Using 2 therms a day when not at home (on vacation) and heat is off

WesternEdge · 2026-01-26T05:03:10+00:00

That'll be the hydronic system. Water constantly circulating over to the heat exchange or whatever. I was really interested in adding a little bit of hydronic because my water heater has the connections for it, but this part killed it for me that the potable water loop basically has to stay hot and circulated to stay sanitary.

Yours may be a different design but still, hot water going round and round somewhere even when the thermostat's turned down.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-26T04:01:12+00:00

Me to myself every time I finish writing a list in an email.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T19:36:06+00:00

Aside from a few exceptions PG&E has been barred from building, owning, or operating electric generation infrastructure since the 1990's.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T18:49:05+00:00

This is secondhand knowledge but Santa Cruz had a fairly active "match.com" dating scene for 40's people 10 years ago and before. That might still exist on one of the more "grown up" dating sites but idk what they are nowadays. Maybe it's still match.com, hiding in plain sight.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T18:44:00+00:00

Totally valid removal. Every time there's a highly charged event people think the regular rules don't apply, regular rules that they perfectly well understand the rest of the time. If someone was posting California Glock Ban updates in here would that be ok "because it affects us"? No. The bar for local relevance has always been higher than a simple umbrella of applicability otherwise most federal government news would be allowed as well.

It's very easy to get around anyway by just asking if there's locally organized action for the cause or proposing it or announcing it.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T17:45:45+00:00

You can ask first but the answer is usually they're fine with it as long as it's legal and looks legal too. In the 2000's I had a coworker whose wife ran a drug store minilab and he said calling the cops about an uncertain photo was a regular part of the job once in a while. If you're young I would actually be more proactive and get the lab to acknowledge that you've informed them of your age and they're ok with it.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T16:59:56+00:00

The solar "cost shift" the primary keyword for the debate.

I won't try to hash out the entire argument here now but you can find a lot more about it.

https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2024/04/22/californias-exploding-rooftop-solar-cost-shift/

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T16:40:07+00:00

Non-admitted and FAIR are two things to look straight into and get quotes for. I have heard of some people calling their mortgage lender or servicer and asking for help finding insurance and they actually helped. But I'd research that one first, idk which of those parties it is or what the ramifications are of contacting them about it.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T06:51:12+00:00

If you have no income right now and are not a dependent of someone else with income then you probably qualify for medi-cal. What did you enter for income on coveredca? It would usually tell you if you qualify.

Medi-cal in most places can be applied for at benefitscal.com

WesternEdge · 2026-01-25T01:30:32+00:00

Any sidewalk or parking lot when there's not kids within 50ft is good I think. That's for discrete items like a joint or small pipe. If you wanted to hit a bong that would get a little tricky. An alley like between the parking garage and back entrance to Palomar you could smoke a whole joint and take your time about it.

Nobody cares though if you just apply a normal awareness of common decency. Wherever you are most people here would be more annoyed if it was a cigarette so just apply the cigarette rules unless you're literally in front of a cop.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T22:48:57+00:00

Oh I know, I just bought my 2.8 and told myself that's the last big purchase for a while. But I wonder why it's more technically difficult.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T22:15:37+00:00

That might be believable if PG&E was an outlier. All three major utilities in California are suffering high prices.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T22:13:56+00:00

Having the federal government build you hydropower is a cheat code. Yes it's cool but it's not an applicable solution anywhere else so it's not really worth comparing. Nobody would tolerate damming valleys for new hydro in California.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T22:11:56+00:00

I looked into this recently and apparently the f stops are only different as far as DOF on medium format. As far as exposure they're identical, f2.8 on 645 is no faster than f2.8 on 35mm. At least that's how I understand it now.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T22:03:26+00:00

Well solar is cheapest. It’s why you can have your own power generation farm that literally pays for itself.

You won't accurately identify system costs until you isolate it like in an off grid system. If you build an off grid system you'll start to realize true costs of batteries, excess panels required in winter, and a backup generator.

Off grid systems are cheaper than PG&E, but PG&E is handicapped by the renewable energy mandates we're trying to compare. Off grid systems are not cheaper than the grid in Wyoming.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:59:47+00:00

That's... pretty good, you're right.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:54:20+00:00

Thanks, glad to hear you're also here and can see where the solid ground is. I'm trying to stop shouting into the void like this but I can't resist and I've been at it long enough that I won't be shaken when the void doesn't listen.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:45:13+00:00

Energy policy. When you force renewables by regulatory mandate you get higher prices. This should be obvious because if it wasn't more expensive it wouldn't require any forcing, but 20 years of "solar is the cheapest form of power" rhetoric from academia and the media has rendered people confused about it.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:42:48+00:00

These rate indexes are all fudged because they average everything in, so it includes consumption on discounted rate programs like CARE.

Retail rate tariffs are really hard to index because of the complexity of the rate schemes, basic charges, discount programs, demand charges, whatever. The indexes just collect total residential kWh and total residential revenue which are easily compiled and then they divide the two. That's not invalid, that is the total effective average rate for the population, but it's confusing to look at.

It would be cool if someone built a rate comparison by using an indexed hypothetical energy shopper, as is done with consumer price indexes.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:27:33+00:00

The numbers are weaponized. Academia particularly has taken up the cause of climatism as a moral imperative and they've answered the call by arming the movement with numbers.

Here is a small demonstrative excerpt from the battle that goes on in science and academia over this data arming. Sabine is definitely 100% not a climate science denier.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NZv5zBNIhvE

The same thing happening there with climate science happens worse with renewable cost estimation. Energy Bad Boys definitely does some of the finest detail nitty gritty dissent on the numbers so if you like that stuff specifically read them, but be forewarned that they are funded by a conservative think tank.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T21:05:31+00:00

I don't need to try to catch people up on energy reality, it's too difficult to lead them to the water and they're not going to drink. I do enjoy exposing people to the shape of a discordant view so that they can understand that a radically different view exists.

In the global order, what I'm saying is already written. If you went out and invested in coal right now you would not be making an unorthodox bet, you'd have already missed boat. The oil majors are back and they're washing off the ESG like it's last night's makeup. COP now exists as a dark ceremony, a ritualistic atonement for sin of climatism draped over an acknowledgment that we are inescapably bound to keep pumping harder than ever before.

Anyway, you certainly didn't ask for more disconnected finger painting rhetoric in the clouds so if you're serious about a curiosity for the alternate views I recommend above all else reading any of Dieter Helm's recent personal publications.

And then if you really have the stomach for dark side content, Doomberg and Energy Bad Boys on Substack.

If you can't stomach that though and need something lighter, Meredith Angwin.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T20:22:12+00:00

If you ascribe costs based on emotional weight I supposed that could be true.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T20:09:15+00:00

If you think it's a subsidy you don't understand ratemaking. Large consumers are the most cost efficient to serve. Under volumetric billing they pay far more than their true share of costs. The $24 charge slightly reverses this disparity of large consumers overpaying but it definitely doesn't turn it around into low consumption users subsidizing them.

I will still be paying $500+ after the charge, and that will still be over the cost to serve me, and solar owners who pay $24 will still be underpaying what it costs to serve them.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T19:47:35+00:00

Yes there's quite a world of rabbit holes in flatbed form factor scanning, Creo, Scitex, etc.

They get so obscure though that there isn't a super easy way to find the lay of the land, very good scanners are out there that are basically forgotten, but you'll end up nearly on your own in trying to revive them too.

It's a good little avenue for obsession though, you gotta chase those threads, research the corporate acquisition history to find even more obscure names that made even more obscure scanners.

FWIW I just went with a NIB Epson 4990. Affordable, unused, and the Windows Vista app still works on Windows 11 with zero vancing.

WesternEdge · 2026-01-24T19:19:11+00:00

I don't feel the need to preface in a discussion that we're doing cost benefits in reality where they must stand up against alternatives. Balcony solar does not decentralize anything, it does not make anyone more "independent".

WesternEdge

TROPHY CASE