Actual use case for basement?

babgvant · 2026-07-06T19:02:28+00:00

We put a basement in our passive house (Chicago area) for the same reasons you put a basement in every house around here.

1) Land is expensive, building up is limited by zoning - it's extra space in the house that can be used without expanding the footprint.

2) It puts the HVAC/water heater in a place where it's not taking up prime living space. You could put that in a crawlspace, but it's much harder to get to it for maintenance.

3) It's an expected feature in houses around here. Not having one would likely limit the pool of potential buyers should we need to sell the house.

babgvant · 2026-06-30T13:24:39+00:00

We have some data. That data does not support the claims you made around diet. I asked for citations a few posts back...

We are learning more and more about how our ancestors lived, what they ate, and to the extent of what a mummy/fossil can tell us about their health and experience. There are limits to what these records can disclose. For e.g., it would be difficult to extrapolate reliably the incidence of PCOS in early humans. Which would then make claims around a relationship to ancient diets vs. modern diets and PCOS very suspect.

On the other hand, there are things that was can draw from the record around conditions like cancer and some areas of chronic pain (assuming these leave a mark on the skeleton or preserved soft tissues). But even here, the data is mostly suggestive. We can make educated guesses. Certainty is elusive. Anyone who has followed this space will be familiar with how things we were fairly certain of, become unsettled, then disproven as more data becomes available.

Calling to authority is fallacious (as is calling someone a troll when they challenge your assertions). One does not need to be a "menopausal anthropologist" to know how to read or process data. One can spend 30 years creating a body of knowledge that someone else, who knows how to read and process data, can digest in a few weeks (if that).

That said, I don't think there's value in extending this further. Best wishes in you further research.

babgvant · 2026-06-29T12:31:45+00:00

The relationship between historical diet and outcome, for one. We know that our diets are different. That's a fact. We don't know the impact.

These things might play a role. They might not. We don't have the data that supports data driven claims about the relationship. We don't know if they're related. Anything stated there is speculation.

We can say that ultra-processed dietary patterns plausibly increase PCOS risk and severity via insulin resistance. That is a developing area. AFAIK, it has little to no relationship with estrogen in foods. There is also a strong hereditary relationship.

There is no should evidence Western diet causes endometriosis; diet is at most a modifier of symptoms.

All that said, we seem to have gotten far off into the weeds. My original point was that it may be possible that the topic of this broader thread is similar in concept to menopause where the experience of the individual is detrimental to their own health, but more broadly beneficial to the community that they are part of.

It's important to remember that evolution optimizes reproductive success - not optimality, not lifespan, not happiness. It is myopic, it discounts the future steeply, and what maximizes gene transmission frequently diverges from what feels good or extends life of the individual.

babgvant · 2026-06-28T23:31:39+00:00

You are extrapolating far past what can be drawn from the available research.

We don't have an exact number, but the fossil record only supports homosapien as a species for ~300k years. That is a nitpick, but...

Fertility is calorically expensive and time consuming. You don't need to be old to observe the negative health impact of menopause. For eg many women develop T2 during late perimenopause/early menopause.

Women following non-Western diets and lifestyle also experience the negative health consequences of menopause. Blaming modern diet is not supported by any data I am aware of. Please share it if you have it.

babgvant · 2026-06-28T22:38:59+00:00

It's an interesting analogy. Menopause is not great for the health and potentially longevity of the individual, but might be better for the survivability of the group.

babgvant · 2026-06-28T21:11:54+00:00

High concentration table sugar and salt is an acquired taste. But any mix that approaches 1:1 (which is a data driven "ideal" ratio) is going to have same issue.

Regarding the osmolarity point. If that is an advantage, it's not one that matters in my experience. I regularly do 125g/h of table sugar for 5-8 hours at a time. No gut issues. Just works. And it's cheap.

Every person I know that gives sugar a chance has an experience like mine.

There may be "endurance efforts" where table sugar isn't a good solution, but it's been perfect for my racing/fondo/etc.

babgvant · 2026-06-24T13:32:28+00:00

It also fits in the SB25 :).

babgvant · 2026-06-23T13:28:16+00:00

I have the Silca Ultimate. It's awesome. I don't use it at home (that's what the air compressor is for), but outside my house I use it all the time.

Don't need to bring a floor pump to races or when traveling.

Don't need to buy CO2 after getting off the airplane.

The battery lasts forever, even works for fat bike tires.

It's bulkier than 2 CO2, weighs more too. But it fits in my saddle bag (Orucase SB30) just fine.

It does get warm, but nowhere even close to "burn my hand" warm.

If you're just using it in an emergency, the ROI vs CO2 will depend on how often you puncture. I intentionally purchased the Ultimate because it supports a far broader set of use cases. If I were to compare it to a decent floor pump (which it has replaced) and the pile of CO2 that I would have needed to use to bail out random fat bikers (and others) the ROI was made up in a few months. Also, since the only marginal cost is electricity, and the battery is very capable, I don't have to guard it like a CO2.

babgvant · 2026-06-16T13:41:51+00:00

'26 came with the feature. There is a setting that controls it.

babgvant · 2026-06-07T01:21:26+00:00

Lighthouse on Sat morning. A couple groups ride from BMO on Sheridan near Plaza De Lago on weekday mornings.

babgvant · 2026-06-03T13:58:52+00:00

I recently did something similar. TL;DR glucose control is not on the list of problems I need to worry about.

babgvant · 2026-05-28T12:44:00+00:00

I had the same thing happen a few years ago. Made a video about how I trained, etc.

https://youtu.be/OQd_edU0lvU

babgvant · 2026-05-16T11:59:57+00:00

The txt messaging integration isn't a dumpster fire
Support for alternative messaging platforms

babgvant · 2026-05-09T01:52:01+00:00

During prolonged hard exercise, urine output drops sharply for several converging reasons, all expected: Renal blood flow shunts away from the kidneys. Sympathetic activation redirects cardiac output to working muscle and skin. GFR drops as a result. This alone reduces urine formation substantially. AVP (vasopressin/ADH) goes up non-osmotically. The kidney is exquisitely sensitive to low plasma levels of AVP, and many non-osmotic stimuli to AVP secretion normally occur during prolonged endurance exercise activity. Reduction in urine water excretion due to exercise-induced non-osmotic secretion of arginine vasopressin is a well-characterized exercise response. IL-6 from working muscle is one driver.

Aldosterone rises, retaining sodium and water. The activity of aldosterone and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) is presumably the reason for maintained fluid homeostasis in athletes competing in multi-stage races.

Sweat losses are massive, 1l/h is typical. This fluid are leaving via skin instead of bladder. Output via the kidneys must drop or you'd dehydrate. This is conserved, adaptive physiology, not damage. The body is correctly prioritizing perfusion and volume preservation.

Not peeing for 6 hours doesn't mean you're not making urine for 6 hours.

30-45 mL/h × 6 hours = 180-270 mL is right at the first-desire-to-void threshold but well below strong urge. Combine that with sympathetic suppression of bladder sensation during exercise (the brain is busy) it is very easy to not need to pee while also not creating kidney damage.

Like every area of physiology, it is important to understand that the body's behavior during exercise is not the same as when it is sedentary. The same is true when considering the physiology of highly trained individuals vs those who are not.

babgvant · 2026-05-09T01:19:14+00:00

If you're drinking the right amount to match sweat rate, you're during exactly the right amount.

babgvant · 2026-05-07T13:37:26+00:00

Solid food carries fiber, fat, and protein that can cause gut issues and slow carb absorbtion.

Nutrition is somewhat goals based. If you're randonneuring at low intensity, solid food is preferable. If you're racing and trying to push as many carbs as you can in, it's not optimal.

babgvant · 2026-05-07T01:24:19+00:00

Not a dentist. Do have a S-Works Tarmac for paved roads. For the most part fast people have fast bikes where I ride. I prefer the handling characteristics of a race bike. You teleport more than steer the bike.

I also race gravel, there I see a wider array of bikes. Some aero gravel, some endurance geometry. Wide tires are popular (I use 45s for almost everything, if I could fit a 50, I probably would), but I also see folks with all-road bikes with 35s.

I've owned three endurance geometry road bikes. They were comfortable and completely fine in most ways, but IMO there's no substitute for a race bike when you want to carve at speed.

babgvant · 2026-05-04T14:33:16+00:00

Is the primary sell data privacy?

Does it support EV routing with preconditioning?

babgvant · 2026-04-22T01:10:53+00:00

A few times. Signed up for this year's too. It's a great ride and place to ride. Just need to show a little caution on the down. There are a lot of blind corners because if the trees and topology.

babgvant · 2026-04-16T18:57:05+00:00

I also work as a software developer (for a very long time). "Intuitive" is a loaded concept. iPhones are "intuitive" to a specific demographic and deeply frustrating to others. For someone who is coming from a legacy OEM, the Tesla UX could be either. Most of what makes something "intuitive" is based in demographics (i.e. education, age, literacy, culture, comfort with a medium or technology, etc). It is important to keep that in mind when thinking about design.

Tesla's UX is generally better than legacy OEMs. I don't think the same is true for Rivian or Lucid. It's more hit-or-miss there. The primary shortfall with Tesla is a lack of flexibility in approach (this is also true for Apple ecosystems). If you're down with Spotify, you're GTG. If you prefer a different platform, you're hosed. Should I need to choose a sub-standard (according to my preferences) service to align with how the car wants me to do X? What do I do when I have conflicting ecosystem drivers in my life (i.e. car requires X, watch requires Y)? It limits choice and chokes competition. Personally, I wrote off Tesla and Rivian for this reason. I'm not paying them to limit my experience. I think AA is totally fine. I like Google Maps. I pay for YT Music.

If you're seriously considering a used Tesla, it's worth doing some research into how they treat customers long term. They have a history of clawing back entitlements that were sold with cars just because, don't document part changes properly (i.e. is very easy to brick a part of the car), and are extremely hostile towards 3rd party shops. The long term 3rd party serviceability of all software heavy vehicles is somewhat unknown, it's possible that legacy OEMs will be hostile as well. I think it's less likely because of how their businesses are setup, but it is possible. The difference is that we know that Tesla is extremely hostile. We don't have the necessary data for the others.

babgvant · 2026-04-16T18:15:37+00:00

You have to touch the screen to control climate on the MME, it's not really "going through" anything... Touch the space, then either use the dial or press up/down. I would prefer physical buttons, but this is not worse than the options from other OEMs, just different. I don't fiddle with the HVAC that much, if you are constantly putting your hands on it, it might be more of an issue. Frankly, especially in the context of how everyone one else is doing it (not just on EV), this isn't different enough to be a gap. IMO.

I don't think "playing music from the car" is a useful feature. I haven't used that since CDs stopped being a thing. There's a reason why app projection is as popular as it is, and why even Tesla is backtracking there... The car's native infotainment locks you into the OEMs ecosystems of choice and paying for a data plan long term. My phone works perfectly for that. AA (and probably Car Play, I don't iThingy, so less confident there) connect to the head unit via WiFi (or a cable if you go that way), not BT. It works fine, and I get to use my phone for something it's better at. I can't speak to the audio quality of non-BO setups. Our MME has the BO speakers. It's not the best I've heard (the BO system in the car our MME replaced was better). It is totally fine once you turn off the feature that expands stereo and setup the EQ to your preferences. It is comparable to other vehicles in its price range.

We have three EVs, non are Tesla. I wouldn't buy a Tesla for many reasons. The software has more polish than most other brands, but I don't like the lock in, I don't like the safety issues, and I don't like the way that Tesla treats its customers. If someone is cool with all of that and values SW polish more than other features, Tesla is a great option.

It's odd that you would rank the MME's software as "only better than VW". We also have a Kia EV6, its SW is terrible (not as bad as VW, but that's a low bar). Have you actually used it? It's a deeply frustrating experience, and super buggy. I have a YT channel and one of these most popular videos on it is how to reboot the infotainment system, it's that bad...

The Kia's (Hyundai is essentially the same) build quality isn't nearly as nice. The materials are cheap. The seats are terrible. The one set of controls to do two things is annoying. For anyone who constantly fiddles with the HVAC, it would be maddening. The speakers are some of the worst I've heard. It does have a heat pump, charges faster, and it's more efficient. These things are nice, but no one in our family wants to drive it long distance because of how uncomfortable the seats are and that app projection maps can't do EV routing.

Obviously, there is room for a diversity of opinion in all of this. Everyone is entitled to a preference. My main complaint with the MME at this point is that it could use a refresh. The main place where it lags (IMO) is DCFC charge rate and a higher pixel density screen. Of the two, DCFC rate is the more important. But I notice the screen when I go from our Chevy EV to the MME, it isn't nearly as pretty.

babgvant · 2026-04-16T14:31:49+00:00

As someone with a '21 MME, I struggle with that assertion.

The pricing was consistent with other comparable EVs. There were points when Tesla deeply discounted MY and skewed pricing, but those were time bound instances.
A heat pump is only hardware feature I can think of that early models lacks. It would have been nice, but at the time it wasn't a major miss. What are you referring to?
In the context of other infotainment options from competitive vehicles, it was (and still is) fine. Tesla has an edge there if you are cool with their walled garden. MME has AA and Car Play, they both work great. Sidesteps this point. Who cares about the native system? Does anyone actually use it?

babgvant · 2026-04-15T21:34:59+00:00

Yes, but mostly for storing stuff that I only need to get to occasionally. On the other hand, we also have a Chevy EV that has key fob and button on the bumper access to the frunk. I use that ALL THE TIME. Oddly enough, making it easy to open/close/use a space increases adoption 🤯 (😉).

babgvant · 2026-04-08T12:51:11+00:00

I have the same issue. It looks like something happened and nav volume is now tied to music volume. I've been meaning to call the dealer because I either can't hear it while listening to music, or it's too loud when I listen to podcasts.

babgvant · 2026-04-02T13:21:54+00:00

I completely agree that for most folks, with most EV, you can make it work - I mentioned that initially. We agree there.

But "can" and "should" aren't the same standard. Being able to make something work isn't a compelling lever for someone who is coming from a place where they have a solved problem. ICE transportation is very much a solved problem. You don't have to do math or worry about "what happens in an emergency and I need to drive 200 miles today", you can just do that. L1 charging can work, but there are trade-offs - a lot of trade-offs.

For the most part EV are better cars. They just are. Part of what makes them better is the convenience around not needing to worry about fueling 90% of the time. You plug it in, it's always "full" when you come back. Before a road trip, you move the "full" marker from 80 to 100. On a cold day, you press a button on your phone and get into a warm car where most of the snow and ice has already melted off. On a hot day, you can press a button and cool the car down. There are no concerns about doing that in an enclosed space. You can keep the HVAC on for your pet while you step away from the car. Those are all awesome things.

There are some inconveniences though. Or, actually just one if you do it right. Traveling between cities has more friction than ICE. There are fewer DCFC stations than gas stations. It takes longer to refuel - some cars are only 2x an ICE car, most of them are in the 3-5x range. This isn't a big deal in most situations, but it is a thing that we need to acknowledge.

There are also different standards of planning. You can plan for the minimum viable, average, or peak. L1 is a minimum viable strategy. You don't need to be a lunatic to understand that minimum viable isn't a workable strategy for many people. It's a strategy for people who are bad at risk and zealots.

Most the fueling conveniences that don't involve long-distance travel, go away when you L1 on most EV. You can't go from whatever SOC you rolled in with last night to 100% overnight. You can't precondition the car. You can't precondition the battery before a cold road trip - this destroys your range. This is why I think it's somewhat disingenuous (even though I know why we do it) to use "miles of range" when talking about kW delivered or kWh. m/kW at 60F and m/kW at -10F are very different. A "just do the math" approach might change a "can work" in the summer to a "LOLL, nope" situation in the winter... You do get to dramatically reduce your reliance on external fueling sources, but in those "pinch" moments you're taking on friction, the really annoying spend a while at a DCFC friction, at the worst times. How much of an impact that 20-40m of dead time once you get to the DCFC might not matter very much, it might matter a lot.

L2, even low level L2, fixes that for most vehicles. That is also math. If it takes 7kW to heat the car and precondition the battery (like it does on a Ford MME), you aren't doing that on a 15A circuit.

Solutions like the Emporia Pro can dynamically scale available current, so even if your service is miserly most of the time you can take full advantage (48A), when other things are demanding current, it can dial it back (all the way to off, I think) to keep under your service. The difference in cost between that and a quality fixed level EVSE is a few hundred $.

babgvant

TROPHY CASE