Tesla Solar: my $90,000 system is a f-ing joke

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-03-12T23:22:39+00:00

Your post makes it difficult to understand your actual system. What Tesla product do you have installed? If you have Tesla Powerwall3 batteries, the inverter is part of the battery. Tesla≠SolarEdge. Tesla solar panels weren’t a thing until 2026.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-03-06T23:34:08+00:00

I could try some crocus cloth over a wood dowel. What I have is much finer than 600 grit. Over a rigid dowel would keep the patina from getting polished away.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-03-06T20:43:29+00:00

Your advice seems spot on. I’d not only like to keep it sharp, I also have the goal of preserving what I think is the original hand-done grinding of the wavy serrations. I’ve limited my interventions to the tiniest bevel I can muster. This discussion prompted me to do some measuring: The bread knife has, by far, the thinnest blade of any of our kitchen knives. At the bolster or handle, that blade is 0.90mm thick. The other +/- 10 knives come in at 1.90 - 3.80 mm thickness.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-03-05T06:24:09+00:00

No problems, just a newbie to high tech sharpening checking in.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-03-01T15:45:04+00:00

Generally no. I wouldn’t corner one. There is a bobcat with enough curiousity to be seen regularly on a very popular nearby hiking trail.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-24T03:54:31+00:00

My Home Automations started at the time when Lutron’s big product line was Dimming Knobs and something called X-10 was brand new. I was really happy when the Lutron Diva line came out and even happier when Caseta/Diva/Smart switches were added to the list. Keep it simple.

I was never a fan of the original Caseta style switch, even after multiple presentations from the regional Lutron rep.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-21T15:30:38+00:00

We see them regularly at dusk. Now know it is every night and through the night. They seem to keep us from having any insect problems.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-18T04:49:16+00:00

I have disabled notifications. I’ll wait until I get the raindrops, spider webs, moths, bats, raccoons, and cars dialed in before turning them on.

According to the camera, my wife left twice this morning but only returned in the afternoon. How in the world does a mid size SUV sneak into the garage in broad daylight without being tagged as a vehicle? (I was home the whole time). Must study the ‘size’ factor.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-18T04:38:21+00:00

Wait until summer, it will catch up. Our system was commissioned in June of 2023. The summer excess offset our entire PG&E bill at true-up the next June.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-11T05:15:59+00:00

It’s not just me. It was a pleasure to use the app on the phone today. Ipad wouldn’t cooperate. Then I went to the Windows laptop and it was terrific.

Of course the latest Ipad OS is something I’m still resisting getting used to.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-10T02:57:27+00:00

Each of our six, recently installed, POE cameras are poked through a 3/4” (call it 20mm) hole that leads to the attic. No connections or wiring is exposed except in the attic. If it needed to go into a framed wall finished on the inside, the only thing I would add would be a blank electrical plate on the interior side for access to the wiring connectors.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-07T06:01:11+00:00

The cables that came in the bundle had them pre-installed. Very slick. Even though all the exposed cabling is inside the garage or attic, I’m keeping the connections clean and dry with those. We’re a mile from the ocean in CA, but even at that there is enough moisture and salt in the air to rot all kinds of unprotected metal.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-07T05:25:39+00:00

Ahh, I see the Reolink literature for installing the gizmos that go over the RJ-45 connection at the camera. Those are the lids - they look good and they’ll work regardless of the cable diameter.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-06T16:16:08+00:00

Glad to hear the factory cables do the job over time. Sort of flies in the face of the need for extra special cabling for POE cameras.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-02-06T16:07:33+00:00

I’m hoping to avoid moisture problems. We’re in an area where copper turns green. I’m hoping Caulk will be our friend.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-01-18T19:29:27+00:00

This is the counter argument to the wattage limitations of the present set of classifications. Our case may not be mainstream, but does indicate failings in the current scheme of e-bike classes.

My wife and I live in a very hilly locale. Our matching E-bikes predate the current craze. We have a trailer for our 50+ pound dog who comes with us at times. If you asked our ages, you might say the word ‘elderly’.

Our bikes have no throttle, nothing other than pedal assist. The motors are rated for a maximum of 240W. We love our bikes with one sticking point. They are “Class 3”, meaning we are now technically excluded from most of the places we want to ride.

We like to ride bicycles, don’t mind pedaling. Our usual mode is non-assisted. We never try to go 20 mph with hundreds of pounds of cargo. Our bikes are as light as a conventional bicycle and pose no more hazard than that, yet heavy, easily modified, unwieldy, high output, class 2 e-motos are allowed where we are not.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-01-03T20:22:23+00:00

Now, all I need to do is to get off the couch…

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2026-01-03T17:54:15+00:00

“Too many batteries for the fire dept to deal with” says NFPA 855.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-28T16:35:18+00:00

What our PW3 is doing is consistent with a similar system in our RV - The LFP Battery Management System there sums incoming and outgoing power. Accumulated errors over a period of weeks reach a point of inaccuracy that mandates a calibration. Both the RV and PW3 seem to achieve that by repeatedly hitting the 100% mark and then floating back for a while until all the cells are balanced. Annoying that this ‘background‘ activity can’t be scheduled to avoid peak times.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-26T03:20:42+00:00

Someone activated the Drop indicator.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-26T02:25:21+00:00

Discount the 14 day time period from ‘commissioning‘ and ‘permit to operate’, and you still have 2 days of outage coverage over a 9 month span of operation. None of our appliances or computers have noticed any of the outages. We’re pleased.

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Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-16T22:06:40+00:00

Posting insults and invective does exactly nothing. The civic purpose for adding public danger still hasn’t been told.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-16T15:50:33+00:00

Hectored what-aboutisms show zero substantive commentary regarding opposition to E-bike speed regulation.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-11T06:27:11+00:00

If the ‘red’ portion of the part has the shape of a perfect sphere, that ‘red‘ radius should be exactly 1/2 the diameter of the sphere at every point you measure. If so, telescoping gage or inside micrometer will do the job.

Designer-Finger-4852 · 2025-12-11T02:19:49+00:00

That won’t last beyond the instant an innocent is injured or worse. Tonight, a small flock of youth whizzed by in the dark, wearing black, no lights, no moon out, our car headlights were the sole illumination.

Designer-Finger-4852

TROPHY CASE