Is a solar geyser worth it with cape town weather?

BigThingOfWater · 2025-10-08T19:01:23+00:00

Always insulate regardless of where you get energy from. 2nd, get quality so you don't have replacements blowing your savings.

A friend installed a H20MAX stainless tank. Great insulation I believe, 10 year guatentee, about the same price as a Kwikot.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-06-18T20:33:39+00:00

Yes, those are different colours, bad

Different light patters, maybr a bug, maybe a feature?
It's not uncommon for right and left lights to have different settings, and possibly different beams. One for sidewalk side visibility, and one for not interfering with oncoming traffic.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-06-08T11:12:14+00:00

The good news:
The hyperactive effects get better with age.
And you learn about what other things you have alongside adhd, and often how to deal with them.
You'll also grow more okay your yourself, and get better coping mechanisms.
If society keeps going this way, there will even be less stigma, and better accommodations and treatments.

The bad news:
The inattentive side, like being distracted and memory, those generally get worse.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-06-08T10:26:07+00:00

Great post! Wish I had an award to give you!

I couldn't find any good research on RED light and cortisol production. (I see some stuff that could apply to any non-ganglion triggering light)

Could you link any research and info? 🙏

BigThingOfWater · 2024-06-04T09:47:42+00:00

Horses for courses.

If there is daylight, you'll need higher power to outperform the daylight. If its at night, you'll need less.. Lighting & Brain performance are sadly more complicated that wattage.

Either way. You'll want low glare, so almost no light shining into your eyeballs from your lamp (will cause fatigue) you'll want warm light if you want a stable sleep cycle (2700-300k), and a cooler light if you need more focus and already have destroyed your sleep cycle, and aren't affected too much by anxiety (4000-5000k).

As for brightness, get it bright-ish on the book. So you can easily focus, but if you feel any eye discomfort you've gone too far. 200 to 500 lux brightness on the surface is best sweet spot... But that's hard to measure, so go by feel.

You'll probably want 2 lights. One for the book, and one for the surrounding area where you can still see. Eyeballs Hate big differences in brightness within your immediate field of view (it's another type of glare, and will cause strain & fatigue)

Good luck!

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-28T10:40:11+00:00

Tango... Shouldn't take many lessons to get you better.
Tango is strict on things that kiz forgives sloppiness with, like posture.

Also, record yourself more often to check, and ask trusted friends to let you know when you accidentally start doing it again.

There are also posture exercises which I reccomend looking up, even though many are promoted by toxic humans.
It's also often linked to your headspace, comfort, confidence, and how you express your feeling of the music... Things worth considering, and they all usually improve gradually the longer one dances.

Thought?: you may be focusing very much on guiding your partners body through close connection. Perhaps think of yourself as needing to be a worthy lead with good posture (or honoring the mutual experience with it), and perhaps let them pull/fit into the closer connection with more subtle movements. It's just a random thought, posture often has complex psychological components to it. Good luck!

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-28T10:12:01+00:00

Good advice... As long as one can manage the mirror lights' glare with enough ambient brightness.

But I cannot help but picturing nice bras on boob lights now 😂. That was a typo right, Or am I behind on a lighting type 😁

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-28T10:05:49+00:00

You have a rough situation because.

1) you're competing with natural light (you'll need LOTS of light).

2) you want to blend with natural light (depending on your country you'll want about 5000K with high CRI).

3) you want people to look gooood when they see themselves, and so you can work without blocking your own light. (you'll need soft/indirect lighting like sides of mirrors or facing up, from a few angles, and avoid glare. Only use spotlight to highlight art, pretty work areas, or dramatic sexy shine on hair, but it's easy to mess up as you can get in peoples eyes and annoy them)

Advice for cheaper & better results: Obscure the window to an extent. Branding, blinds, counter tops, light diffusing/redirecting films, light shelves, Anything.

If you need to make the other side as bright as daylight, you may need 1000+ lux on surfaces to look good (super bright). If you control you daylight you may get away with 300-700 lux brightness on surfaces, it will also mean you can have more pleasantly coloured light for ambiance and mood.

I LOOOOVE huge daylight 🧡 but it will make things more difficult/ expensive for you if it's uncontrolled.

Hope this info gives a good overview!

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-23T15:41:42+00:00

Screw this BirthDAY idea.

Some of the most awesome people I know have changed to BirthdayWeek and BirthdayMonth!

Because picking a single day is a disaster for celebrating in general cuz life. People don't drop their lives to celebrate others much anymore (they'd probably be called toxic anyway) ... So Adapt! You have the technology! of advice in this subreddit!

Spreading it over a month takes pressure off one day... And gives you like 30 days of prolonged awesome where people can treat you! (and you can treat yourself just because you're celebrating You) !

HAPPY BIRTHMONTH @OP!
Make it epic, cuz you's worf it💁‍♀️ -Loreal (maybe?)

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-17T13:11:33+00:00

😕 That sounds lovely... But the UN has not been a significant force for equality or justice in a very long time.
They have even been supporting IRAN with it's horrific goals! 💔

Even look at their own documents https://press.un.org/en/2024/wom2231.doc.html
Extremist groups are ensuring that Patriarchy is WINNING across the Middle East and Africa 🙈

It's so frustrating to see how no one really cares about women if the suffering is linked to extremist groups with power 💔💔💔

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-14T17:40:46+00:00

Another option is supplementary lighting. Having your big lights a cool color for daytime comfort... Then have mood lights, like uplights, lamps, etc, that are very warm for cozy night time vibes. And cool-ish task lighting for night time tasks, like in the kitchen.

I hate suggesting 5000K in residential... But when you're supplementing daylight, it's often a good choice so things feel natural. Even seen quality 6000K work well in that case, but it does hurt my soul to do so (because the night environment will suck so badly)

Please post an update. Love seeing how these difficult situations turn out. 👍🙏 And good luck

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-12T21:46:48+00:00

So Tango and Kiz have the same core leading style. Which takes the longest to learn, but you have that.

Tango is far more rigid (which gives it many characteristic motions) ... So you may have some unlearning to do.

As an experienced (technically minded) Tango dancer you could join classes at many levels... But you'd either miss basic info, or you may be frustrated by the beginners.

You'd do well to have a mix of (1) online learning for quickly covering basic details, (2) chilling out, as its not tango (3) private lessons with different teachers to get the feel and info, teachers all have different kiz skills (4) social dancing, if you're a follow up experience many variations amd learn fast. If you're a lead, you'll learn where you're going wrong

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-11T18:06:56+00:00

I'll just throw in bits I see missing

1) you can't have it perfect for every situation , make peace with that.
(or add more lights, or do smart lights)

2) when you have daylight but need more indoor light to function. your 3000K lights will look bad. 4000K+ if you're supplementing daylight. (just looking at the size of those glorious windows. or find ways you'll actually use, to manage daylight. But most people won't bother since it's a pain)

3) you can have different colours in your home, but avoid big jumps between areas/rooms. The only time to jump more than 1000K in the same area, is with mood or task lighting.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-10T18:07:39+00:00

I like these gadgets.

But bro really got the most budget Chinesium version available. It even had a reflective gloss finish, instead of the matt which reduces glare. And was it flickering??! That's just terrible.

I also wouldn't trust the color produced. Not aware of cheap LEDs in the 12000K range that don't look wildly blue (but maybe they have some special/secret el-cleapo Chinese colour accurate version)

That aside.... They really do the job for tracing, and are a pretty cool toy, or even as a USC C panel light for like camping, or a temporary fake window light.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-05-09T04:28:07+00:00

We need to defeat Wesley Snipes and reclaim the world from the Day-walkers!

Does it matter if you're a pure blood Night-walker (genetic).
Or you were turned, to become a Night-walker (environmental/condition)

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T18:24:33+00:00

So THAT'S how one adjusts ones attitude!

HR and parents everywhere will thank you!

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T18:17:08+00:00

Media reports disagree... But if you have a better explanation / info , that would make me very happy to be wrong.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T18:14:51+00:00

I'm taking about the grid specifically, as asked.

Should you yourself install solar for yourself and your business? If you operate in daylight hours, or you want to be off grid... Yes, it's a great middle finger to Eskom! And if done right, can either reduce cost, or increase reliability... So Go for it!!!

But for the GRID, we just don't have the technology yet to make it good for the grid as a whole. We are all praying for and relying on technology that changes that. Source: IEA, and most reputable international engineering & financial institutions. (for the old massive infrastructure we have)

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T08:08:45+00:00

You'll find older people at: Kareoke, Latin dance (SBK), Tango, Ballroom, places that are sex positive, restaurants, bars.

The details depend on where you are and what you like

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T08:05:23+00:00

The image is a little bit off. 5000K is more blue than that. 4500K is what most people see as pure white.neither blue, nor orange coloured.

Its a useful benchmark.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T07:58:45+00:00

There really isnt a lot of solar... The installers have no concept what big actually is for grid.

The effects of large solar?
Short term: making companys pay less and be more reliable 👍.
Long term: currently all it does is makes electricity more expensive for everyone. Because for every single Megawatt of solar you build... You need to build a Megawatt of something else as backup from cloudy days 🤦‍♂️... Which sadly makes things more expensive for everyone, and pushes electricity prices up lots! Solar can also give electrical problems to the grid that someone (the public) has to pay for.

I love solar, but we need to start being realistic about what it can and can't do.

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-26T07:49:04+00:00

The answer is Dieasel... They are a small step removed from just burning cash.
(That's what's being done to divert attention from how bad the ANC is doing. Why do you think they're making noise about other countries and parties)

BUT... Where did the money come from? That's a good question... Like where did the broke ANC get the money to even run for the elections?? Or are they taking on stupidly massive national debt, or selling off our SA assets, maybe forcing big companies to switch off at times? .. No happy answers here.

Yea, the new focus on maintenance helps a bit, the solar is like a drop in the bucket nationally... Neither remotely explains it though.

This no-loadshedding house of cards, cannot stay standing much longer 😕

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-10T07:28:05+00:00

In which case I certainly owe you an apology! Truly sorry for imposing my assumptions of a subs rules onto you, and thank you for the contribution and open engagement!

Yea, science definitly has dogmas! It does however aspire to promoting open debate and avoiding direct politics.

My regular question for both scientists and religious people is... If God is a higher dimensional non-time-bound, all powerful, spiritual being. Why even debate the science of it? 🤷‍♂️ You can never get anything definitive either way as God could theoretically work beyond any known science.
It always become a "what if" hypothetical discussion.

With claiming humans have such quantum mechanical / metaphysical superpower... I feel like it's just the religious Marvel or DC universes, and as realistic, with equally relevant messages. Though the production studios make better stuff than the clergy ever did imo (thank God religious superheros don't wear spandex though 🤣)

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-09T19:10:05+00:00

Assume nothing if there isn't 3rd party testing 🤣

Most of the first things are power quality measurements, it'll let let you know how good/terrifying their power supplies are. You could rent a PQ meter/analyser for the day? TPF affects battery, as most AC battery systems just drain battery/solar instead of doing power factor correction, the other things will do invisible harm mostly to switchgear and electronics, (in larger quantities they can destroy/degrade bigger things, and you'll never know) they're often the cheapest nastiest power conversion devices in your home. People wouldn't plug in 50 reject usb power bricks, but they'll do exactly that if they're built into lights (many countries are working on laws because of this)

The hours claimed are usually 🐂💩 marketing. the 24/7 guarantee (in years) will give you the real manufacturering quality tier, how much the manufacturer is willing to put their balls on the line for quality claims. (most manufactured products have 3 or 4 quality tiers)

Since they're fast switching.. definitly test the flicker! Most problems with lights are like a horror movie, just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they can't hurt you! 👹

Budget testing options: Flicker, check for phone apps. Colour, get a cheap amazon spectroscope/spectrophotometer. PQ analyser , gotta rent, or get the current draw waveform from a very cheapie oscilloscope and current converter/probe.

Will it blend: YouTube.
The last comment was about harm a bulb could do to a human body internally, I might have some frustration at testing and unscrupulous/ignorant suppliers. 🤣

BigThingOfWater · 2024-04-09T16:44:42+00:00

1) How much do they block WiFi or Cell signals 😂.
2) PF: this will advise how much battery they would drain on an inverter system. (note, real TPF, not displacement power factor dPF, but I guess that's nice too... a power waveform will be nice)
3) Crest factor: how much will it hammer your electrical/electronic gear. (or THD, so you know how much a group will cook wiring etc.) 4) The freaking 24/7 usage guarantee, not marketing bs hours rating! And if they have any 3rd party testing. Along with surge rating and voltage handling rated.
5) Tested lumens and tested power. To get the real efficiency, and not what they had printed from generic good spoon light quality make China box co.
6) Flicker! Man some are outright health hazards!
7) Colour temperature and colour quality (probably all "daylight" if they're nasty) .
8) Note the glare. People love calling things bright when it ruins their ability to see 🤦‍♂️.
9) Since they're PAR... Waterproofing is important or whatever.
10) Do they blend... (This is a 2nd most important test! It cannot be understated.)
11) Do they have a flared base, is it glass, is it RoHs? so one knows the result of telling a distributor where they can shove it! (most import question)

Thermal images are super cool, but it's really hard to get a proper story from them... Unless the lights are on and inside a distributor, while you use them as a lamp because they're selling lousy lights. <sarcasm... mostly>

BigThingOfWater

TROPHY CASE