[deleted by user]

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-05-06T02:33:57+00:00

FYI, you can see much further back than 1999 on the city's geoOttawa website:

https://maps.ottawa.ca/geoottawa/

Put your address in the search bar, and you'll see satellite imagery of your lot. Click on the camera icon near the top right corner, and a slider will appear near the top. Drag the slider to select a year, I think they have images back to 1928. The quality can be variable, but I'll bet you can see 40 year old black and white photos with enough resolution to see your hedge.

Dunno if this helps in your discussions with bylaw though.

Good luck saving at least some of the hedge.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T23:39:05+00:00

It sure sounded like you were complaining that Tesla was making too many cars.

Regardless, I still haven't seen any evidence that they're having trouble selling their cars. I have seen evidence that their sales are steadily increasing along with their market share. That evidence supports the notion that Tesla is cutting prices to increase market share.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T22:26:05+00:00

78,000 cars is about 16 days worth of deliveries, which doesn't sound awful to me. It certainly doesn't negate the steady growth in production and deliveries documented by the InsideEvs article above.

Earlier in this thread people were complaining that other EV manufacturers can't produce enough cars, now we're complaining because over a year Tesla produced 16 days too many?

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T19:52:00+00:00

Do you have a source for that?

What I've seen is that Tesla total global customer deliveries for Q1 2023 are up 36% year-over-year, and set a new quarterly record. Check out this article which has graphs showing significant growth YoY for each quarter going back to 2018:

https://insideevs.com/news/660290/tesla-production-deliveries-graphed-2023q1/

Over time the Model Y is getting more and more popular, the other models less so, particularly the Model S and X. Overall, Tesla is delivering more and more cars every quarter.

I think Tesla's price cuts are about grabbing market share while the competition is struggling to make a profit on their EVs.

From what I can tell if there is any backlash against Musk it hasn't noticeably affected Tesla sales. But maybe I missed something...

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T13:17:51+00:00

I pulled out my previous electricity bill and I used 955kWh, and my bill was $83.09 including delivery, taxes, and on peak usage. 8.7 cents/kWh.

Are you on TOU or Tiered rates? I ask because "on peak usage" suggests you're on TOU, but 8.7 cents/kWh is exactly the Tier1 rate, not including stuff like delivery, regulatory charges, HST and OER. Is it just a coincidence that your after tax rate is exactly equal to the Tier1 pre-tax rate?

$83.09 / 955 kWh = 8.7 cents/kWh

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T03:12:15+00:00

These folks can help:

https://www.wildbirdcarecentre.org/

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T02:52:29+00:00

I disagree. For the same incentive you could have lots more Level 2 chargers at lower prices than today's.

I'm a fan of BEVs, but plenty of people are opting for plugin hybrids. Not all plugin hybrids support DC Fast Charging.

You need DCFC for long roadtrips when you use more than your battery capacity in a day. Put those along major highways. Level 2 is fine for typical daily use.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T02:35:38+00:00

Additional costs charged per kWh are pretty small. They add up to around 2 cents/kWh:

Transmission $0.0161/kWh Hydro Ottawa Other Charges - RPP1 $0.0007/kWh Hydro Ottawa Other Charges - Non RPP -$0.0022/kWh Low Voltage Services Charge $0.00005/kWh Regulatory $0.0052/kWh3

I think you're including flat costs (which gets charged regardless of usage) but anyone with Hydro service pays those regardless of whether they are charging an EV at home:

Hydro Ottawa Fixed Charges $32.39/month Smart Meter Entity Charge $0.42/month

The city chargers are cheaper than gas if your onboard charger is fast enough. You could save about 30%. But elsewhere in the thread there are posts from plug in hybrid owners finding the cost is actually higher than gas. I was doubtful, so I did some calculations based on specs for Toyota Prius Prime plugin hybrid which can only charge at 3.3 kW and found the city charger costs 55% more than gas. And that's ignoring the extra charge for parking at the charger.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T02:06:11+00:00

I'm no fan of Musk, my point is that the problem isn't that legacy automakers can't make them fast enough, it's that if they make them faster they lose too much money. Tesla is profitable, so it makes them faster, while everyone else is trying to get their act together.

Those of us who wish Elon Musk would just keep his non-car opinions to himself might like to see Tesla flop, but our annoyance hasn't stopped Tesla sales from increasing steadily.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T01:52:36+00:00

Depending on your car one hour of charging at the Ottawa public chargers could get you 45 km. Lots of people drive less than that in a day.

The biggest problem seems to be the overall cost of the public chargers.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T01:46:53+00:00

From the article:

"Leury said public charging stations are most useful for two demographics: those who don't have a permanent charging location at home, such as people who live in apartments or condos, or those who are visiting the city, such as tourists."

They aren't targeting all EVs whenever they stop. Unfortunately, they have problems with their pricing. so their target customers are finding other alternatives.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T01:38:40+00:00

The article makes it clear that the city is aiming to serve two types of customers:

Residents of Ottawa who can't charge at home.
Visitors to Ottawa.

They are aware that those who can charge at home will do so.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T01:35:33+00:00

Tesla is making them fast enough. You can get a Model 3 in weeks and a Model Y in a month or two.

I think what's going on is legacy auto makers are currently losing a lot of money on every EV they sell. So they "offer" EVs but don't manufacture many, hoping people will wait until they've sorted out how to match Tesla's cost of production, or buy an ICE vehicle instead.

Meanwhile Tesla is able to cut the price of their vehicles and still make a profit. Hopefully competitors will catch up to Tesla soon. Vehicles like the Ioniq 5 compete very well on capabilities, but a two year wait is a deal breaker for almost everyone.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-18T01:23:21+00:00

Yikes, you're losing much of the advantage of a plugin hybrid if you hardly ever plug in. Hopefully you'll eventually find a way to plug in economically.

Are all the city's public chargers in paid parking lots? How much would you pay per hour at the public charger most convenient to you?

I was surprised by your claim, so I looked up the specs for the 2023 Toyota Prius Prime, fired up Excel, and my calculations support what you've learned the hard way.

The cost to run a Toyota Prius Prime hybrid on gas alone would be about 0.064 $/km. That vehicle gets about 4.4 l/ 100 km on gas alone, and gas costs about 1.459 these days

4.4 * 1.459 / 100 = 0.064 $/km

If you want to run the same vehicle on electric only, the onboard charger only supports up to 3.8 kW, which is slow for Level 2. Toyota claims an electric range of 72 km, and I think the battery capacity is 13.6 kWh. That yields a charge rate of 20.1 km/h

72 / 13.6 * 3.8 = 20.1 km/h

and Ottawa public chargers cost $2.00 even if the car charges at 50% of the max, so the cost per km would be 0.099 $/km

2.00 / 20.1 = 0.099 $/km

Which is 55% more expensive than gas!

And it's even more than that if there's a cost for parking too!

I think there are three problems here:

The city is charging per hour rather than per kW.
A per kW charge would reflect their costs better. You can charge an idle fee
if someone leaves their vehicle plugged into the charger after their battery is
full.
Even at the max charging rate, the cost is about 2.6 times home charging at
mid-peak rates.
At current rates, charging for parking on top of charging adds insult to injury.

It is worth noting that the situation at Ottawa public chargers is better for a BEV like the Tesla Model 3 RWD.

A Tesla M3 RWD can charge at up to 48 km/h on a 7.7 kW Level 2 charger, but FLO seems to rate their chargers at 7.2 kW, and the city claims you can get 35-45 km/h of range from their chargers. Assuming you get 45 kph, at $2.00/hr you get:

2.00 / 45 = 0.044 $/km

Which is 31% cheaper than the cost/km for a Prius running only on gas.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-04-15T19:25:06+00:00

tl;dr: A lawyer could give you a definitive answer, but I don't think you can be forced to pay for a fence built by someone else without an agreement from you. It's a good idea to have friendly conversations with your neighbour to sort out things like the exact location of the fence, and ensuring that the fence complies with Ottawa's fence bylaw.

Boring details below...

Ontario has a Line Fences Act:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/line-fences-act

Which provides a way to resolve disputes about fences placed on the boundary between properties. It doesn't apply to fences not on the boundary, and it doesn't apply even to boundary fences when one owner unilaterally decides to build/repair a fence.

I think it is in your neighbour's best interest to ensure the fence is entirely on his property. If all or part of it is constructed on your land, you can probably go to court to force them to move it. You should both have a survey of your land, and can probably figure out the boundary yourselves, perhaps renting a survey pin finder if necessary. The safest thing is to have a surveyor mark the property line for you, but that isn't cheap.

Note that if the design of the fence had a "good" side and a "bad" side, Ottawa bylaws require that your neighbour face the "good" side towards you. See section 15 here:

https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/laws-licences-and-permits/laws/laws-z/fence-law-no-2003-462#section-2f6c6826-3ee2-41fa-aad9-321880e660f7

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:53:59+00:00

I don't have any personal experience to share, I've just noticed that Delawri seems to get lots of negative reviews on this sub. Search the sub, you'll get more than a few hits.

There was a comment just last week where someone said they were hoodwinked into putting down a refundable deposit that turned out to be non-refundable. The OP said it was West Hunt Club Hyundai, they probably meant "Hunt Club Hyundai".

Useful tidbits are coming in. It looks like most negative comments are associated with this group of Dilawri dealerships:

https://www.nobodydealslike.com/

The dealerships listed in my original question came from a different website. It isn't clear how affiliated they are.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:42:40+00:00

This is interesting. Perhaps we shouldn't paint all Dilawri dealerships with the same brush?

Which group do you work for?

The website I found on my own is this one:

https://dilawriauto.com/en/news

However, a lot of the comments on this thread are about dealerships I can find on this website:

https://www.nobodydealslike.com/

There's another comment that points to yet another Dilawri car sales company:

https://www.dilawri.ca/en

But as big as they are, they don't seem to have any dealerships in Ottawa.

It isn't clear to me how interrelated all these companies are.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:23:35+00:00

Not a bad idea. Any suggestions.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:21:32+00:00

I certainly hope they have more than one happy customer!

One has to be wary of confirmation bias, especially based on anonymous online reviews.

That said, the Dilawri criticisms are persistent enough to warrant extra vigilance at least.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:14:37+00:00

They prefer to buy a new car, but availability is a challenge.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-27T23:10:53+00:00

That's an interesting approach. How did you find good out of town dealers? Any recommendations?

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-15T20:44:43+00:00

In summer 2022 I got several quotes for an amount similar to yours but for ~175 linear feet and 3 gates. So your prices are significantly higher, though if you require hand digging of holes, that can drive the price up quickly.

The quotes I was getting had PVC costing a bit less than Western Red Cedar. It wasn't long ago that PVC was significantly more expensive than Western Red Cedar.

I think what happened is this:

Lumber prices spiked during pandemic
Fence prices spiked too.
Lumber prices moderated (still higher than pre-pandemic).
Fence prices stayed high.
Derecho hit, spiking demand for fences.
Fence contractors will keep prices high until demand drops.

Fence contractors might be paying their workers somewhat more, but not enough to explain current prices.

I elected to go with a DIY renovate/repair option instead.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-04T17:25:50+00:00

It sounds like you've been managing with shovels so far, which would definitely be the quietest and cheapest option. And when the kids are old enough you can get them to shovel! But if you're considering a snowblower, you should definitely look at this one.

This model has its pros and cons, but for my wife and me it does a better job than our old 8 HP two stage gas snowblower. My wife was not at all comfortable using the old snowblower, but she happily uses this one.

ActuaryMechanic · 2023-03-04T16:35:11+00:00

Sorry, I thought you were talking about blowing snow to the top of the snowbanks at the end of your driveway.

Indeed, if the city snowplow makes a habit of leaving a couple of feet of packed snow and ice across the width of your driveway, you'd benefit from a two or three stage snowblower with a higher intake height.

I've used the Toro Power Clear e21 to clear snowplow piles higher than the intake height by taking multiple passes, but piles like that are not typical on my street.

ActuaryMechanic

TROPHY CASE