cooling, can be timed to operate during times of low power demand (and thus low price), and rely on their insulation to hold the energy until the time of actual usage. So you can heat a tank of water overnight, and then use it during the day, or cool down the house preemptively when electricity is cheap, rather than running the AC when it gets too hot. There are a few minor changes that make this more convenient for end users: Keep the water in the heater much hotter, and have the thermometer control a mixing valve rather than the actual sitting temperature of the water. This allows you to store more energy in the water, and require fast heating after emptying the tank far less frequently. Set up the tank so that the heat distribution is not homogenous when heating/discharging. So if you need 1/8 of a tank of hot water, you don't need to wait until the whole tank comes up to temperature, but rather only when the hottest 1/8 of the tank does. We may not be quite there yet, but we're close, and I'd want a tank capable of that future. Oh, and to use a heat pump instead of gas or a resistive heating element.
I have a Rheem heat pump water heater. It has a ton of insulation and smart features to maximize your energy use. It's nice being able to change or look at settings from my phone. Got a $600 rebate from the power company too.
That's what I'm looking at a Powerwall setup for. Don't need to worry about the individual appliances, or worry about the ones that can't do that kind of "smart"... be smart with the whole house main supply. Charge it up from solar and or cheap grid after hours, then use it as you need to throughout the day as needed.
A true electric battery is great if you can justify the cost (or if aluminum-ion batteries became the dirt cheap batteries of our dreams), but a lot of households won't be able to justify that cost, but could still be operated as a heat-battery using appliances they already need.
So i am the only one in our house(me,wife,2x kids) that isn't sick. So i guess i turn into an asshole when i get my sleep disturbed. I have absolutely no recollection of saying that but i guess my wife was coughing all night and at one point told her to "go sleep on the couch if you can't stop coughing".
My (now ex) wife and I had separate bedrooms. No regrets. I could never sleep well with someone else in the bed. Let's fuck, cuddle, but then get the fuck out and go to your own room, I got some sleep-sprawling to do.
My wife and I have separate blankets and that was a total win. All of the hugs and snugs, none of the fighting. Occasionally get that cold foot sneaking over to steal my precious heat.
This is the way. Pre-baby my husband and I each had our own double/queen sized down comforter. None of that 2 twins bullshit. But now there's a tiny gremlin in the bed so we can't sleep in a giant nest of pillows and duvets and suffocation hazards anymore and it's a goddamn tragedy.
I snore like a freight train and toss and turn so much I can shift the entire bed and mattress. My wife on the other hand wakes up if a fly sneezes. I probably spend 60% of my sleeping hours in the “guest “ room. Works out fine.
Same deal with me and my wife. We actually got a sleep number mattress and that has done wonders for us. I'll still sleep in the quest room sometimes if she has a really crazy work schedule (she works in the ER).