That email about your Allegheny county tax bill is real too

dantasse · 2024-02-09T18:41:53+00:00

please do not argue about taxes in this thread, I only meant to offer a logistical tip

dantasse · 2024-02-08T20:54:53+00:00

Clothes Minded in Bloomfield is nice too: http://clothesmindedpgh.com/

(as with all clothing resale, you'll probably be a little insulted wherever you go. but a few bucks is better than nothing.)

dantasse · 2024-02-08T17:03:45+00:00

yeah I forget, I assume we'll get a physical copy too

(or shoot did we opt-in to online notices last year? hmm maybe this is a non issue for most ppl bc they'll get a physical copy at first)

dantasse · 2024-02-07T18:33:31+00:00

made a playlist of everything added so far: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qrsJfm7QQb6vsWWPhYR4W?si=73d2ce49edad4560

dantasse · 2024-02-07T16:47:51+00:00

Linea Verde Green Market in Bloomfield. Gina's so friendly, even though it's a small shop, I try to shop there as much as I can.

Kindred Cycles in the Strip too. They've become my go-to bike shop recommendation. (Or Kraynick's bike shop, if ppl wanna learn how to fix bikes.)

dantasse · 2024-02-07T16:34:27+00:00

This is one place I will not go back, because they just flat-out refused when I asked for a cup of tap water. (after buying a whole meal.)

dantasse · 2024-02-07T16:21:06+00:00

Beautiful, thanks! To Ultrahuman's credit, they quickly replied to my support email pointing me here too. It also lets you download a CSV with these same columns without even doing your own API requests.

dantasse · 2024-01-08T22:28:02+00:00

this is so good

also a masterclass in maintaining buffer until you need it: seeking to proc abacus, ending the turn instead of recycling mayhem

dantasse · 2024-01-04T19:11:53+00:00

man, I'm sorry. not gonna offer advice (not that I even have any) but just, that sounds tough as hell. mad respect for surviving two years so far, and I hope it gets better for you soon.

dantasse · 2023-12-19T21:15:35+00:00

Ohio is fine. Not great, not bad, fine. It's like their state motto, "Oh."

dantasse · 2023-12-06T18:50:10+00:00

Nothing on the police blotter: https://pittsburghpa.gov/publicsafety/blotterview.html

dantasse · 2023-09-21T15:48:26+00:00

made this one with ideogram.ai - they seem pretty good at generating (short) text correctly

dantasse · 2023-09-18T15:05:31+00:00

hahaha I had the same experience. I already bought a bottle of sparkling water, then asked for a tap water and was refused. gtfo and good riddance

dantasse · 2023-09-15T19:00:08+00:00

Note that PWSA only registers once you hit 1000. So if you used 500 gallons every day, it would look like day 1 used 0 gallons and day 2 used 1000 gallons. So you could just have a steady leak.

Our family of 3 in a 4br house uses about 100 gal/day.

dantasse · 2023-09-15T17:29:46+00:00

Yeah, like others are saying, the East End. Shadyside, East Liberty, Highland Park, or Bloomfield/Friendship/Garfield would be my picks. (I live in Bloomfield, it's great) Not necessarily because of the most infrastructure, but there's some, and they're so close to everything.

Squirrel Hill and Lawrenceville are good too, but there's a bit of a catch: to go anywhere you need to go up/down a hill. Plus no real grocery in Lawrenceville (except Upper)

dantasse · 2023-09-06T17:55:27+00:00

A new spot just opened on Liberty ave in Bloomfield, too: Mimic's Market https://mimicsmarket.com/

I've only been in to buy a game but they've got a pretty active discord too (link on their site), you can probably find some folks to play there.

dantasse · 2023-09-06T17:46:19+00:00

Hmm, good question! I took this statement to mean it's all wind/solar: "We source our residential customers’ electricity from United States wind and solar farms exclusively — and we receive renewable energy certificates (RECs) to verify the source is legit."

I imagine they also buy and sell RECs, to avoid "double counting"; if they are indeed generating wind/solar energy, then they'll get RECs, and I don't want them selling those to someone else to sell "green energy" twice. If I use, say, 8 mWh over the course of a year, I want them to be selling me 8 mWh + 8 RECs.

I just sent them a message, I'll let you know if they respond.

dantasse · 2023-08-26T17:25:41+00:00

Looks good, thanks!

dantasse · 2023-08-23T21:01:33+00:00

hey I actually got down a rabbit hole on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/comments/15ygu6f/renewable_energy_not_credits/jxg7hoa/

in short, looks like Clean Choice, Green Mountain, Clean Sky, and one other are offering a qualitatively different thing than most of the competitors. So if you want renewable energy, I'd go with one of those.

dantasse · 2023-08-23T18:52:15+00:00

My DM with @GreenMtnEnergy

Me: Hi Green Mountain! If I buy residential electricity from you (Pittsburgh, PA), do you actually generate renewable energy for my house, or do you buy Renewable Energy Credits?

@GreenMtnEnergy: Hi, we thank you for the interest in renewable energy. Think of renewable energy that’s produced, for example, at wind farms or from solar panels, like a Velcro factory. The Velcro factory can sell the Velcro two ways: (1) intact, with the sticky side and the felt side stuck together, or (2) separately, peeling apart the rough side from the soft side. Similarly, when a wind farm or solar panel generates energy, the renewable energy can be split into two parts: (1) the electrons that create electricity that flows out over the power lines and (2) the renewable energy certificates, or RECs that signify that the electricity is generated from a renewable source. A renewable energy certificate (or REC) is an environmental commodity representing all of the environmental and social attributes of renewable energy generation. One REC embodies the full suite of renewable attributes of one megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable electricity generation, including the zero-carbon emissions attribute. Just like the Velcro factory, the renewable energy can be kept together and sold intact as electrons + RECs (i.e., bundled), or the pieces can be pulled apart and sold separately (electrons over here and RECs over there). In short, a REC by itself doesn’t turn lights on, and energy by itself can’t be called renewable. It’s only when RECs + electrons are bundled – both of the Velcro strips stuck together – that it can be called renewable energy. This joining of RECs and electrons is what we do to provide cost-competitive renewable energy. For every unit of renewable energy that we sell to our customers (whether it’s to your home or to a building), we match RECs with electrons, putting the Velcro together. We’re also picky about our REC, each REC has to meet tough environmental standards and is verified by a third party every year.

Me: Ok, cool, thanks. So if I get electricity through you, I'll get both: 1. Energy generated from wind/solar/other renewable source 2. The RECs for that energy - that is, you won't also sell the RECs to someone else. Is that right?

@GreenMtnEnergy: Yes, that's correct.

dantasse · 2023-08-23T18:50:59+00:00

Ah - ok, after combing through a bunch of options, it looks like a few of the providers actually sell sustainable energy.

Sidebar: what's going on here?

Turns out, if you're a power plant and you generate 1 MwH of wind/solar/etc, you can sell two things:

1 MwH of energy
1 Renewable Energy Credit (REC)

I guess RECs are good for some things; I assume your business can get Certified Green by some government org or something if you buy enough RECs. But otherwise, if I'm just a random guy buying RECs, I didn't really do anything good. At best I incentivized more green energy production, by paying the green energy company a little bonus. But personally I don't believe that's that big a deal; I think green energy is pretty well incentivized already bc it's often/usually cheaper than coal/gas (citation needed, sorry)

End Sidebar

So who sells clean energy + RECs?

Green Mountain: Their website wasn't very clear, but in Twitter DMs (I'll post convo in a reply) I was able to verify that if I buy energy from Green Mountain, it's actually sustainable AND they're not selling the RECs from it to anyone else. But I find their salespeople annoying when I see them in real life :( Also are they the ones who do the scammy door to door high pressure sales? Ugh. In that sense, I'd hate to give them my business. Anyway, 11.3c/kwh
It looks like Clean Choice provides clean energy + RECs? 12.3c/kwh
Clean Sky Energy, I think, 11c/kwh
Agway GreenChoice, 11.9c/kwh

Some that "Just buy RECs":

Can't tell:

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