A test bench with 5 titanium towers on the top shelf, two KVM setups on the shelf below.

We had a half dozen of these to test IA64 builds of office on back in 2001. EFI firmware updated had to be done using 120MB SuperDisk floppy drives.

Screen shot of the span app showing 1.4kW of solar being generated, 11.7wK being pulled from the grid for 13.1kW of usage as I charge my car and cool my house. Also visible is the usage per circuit for my top 5 circuits. 9kW for the EV charger, 1.7kW for the heat pump, 77w in the garage, 102w in our bonus room, and 111w for the outside lights (includes the cameras and router)

screen shot of the solar edge app showing 47.19kWh generated today and 27.77kWh used today.

I really do love having solar.
Even on a moderately cloudy day like today, I'm out generating my usage including driving (ev), cooking (induction), cooling (heat pump), etc.

Cool, the IRS refunded about half the calculated underpayment penalty.

There are some good deals on those as well and while it's built on the same platform as the xc40/c40 SUVs, I would call it a tall sedan.

I love my c40 and if I was shopping for a used EV the Polestar 2 would be one of the options I'd consider.

Not necessarily. On a 150kW charger you would likely see similar charging to a non-800v EV. Though if I was road tripping often and could occasionally use 800v chargers, I would still go 800v

Check the routes you typically take with ABRP and choose different cars to model the charging difference

In my area I see a lot of 2023 ID.4s for around $20K
Even a 2023 Subaru Solterra for $20,990 with 31K miles.

www.carvana.com/cars/filters...

If you plan on doing a moderate number of longer distance road trips, it would be higher on the list.

It can shave an hour of charging time off a 600-mile road trip compared to EVs capped at 150kW charging speeds.

If you mostly drive short commute trips and will home charge, it's less important.

A picture of standard US 115v outlet slightly charred from a loose ev charging cord.

One more very important tip. Like any high current device, make sure the power cord is fully plugged in when charging. If it's loose, the prongs can get very hot and start a fire. Thankfully the charger I was using detected the high temps on the plug and turned off charging before it got too hot.

When I first got an EV I created accounts and install the apps for all the various public charging stations, but in practice many just let you tap to pay without an app. It's rare I use a public charger. Only on longer trips, like to Vancouver.

When it comes to EV ownership, if you drive around 40 miles in a day, you can easily charge off a standard plug. Most EVs will gain about 3.5mi of range per hour of charging on 110v.

Get the plugshare and ABRP apps to help find public charging if you need it.

We had a 2021 Leaf we leased for 2 years. It was a roomy commuter car & the lease cost less than the gas for the car it replaced. LEAFs have air cooled batteries, so they aren't great for long road trips.

We now have a Volvo XC40 EV & C40. Great overall ownership, will never go back to an ICE car.

Screenshot showing solar production for the day with graphs that show how much energy was used by the home, sent to the grid, and used from the grid. Total Production 64.82kwh, total consumption 24.21kwh with a peak of 10.92kw incoming on a partly cloudy day.

screenshot of the energy usage for the heatpump. Shows 6kWh for the day with peak a little over 3kw, but most of the time around 64kw usage

First day with a heat pump vs gas furnace:
➕ The heat pump is far quieter when operating
➕ It was about as fast to heat up the house
➖ I have to use the heat pump's app or their thermostat
➖ I can no longer use the nest thermostat :(

Got the shingles vaccine yesterday and have felt like crap all day. The person giving me my shot said the second dose is usually worse. Still better than getting shingles.

Iat 50 years old I'll sometimes take a day off for my birthday. I also take my wife's birthday off, our anniversary, etc. It's fairly typical for others I work with to do so as well.

We have "unlimited" time off at work, which in practice is about 5 weeks a year, so a birthday is a great excuse.

Happy to hear you did not relapse. Hope your shingles clears up soon.

Thanks for the reminder I need to schedule my shingles vaccination.

The first place completely dropped the ball on the quote follow up and also the dual fuel option isn't eligible for the local rebate.

So, we went with the second place we talked to. While it's a little more expensive, it does qualify and doesn't require resistive heat for low temps in winter.

I still worry about the impact to the cost of everything as higher fuel prices increases the cost of everything shipped, including food.

Im just not impacted as instantly as someone fueling up their car.

Since the election, I've been preparing for the economic dominos to fall. No job is safe, even mine after 26 years, could be gone tomorrow. My wife & I would be OK because of the steps we've taken, but most people we know would not.

2 years ago, I was on track to retire in 2030, now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm in the middle of this doing the same. The worst are the Nest Cameras and smoke detectors, I have to individually delete and add each device. Someone needs to make a "clone wireless network" tool that just makes all your devices think the new network is the old one. 20 down, 14 to go.

There are ~82 million single family homes in the US. Every home is a charging station as most people rarely need to use public charging if they can charge at home. That is plenty of infra for mass EV adoption.

While your personal situation is different, that doesn't mean the US isn't ready.

First of three places came out and gave me their pitch checked a couple things with the existing furnace and will have a couple quotes for me tomorrow.

Roughly $16K before rebates to convert the existing furnace to dual fuel to cut over to gas below 15°F. System has a 12y parts and labor warranty.

Here in the US (Washington State), I have to pay both a flat EV charge and a vehicle weight fee for my EVs. While I drive 50% less miles than the typical driver & pay more than I would in gas taxes, I pay so much less to drive my EV I don't mind. Pay per mile would be fairer, but requires tracking.

In either case, both the US and Australia generate Billions/year in revenue from gas/petrol taxes. a loss of 2% of the market has an impact in the hundreds of millions in lost revenue. That could pay for a lot of road upkeep.

Today's my 27th Anniversary and I couldn't agree more.

I live near Seattle and solar is great here. Nearly 100% of my electricity usage is covered, including charging 2 EVs with my utility company's net metering program.

I also have 64kw of battery storage enrolled in a flex grid program that pays me $1000/year to participate.

Screenshot from ABRP showing the Q8 etron trip from SF to Portland taking 11h 31m with 1h 19m of charging time over 3 stops.

I mostly disagree. The Ionic can charge faster than your etron or my C40, 10-80% in about 18 minutes. The 800v architecture lets the Ionic charge more efficiently and sustain 250kw charging speed. Where I agree is, because of its design it has a better charging curve.

This is mostly a factor of the 800v charging architecture of the Ionic and how much faster it can charge between 10 and 80% state of charge. It doesnt have significantly longer range.

Picture of the EV charging time from ABRP. 11h 52m trip with 1h 29m charging over 5 stops

Picture of the EV charging time from ABRP. 10h 47m trip with 57m charging over 3 stops.

In my Volvo C40 that has about 238 miles of range. I would have to stop 5 times, charging for 1.5 hours total.
In an Ionic 5 Long range, the total charge time drops to 37 minutes over 3 stops.
abetterrouteplanner.com

Stack of Ubiquity boxes. 3 x U7 Pro Wall and 3 x Table stands, along with 2.5GB PoE injectors (not visible)

Finally getting around to removing the TP-Link as a wireless AP & going all in on Ubiquiti.

I also got my hands on the 2nd batch of their Travel Routers. Awesome device that provides a secure wifi network that can tunnel back to my home network. store.ui.com/us/en/produc...

Getting quotes for replacing my gas furnace with a heatpump as my utility company extended their $8000 rebate to switch.

Then all I'll have left on gas is the water heater... we'll and the gas fireplace we use once every year or two for 30 minutes.