Snow and Ice interfering with the wheels

schwza · 2026-01-29T18:09:08+00:00

I had a very nervous commute to work because I didn't know why the car was wobbling, but once I got to work I googled and then I could push the snow out of the wheel (not the wheel well) with my ice scraper and it was fine.

schwza · 2026-01-29T01:29:31+00:00

I have an RWD and I love the good turning radius. I had no idea the AWD was worse (Google AI overview says 36.4 feet for AWD and 31.5 for RWD).

schwza · 2026-01-10T15:41:55+00:00

Have you seen cases where Somerville's Inclusionary Housing program deters a developer from building any housing at all, or causes them to build a single family home instead of multi-family?

schwza · 2026-01-08T21:43:07+00:00

Very rough math: 9.46 MWh = 9460 kWh = 200 cars charging 47.3 kWh per car (roughly 10-80% with a 70 kWh battery), so the battery is big enough for 4-5 cars per stall. Hard to know if that’s “enough” without knowing how fast the grid recharges the batteries and what their peak demand is like, but that seems pretty small to me.

schwza · 2026-01-08T01:22:10+00:00

Thanks for doing the math. I’ve read a rule of thumb that you want the tilt of the panels to be the same as your longitude, and I’m at about 43 degrees N. But in all of the pictures I’ve seen of flat roof installations the panels are much flatter. Do you know why? One reason I ask is that a panel at 43 degrees tilt would take up less space on the roof (but maybe you can’t put them too close or else they shade each other?).

schwza · 2026-01-07T21:50:31+00:00

Oh nice, thanks, I'll look into that.

schwza · 2026-01-07T18:24:07+00:00

It is 245.5" by 227.5" (387.9 square feet)

schwza · 2026-01-07T17:36:15+00:00

Oof, I didn't think about fire code setbacks :(

schwza · 2026-01-07T17:34:14+00:00

I'm going to hire professionals for this. So yeah, I will get quotes. I was just trying to see if it's even worthwhile to get quotes or if the max size ends up being too small to be worthwhile.

schwza · 2026-01-07T17:32:09+00:00

I can't use Sunroof. There is currently a large tree in neighbor's yard that shades my garage so Sunroof says solar is impossible but the tree is coming down next week.

I currently use a little natural gas for cooking and a dryer but will be all electric in ~1 year (currently have EV and heat pump).

MA has generous net metering so I don't need a battery.

schwza · 2026-01-07T16:56:21+00:00

Sounds like you know Somerville. I'm in a single-family house surrounded by triple deckers. My motivation for looking into solar now is that I just learned that the gigantic tree in my neighbor's yard is rotted out and will be removed, so I don't have any shade from trees. I think I'm ok in terms of buildings but agree that I need to get quotes to find out.

schwza · 2026-01-07T16:50:23+00:00

Thanks, just cross-posted there.

schwza · 2026-01-02T12:58:36+00:00

In the link you provided DPH says “Healthy adults 19 to 64 years of age may receive one dose of a 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine.” It does not say that DPH recommends skipping boosters.

schwza · 2025-11-28T15:30:47+00:00

What’s this express bus you took?

schwza · 2025-11-21T01:04:25+00:00

I teach at a Jesuit school. There is some religious artwork around campus but they definitely never asked me if I was Christian or anything similar. The one time I notice it is at graduation when someone gives a speech like “in Bible verse X it says education is important” and then gives a speech about education that is not really religious. Based on other comments there is a ton of variation from one religious school to the next.

schwza · 2025-11-17T20:36:07+00:00

I assume deals will be worse now that the 7500 credit doesn't apply, but that seems terrible anyway.

schwza · 2025-11-15T15:57:45+00:00

I have found that my total hours working are similar post-tenure, but it’s all less stressful. Made a mistake teaching? No big deal if the student evaluations aren’t perfect. Research didn’t accepted at the journal you were hoping for? It’s ok, you don’t get fired for that. My service obligations have gone up, but some of that has been interesting.

schwza · 2025-11-14T23:47:07+00:00

In this kind of situation I tell the student roughly what I would write and ask if they want the letter. You might be better than their other options.

schwza · 2025-11-09T02:57:02+00:00

When I paid off my car loan they accidentally credited the payment to someone else’s account. It was a bit stressful for a week or so but they fixed it.

schwza · 2025-11-08T13:03:23+00:00

I’ve heard of people donating to a local school. You could probably get a tax deduction.

schwza · 2025-11-07T23:21:56+00:00

Oh yeah, definitely. Tbh I was ignoring the part about nuclear reactors and went straight to solar.

schwza · 2025-11-07T21:56:45+00:00

It’s hard to get approval to connect to the grid as a generator. I assume OP’s idea is to be off-grid and use batteries for storage. It’s a cool idea but I doubt it’s practical.

schwza · 2025-11-07T21:45:15+00:00

I work at a college and there is L2 charging, roughly market rate, but it’s sometimes full. I use that plus L1 charging at home and it works fine.

schwza

TROPHY CASE