Out With The Old

After nearly 45 years the old Olsen Duo-Matic is finally retired.

What? I Need More Ventilation!?

So you mean to say that this old farmhouse doesn't have enough cracks and crevices that allow fresh air in, I need to add an actual air intake for the new furnace!  lol.

To meet the requirements I installed a 6 Inch air intake to the basement, Which will have a cold air trap at the bottom near the floor. Just have to figure that part out as to not take up any room that I need for stacking wood.

And the scrap pile continues to build ... 

Return Air Ducting

Mostly In Place

I had to make my own register boxes for the return air, They simply do not offer the boots for those large size registers that will fit in above the stone walls, and hey, since it is cold air 1/4 inch plywood works great and is much easier to work with.

No Proper Before Shots

By the time I thought to do "before" pics I had all ready disconnected the cold air ducting from the old furnace. 

I would imagine that the old Olsen Duo-Matic was installed around the date of manufacture (1971) It has done well, but it's way past time for an upgrade.

I know the new Yukon will take up much less room, it will be interesting to see just how much more floor space I will gain. Access to the chimney will be much better I all ready know.

Disturbing Dust

That hasn't been disturbed in about 40 years, you gotta love a turn of the century farmhouse. 

Stone foundations that are nearly 3 feet thick and a floor to ceiling (floor joist) height of only 5 - 5 1/2  feet. Many aspirin later and a back that will take the next four days to straighten out, I finally have the cold air return ducting upgraded and ready for the new furnace. Just replacing the cold air side of the ducting should make a huge difference in air flow during the heating season. The old school installation of simply closing in the space between two joists to act as a duct is finally gone, the return air must now come from the return air registers ... and not multiple cracks and crevices along the way. My face was totally black except where my respirator was.

Conclusion:  Step 1 of the furnace replacement COMPLETED!

Now as long as the weather remains warm so I don't have to run the furnace I can start disconnecting the heat runs from old one in preps for cutting it up and hauling it out of the basement.

New Furnace For Next Heating Season

Yukon Eagle

For my particular application the Husky Eagle I.

Arrived via Estes in perfect condition.

I love the way the heat exchanger is designed, very simple to access and clean. They even supply a brush specifically for the task.

Another Plus ...

The Art Of Listening

An example to prove there is a difference between hearing and listening.

When you hear the words do you listen to what they say ... or hear what they sound like?

Move To Mint

Another Look Into Linux Mint

This time I am opting for the Cinnamon Desktop Environment

After a couple days of 'tweaking' the system and trying out different themes, I think I have a desktop set up that I can work with.Setting up multiple workspaces still allows me to keep track of other computers on my LAN with the use of Remmina which connects to remote desktops. A quick flick of the mouse to the upper right side shows all the active workspaces and allows me to sellect which computer I want to work on.

 
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, in particular Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" is based on Ubuntu 14.04 so it is an LTS release which is supported through April of 2019.

I have become so used to Ubuntu's Unity Desktop that moving back to a Menu based launcher feels a bit retro to me, but Mint does have a menu that seems a bit more refined than many others. Of course I hade to add my faithful companions, Dropbox, GoogleDrive, Copy, and Rainlendar2. The Clock and Weather are Desklets available out of the box from the Settings menu and super easy to set up.

And the Quick-Launcher is super easy to add to, simply open the menu and navigate to what you want on the launcher and simply drag and drop.
Those that have been using Linux since before the Unity Desktop came onto the scene will like the feel of the Cinnamon Desktop, which closely follows the older look and feel of Gnome 2 but with a much more modern flair.

Two Thumbs Up for Linux Mint 17.1 and the Cinnamon Desktop! This may be a keeper ... at least for a while.