OminousOrange

OminousOrange , 2 days ago

I think there's a lot of opportunity for reducing wasted energy in many buildings. Even the term "waste heat" is indicative that energy is typically exhausted when it could be used for space or water heating. Obviously mechanical modifications would be needed, sometimes extensive, but it's a good option for reducing energy use.

OminousOrange , 1 day ago

Nice, I have much the same setup in my house!

I visited the recently Passive House certified student residence buildings at the University of Victoria, and the heat recovery there is quite interesting. Passive House requires a very low heating load, so they recover all the heat they can from the commercial kitchen (the presence of which is rare in a Passive House because of high ventilation requirements) processes such as ventilation hoods and refrigeration systems and put it into the DHW system.

They had to get a bit creative with the design, but it's really not that complicated. More just not doing things the way they've always been done.

OminousOrange , 3 days ago

I work in building science. It's obscene how little actual design and quality control goes into residential homes.

The typical design is just one step above being illegal, and people are often scared off of doing anything more than that by the threat of increased cost. However, they don't realize that they pay for it either way; either on their mortgage, or on utilities. Only one of those you can actually own in the end.

OminousOrange , 3 days ago

It starts early in the design process. But at that stage, it would be best to pause installation, have a mechanical engineer do the mechanical design (including equipment selection) based on an energy model and install the recommended equipment.

OminousOrange , 4 days ago

I was going to also post the direct AMA link, but the OP is a nice concise summary of many of the key discussions, provided without having to go to that site. I'd recommend reading that instead and follow links as you see fit.

OminousOrange , 6 days ago

I had a set of four for getting ethernet around the few places I rented. There was maybe the odd quality decrease when there was a lot of electrical load, but they worked great otherwise.

OminousOrange , 6 days ago

Sorry, four of the power to ethernet plugs. You put one near your router to essentially supply internet to your house's electrical circuits, then distribute the others where you need them, such as office, living room if you want to connect a TV or console, etc.

OminousOrange , 14 days ago

Politicians can't get their back pats if there's no one to pat their backs.

OminousOrange , 22 days ago

The cost of doing business.

Income-based fines should really be more commonplace.

OminousOrange , 24 days ago

"Our Computer"

OminousOrange , 25 days ago

Leaded fuel is still used in piston airplanes everywhere. While there are ongoing efforts to develop an unleaded alternative, there is none currently available to the market.

OminousOrange , 24 days ago

Right, hopefully G100UL can replace 100LL reasonably quickly, but there's a big difference between "commercially available" and actually available. I imagine it will be quite some time until it's commonplace for GA aircraft, unfortunately.

OminousOrange , 24 days ago

What's your alternative for access and supplies to many remote communities?

OminousOrange , 24 days ago

Oh man, I remember a Philips mp3 player I had for the longest time as a kid. You could hear the little clicks of the hard drive. Lost it on a hike, unfortunately.

OminousOrange , 1 month ago

It's amazing how he can get anything done if he spends all his time drilling oil.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

The underlying plot of this article is rather obnoxious. This Smith guy's 2016 Hyundai hybrid broke and the dealer gave him a $15k quote to fix it, which was then resolved by Hyundai corporate. The headline statement is one small paragraph, and irrelevant to this random story.

To discuss the headline, though, I think it all stems from misinformation more than anything. I have an EV in the charging desert of north east Saskatchewan. It's a fantastic car and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one again. Yes, you do have to plan ahead a bit if you're going longer distances, but the slight inconvenience is well worth the savings in fuel. Winter range can be reduced by around 50% at -30, but again, you plan around that. ICE vehicles don't perform well at those temperatures either.

Even then, the trips the vast majority of people make are well within typical EV ranges and there are often several charging option wherever the vehicle is parked.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

Even just rent one for a day. They're so simple and just work.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

I recently went this route after dabbling with other options. I had a wireguard VPN through my Unifi router, with rules to limit access to only the resources I wanted to share, but it can be a struggle for non savvy users, and even more so if they want to use Jellyfin on their TV. Tried Twingate too and would recommend if it fits your usecase, but Cloudflare Tunnels were more applicable to me.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

About $11M USD.

OminousOrange OP , 2 months ago

Docker is installed on a Debian container with Proxmox as the hypervisor. I believe as far as Docker knows, it's just running on normal Debian. The Debian LXC has its own local ip.

I'll take a look at those resources though, thanks.

OminousOrange OP , 2 months ago

I might have found the issue, see updates above. I have a separate Docker LXC that was behaving normally too, so was good to cross-check with that.

OminousOrange OP , 2 months ago

Why would one prefer a VM over an LXC for Docker?

OminousOrange OP , 2 months ago

This is mostly my reasoning too. I've got a bit more juice than a NUC, but I prefer the way resources are managed with an LXC for the certain apps that I run. I still have VMs for other things, like HAOS and a BlueIris NVR. It's only a local homelab with no external users so avoiding additional complexity is often in my best interest.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

Many local libraries provide access to this incredible resource too. Check yours to see.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

Everyone often overstates their little mistakes, but you're right, they're rarely noticed. Just think of every blemish being a lesson you'll remember for next time.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

In the new report, researchers found that a combination of increasing battery density, reducing tire rolling resistance, and cutting the weight of vehicles through high-strength steel or carbon fiber could double efficiency by 2050.

For those who don't want to read the rambling article.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

I think because it has less potential for improvement. Cars like the Ioniq 6 and Model 3 have already gotten nearly as good as they can without straying from being what is typically thought of as a car (side by side front and rear seats). So, we know we can make aerodynamic vehicles.

Yes, there are the dumb ones like the Lightning and Hummer, but the article does mention efficiency standards should come in the future, which bring a minimum standard of energy use per unit distance. Those will hopefully nudge those types of vehicles to improve.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

I agree, there can still be improvements in many areas. I would say ditch this whole discussion and argue that personal vehicles shouldn't be the primary option and the focus should be on more efficient and effective public transport instead. But on the personal vehicle side, the practical first step is phasing out ICE vehicles, which brings a huge overall improvement to transport efficiency as it stands. The second step would then be making the least efficient EVs more efficient. EV development and design can still progress during that time, but millions of km of roadway is constructed based on this standard shape of vehicle. If you want more efficient than the I6 and M3, I'd say get an electric motorcycle.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

...which is why I said we should "ditch this whole discussion and argue that personal vehicles shouldn’t be the primary option and the focus should be on more efficient and effective public transport instead."

Unfortunately, much of North America was developed to be reliant on personal vehicles. I love to bike when I can, but development needs to change to make it a practical form of transport for most trips.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

I don't disagree, but I don't think that type of redevelopment will be nearly as quick as we need it to be.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

I feel like that's the opposite of what we want. Perhaps a storefront where one could choose what they want from different providers for a reasonable price would be good, but consolidation leads to *opolies, which are never good for consumers.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

It's not OP's website. Looks like there's a contact form on the site though.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

And that won't change until corporations aren't legally considered as individuals.

OminousOrange , 2 months ago

"You don't need that fancy machine, I can do the job much better, and for free."

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

I live in a farming community in Saskatchewan, Canada. It's really mind blowing how many farmers don't give two shits about climate change. They're really not unlike heavily profit-driven companies just looking for next quarter gains, completely oblivious to other longer term factors that might be detrimental to their business.

It's sad in a way. This is their livelihood, and rather than adapt to the risk to bring some sort of long term sustainability, they're just looking for that next brand new model of truck to buy when harvest comes in this year.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

I think carbon footprint calculations should really include imported carbon. My "electronic device" was manufactured in China. The carbon emitted in its manufacture should follow the product to me, as I am the reason it was manufactured.

People blaming China and other countries that manufacture a significant amount of products with relatively dirty power are really just shirking the blame. When imported carbon is considered, the US and Canada are the worst polluters per capita.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

There is a bit missing with auto discovery on these frontends, which makes sense...if it doesn't track what you watch, it can't recommend things. Most have related videos though, so you're not just stuck with your subscriptions.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Perhaps, but there are often related videos which provide a similar sort of discovery. One of the main points of these frontends is that they don't track what you watch. If they don't do that, they can't recommend videos.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Oh, I think I misunderstood what you meant by queue function. I get it now, the ability to pick a bunch of videos and have them play through, not a recommendations queue.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Would a passcode (different from phone, of course) or biometric unlock for the 2FA app count? For example, I have bitwarden and Aegis, both have fingerprint unlock when opened with a reasonably short timeout. So, even if my phone pin was compromised, both would still require biometric unlock to access.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Right, so fingerprint on everything wouldn't be the best practice, because it's all in one category and everything can be unlocked by a compromise of that one thing.

That's a good point. I might look at removing that from my totp app and using a passcode instead.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

One hockey puck topped with ketchup, please.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Definitely, that's why I say the seasonal heating efficiency is based on heating-degree-days of the location. I'm not sure they'd get to 2-4x 200% efficient, though. 350% might be more reasonable.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

You have a furnace that provides heat, air handler that moves the air, and compressor that forces heat in a certain direction (inside to outside in the case of AC) with coils in the air handler to make use of that (re)moved heat.

Heat pumps have several features that make them a bit more than backwards AC, like defrost systems, VFDs and often dual-fuel controls. If it snows where you are, you'll also want it off the ground. So, best to get a new system.

As another said, you might be able to reuse the coolant lines and coils in the air handler. It might not be a bad idea to keep the furnace for backup when it's extra cold.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

I'm pleasantly surprised. Right, sometimes I forget that most people don't live in a deep freeze like Saskatchewan.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

Nice. Saskatchewan is very cold though (about 6000 heating deg days at 18C where I am and can regularly go under -30C in winter), so 200% would be pretty reasonable for a typical heat pump. As a comparison, Tromsø, in very north Norway is 5600 heating deg days.

OminousOrange , 3 months ago

To determine heating degree days for your area, you set a baseline temperature (18C is kind of standard in Canada) take the average temperature on each day, and sum the difference between that and the baseline temperature for every day of the year (zero if temp is above baseline). So if the average temp one day was -10C, it would be a 28 heating degree day.

It allows approximation of building heating demand. Some standards (Passive House) use heating degree hours for finer detail, which makes sense because there can be fairly significant day/night temperature swings.

Here's a site where you can calculate what your location is. And here's what Wikipedia says.