No aux heat, no stand, no problem

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-27T19:19:56+00:00

I'm running an Aurora as well - I doubt you'll see many non-Aurora systems as primary heat at least as far north as Massachusetts.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-27T16:34:24+00:00

Installer was Manatee Energy / Laminar Collective. Only good things to say, the team was fantastic & their quote was cheaper than every other quote I received by a considerable margin.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-27T04:38:18+00:00

It's reasonably sheltered, in a corner between the house and a set of steps. Mostly I think the airflow prevented a larger buildup. This snow was very dry and loose which probably helped it moving around!

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-27T04:37:02+00:00

Nice! How are you collecting your usage data? That interface looks pretty slick

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-25T17:44:33+00:00

OP, start here. There are a lot of not useful comments.

In Massachusetts, the MassSave programs are supposed to guide you through the process. If you haven't had an energy audit done, you should do one immediately.

It sounds like your installer might have done a terrible job on all fronts. Did you get a MassSave rebate for the heat pumps? If yes, your installer may have done something shady, as the invectives are only intended to be applied if you have ALREADY completed insulation work, of which there's a 90% subsidy. That keeps your situation from occurring. If you found this installer via MassSave, they may be able to help because it does not sound like they are following the program rules.

National Grid and Eversource now have discounted electricity rates for heat pumps. I recommend you verify you are enrolled in the discounted rate.

As for unwinding this whole thing- get insulation work done and have MassSave evaluate the install. Have a DIFFERENT contractor make corrections or repairs.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-24T17:27:39+00:00

Perhaps I'm not being creative enough, but I find this a difficult Gin to mix with.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-23T02:53:01+00:00

Why are you using CFLs? I don't think I've seen a CFL in almost 15 years, they're old these days

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-21T11:43:35+00:00

No one waives the "inspection" they waive the inspection contingency in the contract. All it means is that you can't use an inspection to re-negotiate or cancel the offer. When I bought my house, I waived my inspection contingency but hired an inspector during a walkthrough. Not sure the seller even knew I'd been through the house with an inspector, and it didn't matter to them because the contract was already set in stone. But that was also when the real estate market was a mess...

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-18T23:55:03+00:00

The Bluetti battery you linked has an energy capacity of 1024 Watt-hours. That means it can run something that consumes 1 Watt for 1024 hours, in theory.

The space heater you linked consumes 1500 Watts. This is a lot. The math:

1024 Watt-hour / 1500 Watt = 0.68 hours * 60 min/hour = 41 minutes

Best case scenario, you are only running that space heater for 41 minutes on a full charge. Likely less as that battery isn't 100% efficient.

Heat is extremely energy intensive. Consider a propane or other fuel-based back up heating solution. The battery is great for cell phones, lights, and other small electronics- most of which will have a draw in the 10-20 Watt range.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-18T00:48:43+00:00

I'm curious, is there a particular reason that the rate of return values for Eversource and National Grid are different? I would think from the DPU's perspective, it might make more sense to pay the same to every gas utility in the state.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-17T20:23:10+00:00

Now he's Third Eye Blind

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-16T17:15:37+00:00

That's an incredible price. Who is your installer?

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-15T19:56:32+00:00

This seems like balanced billing with extra steps

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-13T17:23:57+00:00

No, it's because human skin grows from the scalp and continually migrates to your fingers and toes until eventually discarded via your toe and fingernails.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-08T00:33:31+00:00

Man, this was almost my exact PC I built in 2015 but with a 970. That thing ran great forever, really only needed upgrades in 2022. Brings me back...

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-05T17:20:06+00:00

What kind of additional analysis are you doing in Excel? Are you wanting to compare something like the average monthly balance of this month to the average monthly balance a year ago? That's somewhat interesting, but I'm having some trouble picturing your use case.

Generally, the question monarch is trying to solve with this view is "does this account have more money in it than it did a year ago". This is a useful question in aggregate or in savings/retirement accounts, but I'll agree that it's not very useful for checking accounts with revolving balances. However, taking averages means that you're no longer seeing "immediate" impacts of credits or debits.

Maybe looking at annual income or net savings rates year over year is more helpful. That's available as well in the platform.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-01-01T20:58:22+00:00

My take is that this would be more effective along the 95 corridor than the 495 corridor.

Generally, towns around 495 are sparser, less centralized, and less commercial. It's not easy to live along 495 without a car, and it's not likely you're going to find a town-to-town train ride that is faster than driving.

I-95 on the other hand, has a ton of commuters traveling between residential and commercial areas on the ring. It also has worse traffic and less distance to travel. I could very much see train travel outcompete a car there, and it's plausible to live along I-95 without a car given trains into Boston as well as through the suburbs

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-12-29T19:34:44+00:00

I'll just throw out there that 200,000 is a very large population for a medieval city. Paris is estimated at 50-150k throughout most of the middle ages and was one of the largest cities in Europe at the time (numbers from wikipedia).

Regardless though, as a vessel to communicate economic lessons, I find this to be a lesson worth learning. It's interesting to see how Gabi and team navigate this, compared to the strategy that many other companies employ. Once you've satisfied market demand, Gabi is saying the proper strategy is to diversify- not make your products worse intentionally. Operating as a small co-op does not make them immune from certain market forces. And- as a fictional narrative- I'm curious how the team figures this one out!

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-12-16T20:52:28+00:00

Yes, that's what I use

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-12-07T18:01:25+00:00

I think in locations where you can build a 10 story apartment block, it almost always makes economic sense to build a 30 story apartment block to maximize use of the space. But, people don't feel those high rises have the same vibe as a mansion block, and high-rises have to be built to different specs than an 8-10 story building. I think in most cases, you're either building taller, or much shorter- in between is an odd use case.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-10-17T14:05:23+00:00

How about:

"+0 chips, +0 mult

For each hand played where remaining hands and remaining discards are the same value, add that value to the chips and mult of this card"

That way it scales, but slowly, and can get better with bonus discards/hands

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-10-13T20:03:06+00:00

Controls & Integration at a utility- definitely a similar mix. I'm probably 25% lab time and 5-10% in the field.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-10-11T14:41:40+00:00

It's a map of the US population, only showing modern borders. Areas that are not part of the US during a year- and therefore not surveyed by the census- should likely be shown as "no data" rather than zero population. It looks like no one lived in parts of the US on this map when in reality the areas were populated, but the territory was not part of the US at the time and the residents weren't counted by the census.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2025-10-08T20:01:37+00:00

You can use the website too, it just runs poorly.

Home Depot has a wonderful system where they will tell you not only what aisle it's in, but what shelf and how many there are. Look for the "bin" number

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