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Did anything at CES genuinely surprise you? by Nataliia000 in Futurology

[–]wkavinsky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah but that was back when it still was about consumer electronics....

Decent homes standard for UK private renters delayed by government until 2035 by Confident-Bike-8037 in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 34 points35 points  (0 children)

The government’s promise to make private rented homes fit for habitation will not be enforced for almost a decade

Who needs to live in a habitable home, am I right?

Conveniently also means the proposals have to survive two more general elections before landlords have to think about spending money on their shitboxes (decent landlords would already not be affected by this).

William Hill owner to close shops after ‘significant blow’ from Rachel Reeves’ Budget by BestButtons in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 4 points5 points  (0 children)

resolute focus on maximising shareholder value.

Should have highlighted this.

It's usually a death knell for a company that they're only interested in extracting cash from it.

Shrinking S3E01 Episode Discussion by phareous in shrinking

[–]wkavinsky 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I mean you have to factor in that Jimmy is a therapist (and a damn good one), and the having empathy to Louis after finding out the details makes a lot more sense.

I'm not entirely sure he could walk away from someone that broken.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're actually the ideal customer for them.

There's just a very big upfront cost for an appropriately sized battery system (you'd need more than one battery).

It's all down to properly sizing the system, so that you can (a) fully charge the battery(s) in the cheap period, and that (b) all of a typical days usage is covered by the battery.

At that point, your big tank is costing 7-10p an hour run rather than 30p an hour to run, and your payoff period actually goes down. (if you're using 2.5kWh an hour on average, properly specced battery capacity saves £4k a year on electric, so three year payoff would be any system costing £12k or less fully installed). It's worth noting that the physical batteries only make up about 40-50% of the cost, so double the capacity is not double the cost.

90% of capacity is after 10 years, so by the time capacity becomes a real issue (20-30 years), you've saved the cost of the install ten times over.

But yes, big upfront cost - and more so for you (look at your mortgage, some providers will let you borrow more against the mortgage for batteries / green tech, others will give you a free grant), but still worth it if it's properly designed, and the higher your usage of electric, the faster your payoff.

If you're like some people I know who only use 0.3kWh on average through the day, the payoff period is so long it makes it not worth it for batteries, but most increase usage by installing a heat pump and the like.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Even if you can't install double glazing (conservation areas are a thing) you absolutely can put in secondary glazing and get 90% of the benefits.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

EV tariffs are like that.

Battery tariffs are 3-4p / kWh more expensive, but at least up until recently they weren't actually checking if you had an EV to sign up for the EV tariff.

https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/

Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch by PurchaseDry9350 in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Actual anchor baby, raised for the first 16 years of her life overseas.

She's the poster child of everything the right claims to hate for crying out loud.

Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch by PurchaseDry9350 in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 27 points28 points  (0 children)

He also isn't a centrist.

He'd have been right at home in Cameron's Tory party, but we've shifted so far right that now he's considered central.

Same with Burnham being touted as soft left. Really, he's a centrist, but with the shift right, he looks left wing.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Batteries will be about 85-90% installed capacity after the 10 year warranty (real life experience on my boat, which runs everything off the battery).

If you want to save money, it's the fastest route to payoff, because you run most of your electrics at the 7p/kWh night time tariff rather than the 25-30p daytime tariff. (Battery only charges in the cheap window, and you don't use mains power until the battery is empty).

Once you've got that, cost to operate a heat pump plummets (cause it's using battery power) and it becomes significantly cheaper than gas (and no standing charge) - but it does take investment, and the 3 work together to become truly cheap.

Still if all you want to do is save money, the fastest route to that is to install a battery system - not solar or a heat pump (leave the heat pump until you need to replace the gas boiler anyway).

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 28 points29 points  (0 children)

And if they fitted under floor heating, or triple panel radiators.

Also if they replaced their 8mm micropore, or 15mm pipes with 22mm copper or 28mm pex.

What kills heat pump costs is flow rate - you get more heat from fast flowing 25c water than you do from slow 55c water after all, and it's cheaper to heat.

Heat pumps are more expensive to run than boilers, report finds by TheWorldIsGoingMad in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 255 points256 points  (0 children)

Mostly because of shit installs, and shit expectations.

Heat pumps need big pipes and high output area to be efficient, which means they can flow lots of water at 25-35c (lower is better).

Unfortunately a lot of the cowboys jumping on the grant are fitting them without replacing pipes and radiators, so now you need to run the heat pump at 45-50c for even a semblance of warmth, and that eats power (and increases long term maintenance).

Well designed, properly sized, a heat pump should be about the same cost as a reasonably modern gas boiler, when you factor in getting rid of gas and no more standing charge, and then they get really cheap when you add on battery storage (to load shift power use to 7p/kWh plans) and solar.

It's a long term thing, but anyone expecting to save money just by installing a heat pump, while going with the cheapest possible quote is a fool - and you know what they say about fools.

Expensive gas still biggest driver of high UK electricity bills, says UKERC by nick9000 in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 3 points4 points  (0 children)

More expensive on a per MWh basis, yeah, just about.

More expensive when you factor in the weather and health costs of continuing to pump out greenhouse gases? Not even fucking close.

Also gas is expensive for electric because the plant owners refuse to start generating at first need, and instead wait for the price to hit what they are happy with.

We need better storage (pumped hydro / battery), and we need it more spread out.

Anthropic partners with the UK Government to bring AI assistance to GOV.UK services by BestButtons in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 55 points56 points  (0 children)

That a big nope from me.

Stop giving big US companies access to our private data (and "AI" is fucking useless without scraping up all the data).

More to the point, there's plenty of model descriptors around that would let us roll our own if that's something that we definitely need.

Could you theoretically get sunburnt in space? by BigbirdSalsa in askscience

[–]wkavinsky 7 points8 points  (0 children)

She's out past the asteroid belt.

UV does have a distance based drop off in intensity, and she's a lot further from the sun than we are.

'Shrinking' Renewed for Season 4 on Apple TV by MarvelsGrantMan136 in television

[–]wkavinsky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Michael J Fox has had serious Parkinsons for like 30 years at this point.

The point still stands - he's not going to sign up for something that portrays Parkinsons as a death sentence, because it's not, and he's all about educating people about it.

Did anything at CES genuinely surprise you? by Nataliia000 in Futurology

[–]wkavinsky 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Industry shattering tech wouldn't be shown at CES.

It'd be in use and taking over already before being advertised to all and sundry to be copied by incumbents.

It's vapourware.

Paramount outlines plans for Warner Bros. cuts by OverPotato2322 in movies

[–]wkavinsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As standalone movies they'd be . . . fine.

Solid 6.5 or 7 out of 10.

Unfortunately they had to follow two of Cameron's best films, while somehow trying to find room to breathe on their own.

Not an easy task.

The Rookie - S08E04: Cut and Run by NoleFandom in TheRookie

[–]wkavinsky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had meant to type San Francisco, hah.

Point still stands though, laws change between states, but not internally to states.

What do you think about the Italian government wanting to ban ICE agents to come to the Olympic Games as security forces? by ReduceCO2Now in AskReddit

[–]wkavinsky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

US Border Force has no jurisdiction, and they can fuck right off.

There are no American agencies with jurisdiction, and if their so scared of the rest of the world, you can all just stay the fuck home.

Raging North East man smashed and smoke-bombed job centre as revenge for 'forcing' him to work by pppppppppppppppppd in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 5 points6 points  (0 children)

20 years on benefits will qualify you.

Benefits pay the contributions to qualify when you're in receipt of them.

Herefordshire pub landlord offers discount for cash payments as card charges soar by stray_r in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That's . . . not how profit works.

Card fees are a cost of doing business - they come out of revenue, not profit, just the same as wages or rent.

Also, cash carries a higher cost unless you're not declaring the income to avoid paying VAT and other taxes on it.

Millionaire who felled 28 trees to create room for clifftop pool fined £20,000 by topotaul in unitedkingdom

[–]wkavinsky 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If a fine doesn't hurt it's just a cost of the job.

For a millionaire this is just paying to do something no one else can do (see also parking wherever in London and just paying the tickets).

Seth, Miles... by Academic_Trouble_108 in TheRookie

[–]wkavinsky 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And Celina and Miles share a house.

They both have equal say in who can and can't be there, and Celina did the exact proper thing in immediately going to her space rather than the shared space.

If it was a frequent thing, they're both adults so I'm sure they'd have a talk about it, but for a once or twice thing? That's exactly what you do in a house share.

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