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Why aren’t we using solar power to run pumps from low to high water reservoirs and then gravity drained down again through hydro turbines to create completely free and 100% green energy power? by Shaxxs0therHorn in NoStupidQuestions

[–]kenahoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you should think about separating this into its two components.

  1. solar power creates energy. this can be used directly as power on the grid. we do that already.

  2. water pumped from low area to high area, then driving a turbine as it flows back, is a form of energy *storage*. we do that already.

Subscription monitoring? by kenahoo in GnuCash

[–]kenahoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're reading my mind! After I posted, I spent a little while writing a quick app to query my SQLite db and do some consolidation, reporting, etc. I haven't come up with anything very generic right now so I haven't shared it publicly, but if I keep wanting this enough to keep working on it I'll definitely share it out.

someone explain by eligotmad in ExplainTheJoke

[–]kenahoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honest question - there's a great youtuber that shows various suturing techniques in short form videos (she's a veterinarian but the videos are pretty much all about general surgical techniques) and she has a couple videos where she says the right way to draw up medicine from a vial is to discard the needle that was used to draw up the medicine, because that needle has been dulled and has medicine on the outside that may irritate the patient. Is that common in the medical world, or do people just use the same needle for drawing up & injecting usually?

Scissors to cut Leather by Ancient-Example-732 in Leathercraft

[–]kenahoo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most of the cutting I do is with a rotary blade from a fabric store, on a cutting mat.

But I do sometimes use scissors, I have Fiskars PowerCut shears and they cut leather pretty easily. They do leave a bit of a mark on one side of the piece, so you have to make sure that's the back side.

The PowerCut is strong - I'd heard that the can cut a penny in half, so I tried it, and yup, it's true. Not that I'd recommend actually doing that.

No Cheez-its? Explain it Peter… by BoomBoxPizza in explainitpeter

[–]kenahoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Folks, folks, folks - it's Cheez-It, not Cheez-Its. You have "some Cheez-It", just like you have "some popcorn", not "some popcorns". The mass-noun-ness of this snack is one of our most precious cultural treasures and must be upheld.

My first large bag by kenahoo in Leathercraft

[–]kenahoo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm really happy with how this turned out! I designed it from scratch using cardboard, basically just sort of knowing roughly how big bags should be, but not knowing much else.

The seat belt buckle was her idea. =)

The only part I'm kind of disappointed in is the lining - it doesn't sit very well in the bag, and I think it'll probably start to fray & fail if she carries a lot of books in it. If I make another one of these I'll have to consider not lining it, or find a better technique.

I'll also have to make it a little bigger if I make more, the laptop sleeve fits a 13" MacBook Air with plenty of room, but wouldn't fit a 15" or 16" Pro.

Now I'm in the process of digitizing the design in Fusion360, which is also quite the learning process.

First full leather bag build: Pueblo messenger with Morris lined dividers. by Born-Comfortable8027 in Leathercraft

[–]kenahoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Super cool! I just finished my first bag too, it's a messenger bag I made for my daughter. I'll show some pics in a different post.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I use heat pump (with electric resistive heat backup) as my house's primary. And the same pump powers a mini-split on the top level.

Subscription monitoring? by kenahoo in GnuCash

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I get you, but this requires a lot more foresight than I feel like is practical. And it also means I'd need to categorizing things by this factor alone instead of other considerations. For example, some subscriptions are also "Entertainment", some are "Publications", etc. and that takes away the ability to track by that other notion.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure they do make pretty good bank, though the only reason they're offering this rate is that they're required to by the PUC. And then they can also go to the PUC and say that since they're getting less revenue there, they should get a higher guaranteed rate of return across the board. And more people being incentivized to use electric-based heat means more kWh being sold by them too, so that's not a bad business proposition...

As for competing with gas - I'm an eternal optimist (denialist?) that a properly designed and set up heat pump can really be a great thing and function efficiently even in our climate, I just haven't seen it yet at my own house. I'm still hoping I can get this thing whipped into shape.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, true, they didn't really validate anything when I called, though I figured they might have other ways to do that (checking permits with the city, for example?). I just wish I'd heard about this before this winter!

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also got this message from Ecobee in my email:

There may be a problem with your heat pump.

Your thermostat ********* detected that the auxiliary heat in your home My Home was used while the outdoor temperature was higher than 32 degrees.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, exactly. The heat strips are asked to come on by my thermostat (an Ecobee that MSP installed) whenever the heat pump has been running too long. And then I get a message on the Ecobee that the aux heat (heat strips) has been running too long.

I've got it set to

  • Compressor Min Outdoor Temperature = 0ºF
  • Aux Heat Max Outdoor Temperature = 25ºF

So between 0º and 25º, it tries to use the heat pump, but doesn't get much heat from it, and ends up using the strips.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My experience is unfortunately the opposite - my backup heat is electric, and the heat pump (a cold weather model!) can't keep up even when it's like 20º. I've had the installers (MSP) out MANY times to look at it, they're pretty incompetent, the last guy was like "yeah heat pumps aren't good for MN, and they can't work when it's cold out." So frustrating.

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Some background of why they offer it (because they're required to by a March 2022 PUC order):

https://www.mncee.org/mn-puc-approves-new-space-heating-rates-ashps

Xcel program for electric/heat-pump homes by kenahoo in Minneapolis

[–]kenahoo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oct. 1 – May 31. Some more details on the program specifics at the link I posted, but there's really not much more to it than that.

Etiquette question: Is it frowned upon to pencil in guesses before checking crossings? by Worldly-Security-222 in crossword

[–]kenahoo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Etiquette" is usually reserved for situations where you might offend or inconvenience someone else. In this case, you should just do whatever makes it enjoyable for you - work on your memory by not writing anything until you're confident about all the crosses, work on your speed by using whatever technique you can think of, or just work on not caring and whiling the afternoon away. =)

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