Electrical and gas fail

Romex through the right side of furnace, out the left side, then back in with no Romex connectors. And the gas flex through the cabinet is awesome!!!

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Attached Images

Drip for water heater extra feed vent means replacing boiler system?

I recently moved into my house and through the summer there were no issues. Now that the heat has been turning on, I noticed there is water coming from the extra feed vent on the water heater. Both are gas powered and the boiler (Hydrotherm 125k BTU and 30+ years old) is connected to the water heater.

Had a plumber out who said a backflow and expansion tank needs to be added to the water heater. The boiler already has an expansion tank. The cost for this is 500 and I have already spend 200 changing the feed vent.

He was pushing a Navien tankless water heater boiler combo to replace the existing units at a cost of $6k. I've noticed that once the boiler comes to 180 it starts to cycle very frequently so clearly its not very efficient and can expect that to become worse as the cold gets worse.

Given my options not sure what is best to do to maximize where I spend.
Just spend the 500 for expansion tank, backflow and risk the heater continues to function as a hog.
Spend 6k and install a tankless combo.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated from a confused homeowner.

Mayor John Tory? Meet Mayor Boris Johnson

Toronto and London mayors talk about Rob Ford, Uber and Bixi bikes.

We’ve Lost Nearly Half Our Social Referral Traffic in the Last 12 Months

This is a little tough to admit.

I’ve been failing at social media marketing.

It feels weird admitting this, too: We as a Buffer marketing team—working on a product that helps people succeed on social media—have yet to figure out how to get things working on Facebook (especially), Twitter, Pinterest, and more.

And that’s super scary to admit.

What’s happening? I wish I knew! We’ve got lots of theories as to what’s behind our decline, and we’re in the midst of new experiments to see if we can move the needle on social media. Moreso I have some thoughts on what’s at play here for Buffer on social media—and maybe for you, too.

We’ve lost nearly half our social referral traffic in the last year

Yep, you read that right!

Almost half as many people find our blog from social media as last year at this same time. 

Twitter is down 43 percent.

Facebook is down 53 percent.

LinkedIn is down 45 percent.

Google+ is down 72 percent.

Here’s the overall traffic graph for social referral traffic, with the orange line representing last October and the blue line representing this October. For 29 of the 30 days in the period, last year outperformed this year — and often waaaay outperformed!

All told, we’ve lost nearly 100,000 people who no longer get to the Buffer blog from social media.

What happened?

My best guesses at what’s going on here

I don’t have the answer for what’s gone wrong. I wish I did!

I’ve run through so many different scenarios about what could be at play here.

Maybe we need to hire a full-time social media manager to really devote some time and energy to doing great work on social media. (I often fail to prioritize social media sharing and treat it as an afterthought, which is no good at all.)

Maybe I’m no good at social media marketing. (Impostor syndrome to the max!)

Maybe our sharing ratio is off: Too much  content, not enough conversation.

Maybe everyone else is failing, too! (I sure hope not.)

Maybe we need to post more often.

Maybe we need to post less often.

Maybe, maybe, maybe …

It’s quite the spiral!

A pretty significant change we’ve made to our social media sharing is a move away from the productivity and lifehacking content that did so well on social media in the past (articles like The Origin of the 8-Hour Workday and Ways to Be Happier). We now share mostly social media tips and strategies, which are great and helpful but maybe not quite as virally shareable.

The one area that seems to stick out most in my mind is that maybe social media itself is changing and I’ve simply not yet figured out how. Could be, right? Technology changes so fast and social media changes even faster, with new networks popping up constantly and new strategies being discovered daily. I’ve noticed that the best practices we share and research studies we report on for many of our Buffer blog posts can be old news almost by the time we dig them up.

And if it’s true that social media is changing, my hunch is that the center of these changes lies one thing we tend to create a lot of here at Buffer: content.

The content crush and what social media is doing about it

There is just so much content out there now.

Consider the hundreds of thousands of quality blog posts that are published daily (on WordPress sites alone last year, the daily average was 1.5 million new posts). Then add in all the multimedia content: photos, videos, GIFs, and graphics to support the original posts.

And then add all the user-generated content as well. Status updates and personal pictures shared to social networks sit right alongside Buffer blog posts and BuzzFeed articles in your timeline.

It leads to scenarios like this:

Every time someone visits the Facebook News Feed there are on average 1,500 potential stories from friends, people they follow and Pages for them to see.

And this stat is over two years old. Imagine how things have grown since!

Mark Schaefer of the {grow} blog has called this content shock, the idea that we’ve passed the point where content consumption has peaked and content creation has continued taking off.

And it seems we’re feeling this so acutely on social media now.

This crush of content eventually leads all social networks to a huge decision:

Should the feed be filtered with an algorithm?

Facebook arrived at this point years ago and has been fine-tuning its algorithm ever since. This Time article has a great way of explaining the algorithm:

automated software that tracks each user’s actions to serve them the posts they’re most likely to engage with

In essence, Facebook is guessing—highly sophisticated, very educated guessing—about what you’ll like.

And they’re guessing because they have to. They’ve found it to be a really tough user experience when people log on to see what’s happening with their friends and end up sifting through dozens of page posts to see the ones they most care about. Likewise with those who just want to see what their favorite brands and personalities are up to.

Facebook reached the point where it simply couldn’t show you everything.

Other social networks are getting there, too (if they haven’t already).

What this means for the future of social media marketing

Whether it’s a highly-filtered feed with an algorithm at its core or an overflowing feed full of anything and everything, it’s getting harder and harder for traditional social media marketing to keep a foothold with its audience.

And rather than blame the algorithms for my poor performance on social, I think a better way of thinking about it is this:

I’m failing on social media because I’m failing to adapt as fast as the social network themselves are adapting.

I see a couple roads forward:

1. Pay for more reach on social media.
2. Get better at connecting with your audience.

The first one sounds easy—costly, but easy.

The second one feels enormously difficult—free, but hard.

1. Pay for reach

You can improve your reach right this minute with just a few dollars. For $5, we reached 787 more people on Facebook—less than a penny a person!

Reach seems easy.

And that’s often the road that many marketers will take by default. If organic reach is down, then paid reach can help fill it back up again.

By the same token, there’s so much more at play here. Paid ad professionals are worth every dollar they earn because doing paid ads well—advertising to people who aren’t expecting you, and getting a positive reply—is so tough.

Watching our steady decline of social traffic to the Buffer blog, I’d prefer to get more engagement along with more reach on a Facebook or Twitter ad. I’d love for people to not only see our post but also to click on it and to engage with us.

So my option becomes learning how to do social media ads really well—messaging, tactics, technical, everything.

2. Get better at connecting with your audience

These are a couple of my dreams:

What if we had a Twitter feed so compelling that people wouldn’t just hope our tweets showed up in their timeline but they would go directly to twitter.com/buffer all day every day to see absolutely everything we tweeted?

What if we had a Facebook page that felt so uniquely valuable, personal, and intimate that our posts arrived in the News Feed as frequently as birthdays and baby announcements?

I truly believe it can happen.

(And I truly don’t know if I’m the right person to make it so!)

There are examples of pages and brands who are succeeding on social media without needing a paid boost. How? Why? Where? I feel like I’m watching a magic show, and I’m so inspired and stupefied at how it all happens.

But it does happen.

Brain Pickings has over 3 million likes to its page.

Gary Vaynerchuk gets over 7,000 views per video.

I believe there is a way to get organic reach on social media, and as soon as I figure out how I will race to share it with you.

We’ve seen it in fits and starts with some of the strategies we try. We’re going to keep trying more and more (paid ads included). Here’s a plan.

What we’re going to try

Everything is on the table for us at this stage to try. We’re hiring a full-time social media manager, which we feel will make a huge difference. In addition, these are a few actionable tips we’re looking to implement:

1. Make it easy for people to share our content

This involves showing share buttons to both desktop and mobile visitors (HT: Sumome plugin for the mobile buttons). We’re also looking at adding “Click to Tweet” quotes in new articles.

2. Design beautiful, shareable visuals

Have you seen the social media share numbers on the Canva blog? They’re knocking it out of the park!  This one, for example, has been pinned 26,000 times!

Seems like we could make a lot of headway on getting our articles share-ready for social media by asking for some design help from the Buffer design team. I may have maxed out my design skills!

3. Share just to share

This is kind of a weird one. Whenever I look through the stats of some of our top users at Buffer, I notice that so many of their great social media updates are simply photos and text. No links. No cta or purpose other than to connect with their audience.

In the short term, this won’t do much to change the social media referral traffic (we won’t be getting any traffic from non-link updates). But maybe it’ll be enough to support the community and build a more engaged audience over time?

What are you trying?

Does this decline in social media engagement resonate with you at all?

What are you currently up to on social media? What’s working? What’s not?

It’d be amazing to have the chance to learn from you here. Feel free to leave any thoughts at all in the comments below, and I’d love to jump in and join the conversation!

Image sources: Pablo, IconFinder, Unsplash, {grow}

The post We’ve Lost Nearly Half Our Social Referral Traffic in the Last 12 Months appeared first on Social.

Weil Mclain popping noise

I recently went on a no heat service call on a Weil Mclain hydronic heat system. It is an older system and the thermocouple was bad. Replacing that got the system working, but the homeowner also said it pops a lot. I am not real familiar with these systems so I am looking for a little guidance. The systems pressure looks good. The area I am in has hard water. Also I could only find one bleeder valve on the system and it has three zones, two on main floor and one in the basement. does this sound like an issue of buildup in the system? If so any recommendations on how to treat?

Check out Most Reliable Furnace Installation Kitchener Waterloo Professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMxVtly89hc

http://www.aircor.ca

Phone
(519)220-0701

Heating Contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge

Expert HVAC Advice for New Home Owners in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

With bitter cold winters and baking hot summers every year, nothing affects the comfort of folks living in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge, Ontario areas greater than a disturbance inside the Heating units.

The sad thing is that unless the heater fails in the midst of a blizzard or the air-conditioner stops working in the heart of a heat wave, a lot of people altogether ignore their heating unit, AC unit or in other words their HVAC equipment.

After they usually are not kept in great shape, HVAC units become extremely costly to residential owners. The costs will primarily be determined by the kind of HVAC system employed in a home, as well as the environment in and around KW and Cambridge areas.

Dirty filters, sooty flues, old thermostats, unlubricated fan motors and non airtight ductwork can wind up lowering the efficiency of a Heating & Cooling equipment by up to 25% or more.

Some of these maintenance procedures are actually quite simple although some must be performed by a professional technician.

For very old units, HVAC contactors need to be hired to render their professional services.

Here are a few great tips that certain should take into consideration while managing HVAC systems.

Routine going over of the system.

Most people tend to think that managing these systems is an extremely complex task.

However, this may not be the case as a number of them really need a little bit of attention. For example, a pump only requires annual servicing by an experienced technician.

He'll check the filters and belt, and replace them if their time is due. The technician should also inspect the wiring and oil the mechanical parts.  

With the appropriate specialists, furnace repair in Kitchener, Ontario really shoud be a super easy task. The gas-fired, forced air heating system also has a few simple requirements to function at full capacity and with the greatest efficiency.

The furnace filters must be changed from a few weeks throughout the heating season. The circulating fan must be oiled on a yearly basis. The technician should then be contacted to modify the burner, check the heat exchanger, and the flue and ducts once yearly.

Others like the oil-fired boiler require regular yearly maintenance regarding flue cleaning, adjustment and cleaning of the required jet, and fuel-filter change only to mention a a portion of the involved components. Such tasks are best handled by way of a skilled professional.

With regards to AC units, maintenance is not as intensive as those performed on heating systems. At the end of a cooling season, filters ought to be cleaned or replaced, the system vacuumed, and also the motor lubricated. When the unit is not cooling properly, a technician must be called to check on the pressure level of the refrigerant.

A good idea is for homeowners to prepare for servicing prior to the heating or cooling season beginning. It is because they can get better attention and are more flexible when scheduling a timely appointment.

Also, it's important to bear in mind when evaluating an organization that maintains such systems in Canada, you should be happy with a specialist that designs, installs and services the machine getting used inside a house.

The full-service company is going to be up-to-date in relation to the latest advancements for sale in the field.

used up until here in HM description!!



Homeowners should check if the company carries a workers’ comp plan along with a liability insurance plan. Together with these, they need to also seek advice from their loved ones to know the nature of work with the maintenance company.

A top quality service provider will always have an emergency number that is certainly reachable all hours for the day and night, all week, and adequate technicians which will respond even if your temperature is horrible and the calls have piled up.

Choosing a whole new system.

An average HVAC system should come with an understood average lifespan of between 15 and 20 years.

People which might be old systems which may have been used for more than two decades, may need to have their equipment assessed.

As much as replacing an HVAC system might be a costly affair, modern systems run considerably more efficiently and supply impressive services. Most contractors managing HVAC, have specialized in installing and designing the systems. It is therefore necessary to consider a service-oriented and knowledgeable contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

This search can start with family, friends and neighbors, asking which companies replaced their air-conditioning and heating system. If they are content with their installation, the homeowner may now call the contractor to speak with him in regards to the heating situation in their home.

The homeowner also should really ensure that she or he takes on an organization that installs products from a minimum of two manufactures.

In choosing a specialist, homeowners should keep in mind that skill and experience is prime to be able to size an HVAC unit by matching it to some house and existing ducting.

Poor design results in a system that doesn't give you a constant temperature in all of the rooms and incurs more costs more when operating.

Sometimes, the problem may be more serious, poor design in very tight houses which might be with duct work my lead to backdrafting. This can be a really dangerous situation whereby the flue gases get sucked back into the home.

Heat-loss calculation.

Contractors should offer heat-loss calculation, a process which is used to estimate the Btu capacity necessary to heat or cool a house. The calculation includes the kind and level of insulation in walls, floors and attic and location of windows and doors from the residence.

The information will then be combined together with the regional weather conditions of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or anywhere in Ontario to determine the size of the unit required.

Various software have made mtss is a easy calculation. Technicians who are not able to perform this often turn out specifying oversize equipment which can make the homeowner incur unnecessary costs.


Check out Furnace Repairs in Kitchener Waterloo video below;
https://www.youtube.com/embed/c_EoBnlGvqQ

Energy advice from a trusted professional.

In the sizing of a HVAC unit, a specialist will advise the homeowner in regards to the various energy upgrades he is able to invest in such as adding an additional layer of insulation about the attic.  

Such advice will allow him to purchase a smaller system.

To see all of our videos for HVAC Contractors Kitchener Waterloo click directly below.https://goo.gl/nZ9PKl

Hey there. Check out Best Furnace Maintenance Kitchener Ontario Companies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hSg-FqZg2Y

http://www.aircorheatingandairconditioning.com

Dial 519-220-0701

Heating Contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge

Expert HVAC Advice for New Home Owners in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

With the freezing winters and sizzling hot summers each year, nothing affects the contentment of folks moving into Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge, Ontario areas greater than a problem inside the Heating systems.

The sad thing is the fact that unless the heater stops working during a blizzard or ones air-conditioner fails to work in the midst of a heat wave, too many folks altogether ignore their heating unit, AC or in other words their heating and cooling system.

After they are just not kept in good condition, HVAC units become very expensive to homeowners. The costs will primarily depend upon the sort of Heating and Cooling system used in a home, and the environment in the Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge areas.

Clogged filters, sooty flues, old thermostats, unlubricated fan motors and unsealed ductwork can end up affecting the efficiency of ones HVAC unit by up to twenty five percent.

Some of these maintenance practices are quite easy and some must be performed by a trained technician.

For extremely old systems, HVAC companies have to be hired to render their services.

Here are some important tips that one should take into consideration when dealing with HVAC equipment.

Routine going over of the mechanical parts.

Most folks often believe that coping with these systems is definitely a complex task.

However, it isn't really the case as some of them really need a small amount of attention. For example, a pump only needs annual servicing with a technician.

He'll almost certainly look at the filters and belt, and replace them if need be. The technician also should inspect the wiring and oil the mechanical parts.  

With the right technicians, furnace repair in Kitchener, ON can be a quite simple task. The gas-fired, forced air heating unit also has a few simple requirements to function at full capacity and with the greatest efficiency.

The furnace filters have to be changed after having a couple of months throughout the heating season. The circulating fan ought to be oiled on a yearly basis. The technician should then be called to alter the burner, check the heat exchanger, as well as the flue and ducts once every year.

Others including the oil-fired boiler demand annual maintenance in terms of flue cleaning, adjustment and cleaning within the jet, and fuel-filter change just to mention a few components. Such tasks are best handled by way of a trained professional.

When it comes to AC units, maintenance is not as intensive as those carried out on heating systems. At the end of a cooling season, the filters needs to be cleaned or replaced, the device vacuumed, and also the motor lubricated. When the unit is not cooling properly, a technician must be called to confirm the pressure level of the refrigerant.

It is preferable for homeowners to set up for servicing ahead of the heating or cooling season beginning. This is because they can get better attention and can be more flexible when scheduling for an appointment.

Furthermore, it can be important to make note of when evaluating an organization that maintains such systems in Canada, one should settle for a contractor that designs, installs and services the machine being used in the house.

The full-service company will likely be up-to-date in terms of the most recent advancements for sale in the sector.

used up until here in HM description!!



Homeowners should check whether or not the company carries a workers’ contingency plan if they are injured along with a insurance plan. In addition to these, they should also seek advice from neighbors to know the nature of labor from the maintenance company.

A quality supplier will invariably have an unexpected emergency number that's reachable all hours of the day and night, all week, and adequate technicians which will respond even when the weather conditions are very bad and the calls have accumulated.

Choosing a whole new HVAC system.

A normal Heating system should come with an understood average lifespan which can be between 15 and two decades.

People that may have old systems which were used for more than 2 decades, may need to get their equipment assessed.

As much as replacing an HVAC system may be a costly affair, modern systems run a lot more efficiently and offer impressive services. Most contractors coping with HVAC, have focused on installing and designing the systems. It is therefore necessary to consider a service-oriented and knowledgeable contractor in Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge.

This search may start with family, friends and neighbors, asking them which companies replaced their Furnace Heating system. Should they be satisfied with their installation, the homeowner may now call the contractor to talk to him regarding the hvac situation that is happening in his home.

The homeowner also needs to make sure that she takes on a business that installs products from at the very least two manufactures.

When choosing a contractor, homeowners should keep in mind that skill and experience is fundamental so that you can size an HVAC unit by matching it to a house and existing ducting.

Poor design produces a system that won't provide the house with constant temperature in the rooms and incurs more costs more when operating.

Sometimes, your situation may be more severe, poor design in very tight houses that are served by duct work my bring about backdrafting. This can be a really dangerous situation whereby the flue gases get sucked into the home.

Heat-loss calculation.

Contractors should offer heat-loss calculation, a process that is used to estimate the Btu capacity needed to heat or cool a house. The calculation includes the type and level of insulation in walls, floors and attic and location of windows and doors from the home.

The data will be combined with the regional climatic conditions of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or anywhere in Ontario to determine the size of the unit required.

Various software make video easy calculation. Technicians who are not able to perform this often wind up specifying oversize equipment which can make the homeowner incur unnecessary costs.


Take a Look At Furnace Repairs in Kitchener Waterloo video in following link:
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata&v=c_EoBnlGvqQ

Energy advice from an expert.

In the sizing of the HVAC unit, a professional will advise the homeowner in regards to the various energy upgrades he can invest in including adding yet another layer of insulation on the attic.

Such advice will permit him to get a smaller unit.

For all our HVAC Contractors Kitchener Waterloo click below;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrRFiB0v29EBuoPUXREZPyoK-W7hPjzOf