Want a Chop-Cloc?

DanHolohan

I wrote this article, which appeared in Supply House Times and is now in the Blog section of this site.

Garry Stewart, the inventor of the product, spotted the article and left a long note in the Disqus section (at the end of my article). He's offering to send a Chop-Cloc to anyone who wants to try one. Check it out and join the discussion over there if you'd like.

Dan

Bob Bona_4

Makes me think of the cut out devices our local utility offers (with an incentive kickback) to kill power to your central ac at peak times. You may be shut down for a bit, your neighbor may be. A loss of control so to speak.

DanHolohan

This one's under the homeowner's control only, Bob. Comment over on the Blog if you feel like it. He'll see it and answer. He's in England. Thanks.

Bob Bona_4

Right. Just thinking about the similarities in comfort involuntary interruption. Will do!

DanHolohan

Thanks. I like his enthusiasm.

SWEI

Unless I'm missing something, this is sort of like a Heat-Timer without the outdoor sensor. Why not offer an outdoor sensor add-on?

Robert O'Brien

It flies in the face of outdoor reset theory of trickling heat in to match heat loss. Certainly will eliminate short cycling though!

DanHolohan

Gents, he'll see your comments if you write them in the Blog section.

Zman

Signing in under a different system is really kind of a pain.
Why are they not the same?
Well you may eliminate short cycling, over/undershoot will get worse. I really don't see the point.
No improvement on heat loss, no heat source efficiency improvement, no net reduction in room temp= no energy savings.

DanHolohan

A pain? Really?

Zman

Dan,
Love the new site! I really do. Thank you.
It just seems everywhere you turn, someone is wanting you to give an e-mail address and send you a bunch of unwanted junk. The extra login and account is just one more...
Thanks again,
Carl

DanHolohan

We don't share your email with anyone. Just asking for a small favor with this. The Blog offers a chance to give opinions on a topic that sticks around and benefits others. If that's too much to ask, I don't know what to say.

Zman

Sorry Dan,
Let me understand this.
The forum is just another part of heating help?
Is diqus just like vanilla ?
Just trying to understand.
Carl

RobG

Why can't I acess the blog or main site? When I click on it I get:
This page can’t be displayed

•Make sure the web address https://heatinghelp.com is correct.
•Look for the page with your search engine.
•Refresh the page in a few minutes.

Granted, I am using a new computer but I don't know what to do.

Help!!!

Rob

DanHolohan

Sure. The Wall is hosted by Vanilla Forums and is a subdomain to HeatingHelp.com. The Store is hosted by Volusion and is also a subdomain. Everything else that makes up the main site is hosted in New Hampshire by BluehouseGroup, the company that built the whole thing. So it's in three main parts and in three different locations.

Disgus is an open-source plugin that allows conversations within blogs. The advantage is that we can explore whatever the blog post was about and have discussions about it that will stay with that blog post for as long as this site exists. Comments are more powerful that way, and more helpful to new people who are just now coming to the site. Sure, it requires a separate login, but only once, and only because it's not connected to the Wall. Again, none of us shares your email address with anyone. Sorry if I snapped at you.

The people who make Chop-Cloc saw the article I wrote about them in Supply House Times magazine and wrote to me. They liked what I had to say and wanted to dialog, mainly with Americans since this product is currently very popular in England, which is how I discovered it. I sent them to the Blog because, once printed in the magazines, my columns go into the Blog. The English guys are reading the Blog, not the Wall, and that's why I'm asking you to post your thoughts about Chop-Cloc there so they'll see them and consider what you have to say. They're trying to understand our market and we're trying to understand theirs.

Thanks for understanding.

Dan

DanHolohan

RobG said:

Why can't I acess the blog or main site? When I click on it I get:
This page can’t be displayed

•Make sure the web address https://heatinghelp.com is correct.
•Look for the page with your search engine.
•Refresh the page in a few minutes.

Granted, I am using a new computer but I don't know what to do.

Help!!!

Rob

Rob, just go to https://heatinghelp.com/

RobG

I'm sure it's on my end but I can only access "The Wall". Is there a setting that I need to change? I'm not asking for tech support but is there anything off the top of your head that you can think of? If I Google Heating Help the only link that works is "The Wall".

Thanks
Rob

DanHolohan

The only thing I can think of is that it's a setting on your computer that's doing this. The whole site is up and running and lots of people are on it, Rob.

Paul48

Rob.....There's something going on. I use yahoo, and I'm having a lot of problems. I had to re-open heatinghelp with google to use Dan's link because I got the same message. It seems to be brower related and not site related. I have heatinghelp as a favorite, and all of a sudden I could no longer connect by clicking it. I had to go through some contorsion to get back to heatinghelp, then delete that fav link and create a new one. Damned if I know! Other sites pose the same problem.

BobC

I started having problems on one of my computers (Imac running OSX 10.9) a few days back, on that computer it affects Firefox and Safari the same. The symptoms are that all the post times are off by several hours and when I click on an image that someone attached to a post it does not expand - if I left click and open it in a new tab I get a tiny image on the new tab. I also sometimes get directed to strange sites when trying to navigate to different parts of the site but that is very sporadic. I can see nothing wrong on any other web site. It's interesting that the site worked fine for a few days on this computer and overnight everything changed.

The strange thing is that on another computer (old Imac running OSX 10.6) everything is fine, no problems of any kind. The browsers on both computers are up to date and I've deleted all history and cookies but that has not helped. I have scanned the drives looking for any inconsistencies and found nothing.

Very strange, I'd love to know what language vanilla is using for the site and if there might be a clue there. It seems everything is fine for most people, we have to see if there is a common thread with people who are having problems.

Bob

DanHolohan

BobC said:

I started having problems on one of my computers (Imac running OSX 10.9) a few days back, on that computer it affects Firefox and Safari the same. The symptoms are that all the post times are off by several hours and when I click on an image that someone attached to a post it does not expand - if I left click and open it in a new tab I get a tiny image on the new tab. I also sometimes get directed to strange sites when trying to navigate to different parts of the site but that is very sporadic. I can see nothing wrong on any other web site. It's interesting that the site worked fine for a few days on this computer and overnight everything changed.

The strange thing is that on another computer (old Imac running OSX 10.6) everything is fine, no problems of any kind. The browsers on both computers are up to date and I've deleted all history and cookies but that has not helped. I have scanned the drives looking for any inconsistencies and found nothing.

Very strange, I'd love to know what language vanilla is using for the site and if there might be a clue there. It seems everything is fine for most people, we have to see if there is a common thread with people who are having problems.

Bob

I passed your comment on to Vanilla Support, Bob. Stay tuned. Thanks.

Dan

RobG

Everything worked fine on my end as well and then "Kaput". I also get redirected to some Yahoo page and have to do the backflips to get on.

Rob

BobC

Thanks for all your hard work , Dan!

Bob

I passed your comment on to Vanilla Support, Bob. Stay tuned. Thanks.

Dan
Site Administrator

DanHolohan

Bob and Rob, this is from Julie at Vanilla:

"The best guess we have right now has to do with a bit of code that was poorly implemented but was quickly fixed. It's entirely possible that your user logged into the forum during the short period of time that buggy code was available. This was promptly fixed and the best thing your user can do now is to clear their cache. I saw that they'd tried clearing cookies and history, but it's very important that they attempt to clear their cache. Afterwards, things should be back to normal."

Please let me know if you still have a problem after you clear. Thanks.

Dan

BobC

I did my weekly cleanup routine this morning, that includes clearing all caches, and the site is working fine now. Please thank them for a job well done.

Bob

DanHolohan

I will. Thanks, Bob.

RobG

Once again, I am technically challenged. How do I clear my Cache?

Rob

DanHolohan

Hit Ctrl and R at the same time.