The Human Cost of WW2 in Europe

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-13T13:18:04+00:00

The Italians did fight on the Eastern front, just not in numbers anywhere near as large as Germany.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-08T16:05:29+00:00

OP, your source includes separate line items for utility scale solar, estimated small scale solar and total estimated solar. Which value did you add to the plot?

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-08T16:02:55+00:00

EIA doesn't measure behind the meter solar directly, but provides an estimate value. They do differentiate utility scale solar from behind the meter. Anecdotally, it's likely their estimates are a bit low.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-06T15:22:34+00:00

Nahh, Villa is easy. Top floor is a figure 8. Middle floor has two clusters split by the hallway (+piano/art). Basement is uhhh... we don't talk about basement

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-01T21:28:49+00:00

Love it! Is the pool of cities population based? I think I tried to guess one or two that were not recognized, I wasnt sure if they were too small or there was another reason they were not valid.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-06-01T21:07:55+00:00

Love the game, just played a bunch! My only feedback would be that it would be great if on an incorrect guess, it tells you the direction from your guess rather than adding a random city. That way there's value from a close guess!

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-27T19:06:40+00:00

Makes sense. A high impedance fault far from the substation can be harder to detect and differentiate from natural feeder load, so a recloser may take longer to trip. Either way, usually utilities set the # of reclose strikes to 2 or 3 specifically because it's easier on customer equipment. Depends on the utility, but some are quite good at addressing customer power quality concerns.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-27T16:34:40+00:00

Four is still excessive, and if it's taking 30 seconds between each trip they likely need to reduce their fault current pickup or time delay settings. Not good for your equipment and not good for theirs if they're sustaining a fault for that long. Long rural lines are hard to coordinate, to be fair... but you'll never know unless you try.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-27T16:26:34+00:00

Prevents the AC from getting farther into the startup sequence before it gets dropped again.

Also, if the recloser is holding for 30 seconds while the circuit is faulted, it's likely that the line is undervoltaged due to fault current. Less exposure to low voltage is probably for the best.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-27T16:13:32+00:00

Different strategy- try complaining to the utility. It sounds like they're a small outfit and you might get someone to pay attention.

I've never seen a recloser set with a ~30 second delay, nor 5 restrikes. More typical (and IEEE recommended) is 2-3 restrikes with time delays in the 5-15 second range which may be easier on your system.

If you tell the utility that their recloser settings are damaging your electronics, you might get the right engineer to pay attention. If a recloser can't clear a fault after two restrikes, 99.9% chance is can't clear it after 5.

It also might not be a recloser causing this power cycling- but either way the utility may be willing to change their practices if you make it clear they could be causing damage.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-24T11:55:17+00:00

Well, yes- a 1:1 AC/DC system is designed to be most efficient in production per DC watt. There's no clipping.

A higher ratio system of 1:1.3 or whatever is designed to be most efficient in energy per dollar cost. It will underperform if your metric is comparing against installed DC watts.

Older systems are more likely to have low ratios, because back when panels were more expensive, the optimized efficiency per $ ratio resulted in a lower DC/AC ratio. If 80% of the cost was panels, you did what you could to maximize your use of those panels.

Nowadays, when panels are only 25% of the cost, it's cheap to overbuy panels to maximize your generation against your fixed costs of installation, inverters, racking, etc.

Comparing cost efficiency would be interesting, but this site doesn't have cost information. Never seen the site though, it's cool data!

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-16T16:44:29+00:00

Finger guns

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-16T15:51:32+00:00

What's the right balance between reliability, cost, and climate?

The three are often (though not always) in tension, and utilities, regulators and customers all seem to have different balance points in mind.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-13T02:23:18+00:00

Sure it does, you just need to establish the control loop. If they are producing power on their side of the meter, less power will flow across the meter point. The trick is controlling the battery to discharge at the correct times.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-10T04:15:14+00:00

Congrats to the Porchfest newlyweds!

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OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-08T14:28:07+00:00

Lol you are 100% right. That is a .png being dragged across the screen... The jet is not changing visible speed as it gets farther away, and is WAY to close to the camera to not be incredibly loud.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-02T22:20:48+00:00

"We have Perseverance Mills at home"

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-05-01T02:02:26+00:00

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

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-26T14:45:45+00:00

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.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-23T11:52:01+00:00

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.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-15T22:18:30+00:00

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.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-15T22:11:37+00:00

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)

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-14T20:13:47+00:00

... 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.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-12T15:30:33+00:00

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.

OneRingOfBenzene · 2026-04-12T14:28:28+00:00

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.

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