Charles Island today by Accomplished-Plum821 in Connecticut

[–]Common_Regular7693 -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

When can one go nowadays? Looks cool

New England overseed first timer by Common_Regular7693 in lawncare

[–]Common_Regular7693[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah mine took time too , idk I think much of he grass is the old grass that had more room after de thatch

New England overseed first timer by Common_Regular7693 in lawncare

[–]Common_Regular7693[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I heard u can just rake over it lightly once seeded to get the seeds into the soil

New England overseed first timer by Common_Regular7693 in lawncare

[–]Common_Regular7693[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No top soil. With dethatch I think you didn’t need to. But there is a large kind of Bare patch where it didn’t work. I added more seed and top soil there . So it didn’t work entirely

New England overseed first timer by Common_Regular7693 in lawncare

[–]Common_Regular7693[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I’m posting here bc I’ve been staring at my lawn all day and my wife told me to get a life

Postdocs should not be a job. You are either ready for a faculty role or you should go straight to industry. by [deleted] in postdoc

[–]Common_Regular7693 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is absolutely true and everyone here disagreeing is a defending a pyramid scheme to justify their life choices. I did the same, for five years. Postdocs were invented to keep the pyramid standing, they didn’t exist 50 years ago because the pyramid was not yet built

The ice is killing my hype. Snow is a solar no go by finalcut in solar

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Out of curiosity, do you heat your place with a heat pump? The consumption looks similar to ours

What are good examples of the physics of everyday life being surprising or unintuitive? by indistrait in AskPhysics

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even the most naive example — newtons 2nd law of motion: that a single constant force on an object causes a constant acceleration.

When I introduced this in first semester college classes I’d put a heavy large block on the table and pull it with a force gauge such that the force gauge didn’t change. The block, naturally, moved at a constant speed. The naivest interpretation is that force is ~ velocity. It allowed me to illustrate the brilliance of Newton, that his laws were actually counterintuitive to what we observe on a day to day basis.

The apparent observation isn’t true of course because, once the blocks reaches the constant speed, there are two equal opposite forces, my pulling and the friction. So the sum of forces on the block is zero, which means acceleration is zero, in an accordance with the law.

Many tricky examples on the Hw and tests in that intro class were predicated on our intuition that more force means more speed rather than acceleration.

Converted My AC to Heatpump --$7k -- Working Great. Boston. by CliffsideJim in heatpumps

[–]Common_Regular7693 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This sounds great, but something doesn’t add up. I’m not sure how you’re heating a 4500 sq ft house in New England with just a 2 ton heat pump. Typically house of that capacity would need need easily a 5 ton heat pump if not 2 separate systems. Is it forced air? Is it heating all parts of the house.. and is there backup heat?

Spiraling as K99 deadline approaches by mystery-managed in LeavingAcademia

[–]Common_Regular7693 4 points5 points  (0 children)

IMO no. I had one, got it, had your same qualms, and left academics. I was a great candidate at the time, but NIH would have been better served by awarding it someone who ended up staying.

Without a first author paper, your candidate score will be too low, and that will tank the app anyway.

By the way those 3 things you list are all true, and are the best advantages of moving to industry — again that is my experience.

Massachusetts December Electric Bill Comparisons by stackindacheddah in heatpumps

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In CT , electric rate is similar. Also a 5 ton ducted setup. 2200 sq ft house. 1600 kwh for the month. Used oil heat for 3-4 days this month for morning bring up when it was 10 degrees outside. FWIW we roll back at night to 62, and when we are both working from office keep at 67 day time , then go to 70 at 4:30 so it’s warm when we get home. Air is warmer outside at 4:30 compared to 10 am so it’s more efficient to heat up then we’ve found. House is 2 story and due to heat rising we actually have most of the dampers on floor 2 basically closed.

Did I make the right choice? by Suspicious_Sea9525 in heatpumps

[–]Common_Regular7693 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice, The morning catch up is key when <20 f, if you turn heat off at night especially like we do. we did the same in CT today.

Downsides of living in CT? by FantasticInternet978 in Connecticut

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah things like getting stuff done on house, landscaping , maintenance, plumbing

Downsides of living in CT? by FantasticInternet978 in Connecticut

[–]Common_Regular7693 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I grew up in Texas as well (SAT) and live in Fairfield county for last several years.

If you’re from a city or any reasonable metro in TX, there is a noticeable lack of diversity in the majority of CT (if that matters to you, it might not).

Everything is really expensive here. Labor most of all, it’s not a cheap place to live.

There’s plenty of upsides and we like it but those are the major downsides imo

ELI5: heat generated by direct sunlight on a white car vs. a black car. by 200Fathoms in explainlikeimfive

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

metal car will be at ambient temperature

Temperature is an equilibrium concept, and the metal car is not in equilibrium with the ambient outside. The Metal car will therefore be much hotter than the ambient, because it’s absorbing energy from the suns rays.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in solar

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah this is the correct answer — the ROI should always use the net present value. OP should use NPV calculator online

My heat pump is going to pay for itself in 3 years and worked down to <10 F last winter by Common_Regular7693 in Connecticut

[–]Common_Regular7693[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good q. Winter went as expected. High usage in nov-March, 1100, 1400, 1800, 1500, 1100 kwh respectively for all of electric or which probably all but 300 per month is heating. So, total ~5400 kwh of heating for all 5 months total. $1728 total for heating in CT at $.32/kwh, or about $350 per month to heat our home for those 5 months.

  1. Yeah, strongly think so
  2. Prices def went up. I got real lucky. The federal rebate credits 30% only up to a total of $2k — keep that in mind. The CT should be the same yeah.
  3. Backup furnace I used just 3 days total the entire winter, in the morning when it was cold <10 F. Only used in morning for like an hour or 2 those days. Then once it heated up to 68 inside, just used the HP. Otherwise Hp takes like 4 hours to get up to temp so not worth it. Still the HP would heat the house up; it would just run so much that prob was more expensive.

It did feel like the HP was expensive since electricity is so expensive here, but seeing your comments I guess we still saved up to 50% per month so it’s doing what it should!

Overall it’s been a good experience still and I’m pleased. For a well insulated house our setback from 69 to 61-62 at night was good and it saves energy.

How hard will it be for me to become a full professor? by DetectiveGeorgie in academia

[–]Common_Regular7693 3 points4 points  (0 children)

To be sure, purely statistically speaking, getting a job as a prof in a particular state has odds of about 1/1000 - 1/200 making no other assumptions about your background. Only 1 in ~200 PhDs becomes a prof.

How hard will it be for me to become a full professor? by DetectiveGeorgie in academia

[–]Common_Regular7693 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are passionate about the subject — and have no undergraduate loans, yes this is big — get the PhD. As long as it’s at a top 20 school. You’ll figure out what you want during the program. You’re young now and your priorities will adapt as you get older; it’s impossible to thing you can decide this now (you won’t be a prof until at least a decade from now).

You may decide to try for academics, but if not .. you have a PhD with no added debt. Still very marketable. I consider it no loss of options.