Adventures in Sex City

By Jeff Ivany on March 10, 2010

On the way to work this morning I was listening to Catfish and Dave on Live 88.5 and they were talking to a member of the Middlesex-London Health Unit about a new web based game they created.  It’s called Adventures in Sex City and is intended to help teach young adults about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and misinformation about sex.

The game is available through getitonlondon.com and is pretty good. It’s basically a quiz type game with 20 some questions about various ways to avoid STIs and other sex myths. I learned a few things myself!

In Adventures in Sex City players can assume the role of one of the four superheroes who make up the Middlesex-London Sex Squad:

  • Captain Condom, a scientist, who, after a freak lab accident is now half man, half condom;
  • Power Pap, a sexually active woman who believes strongly in getting tested  regularly;
  • Willy the Kid, because he never grew taller than four feet, he joined the Sex Squad to prove that size doesn’t matter;
  • Wonder Vag, a virgin who believes in true love and promotes abstinence until marriage.

By answering sexual health questions correctly, players can defeat the evil Sperminator, who threatens to infect Sex City. While playing the game, players can click on the Myth Maniac, a mysterious ally of the Sex Squad, who demystifies commonly held beliefs and myths about sexual health.

The information is great, the game is really just a quiz and the graphics/characters are all rather tongue-in-cheek. I found it to be pretty decent and would be a good place to point your kids after they’ve hit puberty. Of course, as the spokesperson mentioned on the radio, there have been mixed reactions to the game.  Some people apparently think it’s too graphic. I’m guessing that some of those people also think their teenagers aren’t sexually active.

Anyhoo, check it out!

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Direct Energy Public Relations

By Jeff Ivany on March 9, 2010

I recently posted about the impending Direct Energy Water Heater Rental Rate Increase that I was notified about in one of my bills late last year. As it turned out, the new advertised rate seems to only apply to new rentals. Our monthly rate increase was less than one dollar (which is still annoying but reasonable) which was no where near the $22 per month suggested by the bill insert.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from a person who works for the Direct Energy Public Relations team.  She wanted to make sure I was receiving the “correct” rental price and was willing to have my account checked to ensure it was correct. After exchanging a few emails, I declined having my account checked. History has taught me that sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone. I didn’t need them to discover I wasn’t paying enough (or something like that). ;)

Now, the interesting part about this is I’m one blogger complaining about a potential price increase and Direct Energy has people in their Public Relations team who are actively searching the internet for just this sort of thing. That actually makes me really happy. I didn’t expect anyone to contact me when I wrote the original article, it was more of a complaint about a potential massive increase.  I fully expected to have to contact Direct Energy and complain (and of course, blog about the whole process) if and when the massive increase actually happened.

Anyways, thanks Crystal of the Direct Energy Public Relations team for contacting me. I can only hope that other companies (ahem, Bell, I’m looking at you) can learn from this approach.

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Virgin Mobile, please give Haiti my expired minutes

By Jeff Ivany on January 19, 2010

With the recent catastrophe in Haiti, there’s been a whole lot of requests for donations to help out. I was really impressed to see that the American Red Cross setup a way to donate simply by text messaging (text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10). Unfortunately, for those of us in Canada, it doesn’t work.

Virgin Mobile Canada sent me a text yesterday to indicate that I could donate $5 to the Salvation Army for Haiti by texting HAITI to 45678. This is fantastic.

There’s one more way I think Virgin Mobile could help. We recently (on January 12th ironically) let one of our pre-paid Virgin Mobile phones expire. This was because we no longer need it.  The kicker is that the phone still had pre-paid minutes on it which end up just staying in Virgin Mobile’s pocket.

I think it would be really fantastic if Virgin Mobile would let us donate our recently expired pre-paid balance to help Haiti.

I sent a comment to them through their website but have yet to receive a response.

I’m not trying to make Virgin out to be some bad, uncaring company, I just think it would be really nice for them to allow this to happen.  Had there been a way to send a donation to some Canadian aid organization via text message on January 12, I might have sent enough to use up the majority of the pre-paid balance.

Update: I was hoping to be able to post an update that Virgin was going to donate our expired minutes but, I can’t. Unfortunately, over a week later, I haven’t even received a response from Virgin even though they claim to respond to everything within 48 hours.

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Hydronic Heating System Information

By Jeff Ivany on January 2, 2010

In my previous Hydronic Heating Coil Replacement post, Jim asked about more information on my heating system. I’ve finally had the opportunity to collect some of that information and try to crunch the numbers. I can’t guarantee that any of what follows is correct – even after almost 5 years, I’m still learning about my heating system as it was installed by the previous owner of my house.

My house is a 1½ story,  approximately 1900 sq-ft of finished space and another 600 sq-ft of un-finished basement space.

My source of hot water is a Polaris Natural Gas hot water tank, model PR-100-34-2NV.  This is a 34 gallon tank that is capable of 100k input BTU per hour and 129 GPH recovery rise to 90°F.

To pull the water from the tank through my hydronic heating coil, I have a Taco 006 Cartridge Circulator.

It’s a rather cold day today so the system has been on a fair bit.  This is good for getting ballpark temperature readings. For all of my temperatures, I’m using a Mastercraft Digital Temperature Reader which happened to be on super sale last week. It’s supposedly accurate within ±2°F at room temperature. You do have to keep the reader as close as possible to the subject though or you will get poor results.  I tried to keep within 1 inch at all times.

The Numbers

The output air temperature is 100°F (37.8°C) at one of my main floor forced air registers.  This is probably the most direct run in the house and was also the hottest of the few I checked.

In the basement I took a few readings at different points in the system. Now, all of the copper pipe used in the system is ¾ inch and it appears that the heat does not transfer quite as much.

The new copper for the water to air heat exchanger coil

The Polaris hot water tank is set to 60°C (140°F). At the hot water tank outlet, the copper surface temperature is 120°F (48.9°C). Just before the Taco 006 circulator pump, the copper is 100°F (37.8°C). The circulator pump itself has a surface temperature of 160°F (71.1°C) (!).

Just before the hydronic heating coil in the plenum, the surface temperature of the ¾ inch copper pipe is 85°F (29.4°C) and after going through the coil the output is 81°F (27.2°C).

The hot water tank inlet is 90°F (32.2°C).

This is all in my unfinished basement area where the ambient temperature is 64°F (17.8°C).

Taco Model 006 Cartridge Circulator Flow Graph (click for the full PDF specifications)

Taco Model 006 Cartridge Circulator Flow Graph (excerpt)

Based on the data sheet (and the graph shown above) the Taco 006 Circulator is moving between 7 and 8 GPM in my installation (4 foot lift from the tank outlet to the ceiling where the forced air unit is mounted). The 006 is represented by the blue curve with the number 3.

Analysis(?)

This would suggest that there is a 30°F (16.7°C) drop in the water temperature. Unfortunately, that’s really just a SWAG because measuring the copper surface temperature is not going to be a linear delta to the water temperature.

Oh, and I’m really not sure why the Taco 006 circulator had a surface temperature of 160°F.  It does feel quite hot to the touch but it shouldn’t be more than the 140°F water going through it. Maybe the surface is too shiny for the temperature reader to get a correct value.

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Direct Energy Water Heater Rental Rate Increase

By Jeff Ivany on December 15, 2009

Direct Energy LogoIf you currently rent your water heater from Direct Energy, and you haven’t yet received your December 2009 bill, brace yourself. Direct Energy’s water heater rental rates are going up.  In some cases (like mine) – way up.  Currently I am renting a Polaris 34 U.S. Gallons natural gas hot water tank.  According to the pamphlet I received, my rental will be going from about $40/month to $62.34/month.  An increase of approximately $22/month!

Now, I know I have posted a fair bit about the problems I’ve had with my Polaris unit that I rent from Direct Energy. My only guess for Direct Energy’s 55% increase (is it really that much!?!) on my Polaris rental is due to the number of issues that they have had.

Here’s the 2009 Direct Energy Water Heater Rental Rates from their website:

2009 Rental Chart
Water Heater Type & SizeMonthly Rental2Hard Water Monthly Rental2
CV40 40 U.S. Gallons1$11.64$12.70
CV50 50 U.S. Gallons1$13.00$14.80
CV60 60 U.S. Gallons1$15.48$17.65
PV50 50 U.S. Gallons1$20.81$24.41
DV50 50 U.S. Gallons1$20.51$23.49
PV50 HI PV60 50 & 60 U.S. Gallons1$22.97$26.40
PV75 75 U.S. Gallons1$27.63$29.68
Electric 60 60 U.S. Gallons1$10.25 – 
Polaris 34 U.S. Gallons1$62.34 – 
CombiCor 50 50 U.S. Gallons1$38.22$41.55
CombiCor 75 75 U.S. Gallons1$40.92$44.45
Rinnai Tankless R75LSIN$33.50 – 

1 Capacity in U.S. Gallons may vary, depending on specific manufacturer. U.S. Gallon = 0.8327 Imperial Gallons = 3.7854 Litres.
2 Rates are subject to change upon one month’s notice. Plus GST.

Ugh! From the same link above, I also found the 2009 Direct Energy rental water heater buyout schedule [PDF]. According to that, my ~5 year old Polaris 34 Gallon tank would cost me around $3700 + tax to buy.  Double Ugh!

I managed to dig up the following 2008 rental rate information but it doesn’t seem to jive with what I am currently paying.

Direct Energy 2008 Water Heater Rental Rates

Direct Energy 2008 Water Heater Rental Rates

I guess that means I’m stuck paying $62/mon until my whole system craps out and I really have to replace something.  I had a furnace quote a while back and it came in around $8000 to replace my system (including a new hot water tank of some sorts).

Oh look, another shiny penny on the floor!  I should just bend over and pick that up…

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