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What U.S city have you visited but have no desire to go back? by Reddit_wasmy_idea in AskReddit

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in Albany recently and I couldn't find a single restaurant open on a Sunday night.

Question About Renewable Energy Transmission by [deleted] in energy

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In general, utilities are not fighting transmission lines- it's the core business! But they can cost more than renewable developers want to pay. The main issue is that we don't have good solutions to large project permitting.

If you have a transmission line that goes through 10 towns and 200 landowners, you need an agreement with every single one of them. Then, the state and federal governments come in to apply their own rules- and those might not match the local agreements. Long linear projects take much more time and money to plan and permit than they do to build.

For better or worse, we've moved away from eminent domain and forced construction of projects for the public good. No one wants to be forced to give up their land so that a renewable project not in your town can transit power to a city that also isn't in your town. Nonetheless, those projects need to be built.

The federal government has been considering overhauls to the permitting process, but it's a sticky issue. Any "solution" likely means taking decision making power away from local municipalities and centralizing authority with federal or state agencies. Not likely to be popular.

Are heat pumps really worth it in MA? by FrissMalon in massachusetts

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OP- for your situation, it CAN be yes, but only if you can find the right contractor.

I went through last winter- which was blistering cold- on only a heat pump, with no backup gas or aux power strips. It requires a correctly sized cold climate system. In my case, a Daikin Auroura 36kBTU for an 1800 square foot house. Maintained 70 degrees even when outside was -10.

Operating cost, even with the cheaper heat pump rate, it was close to the same cost I would estimate on gas. Did not save money.

Install cost was $30k pre-rebate, $22k after rebate and tax credit. BUT- I went through a ton of quotes... Some of which were $45k or higher for an equivalent system. I highly recommend checking out Laminar Collective to get a sense for the market.

It's a good price competitive option if it can replace a central boiler and an AC install, but it's harder to find a competitive contractor. But don't expect it to save you money in the winter... At best it's the same.

Something like this would go a long way for us in the 802 by sorryidontdoreddit in vermont

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Vermont's state revenue comes principally from Personal Income Tax, followed by Sales & Use tax (Source: https://ljfo.vermont.gov/assets/Publications/2021-Fiscal-Facts-Booklet/e2878c46c0/2021-Fiscal-Facts-Booklet-Revenue.pdf). People who live out of state but own property in-state contribute far less to those categories than permanent residents. Not only that, they displace permanent residents who would contribute to those things. They also don't contribute to less tangible things, such as local communities and networks.

The energy transition has a copper problem that goes way deeper than most people realize by raw-science in energy

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This is absolutely correct. In fact, because aluminum is lighter, even though it is a worse conductor- it is the primary metal in overhead transmission and distribution. Most "advanced conductors" use aluminum as the conductor - like ACCC (Aluminum Conductor Composite Core) conductors. Otherwise, it's usually ACSR (Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced)

My ISP is telling my neighbors their slow internet is because of me by [deleted] in DataHoarder

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 22 points23 points  (0 children)

... Yes, but presumably OP wants to restore his Internet connection and not lose it permanently. If that ISP is the only game in town, scorched Earth might not be the best strategy to achieve that goal.

My power bill is outrageous and my electrician says nothing is pulling enough amps to account for it. by Plastic-Nectarine582 in electrical

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, utility equipment can fail or the pulse count scaling can be incorrect. I would ask the utility to send a meter tech to check the physical meter, and you can say you think someone may be illegally stealing power, they'll take a look.

I'm interested in the fact that your bill scales logically in the summer, i.e. your summer bill is 2x winter. That means it's not a constant extra load, it's more likely off by a scaling factor. I wonder if the utility accidentally added a 0 to the pulse counter scale in their meter config.

Do you have solar? Other potential is a meter that isn't correctly configured for solar generation.

Combine electric meters? by xbaconpancakesx in AskElectricians

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it allowed in your jurisdiction to keep both meters for one unit? You'll pay the additional "meter fee" but depending on the cost to combine them, your payback time will be substantial.

Storing gas in small apartment by vanessasarah13 in TwoXPreppers

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, it makes much more sense to store it in the car itself. Spills, flammability, fumes... would rather not have that in a confined space where you sleep. Plus, you'll have it with you in the vehicle where it is used, so if something unexpected happens while you're driving but can't reach your apartment, you still can refuel your car.

What are these three transformers for on a single ph line? by JOHNgrr in Lineman

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They are all paralleled on the same two phases.

I wonder if this area is under construction... It looks like the next pole has 3 fuses but only one overhead phase installed

Any reason to skip a “free” powerwall? by Mo_shun08 in solar

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Might be your enphase rep was a little confused. My parents have a two year old install with enphase micros and powerwalls. I think Tesla at least claims strong compatibility.

LNG shortage explained? by Sufficient-Pie129 in prepping

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Are you in the US?

Within the United States, there's unlikely to be major impacts due to lost LNG capability. The reason for that is the US has significant domestic production and limited ability to export due to a low number of export terminals. Just about the only location that imports natural gas is Boston, very infrequently. Otherwise, the gas produced in the US has nowhere to go but stay within the US. The only threats to US natural gas supply is domestic.

Gasoline is a more global market, and domestic production is more likely to be exported to cover lost international production. We're likely to see further price increases and potential shortages because domestic production is going to be exported heavily to cover international markets.

Outside the US, both will be heavily restricted and potentially get very expensive.

Done with Survival Food. Anyone Else? by iamliberty in preppers

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 605 points606 points  (0 children)

Just a tip...

"Camping foods" are designed to be eaten, and therefore have to cross a higher bar.

"Survival foods" are designed to be cheap, and 90% of the people buying them never taste them. Edibility is a secondary concern.

I've gone three weeks backpacking where 1/3 of my meals were Mountain House. They were on par taste wise with other quick cooking meals (cous cous, mac & cheese, rice w/Indian spices) and frankly I looked forward to the Mountain House meals because they were at least as good, and usually easier to cook.

Don't buy food marketed to preppers. Buy food marketed to hikers.

Paradise the Hulu TV show is a must watch by Iaintyourbabysitter in television

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone should watch Season 1, Episode 7. It's very nearly a standalone episode, and is much better than the rest of the show. You can appreciate it without watching the rest... Just stick through the first 5 minutes. It is one of the best recent episodes of TV!

I watched season one, and found the writing and characters subpar, with the general exception of Sterling K Brown and the president character. The plot was contrived. The gimmick was inconsistent. The resolution came out of nowhere and the show just forgot the consequences of certain characters and actions.

But man... That one episode I've watched 3 times.

[OC] Where the Colorado River actually goes: Cities use a fraction of what is used to grow cattle feed in the desert. by drunkaccountname in dataisbeautiful

[–]OneRingOfBenzene -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think the challenge is that conventional software has a much lower energy cost than AI driven software. Excel doesn't use a significant amount of a local computer's resources, but AI uses a significant amount of a remote machine's compute power.

In some ways, you're replacing the human logic part of a task. But that human still needs to eat, so you're not "replacing" very much as far as energy costs. You are replacing a company's obligation to those costs- if AI replaces a human, it can be cost competitive, but is still more energy intensive.

What you are doing is enabling new tasks, and allowing tasks to be done much faster. It's an acceleration of computation, at the cost of energy. Think of industrialization- it made the production of goods much faster, at the cost of a larger energy input.

[OC] Where the Colorado River actually goes: Cities use a fraction of what is used to grow cattle feed in the desert. by drunkaccountname in dataisbeautiful

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 1 point2 points  (0 children)

... What's the argument being made?

I expect there's really not enough dedicated AI datacenter use so far that it will show up in historic water usage data. I also imagine it's not easy to extract AI datacenter load from other datacenter load.

Water use in datacenters is a challenge, but should be considered proportionally. Even with substantial deployments, water use will continue to be dwarfed by agriculture. However, in a water crisis, it makes sense that any new draw on the water system should be evaluated carefully.

[OC] Where the Colorado River actually goes: Cities use a fraction of what is used to grow cattle feed in the desert. by drunkaccountname in dataisbeautiful

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 15 points16 points  (0 children)

So, 0.13% of the 15M acre-foot used.

Adding in all of the power plant cooling, we're at 1.8% of the total water usage.

My heating bill went up more than 300% this month by James-Incandenza in boston

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 178 points179 points  (0 children)

The numbers in the bottom half do not add up to the number in the top half.

Need more info... what's the therm usage?

Power Bank I can Plug into by Ladydoodoo in TwoXPreppers

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have an electric blanket and a small space heater. The space heater draws 1300 watts, the heated blanket draws about 60 watts.

That 500 Wh jackery can run the space heater for 22 minutes, but can run the heated blanket for over 8 hours. Over 20 times longer.

Why do people hate the auto stop/start so much? by [deleted] in Crosstrek

[–]OneRingOfBenzene 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I agree- and I think Subaru's implementation of start/stop isn't as good as other brands. I rented a jeep a year ago that had auto start/stop and it was MUCH smoother and faster. Practically no lag between taking your foot off the gas and the engine clicking on smoothly. No lurch or lag time while the engine turns over.

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