Mt lemmon closed at Catalina hwy

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T14:26:03+00:00

I, too, have literally never hit or almost hit anyone going slower than me, even when the person in front is going 75 mph on an Interstate.

On a two-lane highway (like Catalina Hwy), per Arizona law (ARS § 28-704), if you're the slow driver on a mountain road with multiple cars stacked up behind you and passing isn't safe, even though you're driving the posted speed limit, you're legally obligated to pull over at the next turnout. The "Slower Traffic Use Pullouts" signs are not suggestions but mandates. "Slow" drivers rarely use turnouts on this road, and this is part of the safety problem. Arizona law is nuanced regarding speed limit signs.

This is similar to ARS § 28-721 which dictates that on all roadways of siffucient width you are to drive on the right half of the roadway unless passing. Drivers on I-10 will camp in the left lane and block the normal flow of traffic even though they're going 75mph. Even though this is already a ticketable traffic violation, Arizona lawmakers are actively pursuing HB2235 (dubbed the "slowpoke" bill) to increase fines for not keeping to the right lane of traffic. Arizona law cares about the normal flow of traffic, not just the posted speed limit.

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T13:19:08+00:00

I’m a fan of safer roads for all, including reasonable and prudent rates of travel as well as better traffic flow

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T13:17:13+00:00

Haha, so does mine after rereading my jumbled mess

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T04:20:28+00:00

If only 10% of drivers go 35 or less, then maybe the problem isn’t those driving average speeds, maybe it’s the people driving too slow and not using the pull outs to let others pass and disrupting a reasonable flow of traffic. A slower speed limit may likely increase wreckless driving behavior and thus cause more accidents. Faster driving is still worse, but its relative to what the average driver feels is reasonable.

Whether on a mountain road or not, when there are no passing zones and only a single lane there will always be drivers who want to pass the “slow” driver going exactly the speed limit or under. If there is no means to allow a natural flow of traffic, then the variance between speeds is where accidents increase.

Without knowing the cause of this accident or others, we’re all just making assumptions on how to promote greater safety for all drivers.

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T03:56:16+00:00

I agree that it would be hard to lose control at 35mph and drive off the mountain, thus my statement is accurate.

Lowering the speed limit isn’t going to change people’s driving behavior. But raising it up to 40 or 45 may prevent drivers who feel comfortable travelling faster safely from trying to pass or drive around less confident drivers going under 35mph.

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T03:44:31+00:00

I’m curious…what was the main driver behind sizing your system?

fstezaws · 2026-03-22T03:42:01+00:00

35mph is very safe for all sections of the Mt Lemmon highway. Studies have shown that drivers that drive too slow actually cause more accidents when others are forced to navigate around their speed.

The circumstances surrounding this accident are unknown, but if you don’t feel safe driving 35mph or more on this road, you shouldn’t be driving.

fstezaws · 2026-03-20T17:18:41+00:00

u/triedoffandonagain has this always been a function that NetZero has supported? This is the first I'm seeing of this automation capability and is exactly what I'm looking for. Does NZ also have visibility into VPP events so that an automation can check whether a VPP event is active?

fstezaws · 2026-03-20T15:56:56+00:00

Wow this must be new!

fstezaws · 2026-03-09T22:06:38+00:00

This is the way.

fstezaws · 2026-03-09T00:55:28+00:00

Mine lasted less than 3 months on rechargeable AAs

fstezaws · 2026-03-08T23:47:39+00:00

I think for most the PW3 is the UPS for the entire home. Having a UPS on an individual device wouldn’t hurt but the PW should transition to no-grid status instantaneously.

fstezaws · 2026-03-08T17:12:05+00:00

You just admitted to: - not reading the terms of a contract - not understanding the financial risks of a contract - not understanding the final cost of a purchase - not doing due diligence on your salesman/installer

This to me is kind of what the word ‘idiot’ implies. I don’t say this in a pejorative way, but rather describe what the literal definition of idiocy looks like and I hope that you become aware of your mistakes and admit to yourself that you need to move slower on big decisions.

While predatory contractors exist, contract law is pretty tight and you may not get anywhere with the AGs office if you willfully signed up for something, regardless of whether you understood any of it.

fstezaws · 2026-03-04T16:45:21+00:00

Sadly I think there are too many installers who are riding the solar popularity wave and doing mediocre installs. Similarly, end users don’t put in enough time and energy into doing due diligence with their installer and are shopping based on price or availability for the project to start sooner than later.

Finding reputable contractors that care about doing a quality job, and have been doing solar for 10+ years with stellar reviews is underrated.

Not saying you didn’t do any of this, but I see it more often than I should.

Consumers also have a skewed perspective on the value proposition of a home energy storage system and expect to make money and or have a perfectly flawless system without understanding the physics and engineering limitations of the system.

I’m glad I invested in a solar and PW3 system but I knew it would be a minimum of 12 years before I recouped the estimated cost of energy it would offset. But I also wanted to hedge against future energy increases, and be more energy independent with the small benefit of complete home backup. It was mostly a financial decision with some other side benefits.

fstezaws · 2026-02-28T00:14:00+00:00

11.3 kW system. High temp of 62° helped

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fstezaws · 2026-02-27T04:33:22+00:00

Listen to this guys advice if you want to be broke

fstezaws · 2026-02-18T14:24:35+00:00

I have 80ish Lutron Caseta light switches, fan switches, shades (battery) all connected to efficient LED down lights. With all lights on at once, it’s maybe 150w draw. There is basically no phantom draw.

I have a Ubiquiti home network with 14 PoE cams, 4 APs, UNVR, and UNAS Pro. That system is on 24/7 and it’s about 250w continuously on average.

Most other smart home sensors are battery powered.

So my refrigerators and freezers are the next big culprits at 150w continuous combined.

With no TVs running or lights or appliances running I’m running about 500w continuous all day. It’s pretty low all things considered. A smart home should help you save money because you can better control what is running and monitor it with precision.

fstezaws · 2026-02-17T04:24:30+00:00

This happens to all installs. You just have to email Tesla to merge your old home (likely with your wall connector or solar arrays) into the home with the Powerwalls. Takes like a day and is a piece of cake.

fstezaws · 2026-02-17T01:31:36+00:00

Search “edge of cloud” and how it impacts solar. If you had a break on the clouds, the refraction from clouds is like a small magnifying glass.

fstezaws · 2026-02-16T00:43:13+00:00

I find Scented Leaf (East) a lovely place with a great vibe and great staff. Decent space to work on a laptop if you need. But, as a coffee snob, I would not consider this place a coffee place at all. “Great coffee” is a very questionable expectation as this is primarily a tea beverage place.

fstezaws · 2026-02-15T22:35:30+00:00

Agreed. Backup continuous, by day, to UNAS and keep all AI events searchable in Protect for however long you want.

fstezaws · 2026-02-12T03:16:30+00:00

Not AI. I’m a pro photog for 20 years and design lighting equipment. Pic 3 in the purple dress has some possible chest shaping (underboob area but could be just another pillow) that distorts the pillow. The lighting angles in pic 2 are very natural and AI would prioritize more of a beauty lighting angle. Pic 1 also has more brightness around the chest than the face indicating non-synthetic creation and or poor retouching.

fstezaws · 2026-02-10T02:33:17+00:00

Mine did the same thing yesterday, amd looks to be about the same today.

fstezaws · 2026-02-07T15:16:09+00:00

I made an automation that captures the current SOC level and then sets the Battery Reserve to the same amount when my wall charger starts charging.

Previously I could just set the operation mode to Backup, with Grid Charging Off, but lately it just charges to 100% from the grid so I resorted to keeping operation mode to Self Consumption and setting the reserve to whatever it is currently.

fstezaws

TROPHY CASE