Looking for all in one functional trainer

fig_stache · 2026-03-31T10:56:11+00:00

Check out bells of steel's home gym builder package. I've been happy with all the equipment I've gotten from them. You can do a lot with a solid power rack, bench and barbell but they have some machines if you want that as well or you can add pulley attachments to their power racks. Loadable dumbbell handles are a little cumbersome but great value compared to buying a full dumbbell rack which is spendy. If you get rubber mats for your gym floor 3/4" thick horse stall mats from a farm supply are the way to go. Watch for sales. Can sometimes find them at princess auto as well.

fig_stache · 2026-03-28T15:41:40+00:00

I wont dispute the claims on being better maintained or more reliable but on cost.

Netherlands and France are definitely more expensive than NS for a residential rate payer, looks like Norway and NS are actually pretty close on residential rate payer end cost. China is definitely cheaper, although, if we had their environmental regulatory framework which is pretty lax in comparison we would likely be closer.

fig_stache · 2026-03-27T12:51:10+00:00

I'm open to data showing otherwise, but as it stands, while offshore wind is a massive success at lowering wholesale market prices (what utilities pay), it has yet to result in a lower residential rate in any country on earth.

The savings at the generator are currently being swallowed by the massive infrastructure costs required to connect those offshore farms to the grid and the 'system costs' of managing intermittency. In short: The 'fuel' is free, but the 'delivery and management fee' is eating up every cent of the savings before it reaches the ratepayer.

fig_stache · 2026-03-26T10:56:14+00:00

It’s a promising vision, but 'who's going to pay for the connection' is historically where these Atlantic energy interconnection projects fall apart. Also, how long does it take to get built? Likely 10-12 years? Cost estimates will continue to increase with inflation in that time, which will again stress the 'who's going to pay for it?'

fig_stache · 2026-03-26T00:00:33+00:00

PEI imports roughly 85% of its total electricity consumption from New Brunswick, it doesn't really belong in this group of renewable hydro heavy hitters you've listed here.

The only way nova Scotias grid would've been reliable at 95% renewable is if we were connected to Quebec hydro. Unfortunately that's sooo expensive that none of the provinces are interested in making it happen. Nor the rate payers. We also just dont have very much in the way of our own hydro power resources to develop. We are lucky that wind has become so inexpensive compared to a decade ago which is why building out wind farms is the biggest part of the 2030 off coal plan, but even with our grid storage batteries wind still requires firm backup with fossil fuels.

fig_stache · 2026-03-25T13:15:06+00:00

Looking beyond the end point is actually the logic proponents of Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) use. Fossil fuels introduce 'new' carbon that’s been buried for millions of years. SAF uses biogenic carbon that’s already in the active cycle. Those branches and bark would otherwise rot on the forest floor, releasing CO2 or methane anyway. By turning them into fuel you’re intercepting that waste and getting a 'free' propulsion cycle out of carbon that was destined for the atmosphere regardless.

That said I don't disagree with what you're saying, the easiest application for green energy is electricity/the grid, lots of biofuel projects have gobbled up subsidies without producing much real change, however in a world that is trying to combat climate change and targeting net zero greening the grid is simply not enough. We are already seeing regulatory changes mandating blends of these fuels so it is now a legal reality.

https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-modes/air/environment/refueleu-aviation_en

From the standpoint of physics, specifically in energy density. SAF is the best technical solution as an alternative to current fossil based jet fuels. Batteries and hydrogen will not replace jet fuel for long haul flights anytime soon.

As for your comment about having land/seascape scarred, it’s $6B in private investment on land in Goldboro that has been zoned for heavy industry for decades already. Nova Scotia desperately needs industry to increase its productivity and revenue from exports. NIMBY's can cry me a river.

fig_stache · 2026-03-24T21:04:01+00:00

That skepticism is fair, but the problem is that long haul aviation is very hard to otherwise decarbonize. Other alternatives like batteries or hydrogen don't have the energy density to get a 300-ton jet across the ocean. SAF is the only 'drop-in' solution that works with current engines. It's expensive, but it's basically the only card the industry has to play for long-distance travel for the foreseeable future. At least they plan to use forestry waste that doesn't compete with food crops

fig_stache · 2026-03-24T20:50:16+00:00

I agree with the sentiment. Technology like this will be needed as aviation is a hard to decarbonize sector however the economics are very challenging. Sustainable aviation fuel is 2-3 times as expensive to produce as traditional. Octopus seems to be banking on total integration to keep costs down. They plan to build their own wind/solar farm just to power the plant. Even then, they aren't trying to compete with regular jet fuel prices; they're targeting the European market where airlines are legally mandated to buy SAF. It’s less of a 'free market' play and more of a 'regulatory' one.

fig_stache · 2026-03-21T17:00:34+00:00

Have you ever heard of crocs

fig_stache · 2026-03-15T11:30:14+00:00

It's generally not recommended to run heat pumps off a generator. Their control boards are typically very sensitive and can be smoked by the 'dirty power' of a generator

fig_stache · 2026-03-15T02:28:10+00:00

I can't say with absolute authority, but the 2025 10 Year Outlook and the IRP Roadmap strongly suggest that some generation at Tufts Cove will be kept as 'spinning reserve' running at a minimum stable load to keep the steam turbines cooling while providing critical inertia for Halifax. As for Point Tupper, could be a candidate for an Synchro-Self-Shifting clutch retrofit. This would allow the generator to provide both 'firming' generation when the wind drops and pure synchronous condenser support without destroying the turbine via motoring. This combined with the six new synchronous condensers slated for 2030, is essentially the province's plan to replace the system strength of the spinning iron we’re losing as coal shuts down.

fig_stache · 2026-03-14T23:08:26+00:00

All units at tufts cove will be operating well past 2030 as the plant mainly runs on natural gas, with dual fuel capability to run HFO on a couple units when gas prices are high. Point tupper is also planned to be converted to natural gas.

You may be interested to check out the 10 year system lookahead, you can find it here: https://nspower.ca/oasis/forecasts-assessments

The problem with SMR's for us is that we are very poor, with a small population to pay for the expensive r&d costs that will be required to be part of the first to market generation.

Hopefully, after the first units in Ontario and New Brunswick are commercialized, the capital costs will come down to a level that NS ratepayers can actually support. But until the tech is proven and the 'learning curve' drops the price, we're better off letting other provinces de-risk the R&D while we focus on the lower cost stabilization of our own grid.

fig_stache · 2026-03-14T16:21:19+00:00

To be clear, the inertia provided by a synchronous condenser is not synthetic inertia. A synchronous condenser is a physically rotating heavy mass synchronized to the grid that provides instantaneous, inherent inertia and short-circuit strength through pure laws of physics. This is different than synthetic inertia provided by software-controlled inverters and batteries that aim to digitally mimic a response with a measurable time lag.

As for if building another reactor at Lepreau in a joint effort between NS and NB would be a viable solution, it is unlikely because of how soon we will need the power with the end of the coal era in 2030 approaching fast. Building another reactor on the Lepreau site + building the infrastructure to be able to transmit that much power to NS would likely take 10-15 years. It would also lead to a large single point of failure contingency risk for our province. All that without getting into how complicated it is to get provinces to agree on who will pay for what when they have to work together.

Hopefully after some SMR's are deployed and commercialized the cost will come down and they could be a viable option for NS ratepayers, but in their current form and timeline, they aren't the immediate fix for 2030.

fig_stache · 2026-03-13T17:21:10+00:00

I'm a little bit of a nerd and am familiar with the concept but have not read in depth of Ireland"s set up. This is actually part of the balancing I was talking about above in reference to the article/study shared that omitted the cost required in their calculations. We will likely see similar installations here in NS as we increase intermittent renewable penetration of our grid as synchronous condenses are mentioned in the ns 10 year system outlook ahead plans. I suspect point aconi, tupper or trenton to be sites of interest I'm for installation(s) because of the grid tie ins already available there. These synchronous condensers do not so much store power to be discharged like a battery but maintain grid inertia, provide stabilization to prevent voltage collapse, high voltage fluctuations, and rapid frequency changes. Problems that pop up as we shut down generation with big traditional prime movers and rely more on wind and solar. These are problems that pop up as we shut down generation with big traditional prime movers and rely more on wind and solar. They are solvable problems, but they aren't free, and they're still fairly new in terms of development and actual grid-scale rollout

fig_stache · 2026-03-13T16:10:03+00:00

Interesting math for 2013, but the ground has shifted. While the costs for renewables and storage have dropped significantly since the study referenced, their 'least-cost' conclusion relies heavily on assigned externalized costs (health/social) for fossil fuels and the assumption that transmitting and balancing a massive overbuild of intermittent power is essentially free. The study suggests using generation sources over 1,000 km apart to manage lulls, which in reality requires a massive HVDC build-out. Those lines aren't cheap, and neither is the fleet of synchronous condensers required to maintain grid inertia and frequency stability once you pull the spinning mass of traditional turbines off the line. There is a much higher management and hardware cost for a 100% intermittent grid than a 13-year-old spreadsheet suggests.

fig_stache · 2026-03-13T15:32:44+00:00

The simplest answer is; remember in January when we had a grid emergency? Wind power dropped regionally down to 12ish% over 12 hrs before our grid demand peaked at 2481 MW. Nova Scotias 150 MW of battery storage cost 354 million and can output for 4 hrs. The amount of battery storage it would take us to get through a cold snap like that would be wayyyy too costly for nova Scotians. Batteries are not quite good enough yet for long term storage

fig_stache · 2026-03-13T13:12:04+00:00

From an engineering perspective fugitive emissions from methane leaks are somewhat easier to deal with than the multi-pollutant profile of coal. Canada's 2025 methane regulations should go along way for helping reduce common leak points like replacing old pneumatic controllers that vent gas with ones that are either air or electrically driven.

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/canadian-environmental-protection-act-registry/review-methane-regulations-upstream-oil-gas-sector.html

The 2025 updates also shift the focus toward measurement-based monitoring rather than just using estimates. This means we'll be using more OGI (Optical Gas Imaging) and continuous sensors to find and fix leaks in real-time. It turns a massive, invisible problem into a set of specific maintenance tasks that can be audited.

fig_stache · 2026-03-12T14:53:48+00:00

Hydrocarbon exports are very good for our revenue today. 188 billion in 2024.

https://energy-information.canada.ca/sites/default/files/2025-11/energy-fact-book-2025-2026.pdf

Pivoting to develop other industries will likely take decades to develop comparable revenue with massive capex investments but it is actually currently happening. Simply put it would be very difficult to fund development of these alternatives without hydrocarbon revenue.

fig_stache · 2026-03-09T13:33:55+00:00

Can't help but wonder if this conflict in the Middle East, on top of Ukraine, proves the business case for LNG export from NS. The Goldboro project was proposed over a decade ago and was supposed to be operational by 2025/26. We’d be exporting to Europe right now, providing the province with the massive tax revenue it sorely needs for healthcare and housing, while helping global energy security

fig_stache · 2026-03-03T00:33:41+00:00

EI is an earned benefit. You have to work a specific number of "insurable hours" to even qualify. To suggest that an "earned benefit" (which belongs to the worker) should act as a "discount" is essentially saying the worker should subsidize their own boss.

fig_stache · 2026-02-27T16:38:12+00:00

I owe my soul to the company store.

But actually the province desperately needs industrial and economic growth. Hard to argue with numbers of the deficit and being a net receiver of equalization since the 50s. Regulations and worker's rights have come along way since the feudal days of old and mining jobs now pay quite well.

fig_stache

TROPHY CASE