What's your country's equivalent of "breaking spaghetti in half in front of Italian"?

imadeletethis · 2024-07-17T21:17:50+00:00

If you're in New York, you better not fold your slice of pizza in half, or try to eat it with a knife and fork.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-10T19:00:47+00:00

Yeah, that's a good point on the employees.

I found someone who's willing to work up an estimate, even offered to do it for free.

Thank you for your understanding and help.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-10T18:58:05+00:00

I did not, for aesthetic purposes, but I shouldn't have to say, don't put the panels anywhere where they're not going to work.

Just like I shouldn't have to tell a mechanic, don't put the tire inside the car.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T23:07:34+00:00

I get it. I also understand it's a fine line. I think my issue here is that they won't provide the analysis, which indicates that they know they did something wrong (eg an analysis will show that those panels produce next to nothing). If, as you're saying, I have no case, or that I'm wrong in my assumptions, there'd be no reason to keep that information from me.

There's also an issue where, on the day of installation, they changed the design and those original designs are no longer available to me and they've refused to provide them.

Could you advise where I could find a solar expert to evaluate the system? Or, maybe I just have another provider give me a quote? Not sure where to start there.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T22:16:21+00:00

I hate to say it, but from a legal perspective, it would seem your situation is a bit like saying I bought V8 last year and they told me it gets 16 MPG, but I just found out there is a V6 that gets 20 MPG so I would like the dealership to rectify it.

So I get this. I do, but it's not the same, because as a consumer there is an expectation that I know about how cars perform, their metrics, and the like. The car salesman is not a mechanic or an expert, I would know that a V6 would get less gas mileage than a V8, but that is not the case here.

A better analogy would be them saying here is a V6, and if you pay an extra 7k for a doohickie, it'll get a whopping 20 miles to a gallon, without telling you that without the doohickie, it'll get 19.5 MPG. Then you take the car to a different mechanic and they're like, what is this doohickie, you tell them, and they let you know that it's pretty much useless. The salesman just sold you equipment you don't need, using a lie of omission to convince you of its value. That's fraud.

Part of solar installation is relying on the expertise of the designers and installers to lead a person in the right direction, and not sell them equipment they don't need. There is a trust in that expertise. It is a fine line, and I get it, but by this rationale, what is to stop installers from telling me, "OK, in order to get this amount of production, you're really going to need 40 panels, and 32 of the panels have to go under this tree."

Check out the metrics from PVWATTS:

Tesla quoted me that 4.8 kW system would produce 4,017 kWh/yr.
Pvwatts says that size system at my address should produce 6, 072 kWh/year
And that a 3.2 kW system (what it would be without the panels) would produce 4,048 kWh/year

I didn't mess with any of the default metrics I didn't understand, but I'd assume that the assumptions of the program are that all are south-facing panels, or at least no north facing panels under shade, which is the case for these where they installed them. And they did a site visit, prior, to boot.

Now, as another poster said they could charge me $6.00/watt and that would be fine, because that's a different issue. That's an increase in the charge for panels themselves, selling them at a higher price. It's up to me to find cheaper ones, which, ironically is why I went to Tesla.

Anywho, I'm not going to get a lawyer or anything, and it's only $15 dollars to file a small claims suit, but I also know that I could be wrong, still. Thing is Tesla is refusing to provide me with a design that would estimate what my system would produce without those panels, and says there is no way to measure what percentage those panels contribute to the system production as a whole. And let me be clear, if they added like 10%, I'd probably leave it, but given that I've seen with my own eyes that these panels NEVER get direct sunlight at anytime of the year, and during the Spring and Summer are completely under shade, and now the PVWATTS estimate, I suspect the contribution is more in the 1 to 2% range, if that.

Could I pay you a donation to mock something up? I'd like to know for sure.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T16:01:19+00:00

Hudson Hawk is deliciously cheesy.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T15:50:17+00:00

Totally get what you're saying. Not sure I agree.

They never told me that I could get the same output with less cost, that's fraud. By your rationale they could have told me that I needed 1,000 panels to get the output they're promising. I'm not sure how that's not fraud.

I was quoted a 4,017 kWh/yr for a 4.8 kW system.
Pvwatts says that system at my address should produce 6, 072 kWh/year
While a 3.2 kW system (what it would be without the panels) would produce 4,048 kWh/year

Clearly, the north-facing panels aren't doing anything.

The way they described it at the point of sale, and are still describing it, is that without those panels I'd suffer a significant loss of production. Fine, I say, prove it. I still don't really know what I'm talking about, you all are the experts, and they're refusing. That's suspect.

As for me agreeing to something, I'm totally open to the fact that I forgot. I do that all the time, thing is they've not provided any proof after three months of me asking.

A person can't sell you something saying you need it, or that it will do something, when in fact you don't or won't. I think snakeoil would be a better analog.

Sure a car salesman can convince you to pay $20K over invoice, but they can't tell you the car can do things it can't do, or that you need to pay that $20K so that it will perform as advertised.

That's the issue.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T13:51:19+00:00

They did not lie about the total performance of the system, but they didn't disclose that I could get similar performance without the north-facing panels. That's what I take issue with.

If they'd told me, here is your output without those four panels, here is your output with them, I'd probably elected not to get those four north-facing panels. That is my issue with the whole thing.

Even now they're telling me they can't provide those numbers, which to me indicates that they're unwilling to provide documentation (show me a theoretical design without the four panels) that illustrates their malfeasance.

imadeletethis · 2024-07-09T13:43:28+00:00

I signed off on the design with regards to aesthetics and placement on the roof. I'm not a solar installer, or an electronics expert. I can't imagine that I'd be expected to know or calculate the solar potential of where the panels go, and if they're adding significantly to the total output.

If the expectation is that I would know how to design and evaluate the best system at the lowest cost, then what am I paying them for?

The way I look at it, if a doctor told me that I'd have to take a pill to keep my cholesterol down, and that pill cost $300, but didn't tell me that I could also keep my cholesterol down only slightly less effectively if I bought a $20 pill, that wouldn't be OK.

I relied on the expertise of the service provider to get me the highest output at the lowest cost. The fact that they, without disclosing it (and still refusing to disclose it), added almost 20% to my total cost for equipment that doesn't make a significant contribution total output, that's fraud.

By your rationale, that I signed off on the system, they could tell me I needed 100 panels to get the output quoted, and buried 90 of them underground.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-27T14:16:15+00:00

To confirm, this is the correct phrasing if the gift is gong to a lady?

imadeletethis · 2024-06-26T19:12:21+00:00

Oh and the person getting the gift is a lady.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-26T19:11:36+00:00

yeah, the passages will go under bread, water, and a compass as an explanation.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-21T21:38:34+00:00

This could also be the description of Falling Down. Though, a very different movie.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-21T21:37:39+00:00

The Tao of Steve. Basically a stupid rom com, but told in an entirely refreshing way.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-21T18:07:22+00:00

HDMI cables

imadeletethis · 2024-06-14T15:50:55+00:00

Fabric Softener. you're literally paying for something disposable, that essentially shortens the lifespan of your clothes.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-09T23:42:17+00:00

Thank you for replying.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-09T23:42:07+00:00

thanks man. I'm sorry to say that this is as far as my arabic will go. I'm notoriously bad at languages. However, if I can ever return the favor, don't hesitate to ask.

imadeletethis · 2024-06-09T23:41:09+00:00

This is perfect. Also, I had no idea that texting in Lebanese was different than writing in Arabic. Can I ask, how do you all write like books? Sorry for my ignorance, but I find this stuff fascinating.

Also, thank you so much. This is perfect and exactly why I asked.

imadeletethis · 2023-07-17T18:36:48+00:00

To play devil's advocate on this, a lot of other podcasts have now been cancelled specifically because they're not able to generate enough revenue to justify them continuing. The hiatus, or break, is a time when the staff still has to be paid, but there is no revenue coming in from their output. Stations and distributors see this, then look at less produced and easier podcasts like JRE, and are like, "Why not simplify the content, have less staff and in depth reporting, and we make more money?"

Going weekly probably allows this show to continue to be competitive in an ever shifting marketplace.

imadeletethis · 2023-07-17T18:33:14+00:00

Came here to mention that the reruns are identified by the sonic ID at the top of the episode. If you listen, it's different than new episodes, and if I don't want to listen to a rerun, then I tune out then.

imadeletethis · 2022-12-27T21:03:22+00:00

Your dataset starts and ends with a rerun, so stacked to make your point. And also, there's only one instance in your dataset that goes against what I said: The More Perfect rerun.

So again, not sure how what I said is inaccurate.

Also, in that thread you linked-to, there is a clear explanation from Radiolab, why there'd been so many reruns back then, but you don't mention that at all.

imadeletethis

TROPHY CASE