There is an economic benefit to being connected to the grid-- most of the time. It gives you a marketplace to sell your excess capacity, and a buffer for instantaneous peaks.
While I am not a fan of real-time pricing, it can effectively compensate or incentivize good behavior.
Pretend a company could year-round exactly match their load to the real-time output of their solar panels. That means they need to have more people working in the summer than winter, and need to operate 365 days per year-- with much shorter hours in the summer. But, since they likely don't want to schedule people around cloud cover they are going to need some battery storage. Now they need excess PV to cover the charging energy for that battery... but the battery is only needed on cloudy days! Well, they now have an opportunity to re-sell capacity at night when other people need the capacity-- provide the day was not cloudy.
Economically, you end up having everyone with some battery storage, but supporting different needs. I might have enough to run the fridge and water heater for a day and a half, while my neighbor sizes theirs to run the air conditioning for a day as well. These different needs (and means) gives the tools needed for a grid with ~99% availability. To go from 99% to 99.95% availability, you are going to need to add in geographic diversity and diversity in power sources (wind). If you want more than that (economically), you likely need to add in natural gas plants.
The natural gas plants will likely end up providing 5-10% of total annual energy.
Not at all; you just need to build a thermal mass during the daylight hours and discharge it at night. It can be passive like a stone fireplace and floor, or an active system such as an ice tank. Your primary obstacles are humidity control and solar heat gain, which can generally be done with a separate dehumidifier (assuming you are using radiant surfaces), and a proper radiant barrier and overhangs.
You can also gain thermal efficiency by using a ground-source heat pump to provide the cooling, so you don't get as much of a penalty running during maximum outside temperature. If you use enough hot water, a heat pump hot water heater can help out on the dehumidification too.
The demand curve is really the important part of the equation; to make renewables effective you really need to minimize load when the sources are not available. That is a challenge with current technology in the winter, because you intrinsically have a large demand block between sunset and 9PM. In the summer you can have plenty of excess capacity from PV, but hot late-autumn days are a challenge.
So, what can you do?
EV Charging at the workplace
Reduce office building ventilation rates from sunset to 9PM
Chilled water/ice storage with heat recovery chillers running during the day
Reduce traditional "peak period" rates and increase "mid-peak" rates to better reflect the (net) demand curve
Better insulate buildings to reduce winter heating energy
Program dishwashers, dryers, hot water heaters to take advantage of excess capacity
Reduce site lighting levels, especially after close of business
...
It isn't that hard to make things work on renewables only if you have plenty of wind energy, but you need to reduce expectations of central grid reliability. Inter-connected microgrids have a lot of promise for being the prime source of end-user reliability and economic viability.
And, if you don't have the wind resources and have high heat and electric loads in the winter, what the hell... put in some gas recip engines with district heating.
Because it is more practical than carrying around or storing a commodity. Hell, a good portion of the bills in Cambodia were fake, but still honored locally. Besides... who is to say that a crypto currency is any better on ideological grounds?
As long as the wrapping it into the LLC is not done for the purposes of tax evasion you come out fine in the end.
Back in ~2007 my taxes were a complete mess-- I had a convoluted business go tits up, capital gains that didn't come close to matching my broker's records, and a new business show a big profit. I did my best to try to sort things out with turbo tax, but the return was so painful it almost brought me to tears. The actual return was nearly 200 pages, mostly for pages that didn't matter for the final deductions.
After that I broke down and just used a CPA. Complete waste of money given how simple things are now in comparison... but much lower stress.
I figure if I didn't get audited that year then I need to stop stressing over taxes and roll with the punches if/when I am eventually audited.
Can't speak to Zimbabwe, but in many countries, the solution is to hold savings in USD. You just keep spending money in local currency (sometimes you just use USD for everything, like Cambodia).
The real value is having money in a "banking system" outside your home country, but the crackdowns seem to be limiting that option for the exchanges at least.
Before getting too smug... take a look at what is happening in Europe with Uber/Lyft. It might take longer, but the same problems exist. People can only hold out for the common good for so long.
The problem in the US is poor urban planning. Transit is of limited utility in neighborhoods without sidewalks, with large single family lots, and communities isolated from jobs and services.
You can't fix these things over night... and just throwing money at the problem doesn't change the equation.
While I generally ride my bike to work, a few times a month I take alternative means. This used to generally be the bus, which goes from 0.2 miles from my house to about the same distance from my office. The bus is clean, and takes almost exactly the same amount of time that riding my bike takes; it is only $1, and the people on it are friendly. Could hardly be easier.
But, it I often take Lyft instead, because the bus gets me to work 15 minutes later than I would like... or 45 minutes early. This is the problem facing public transportation: you have to make it sufficiently attractive for people to ride it who don't HAVE to ride it. Doing so economically is generally impossible, unless you can serve with a GEM 6-seat shuttle or something.
There is a lot to be said for life in the midwest; you can have your liberal enclaves in college towns, you do have lower costs, and there is better patronage of the arts making for free museums and accessible arts in St. Louis. I left and could never move back because of the weather. I remember days where you leave in the morning in shorts and it is snowing on the way home. Many of the long-standing political decisions also cause the problems with crime as well.
Everybody has different needs; smart employers create opportunities in different areas to address those needs.
Nothing to see, move along. Corporations are required to list any and all potential threats in SEC filings. BofA is likely equally threatened by alien invasion.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that unchecked proliferation of high capacity magazine fed semi automatic rifles in a polarized society with limited social safety net will eventually lead to the carnage we are witnessing today.
Wow... that is the most logical, succinct assessment of the situation I have seen. Thanks.
If you travel a lot, you want to be able to get to your seat and wind down before takeoff. It is true for parents with screaming kids and business travelers with noise cancelling headphones because of the screaming kids alike. You want your bag stowed, any of your own seat shuffling to be done, and start relaxing just a little bit.
When you are in first, the incentives can also include the pre-departure drink, not waiting in a long line, etc.
I'm not sure if the fastest boarding is the most efficient or maximum value boarding process anyway. Generally being able to push back once the cabin door is closed is going to free up the gate faster than shaving a couple minutes off people taking their seats.
No, the easy fix is to board via a Door 2 like most 757's are done. First turns left, economy turns right. The perk is maintained for first class, and late first class boarders do not impact the remainder of boarding; the flight attendants also have proper access for pre-flight coddling.
The reason this isn't done on newer planes is they eliminate the door to maximize flexibility in first class cabin size.
The *fastest* way to board is with both front and rear doors via jet bridges. This isn't done because the incremental benefit in time saved does not offset the additional cost or complexity. Maybe what they should do is have the "basic economy" passengers (who are not allowed carry-ons that won't fit under the seat) board via a scissors-lift catering van at the back of the plane. Maybe add to the discount if they work a shift for the catering company first and "check in" at that depot.
Personally, I wouldn't pay for first class if it didn't give priority boarding. I want my decompression time prior to the flight.
Automate all the work you want... just socialize all the profits. The problem with increased economic efficiency is that it leads to exponentially greater concentration of wealth.
People use Uber for convenience; if walking two blocks to streamline the driver's flow they reduce their own cost, time lag, and overall congestion, it is a net benefit.
The challenge I would expect though is moving enough seats in a single vehicle along a mutually beneficial path. I am sure they have the data to say that it would work in the places they are starting it.
A bus has the downside of a fixed route, schedule and frequency, limited flexibility for maximizing utilization for changing traffic vectors real-time. I would think a little 5+1 seat shuttle a-la GEM e6 would be great for this type of application.
I have the non-spying Sonos, and love it for the fact that the same music can be playing in every room at reasonable levels rather than the living room speakers blaring. I also like the fact that while my wife is sleeping, I can turn off the bedroom and adjacent bathroom speakers easily and keep listening myself.
While functionally you could do this long before Sonos, not having to pre-wire the house based on what you might want in the future is a huge plus.
I'm sure better things can or will be out there... I just don't want one that listens to me.
That same case could also be taken for a case for de-centralization: It was a low priority system, completely segregated from the rest of their systems.
Yes, decentralization adds complexity in a central administration context, but it also provides for compartmentalization.
Yes; my point is that they shouldn't be. NCEES writes the test and provides a streamlined comity process for almost all other states, at which point the value of state licensure is kind of limited. The main incentive to not change the system (as with most licenses) is the consumer protection path is cleaner at the state level.
Newspapers are in the advertising business, not the content business. I kind of want to support my local newspaper with a subscription... but I don't want dead trees, ads, or annoying "teaser" rates. Give me a lifetime subscription to the website, ad-free... and I would be happy to pay a few hundred dollars as a *customer* and not as a pair of eyeballs with an income of $X, living in _, and interested in ___...
I used to subscribe to Salon way back when (2003 or so?) for ideological reasons. They changed something, and it simply wasn't worth it anymore.
No. Employers must validate experience and provide reference. It can be tricky for people that work in a one licensed engineer shop, but most people will provide a reference.
Professional Electrical Engineer here... No, being licensed doesn't mean you are good, but it does serve to keep a very high percentage of people that are not good out. It also places responsibility and pressure on young engineers to know their shit.
Federal-level licensing for most fields makes more sense though. Structural engineering is the obvious exception; geotechnical might be as well.
Fire sprinklers address fire risk, and wood buildings (when complete) are generally more survivable than light gauge metal structures. Their main problem is that while under construction they are a huge fire risk.
Low-rise wood structures are pretty safe (with a concrete podium for the garage). When you go over 75’ to the highest occupied floor (code definition) then things become more complex.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an economic benefit to being connected to the grid-- most of the time. It gives you a marketplace to sell your excess capacity, and a buffer for instantaneous peaks.
While I am not a fan of real-time pricing, it can effectively compensate or incentivize good behavior.
Pretend a company could year-round exactly match their load to the real-time output of their solar panels. That means they need to have more people working in the summer than winter, and need to operate 365 days per year-- with much shorter hours in the summer. But, since they likely don't want to schedule people around cloud cover they are going to need some battery storage. Now they need excess PV to cover the charging energy for that battery... but the battery is only needed on cloudy days! Well, they now have an opportunity to re-sell capacity at night when other people need the capacity-- provide the day was not cloudy.
Economically, you end up having everyone with some battery storage, but supporting different needs. I might have enough to run the fridge and water heater for a day and a half, while my neighbor sizes theirs to run the air conditioning for a day as well. These different needs (and means) gives the tools needed for a grid with ~99% availability. To go from 99% to 99.95% availability, you are going to need to add in geographic diversity and diversity in power sources (wind). If you want more than that (economically), you likely need to add in natural gas plants.
The natural gas plants will likely end up providing 5-10% of total annual energy.
Not at all; you just need to build a thermal mass during the daylight hours and discharge it at night. It can be passive like a stone fireplace and floor, or an active system such as an ice tank. Your primary obstacles are humidity control and solar heat gain, which can generally be done with a separate dehumidifier (assuming you are using radiant surfaces), and a proper radiant barrier and overhangs.
You can also gain thermal efficiency by using a ground-source heat pump to provide the cooling, so you don't get as much of a penalty running during maximum outside temperature. If you use enough hot water, a heat pump hot water heater can help out on the dehumidification too.
The demand curve is really the important part of the equation; to make renewables effective you really need to minimize load when the sources are not available. That is a challenge with current technology in the winter, because you intrinsically have a large demand block between sunset and 9PM. In the summer you can have plenty of excess capacity from PV, but hot late-autumn days are a challenge.
So, what can you do?
It isn't that hard to make things work on renewables only if you have plenty of wind energy, but you need to reduce expectations of central grid reliability. Inter-connected microgrids have a lot of promise for being the prime source of end-user reliability and economic viability.
And, if you don't have the wind resources and have high heat and electric loads in the winter, what the hell... put in some gas recip engines with district heating.
Because it is more practical than carrying around or storing a commodity. Hell, a good portion of the bills in Cambodia were fake, but still honored locally. Besides... who is to say that a crypto currency is any better on ideological grounds?
As long as the wrapping it into the LLC is not done for the purposes of tax evasion you come out fine in the end.
Back in ~2007 my taxes were a complete mess-- I had a convoluted business go tits up, capital gains that didn't come close to matching my broker's records, and a new business show a big profit. I did my best to try to sort things out with turbo tax, but the return was so painful it almost brought me to tears. The actual return was nearly 200 pages, mostly for pages that didn't matter for the final deductions.
After that I broke down and just used a CPA. Complete waste of money given how simple things are now in comparison... but much lower stress.
I figure if I didn't get audited that year then I need to stop stressing over taxes and roll with the punches if/when I am eventually audited.
Can't speak to Zimbabwe, but in many countries, the solution is to hold savings in USD. You just keep spending money in local currency (sometimes you just use USD for everything, like Cambodia).
The real value is having money in a "banking system" outside your home country, but the crackdowns seem to be limiting that option for the exchanges at least.
Honest question... are you sure? Normally that kind of transaction (like an option) would just track as basis changes if done properly.
Before getting too smug... take a look at what is happening in Europe with Uber/Lyft. It might take longer, but the same problems exist. People can only hold out for the common good for so long.
The problem in the US is poor urban planning. Transit is of limited utility in neighborhoods without sidewalks, with large single family lots, and communities isolated from jobs and services.
You can't fix these things over night... and just throwing money at the problem doesn't change the equation.
While I generally ride my bike to work, a few times a month I take alternative means. This used to generally be the bus, which goes from 0.2 miles from my house to about the same distance from my office. The bus is clean, and takes almost exactly the same amount of time that riding my bike takes; it is only $1, and the people on it are friendly. Could hardly be easier.
But, it I often take Lyft instead, because the bus gets me to work 15 minutes later than I would like... or 45 minutes early. This is the problem facing public transportation: you have to make it sufficiently attractive for people to ride it who don't HAVE to ride it. Doing so economically is generally impossible, unless you can serve with a GEM 6-seat shuttle or something.
There is a lot to be said for life in the midwest; you can have your liberal enclaves in college towns, you do have lower costs, and there is better patronage of the arts making for free museums and accessible arts in St. Louis. I left and could never move back because of the weather. I remember days where you leave in the morning in shorts and it is snowing on the way home. Many of the long-standing political decisions also cause the problems with crime as well.
Everybody has different needs; smart employers create opportunities in different areas to address those needs.
Nothing to see, move along. Corporations are required to list any and all potential threats in SEC filings. BofA is likely equally threatened by alien invasion.
Wow... that is the most logical, succinct assessment of the situation I have seen. Thanks.
If you travel a lot, you want to be able to get to your seat and wind down before takeoff. It is true for parents with screaming kids and business travelers with noise cancelling headphones because of the screaming kids alike. You want your bag stowed, any of your own seat shuffling to be done, and start relaxing just a little bit.
When you are in first, the incentives can also include the pre-departure drink, not waiting in a long line, etc.
I'm not sure if the fastest boarding is the most efficient or maximum value boarding process anyway. Generally being able to push back once the cabin door is closed is going to free up the gate faster than shaving a couple minutes off people taking their seats.
No, the easy fix is to board via a Door 2 like most 757's are done. First turns left, economy turns right. The perk is maintained for first class, and late first class boarders do not impact the remainder of boarding; the flight attendants also have proper access for pre-flight coddling.
The reason this isn't done on newer planes is they eliminate the door to maximize flexibility in first class cabin size.
The *fastest* way to board is with both front and rear doors via jet bridges. This isn't done because the incremental benefit in time saved does not offset the additional cost or complexity. Maybe what they should do is have the "basic economy" passengers (who are not allowed carry-ons that won't fit under the seat) board via a scissors-lift catering van at the back of the plane. Maybe add to the discount if they work a shift for the catering company first and "check in" at that depot.
Personally, I wouldn't pay for first class if it didn't give priority boarding. I want my decompression time prior to the flight.
Automate all the work you want... just socialize all the profits. The problem with increased economic efficiency is that it leads to exponentially greater concentration of wealth.
From LA it was mostly in the clouds. I think you could kind-of see the first stage separation, but not clear enough to be sure.
People use Uber for convenience; if walking two blocks to streamline the driver's flow they reduce their own cost, time lag, and overall congestion, it is a net benefit.
The challenge I would expect though is moving enough seats in a single vehicle along a mutually beneficial path. I am sure they have the data to say that it would work in the places they are starting it.
A bus has the downside of a fixed route, schedule and frequency, limited flexibility for maximizing utilization for changing traffic vectors real-time. I would think a little 5+1 seat shuttle a-la GEM e6 would be great for this type of application.
I have the non-spying Sonos, and love it for the fact that the same music can be playing in every room at reasonable levels rather than the living room speakers blaring. I also like the fact that while my wife is sleeping, I can turn off the bedroom and adjacent bathroom speakers easily and keep listening myself.
While functionally you could do this long before Sonos, not having to pre-wire the house based on what you might want in the future is a huge plus.
I'm sure better things can or will be out there... I just don't want one that listens to me.
That same case could also be taken for a case for de-centralization: It was a low priority system, completely segregated from the rest of their systems.
Yes, decentralization adds complexity in a central administration context, but it also provides for compartmentalization.
Yes; my point is that they shouldn't be. NCEES writes the test and provides a streamlined comity process for almost all other states, at which point the value of state licensure is kind of limited. The main incentive to not change the system (as with most licenses) is the consumer protection path is cleaner at the state level.
Newspapers are in the advertising business, not the content business. I kind of want to support my local newspaper with a subscription... but I don't want dead trees, ads, or annoying "teaser" rates. Give me a lifetime subscription to the website, ad-free... and I would be happy to pay a few hundred dollars as a *customer* and not as a pair of eyeballs with an income of $X, living in _, and interested in ___...
I used to subscribe to Salon way back when (2003 or so?) for ideological reasons. They changed something, and it simply wasn't worth it anymore.
No. Employers must validate experience and provide reference. It can be tricky for people that work in a one licensed engineer shop, but most people will provide a reference.
Considering life sentence in Sweden is 10 years, seems kind of disproportionate.
Professional Electrical Engineer here... No, being licensed doesn't mean you are good, but it does serve to keep a very high percentage of people that are not good out. It also places responsibility and pressure on young engineers to know their shit.
Federal-level licensing for most fields makes more sense though. Structural engineering is the obvious exception; geotechnical might be as well.
Fire sprinklers address fire risk, and wood buildings (when complete) are generally more survivable than light gauge metal structures. Their main problem is that while under construction they are a huge fire risk.
Low-rise wood structures are pretty safe (with a concrete podium for the garage). When you go over 75’ to the highest occupied floor (code definition) then things become more complex.