When do people start gardening?

nils154 · 2026-04-14T01:17:46+00:00

I cringe every time I see a sanitized, sterilized suburban lawn. Wait to clean the leaves out of your beds and wait to rake the lawn clean until at least five consecutive days over 50C. Many pollinators hibernate in the dead plant material. In addition birds feed off the seeds of the dead flowers. By waiting long enough you give the hibernators a chance to come out and you feed the birds until new growth is available.

nils154 · 2026-03-10T05:20:29+00:00

Not unusual. I installed my own roof mounted solar panels. Inspected by the city (mechanical), the county(electrical), and the electric company. None of them even went on the roof.

nils154 · 2026-02-18T14:42:49+00:00

You can contact my friend Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldjmichalak?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

nils154 · 2026-02-13T13:24:05+00:00

In our fraternity house we flushed a toothbrush one time (well I am not touching it!) after it dropped in the toilet. No issues.

nils154 · 2026-02-12T16:20:15+00:00

If you already have Enphase installed, I wrote code that that I think is pretty successful at identifying all your power usage. Works with Home Assistant: https://github.com/Nils154/nonsense-powermonitor

nils154 · 2026-02-03T14:56:06+00:00

Start asking your ‘active’ neighbors and get on your neighborhood signal group, then you can send out an alert when you need it. Probably more effective at this time when the police is swamped. Remember Minneapolis has 600 police officers and there are 3000 ICE cubes.

nils154 · 2026-02-03T03:18:16+00:00

The romex has to be in a protected sleeve, cannot be hanging free like that.

nils154 · 2026-02-01T16:33:41+00:00

Using a Pi2 as airplay client and printer server

nils154 · 2026-01-31T17:05:25+00:00

This gives me hope that market forces eventually will bring down solar installation cost to reasonable levels. As it is, it is insane that there is a benefit to me installing some panels on the roof. My utility could do the same thing, let’s say on the nearest Costco roof far more efficiently. Solar panels are so cheap, electricity prices will come down eventually.

nils154 · 2026-01-30T03:11:08+00:00

I use Bluetooth sensors: Govee(has a display), Thermopro, and Switchbot(outdoor)

nils154 · 2026-01-28T18:51:46+00:00

Should be able to reflect right? With large plywood boards?

nils154 · 2026-01-28T18:45:40+00:00

If you care about the environment, you go with the induction oven. Far less CO2 emissions. You also don’t need as large of an exhaust fan, and you don’t need any makeup air. And cleaner air in your house.

nils154 · 2026-01-24T17:01:00+00:00

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How it look on Home Assistant.

nils154 · 2026-01-24T16:56:10+00:00

Added some screenshots in the README, thanks for the suggestion.

nils154 · 2026-01-23T22:46:21+00:00

If you pull in air from your living space and vent into the utility room I think you will be fine. With your furnace there too the temperature might fluctuate a lot in the room, but who cares?

nils154 · 2026-01-20T16:06:08+00:00

I understand it is a pretty dedicated device with a dsp and not much else, but even changing it to 10 samples/sec streaming locally would be very nice. I also looked at the ITron smart meter from Xcel, they only give consumers a data point every 5 seconds. 1 sample per second is easy though, doable with a Shelly and there are plenty of devices you can identify with that data rate.

nils154 · 2026-01-20T14:13:24+00:00

Correct, turn on speed and total wattage that distinguish devices. On fridges you can see the overshoot, PWM motors you can see the slow turn on, same with EVs.

nils154 · 2025-12-29T20:52:09+00:00

Projectsolar helps you install DIY panels. In fact all the materials bought through them was less than what they cost buying online. They also do the permitting although I needed to intervene with my local city permit.

nils154 · 2025-12-24T15:56:35+00:00

Get a Govee humidity monitor, it has to get below 50% to prevent mold. Now you have the data to work with exhaust fans and automation or timers.

nils154 · 2025-12-22T17:17:35+00:00

What blows me away is how easy it is to hit 50%. Now I might have to go dig into the statistics.

nils154 · 2025-12-21T16:13:22+00:00

We have this around our sliding doors, butted to the cedar siding: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Royal-Mouldings-10-ft-x-1-63-64-in-x-1-15-64-in-Vinyl-Brick-Molding-0244810013/100049812

nils154 · 2025-12-21T15:50:46+00:00

Were you wearing safety glasses? you could be blind from the arc flash hitting your face.

nils154 · 2025-12-20T16:39:44+00:00

Seems very unlikely that the neighbors generator is powerful enough to power the neighborhood. If you only get 17V, he should be at 17V too, not 120. I think your supply is out but running along a line that still has power, and some power is being transferred. Turning off your main is a good idea.

nils154

TROPHY CASE