hittheskids

joined 2 years ago
[–] hittheskids 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Thanks- these links are helpful. A system without a battery sounds more viable than I had considered, but I'm not sure how well it'd work for my intended loads. Maybe I could rethink what I want to run on solar, but I think it's maybe not really an practical option in my setup where the only two loads I have in mind (probably?) require steady power and wouldn't do well with momentary dropouts caused by cloud cover. Good to keep in mind though.

When you say "switch to grid power after it runs out," this is something I was hoping the kit would do automatically for me so I don't have to flip a switch or change plugs from the solar outlet to the grid outlet. If the kit doesn't support that, I wondered if something like this ATS would get me what I want. I'd wonder how exactly it decides to switch back and forth though (it switches to the backup automatically, but will it switch back to primary on its own, and if so, under what conditions? Will it constantly switch back and forth or is there any sort of hysteresis? etc).

 

I live in the central US in a south-facing apartment with a TON of sunlight, and I've been wanting to set something up mostly for hobbyist/curiosity reasons. I know actual financial benefits are going to be pretty unlikely, and that's ok.

Balcony solar as I understand it to be an option in Europe is pretty much exactly the sort of thing I want to try, but my understanding is it's not compliant with code in the US. Basically I don't expect to be able to have enough solar capacity to power my whole home, but I'd like to be able to just offset as much as I can when the sun is out. And I think I want a battery in the system so it's not only useful when the sun is out.

I'd love something that works like this:

  • Prioritize powering the load from the panels (through an inverter, I assume) when available
  • If the panels alone aren't sufficient, backfill from the battery
  • If the panels + battery aren't sufficient, backfill from the grid
  • When the load does not consume all the power from the panels, use excess to charge the battery
  • Grid is only there as a fallback when the panels and battery aren't sufficient to power the load. Grid does not charge the battery or receive excess from the panels.

If it's not realistic to expect to be able to power the load first from the panels (bypassing the battery), skipping that part and just always powering from the battery and backfilling from the grid maybe would simplify things. I just thought it'd be nice to avoid the inefficency of charging and discharging the battery when the sun is out.

My hope is to have a single solar-backed outlet in my living room off my balcony. During the summer, I'd probably use it to partially offset my little window unit AC. Other parts of the year when I don't run the AC, maybe I'd use it to offset my TV.

Does anything like this exist? My preference would be to get a kit (Ecoflow etc) that includes as much of the functionality as possible and then add on if necessary for any missing functionality, but I would be interested in more piecemeal DIY solutions too of they're reasonably approachable for a beginner. I've watched a lot of "solar at various price points" videos on Youtube and sometimes some of the kits sound like they get pretty close to what I want, but I've never seen this exact combination of functionality discussed.

Thanks.

[–] hittheskids 2 points 3 months ago

I got into silverchair in 1998ish between Freak Show and Neon Ballroom. Freak Show was exactly where I was musically at the time, and Neon Ballroom was very unexpected for me when it first released, but I really felt like I grew with the band. I can't really even listen to Frogstomp or Freak Show anymore, but I still love Neon Ballroom onward.

[–] hittheskids 10 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I knew that she was a comedian but hadn't seen any of her standup so I didn't really have any attachment to her as a reason to want to watch the show. But I like it. It's definitely getting better, but it also definitely depends on the chemistry of the guests. I remember the one with Gillian Jacobs (obligatory "oh, Britta's in this?") was particularly good. Their YouTube channel puts up a playlist of most (all?) of the previous night's show, and it has become a regular watch while I'm doing emails etc in the morning.

[–] hittheskids 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, the inconsistency and congestion are the main things I wonder about. I'm not that sensitive to latency, but if it's bad enough that video calls will get choppy regularly then maybe it's not worth it. I have also wondered how home internet plans get prioritized. I haven't noticed any significant performance or congestion issues on my phone on Mint/T-Mobile but I'm not pushing that connection as hard and as often as I would a home internet connection.

As far as I can tell, Starry is not available in my apartment building. They do love to send me junk mail anyway though. I think CenturyLink might be in my building, but I had an overwhelmingly negative experience with CenturyLink in Denver a while back and I'd really prefer to avoid them. Google Fiber does not look to be available in my building.

Looks like my options so far are:

  • Comcast: Currently paying $60-70 (including fees) for I think 200Mbps, but I can probably call and haggle to get it down.
  • CenturyLink fiber: $50 plus fees for 500Mbps. Probably plus equipment rental.
  • T-Mobile: $60 flat plus a $150 cash card promo, but I can't tell if I have to buy or rent the equipment without going deeper into the process. This would be $10-20 cheaper if I also had mobile service directly from T-Mobile instead of Mint Mobile.
  • Verizon: $50 probably plus fees plus a $50 Target promo card. Not sure if there are equipment fees.

I might see about trying T-Mobile since they have a trial period and I'm guessing it'd be pretty pain free since it's wireless and nobody needs to come do any installation or configuration like tends to happen with Comcast or CenturyLink. Maybe I can use that to haggle with Comcast.

 

I have Comcast, but my deal for the last two years recently ended just in time for me to also start having hour+ long outages multiple times per week. I'm curious about my options, and specifically I wonder how viable wireless options like Verizon or T-Mobile are. Are the speeds consistent (and high) enough for video conference? Video streaming? I don't really game so I don't think latency is that important for me.

I live in the Cheesman/Cap Hill area and have one of those hideous green Verizon 5g poles right outside my building, but the eligibility checker on Verizon's site thinks it may not be in range for me somehow so I wonder how fragile it is.

I have Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) with no issues at home but I guess I'm not really stressing the throughput on my phone.

[–] hittheskids 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Her new district is actually the eastern plains. And the western slope isn't all bad. Fruita is pretty great.

[–] hittheskids 96 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's got what plants crave

[–] hittheskids 3 points 1 year ago

Not an answer to your software question, but you will very likely struggle with overheating since your phone will almost necessarily be in direct sunlight for hours at a time. If you really need to do this, avoid mounting your phone with a case and try to use a mount that does not cover too much of your phone's rear surface- cases and mounts can make it harder for your phone to dissipate heat.

[–] hittheskids 2 points 2 years ago

Looks more interdimensional than my 2019.

[–] hittheskids 18 points 2 years ago

I grew up in Alabama but live in Colorado now. If I were forced to live somewhere in Alabama, Huntsville would be at/near the top of my list. But it's still Alabama, and I'd still waaay rather live in Colorado. It obviously doesn't keep everyone away, and there's a lot of inertia there with all the existing space/rocket/defense industry in Huntsville. But is Space Command even going to be hiring heavily in the engineering fields that are concentrated in Huntsville? (That's a real question- I'd guess they're not hiring primarily engineers that they'd find in Huntsville, but I don't know.)

[–] hittheskids 1 points 2 years ago

Ooh, thanks- this is pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

[–] hittheskids 2 points 2 years ago

I have two bikes that I ride frequently- commuting or otherwise. I have a saddle bag with a quick release latch that makes it easy to switch between bikes depending on which one I'm going to be riding. I keep two tubes (I run 28mm tires so the tubes aren't huge), a small pump, tire levers, a multi tool, a small tubeless plug kit, and a little shop rag.

My nicer bike is set up tubeless so I don't need to deal with flats often, but I have needed to stop and put in some extra air after a persistent leak before. My other bike runs tubes and I do get flats sometimes despite running Continental GP 4 Seasons tires.

The worst part is the pump. It takes forever and it's physically awkward. Electric pumps are getting smaller and cheaper, but I worry I'll forget to keep it charged.

[–] hittheskids 2 points 2 years ago

I watch a lot of speedruns and challenge runs etc (for games in general, not just Hollow Knight), but I don't usually watch a lot of straight, blind playthrough videos. But the algorithm pointed me at Symbalily's playthrough, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really great balance of relatable, insightful (apparently she has worked in the industry), and endearing. Her ongoing playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been pretty good too.

 

I bought a new mountain bike recently, and it has three sets of bottle cage mounts. But there's no way I could actually get two bottles inside the front triangle, and the third set is on the bottom of the down tube where I don't think I trust a bottle to stay anyway. So I have one bottle on the top of the down tube, but the other two mounts are currently unused.

I was using a Dakine Gripper on my old bike, but it never stayed in place, so I was hoping to find something like that that would mount directly to the bottle cage mounts. But I can't seem to find anything like this.

Does anything like this exist? What do you do with extra bottle cage mounts?

view more: next ›