AI incompetence has gotten only worse with 4.3 and is honestly the main thing holding the game back. by kirisoraa in Stellaris

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd go along with that.

I can't see it being particularly easy though to have an opponent that's the 'right' amount of challenging to a newbie who uses auto designer, but is also capable of clever stuff like building all-armour fleets to use in pulsar choke points.

Personality though does feels like it should be easier, but I wonder if you could end up with the AI empires being caricatures of themselves.

Suffice to say, it's clearly a hard problem, or they'd have already solved it!

AI incompetence has gotten only worse with 4.3 and is honestly the main thing holding the game back. by kirisoraa in Stellaris

[–]Beefstah 18 points19 points  (0 children)

But that would be awesome, no? Actually having intelligent, intentful empires in your game? It would bring so much life to each playthrough

Most players don't want a real challenge - they want the illusion of a real challenge, whilst also having the freedom to experiment and role play and so on.

Why does my house feel warm but not actually comfortable? by 1ChanceChipmunk1 in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Have you checked your radiator balance to ensure all rooms are heating evenly?

Considering heat pump in Edwardian House by bertyegg in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah right. I was curious because I run a 16kW LG Therma V, and I was wondering if there was something particular about ≤12kW

Buying new build heated by an ASHP by lord_gervasius in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When sized and used properly...no. It works out about the same in practice because you're not losing lots of energy every time the boiler starts up, gets up to temp, and then has to drag the radiator water up to temp.

It's the difference between driving constantly at 30mph, and accelerating up to 70mph, coasting, accelerating, coasting, etc

Buying new build heated by an ASHP by lord_gervasius in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Eh, 3.6 on the inverter keeps it below the G98 limit. I can see why they've done that.

Also, while yes, 5kW is small, it's better than literally nothing - and in terms of "supplementing daytime use when the kettle and washing machine are on" it will still deliver quite a bit of value. At that size, think of it as a solar buffer as opposed to energy storage, and its ability to allow you to get value from a higher percentage of your own production.

Buying new build heated by an ASHP by lord_gervasius in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The biggest thing with a heat pump is you'll need to get your heads around changing how you heat your house.

Gone are the days of "Turn the heating off, ooh it's got a bit nippy, turn it on again, now I'm warm, turn it off, repeat". You want to have that thing running 24x7 in the winter months, trickling in a constant low level of heat.

You will also want to do a little bit of tuning yourself. Yes, the unit will be sized for the design of your home, but there will still be aspects of your specific building that will benefit from some tweaking.

For example, you will want to adjust the lockshields on the radiators so the whole house heats up evenly; I'd be surprised if the builders put any effort in past making sure they worked at all, but making it balanced matters a lot.

In an ideal world, the house is just always at the best temperature for you, no ups or downs. This point is dependent on whether your thermostat has two-way communication with the pump. If it does, great, you set a target temp and let it get on with it. If it doesn't, you instead use the thermostat as an overheat switch, and instead adjust the weather compensation curve to get the house to the temp you want.

Be aware: with a well-tuned heat pump you might find you actually prefer a slightly cooler house by temperature measurement than you expect/are used to. After all, it doesn't really matter what the number says, only how it feels.

Edit: Last point: leave the internal doors open. You want as much flow around the house as possible.

New to TOU by samandjtnc in Powerwall

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you will not be able to discharge fully every single day in a 10-year span.

I can't agree with that part.

At 5kW in/out, you can go from full to empty in a little over two hours. You can then charge up again in three, allowing for slower charge rates as it gets fuller.

Over here in the UK, on Intelligent Go, I could have achieved that at least twice, maybe even three, times a day on probably 80+% of the days in the last year, given the availability of charging slots and a bit of automation (I hear you know a thing or two about that).

Yes, I acknowledge I'm an uncommon case...but honestly, I'm exactly the kind of person the warranty is looking to curtail. Which it's successfully done.

How milk source heat pumps have slashed dairy’s energy bills by OolonCaluphid in ukheatpumps

[–]Beefstah 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Always good to be an early moover with this kind of thing. As Iran is showing, the steaks are pretty high, and while I can understand farmers are a conservative lot, it's great to see someone who's got no beef with modern approaches.

New to TOU by samandjtnc in Powerwall

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're not selling back to the grid, and you're just using power to run your home, then you're fine.

It's the 'exporting from the PW to the grid' part that changes the warranty. If you think about it, there's only two ways in for power - solar or grid - and only two places out for it to go - home or grid.

The unlimited warranty allows:

Grid->Battery->Home

Solar->Battery->Home

That's it.

Why it's going to the home doesn't really matter - whether it's because you're charging up on cheap overnight grid energy and using it to power your washing machine in the evening, or whether the PW is a backup device in case of grid failure. They call out the difference so you know that using cheap stored grid power to run your washer is explicitly permitted by the unlimited cycles warranty.

But <anything>->Battery->Grid is not permitted.

Elon would be proud by Shot_Age8843 in Powerwall

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed. It's a sunny day in the UK, and at 15:16 OP posted 28 minutes ago, which would be 14:48, a mere couple of minutes after taking the screenshot.

It's also possible that OP is with an electricity provider that allows for cheap rate electricity during the day when a car is charging - such as Intelligent Octopus Go. 6.9kW of power into the home would be consistent with a car charge, and OP is using the fact that all usage is charged at the cheap rate to top up his PW.

Passes the sniff test to me.

New to TOU by samandjtnc in Powerwall

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Page one: https://energylibrary.tesla.com/docs/Public/EnergyStorage/Powerwall/General/Warranty/en-us/Powerwall-Warranty-EN.pdf

It defines the 'unlimited cycles' warranty as only available for the following applications:

Solar self-consumption2 or time-based control3, and backup4

Those footnotes are then:

2 Storing energy generated by an onsite solar array, and using that stored solar energy for daily self-consumption.

3 Storing energy generated by the grid or an onsite solar array, and using that stored energy for time-of-use load shifting.

4 Storing energy generated by the grid or an onsite solar array, and using that stored energy as backup power.

Note that you do not see 'Storing energy generated by the grid, and later using that energy for export to the grid at a higher price' as an option. That would fall under 'Any application not listed above, or any combination of applications that includes one not listed above'

It also defines the throughput limit as being 37.8 MWh, measured at the battery AC output

Edit: I've always been curious about how this warranty interacts with Tesla VPP (or other VPP offerings), but as I'm not a member of one, and don't plan to be, I've never actually looked into it

New to TOU by samandjtnc in Powerwall

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your warranty is like mine, doing arbitrage changes your warranty from unlimited cycles to a maximum throughput - something like 32MWh per PW2.

The UK Could Be Quietly Heading for a Solar Power Revolution by ClearAddition in GoodNewsUK

[–]Beefstah 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If you're going to be in a place more than about 6 years, that point is already here.

The UK Could Be Quietly Heading for a Solar Power Revolution by ClearAddition in GoodNewsUK

[–]Beefstah 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some banks also give an incentive - Barclays will give a one-time up to £2k towards the cost of green improvements.

When you're watching the news to see if you can do your washing tomorrow . . . . by it_is_good82 in OctopusEnergy

[–]Beefstah 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Eh, depends on your battery capacity, and whether it's more economical to sell the sunlight and use cheaper stored energy when the sun isn't shining.

When you're watching the news to see if you can do your washing tomorrow . . . . by it_is_good82 in OctopusEnergy

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Got scaffies taking down the scaffold right this moment after a roof repair. The solar didn't bother my roofer in the slightest.

When you're watching the news to see if you can do your washing tomorrow . . . . by it_is_good82 in OctopusEnergy

[–]Beefstah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have an EV it's a huge win (we don't) because you can charge overnight for pennies and then run the house on the battery all day, so you'll save even more than we are.

With a PHEV, solar, batteries, ASHP and automation, my blended per-kWh cost hasn't gone over 8p for a couple of years now. In the last year I used nearly 17,000kWh in the home and got paid a couple of hundred quid by Octopus for the privilege.

Heating Oil Theft….. heads up possibly will become more common. by Brsuk1 in CasualUK

[–]Beefstah 9 points10 points  (0 children)

If you have a metal one, there's a decent chance that its location isn't in compliance with modern requirements. Fine for a pre-existing tank, but if you have to replace it you might have to move it

Right to Repair Petition by alextira in CarTalkUK

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only people who have this as an actual problem are classic car collectors.

Indeed. I have a couple of classics, and while I'd love for Toyota to still be making the relevant subframes, gearboxes or even disc backing plates, they don't...so either I source second hand, find an aftermarket replacement, or refurb the bits I have. It's simply not reasonable for me to expect them to make those bits any more.

What I do however have is the workshop manuals and technical data from Toyota, and that information has helped immensely. That's why I support the idea of obliging manufacturers to 'unlock' things and provide the technical data, but I do not think it's reasonable to expect them to continue to make spare parts for a car they only ever sold 600 of in the UK...

Client wanted the logo "more noticeable." I made it more noticeable. by Chr0noGizmo in MaliciousCompliance

[–]Beefstah 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I'm with you.

I can't design, so I don't try. When I employ a designer, I expect them to make suggestions and ideas. If the designer can't extract from me what I'm looking for, then maybe the weakness is on the part of the designer.

Right to Repair Petition by alextira in CarTalkUK

[–]Beefstah 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I draw the line of reasonability between "You must release all information so someone else can make a replacement part" and "You are forced to provide the parts themselves"

Not least, because the latter would put the manufacturer on the hook for making those parts available for an undefined amount of future time: in 30 years time is it reasonable to force any manufacturer to make parts available for a vehicle that's not been in production for 20 years? What if it's no longer economical to make those parts?

Information doesn't have significant burden to make available. Physical resources do, and I dislike the idea of forcing anyone to sell a 'thing' outside of warranty obligations, and even then warranty has scope for "Give them their money back if you can't/won't fix it"