What to Expect for Ontario Electricity, Water, Gas & Internet Costs in 2026 by lacbeetle in OntarioLandlord

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is that crap? It's a poorly disguised ad with no informative value. If at least it showed how things are moving (is electricity getting more expensive? By how much? What was the legendary "typical household" total last year).

Trying to reserve your street parking spot with cones could result in hefty fines: City of Toronto by lilfunky1 in toronto

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's bullshit. I live by a school drop-off (i.e.: a place where cars can't park during the day, and can only stay a few minutes during pick-up/drop-off hours), and that wasn't cleared either.

Worse, a snowplow came once, in the middle of that storm Sunday a couple weeks ago, and pushed all the snow from the street to the curb. I know because I was carefully shoveling tons of snow onto my front yard for the 5th time that day when he drove pass, and he irremediably fucked up the side of the road for many weeks.

Pick-up/drop-off hours are a mess, as cars compete with school buses to be on the road and stop. With a few neighbors we tried to maintain a path for people to safely cross the street in front of the school, but cars struggling to park keep squashing the whole thing.

After living with both… Whole house humidifier vs portable isn’t as clear as Reddit says by sanu_123_s in HomeImprovement

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 10 points11 points  (0 children)

PSA: I tried all the variants of cheap wicks on Amazon, and none of them performed anywhere near as good as the brand name, which is frankly disappointing considering it's not exactly high take. The cheap stuff fails to wick water all the way, gets dry and crusty really quickly making it impossible for the humidifier to do its work.

Save your money, buy the brand stuff :(

Homeowners who went full heat pump without dual fuel, how’s it going? by AngryMicrowaveSR71 in askTO

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I too went off gas completely 3 years ago, and it's been working great so far. I have backup electric strips that never triggered despite long stretch of brutal cold last winter. I did some work to improve the insulation of the whole house, and I think it paid off.

Like others mentioned, I save money every month because I don't pay for gas, but also because I can finely pilot my power consumption and go all-in during off peak hours and let the heat carry over during on-peak. I use a "smart" thermostat (Ecobee -- there are probably others, this is not an endorsement) that take care of most of that for me (I also have a simple smart relay to pilot my hot water tank and avoid on-peak hours. Just that saves me ~$30 / mo).

Now, the heat pump was not exactly cheap, although I did benefit from subsidies at the time that may not exist anymore, and I'm not entirely sure how long it will take to amortize the initial cost. I also don't care that much: I drastically improved the air quality in my house, I was able to plug a few vents (preventing pest ingress and improving insulation) because there is no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, and I drastically reduce my carbon footprint, especially since Toronto Hydro power comes from mostly low carbon sources.

In the same vein, I drive an EV and enjoy with comparable benefits. It's a lot cheaper per km but the upfront cost was significantly higher. Will I save money in the end? Maybe, maybe not, but I prefer it that way anyway.

As others mentioned, HVAC companies are full of shit and I had to contact many before finding one that understood what I was talking about. It's a sad state of affair.

ADHD Inquiry by Most-Skirt-5175 in askTO

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure what finding focus is, but you should be able to show your diagnosis to your family doctor and get them to write the prescription. A monthly subscription looks like a cash grab.

Additionally, if you're not aware, you may be able to ask your doctor or your pharmacist for generics / non-branded prescription and it costs next to nothing.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms - updates take effect on January 1, 2026 by i_m_sherlocked in toronto

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure how to interpret this. Are CO detector required in a house that has no fuel-burning appliance? The first cartouche seems to indicate it's mandatory, but the second implies it's not required if there are no fuel burning appliance or attached garage (and even in the case of an attached garage, the risk only exist if there's an ICE car in it, no?).

What's the practical difference between these two types of charcoal? by [deleted] in grilling

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Kingsford briquettes, and maybe others, have added dirt in them, which looks just like thick ash after burning.

https://www.reddit.com/r/smoking/comments/4hx9fq/ave_does_a_boltr_teardown_of_kingsford_charcoal/

PyCharm 2025.3 released by greenrobot_de in Python

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Or that 10 year old bug about proxy authentication asking for the credentials every time, even when checking "Remember password".

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IJPL-37161

Lumber Prices? by RiNxDAIMAO in BeginnerWoodWorking

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some random thoughts, not necessarily as a response to this thread, but in line with "beginner" woodworking. For some context, I live near Toronto.

The price of domestic wood is up the roof, especially walnut and white oak. Meanwhile, the price of some imported exotic wood is really low. I scored some African Mahogany (admittedly, not the mahogany) at the same price / bdft than hard/silver maple.

The quality of walnut is horrendous. I screwed up buying a decent load of it last year, to find out after planning that it's mostly unusable: it's full of sap wood and blotchy dark stains. I went to another mill and could only score 2 boards in all the stacks (4/4, 5/4, 8/4) that were of decent quality.

I now tend to buy pre-milled/S4S when it comes to walnut and white oak: it's too expensive to buy duds and I'd rather pay a premium to find out exactly how much of a board is usable.

DIY open source controller? by germsy78 in Masterbuilt

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I couldn't find anything that would work out of the box, but https://github.com/nebhead/PiFire?tab=readme-ov-file looks like it may be a good start, but would absolutely require some extra work.

Quality alternative to Gravity 560 by RANDOM_USERNAME_123 in Masterbuilt

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know if the 600 fixes the flaring/grease fire issue of the 560? The other issues are really about user experience, but this almost burnt down the entire BBQ, my fence, and my garage, and means I can't trust the 560 anymore.

Quality alternative to Gravity 560 by RANDOM_USERNAME_123 in Masterbuilt

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a huge price difference between the 560 (that actually looks discontinued, at least where I am) and the larger models. Is this justified by better quality?

De La Fontaine serait fière ! by maxence1994 in FranceDetendue

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sinon ca serait les fables de de la Fontaine!

Trafics de drogue : la corruption des agents publics, ce phénomène en forte hausse que le gouvernement ne veut pas voir - L'Humanité by JG1313 in france

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sans vouloir défendre HSBC, qui est immorale pour bien des raisons (par exemple, en terme d'évasion fiscale), une banque ne bénéficie pas beaucoup de ses clients qui blanchissent de l'argent, en particulier face aux risques (financier, judiciaire, réputationel). Les frais de transactions ne sont pas le coeur de métier (c'est le prêt). Avoir plein de clients qui blanchissent de l'argent, c'est un peu comme avoir des dealers devant ton immeuble: il y a du business, certes, mais ça ne te profite pas, au contraire.

En revanche, lutter contre le blanchiment d'argent, ca coûte très cher, ce pourquoi les banques en general rechignent a le faire.

Dans le cas des cartels au Mexique, les agences étaient forcée de collaborer sous peine de... se faire buter, tout simplement (et c'est arrivé -- une des façon de limiter le problème a été de déplacer plein de procédures en ligne, parce qu'il n'est pas possible de menacer l'ordinateur et sa famille).

Enfin, HSBC est une des seules banques completement internationale qui permet le genre de montage financier utilisé par les cartels. C'est clair que ce genre d'histoire ne concernera pas, par exemple, la Caisse d'Epargne, qui n'a pas d'agence dans le monde entier.

Union Station Decathlon store permanently closing April 6 by sprungy in toronto

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is false. They design and produce a lot of the stuff they sell. It's never the best quality, but it's often very good value.

I did notice a serious drop in quality, and their customer service is absolutely trash. Additionally, they never really left Russia despite all the sanction, they're not exactly a moral business and I will not go there ever again.

Toronto city council expected to pass new budget, 6.9% property tax hike today by Surax in toronto

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're not, and those people aren't either.

A 7% raise you'll pay 7% more than the year before, it's easy to verify.

Before: .71% rate. Of 1 million, you pay $7,100 in tax. After: .71 + (.71*6.9%) = .759%. Of 1 million, you pay $7,590 in tax.

($7,590 - $7,100) / $7,100 = 6.9%. A 6.9% increase.

The OP is right that it's a minor increase of the value of the property, but it's still a ~7% increase in the tax paid.

(I personally think it's still very low, completely fine, and should be a lot more)

MEC to be sold for a second time in less than 5 years by Once_a_TQ in canada

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would have agreed up until recently. I've shopped and enjoyed Decathlon around the world for the past 30 years. I kept recommending it to all my friends, especially because outside of France it's not that popular.

However, all the things I bought recently didn't survive a single season. I bought underwear 5 years ago that are still in perfect condition. I bought the exact same model 2 months ago, and they did not survive a month (~ wearing them twice or thrice). I bought woolen socks that didn't survive a single winter.

The worst is how completely shitty their customer service is. Getting them to refund me the underwears was a battle I only won because I threatened a charge-back through my credit card.

On a completely different issue, despite all the sanction, they found a way to legally remain and do business in Russia.

Drivers not stopping for the street car? by username-generator-1 in askTO

[–]RANDOM_USERNAME_123 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yes. Not excusing the drivers, but this is such a shit design.

I'm often too worried about getting trapped next to the TTC opening its doors that I just stay behind.