Looks like we are finally going to get hit with a doozy. I hope to have some pics for you all to view!

http://weather.ec.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?NF-8
http://weather.ec.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?NF9

Seeing as how these are dynamic pages and change regularly here is a little copy and paste for you....

Link 1:
Thursday .. Snow and blowing snow beginning in the morning or near noon. Snow changing to rain in the evening. Snow amount 30 to 40 cm. Rainfall 10 to 20 mm. Wind increasing to east 40 km/h gusting 70 in the morning and to east 70 gusting 110 in the afternoon then diminishing to southeast 50 gusting 80 in the evening. High plus 3.


Link 2:
Environment Canada's Official Canadian Weather Warnings
Ramea-Connaigre
3:58 PM nst Wednesday 18 February 2004

Heavy snowfall warning for
Ramea-Connaigre continued
25 to 40 centimetres of snow are expected over eastern areas on
Thursday with 15 to 20 expected over western areas.


Wind warning for
Ramea-Connaigre continued
Wind gusts up to 110 km/h are expected to develop Thursday afternoon
or evening. Gusts to 140 km/h are forecast in the Wreckhouse area.


An intense winter storm developing off the eastern US seaboard is forecast to move to lie off Nova Scotia late Thursday. 30 to 40 centimetres of snow are expected for southernmost parts of Newfoundland on Thursday with 15 to 30 centimetres expected elsewhere except the Northern Peninsula. Strong easterly winds are also forecast to develop over most of island with gusts up to 110 km/h expected over southern and eastern areas. In the Wreckhouse area gusts may be as high as 140 km/h. With the snow and strong winds near blizzard conditions are expected over most of the island late Thursday. In the southeast however these conditions will ease in the late evening as the snow changes to rain.

Yeah they were hyping some storm we are supposed to get soon too. The more they hype it the lower the chance of it happening

It's started. My girlfriend didn't have work today "just in case" and I go home at 12 (10 minutes time) and don't have to come back.

I've attached a pic to show what's started...



oh, and that's my plow truck there... should be fun!

Well the storm is mostly over (another one should hit any time now!). We had a bunch of snow and wind which means most of the snow is piled in drifts. It also turned to rain while I was out on my brother-in-laws snowmobile. Unfortunately when I got home I pulled out my camera and it didn't want to work right. It's a Canon Digital Elph S330. On preview mode I got nothing, on regular shot mode I get previews and on all other modes I get regular shot mode. I tried drying out the unit overnight but now I get the same except on regular shot mode she switches back and forth from regular shot mode to preview mode as if I were turning the switch back and forth.

Now what really sucks about this is that I have a lot invested in this unit and I don't want to have to replace it with a different model. I have spare batteries, a number of CF cards, case and most expensive of all is the waterproof case I have which I use a lot during the summer. I'm checking out eBay right now and I have a bid on one unit but I am wondering if anyone here has a S330 that they are planning on upgrading from? If so are you willing to sell??

Oh... my plow truck... well it spent about an hour stuck during the hour and a half it was running last night. Right now it sits in my yard stuck on again. I got fed up with her and when she wouldn't move the last time I just shut her down and went inside. This snow is like ice!

replace it with a different model.

The Canon accessories are relatively portable across the range. I'm using the batteries/charger from my Ixus V with my Ixus 400 (I think that the S330 is the same as the Ixus v3, no?)

Most of the accessories I can use with other models. But the waterproof case is the most important accessory to me and I don't want to drop back to a lesser model camera. I can't seem to find another newer model (Newer then the S330) that has the same form factor though.

Here's the case: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2988248846&category=3335

That case only fits the S330, at least that's what BH Photo & Video says.

-Zeke

I tried drying out the unit overnight.....and most expensive of all is the waterproof case I have which I use a lot during the summer.

I find it interesting that you have a waterproof case but you had to dry your camera out. What's up with that? Were you not using the case in the blizzard?

In reply to:

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I find it interesting that you have a waterproof case but you had to dry your camera out. What's up with that? Were you not using the case in the blizzard?

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Ironic, don't ya think?

Actually the Waterproof case easily doubles (if not triples) the actual volume of the camera so I only use it when swimming or out on the WaveRunner.

Got her taken apart now... still no luck after drying her out overnight.

still no luck after drying her out overnight

Put it in the airing cupboard (what do you call these in American?) for a couple of months. Seriously. Analogue cameras can honestly take that long to dry thoroughly. I assume digital cameras are the same.

airing cupboard (what do you call these in American?)

I'm going to take a guess and say we don't have these. What are they?

I'm going to take a guess and say we don't have these. What are they?

It's a cupboard (closet), built into the house and often in or near the bathroom, where the plenum for the hot water system lives. These hot water tanks, about the size of a dustbin (garbage bin), are usually very well-insulated, but not infinitely so, so the cupboard remains warm all day, as compared to the rest of the house. It's a good place for that final drying of clothes which come out of the drier not quite dry, for proving bread dough, and for fixing damp consumer electronics.

Do I need to take one step back and explain how British heating systems work in the first place? What usually happens is that the heating comes on in the morning, heats a tankful of water, and then goes off again. Unless everyone has lots of baths, that reservoir of water is enough to last all day, and then in the evening the heating comes on again and refills(*) the tank with hot. Occasionally you see heat-on-demand water systems, especially in smaller houses or flats built in the last ten years or so, but they're not as popular as hot-water-tank systems -- especially with families, as tank systems have the advantage that the water coming from one hot tap (faucet) doesn't change in temperature if someone else in the house turns a hot tap on.

Peter

(*) Which is a slight oversimplification: the hot water tank is always full of water, as it's connected to the water main at the bottom. As hot water is drawn out from the top, cold water enters at the bottom; sufficiently little thermal mixing occurs over the course of a day that the temperature of the hot water doesn't really decrease until it's all used up and you start getting the cold water. If this happens and you don't want to start the main heating, most hot-water tanks have an "immersion heater" which is a great big electric heating element that heats the top portion of the water; this is reserved for "emergencies" as the main heating -- whether gas, oil, or coal -- is usually much cheaper per hot-water joule than electricity.

I currently have an s330. I am very happy with it, but have been tempted to upgrade to the smaller s400.

I don't have any immediate plans to sell my s330, but I could be swayed into it, in order to help you out.

explain how British heating systems work in the first place

Not to take this off onto a tangent ('cause that never happens), but....

It sounds a lot like most US hot water systems, other than two things. One, the hot water heater isn't usually inside the house. It's almost always in a basement or crawlspace. Although I used to live in an old apartment that had one about the size (linear cabinetspace-wise, anyway) of a dishwasher. Two, the way you put it, it sounds like it's on a timer, which the ones in the US are not. They just detect the temperature of the water in the tank and heat if it's too cold. I'm not an expert, but I think it's probably about half-and-half gas units versus electrical units, with the electrical ones being immersion heaters.

There's a new trend towards on-demand heaters, but I've never seen one outside This Old House, which is the US's premier DIY show, not that anything they do any more could be done by yourself, assuming you even had the mansions that they do it to.

It sounds a lot like most US hot water systems, other than two things. One, the hot water heater isn't usually inside the house. It's almost always in a basement or crawlspace. Although I used to live in an old apartment that had one about the size (linear cabinetspace-wise, anyway) of a dishwasher.

Yes (central heating threads always seem to get as complex as food threads, without actually being as much fun), that's usually the size of the boiler (hot-water heater) in the UK too; the boiler usually isn't upstairs in the airing cupboard though, it's usually downstairs in the kitchen. Most are dishwasher-size, though my house has a very small kitchen and its boiler is half-dishwasher-size, which I hadn't previously seen. From the sound of it, do US ones tend to have the heater and the tank in the same unit?

And tangentially (I've long forgotten what this thread started off being about), is saying "other than two things" instead of "apart from" or "except for" standard US English? It looks very odd in UK English.

Two, the way you put it, it sounds like it's on a timer, which the ones in the US are not. They just detect the temperature of the water in the tank and heat if it's too cold. I'm not an expert, but I think it's probably about half-and-half gas units versus electrical units, with the electrical ones being immersion heaters.

The UK ones are thermostatic too, but even if the thermostat says fire it can be overruled by the timer telling it not to fire. I'd say they're usually used on timer mode except in the depths of winter, when you might switch into 24h mode.

It's all complicated by the fact that, usually, the boiler actually heats a separate "primary" hot-water circuit, which heats the "secondary" circuit for hot tap-water through a heat exchanger. The house's central-heating radiators are pumped directly from the primary circuit, and so, because of the way it's plumbed, you usually can't switch on the central heating without also getting the hot-water heating.

Peter

I think I see one major difference already. The potable hot water (which would also be used for the bath) and the heating water are never (?) from the same source. It's been ages since I've lived in a house heated by hot water, but I seem to remember there being a separate boiler for the radiant heat. Now that I think about it, I could be desperately wrong, though. But I'm pretty sure that the heating water was kept in the tubing and not wasted, so I can't imagine how it could intermix with the potable water. But it might have been heated from the same source (which was an oil-fired furnace, in that case).

Anyway, usually, to reiterate, there's an appliance called a hot water heater that's an upright cylinder about 2 to 3 feet in diameter and about six feet tall. Those dimensions are estimates, and I'm sure there's some variation amongst this general common size, but that's the basic size. They're not on timers. I've never even heard of one with a timer. They try to keep themselves full at all times with hot water. They do have an adjustable thermostat. They're not in the living area of the house at all, unless you happen to have a finished basement, and, even then, it'd usually be found in an unfinished part or at least a utility closet. I've never seen the dishwasher-size in-the-kitchen one I used to have anywhere except in that apartment complex, which was fairly old. I doubt you could find a new one. In houses without a basement, they'd be in the crawlspace. I don't know much about UK home construction, but in the US, the crawlspace is the area within the foundation underneath the lowest floor joists. It's usually quite a cramped space, the floor being the soil and unfinished in any way. There can be entrances both internal to the house and external, though not usually both in the same house. Anyway, in houses with a crawlspace, a normal hot water heater would be too tall to fit, so they often use what's called a low boy heater, which is the same thing, except the tank is a squatter cylinder. It also usually has a lesser capacity.

As far as I know, there's no heat exchanger. The water that gets heated and stored in the tank is the water that comes out of the tap. I don't think that the heating unit and the tank are separate at all. I know on the electric ones that there's an immersion coil at the bottom of the tank. If you remove the coil without draining the tank, you'll get very wet. I'm less sure about the gas ones. But the heater and the tank are certainly in the same single chassis.

I'm sure you've come to the conclusion that it's a fairly wasteful system, and it is. There seems to be a slight trend in newer houses to use just-in-time heaters, but they're not at all common yet.

Edit: There's an illustrated listing of the hot water heaters available at Lowe's, one of the common home improvement stores, here. BTW, the acronym ``DIY'', while possibly understood in the US, is not a common term. But it should be.

is saying "other than two things" instead of "apart from" or "except for" standard US English? It looks very odd in UK English.

I'll have to admit that, looking back, it does read funny. But I can't say that it's at all uncommon in speech. Either of your options would be fine, too. Wait. Is it the ``two things'' part that worries you or the ``other than'' part? The ``two things'' part reads odd to me, but the ``other than'' is perfectly common.

The potable hot water (which would also be used for the bath) and the heating water are never (?) from the same source.

Ah, I wasn't very clear, but it's the same over here. The primary circuit (boiler -> heat exchanger in hot-water tank -> maybe central-heating radiators -> boiler) is a closed system. Potable water lives in the secondary system (water main -> cold-water tank -> hot-water tank with heat exchanger in -> taps).

I don't know much about UK home construction, but in the US, the crawlspace is the area within the foundation underneath the lowest floor joists.

Right, I guessed that's what it was. Most UK homes have suspended (joist-built) floors (the rest have direct-to-earth floors of waterproofed concrete sitting on the soil), but I've never seen one where the "crawlspace" was accessible without serious floorboard-lifting, which I guess is why we don't have a special word for that area. (A common hazard with UK-style construction is accidental sealing of external airbricks built into the underfloor space, leading to moisture buildup and eventually rotting joists.)

I know on the electric ones that there's an immersion coil at the bottom of the tank.

OK, that makes sense if electricity is the primary heat source. UK hot-water tanks, of course, have the immersion coil at the top, as it's not intended ever to heat the whole volume of water.

There's a rather complex diagram at this page (scroll down to "Conventional heating system") that shows the system, even if it's a bit confusing. The "feed and expansion tank" is only there to keep the primary circuit (red/pink) pressurised, and to act as a vent if its pressure rises too high. In normal use there is no flow through the feed-and-expansion tank. The secondary system used for hot-water taps is in yellow; it's fed from the cold-water storage tank, not (as I got wrong above) directly from the water main (light blue).

I'll have to admit that, looking back, it does read funny. But I can't say that it's at all uncommon in speech. Either of your options would be fine, too. Wait. Is it the ``two things'' part that worries you or the ``other than'' part? The ``two things'' part reads odd to me, but the ``other than'' is perfectly common.

It's the "other than". I was going to say something about it looking odd because you couldn't put the reasons themselves there if you hadn't written "two things" (so "This is the same, apart from the location of the heater" sounds OK, but "This is the same, other than the location of the heater" doesn't) -- but I've been staring at it for so long that they both look right to me now. Perhaps I should shut up.

Peter

No Airing Cupboard here. I have a little oil stove that we use as the main source of heat. I blasted the innards with canned air while she was apart and placed her near the stove. Now everything seems to be working properly. Time will tell for sure though.

Thanks Bleach for the offer on the camera!

Rene