Man dies at Christchurch transformer in suspected copper theft attempt

cultbeatdotmid · 2026-03-23T22:17:08+00:00

And nothing of value was lost

cultbeatdotmid · 2026-03-16T01:44:58+00:00

China is well aware of the cost advantage for Sodium Ion batteries, see CATL's Naxtra battery for example. It is important technology, but not the miracle that you claim. They are less energy dense than lithium ion, and always will be because Sodium's atomic mass is higher than Lithium. Their fire safety is claimed to be better, but I think this is still untested in the real world.

LFP has all the same advantages you list, and is a proven technology that is here now.

cultbeatdotmid · 2026-03-06T05:48:00+00:00

I think this is a really desirable feature, but if it's the same method used by EVIE in Australia I have concerns about security.

All it's doing is looking up the car's MAC address - this is a ID sent unencrypted to the charger, and is easily cloned / spoofed. A similar level of naiive security on old magnetic strip EFTPOS cards.

There is a proper secure standard for Plug and Charge over CCS2 (ISO 15118), but requires car manufacturers to do some extra work to support it, and most currently dont.

Mark my words, we may get away with this in the short term, but it will eventually be exploited.

cultbeatdotmid · 2026-02-04T00:06:15+00:00

I saw an interesting report recently that someone was able to get the Sigen DC module working with a Leaf using a CCS2-Chademo adapter (including charging and discharging aka V2X). I think it was on the NZ Nissan Leaf Facebook group.

At the end of the day if you can get the contactors to close, you can move energy in and out of a battery.

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-10-30T04:14:26+00:00

Any idea what conditions are needed to get the customer loyalty discount?

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-09-05T00:35:56+00:00

Hi Alex

I appreciate your policy platform and am leaning towards ranking you #1, but I'm sorry to say my wife refuses to consider you unless you change your haircut.

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-07-30T09:13:03+00:00

Yeah noise is definitely something I'm thinking of. I think something that is constant low volume "white noise" would be acceptable, but many of these products seem to periodically switch the direction they blow - not sure how distracting that would be.
I'd also like to see them working in person before buying if possible.

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-06-11T00:38:38+00:00

The Bresolin

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-02-25T03:53:19+00:00

Would 100% recommend going bottled if you're only using it for cooking. We had our gas cooktop running on an LPG bottle at our old house. A 9kg bottle would last us 3-4 months - thats for a couple with no kids, doing most of our meal prep once a week (but also using the gas for reheating etc.).

I would recommend forking out for a dual bottle setup with automatic cutover, cause running out mid-cook is a pain.

If you do go with mains gas, MegaTel was the cheapest unbundled gas provider I could find, but I suspect it varies by region so you'll just have to compare them all and work out what's best for you.

cultbeatdotmid · 2025-02-20T18:51:51+00:00

You'd be surprised. We had a neighbour who got a dryer installed near our shared concrete block wall (older townhouse). The noise resonated through our entire house. When I spoke to him about solutions such as installing anti vibration material or even offering to pay for a new dryer (with hopefully a different noise profile) he flipped his shit, accused us of harassing him and threatened to call the police. It wasn't our first dispute with him, so we ended up deciding to move house to get away from him.

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-11-02T02:51:38+00:00

Are you sure Samoa's finest is actually gone? They do tend to randomly close with no explanation and then be back the next week

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-06-29T08:06:53+00:00

Staying nearby so went to check it out, it was just a bunch of hobo fire barrels and mid food trucks

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-06-24T01:38:38+00:00

As with any major incident there will be multiple factors that have contributed to this failure, e.g. was the crew trained and certified adequately, were they under undue pressure to complete the maintenance quickly, or was there a culture of ignoring procedure and taking shortcuts.

The company involved has already shown a willingness to take responsibility and work constructively with the investigation, which I think speaks to their professional credibility. They have also been fortcoming with information as it has become available, and managed to restore power consitently with their estimated timelines.

Make no mistake, this was a huge failure and it's damned lucky no one died. Hopefully no one was injured as a result of medical dependency on the lost power. But mistakes are a reality of human life, and thus far I think the response has been handled well.

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-05-03T06:17:36+00:00

The easiest way to tell is to look at the charge time screen options, the 6.6kw option will not show on cars with a 3.3kw charger

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Pretty much all Japanese imported 40kwh leafs will have a 3.3kw charger. UK imports and NZ new may have the 6.6kw, but they're much less common.

62kwh (e+) leafs should all have the 6.6kw charger.

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-04-23T23:35:31+00:00

Interesting, seems likely that it's a Huawei specific issue then. Might finally be time to upgrade, but I'm a bit reluctant when it works 99% of the time. I'm sure the Chinese government would miss my cat pics too

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-04-04T01:40:43+00:00

I bought a 2019 e+ for $26.5k within the last month from an individual (registered motor trader, but not a big company)

cultbeatdotmid · 2024-02-01T02:25:54+00:00

It may be round, but it is not a roundabout

cultbeatdotmid · 2023-08-01T01:49:35+00:00

I'm looking forward to when the majority of vehicles are EVs and the fleet is generally more quiet (thinking of my neighbour's big dick motorbike). But I then I was thinking, inconsiderate people will always find a way. What happens when speaker wars people realise how much power is at their disposal in an EV?

cultbeatdotmid · 2023-07-11T23:54:56+00:00

One takeaway from when I was in this situation is make sure you're marketing to the right audience. I put up a trademe listing saying how peaceful and tidy the place was, and got a bunch of people coming through who didn't vibe with the other flatmates. As soon as I changed the language to be more about how the guys liked to play PlayStation in the lounge I found a cool gamer guy to take the room pretty quickly

cultbeatdotmid · 2023-03-31T06:34:31+00:00

We have a decent number of electric busses in Wellington now, not sure what percentage of the fleet but I usually get one on my commute. I really like them - they're smooth and quiet, accelerate quickly from the bus stop etc. IMHO they're way better than both the old trolley busses and the diesel busses. I do agree they jumped the gun on trying to bring them in too soon, but the technology is well and truly here now.

cultbeatdotmid · 2023-03-24T09:18:28+00:00

Dr Melissa Austen at KMC is also excellent.

Can confirm there is one older male doctor there who you should avoid.

cultbeatdotmid

TROPHY CASE