Nature is fucking rad
Resonosity
joined 1 year ago
Luigi is innocent! Free this mans!
Some things I think we want to aim at for our entire lives, and those things are good in and of themselves even if we don't achieve them.
I think getting good nutrition, staying in a healthy state/sustaining or increasing our health span so we aren't sick, exercising so we can still get out of bed every day, seeking novelty and variety in the things we do, exploring new places, learning about the world around us and ourselves, sharing all of these things meaningfully with others on a similar journey, and even defending things that mean a lot to us are some examples of this.
The idea that these experiences must last eternally was something Nietzsche talked about this in his works. He rejected Plato's notion of the Forms as well as many religions' concepts of a life after death - this "other world". To Nietzsche, the good life in this world is defined by how far life can stray from its best moments, and that working through hardships and recognizing that they aren't permanent gives us the power of freedom.
Good times must be accompanied by bad or even mediocre times. Good times lasting forever are no different than bad or mediocre times lasting forever. So yeah, writing that book or making that friendship/relationship can be a good thing. And if those things aren't perfect, we have more reason than enough to make them better. Whether that's work shopping the book until it gets better or starting over with fresh new ideas. Whether that's meeting new people and developing those friendships over time, or leaving them for new friendships when other people don't want to reciprocate. I like to think of so many people wishing for good times to last forever are lazy and just don't want to put in the effort to change, which in my view is the whole point.
Really, solar panels are just one solution of a home energy system.
Governments should be looking at regulating microgrids for all homes where solar, stationary battery storage, electric vehicle storage, and even diesel/gas generators or geothermal contribute.
As you say, if you don't have a means for local storage and the grid is maxed out, your panels are wasting away their free energy by self-consumption.
Sodium-ion batteries will absolutely seize a portion of the market share, but I don't think we'd want governments restricting building requirements to specific technologies. The analogy in solar panels would be governments restricting home requirements to polycrystalline silicon, when you have other 1st Gen PV types (monocrystalline), 2nd Gen (thin film CdTe), and 3rd Gen (thin film perovskite, organics).
Microgrid controllers would do the smart dis/charging that you're talking about, as well as automatically dis/connecting from the grid and shutting on/off critical loads.
W for Lemmy and dbzer0
Wish there was a good FOSS Acrobat/Blue beam alternative.
I use those tools for the majority of my work as an engineer.
interlock failures
Do you track interlock failures? Seems like the issues you describe aren't with the interlocks themselves, but perhaps with installation or the breakers they interlock. Some inspectors don't even pass them on new home construction or renovation because some interlocks are attached to the front panel of a home's main panelboard, which could present a safety hazard to the homeowner.
All this is to say that these issues don't substantiate any failures with backup batteries or generators directly, but instead with interconnection equipment.
To be safe though, people should use interlock kits designed by the same manufacturer as their panel to avoid any compatibility/warranty issues, and maybe install interlock kits directly on the breakers themselves.
An even safer measure would be to install transfer switches between the main panel and the utility/backup battery/generator inlet. You may cite this as needing professional installation, but in reality any electrical work done to a home should be conducted by professional and qualified personnel. There are indeed advantages of transfer switches, whether automatic, non-automatic, or manual, over interlock kits.
Unexpectedly energized lines are not something an average user understands
Expectedly energized lines are sometimes not something an average user understands either! Point being: have professionals do the work.
so many dead linemen
If we're talking residential installations of interlocks or transfer switches alongside backup batteries or generators, I believe you should be referring to wiremen (in-building & often premises scope) not linemen (out-building & often utility scope).
Even so, where are you gathering your data about safety incidents that have a root cause with interlocks? Can you show me the OSHA statistics?
feeding back into the grid during an outage
Interlocks prevent this, as do transfer switches. The only case this would happen is if a homeowner removed their interlock, never had one installed, or plugged their battery/generator into a different circuit not controlled by the interlock/transfer switch. I would think that my previous comments about having profession, qualified personnel make changes to a home's electrical system, even adding a generator, would solve most if not all of this.
Are you suggesting homeowners do unqualified, potentially life threatening work to their homes?
every municipality requires a generator interlock
That's a wide claim. The US Census Bureau identified 38,736 local general governments (county, municipal, township) in their 2022 Census of Governments.
Can you say for sure that every one of those requires interlocks specifically?
May I remind you that AHJs can choose to adopt or amend any part of the NEC for their jurisdiction, and may refuse to accept interlock kits as compliant installation.
installed at the box
Which box? There are many boxes in an electric installation. Can I just choose any box? Can it be my TV set box, or my junction box downstream my sub panel, or my main service disconnect box?
prevent this danger
The main failure with interconnecting generators with the grid is desynchronization. This can be fixed with relays, but you won't find these in residential installations. Again, the way to prevent this is with proper use of interlock kits or transfer switches installed and used according to qualified professionals.
not restricted by things like space constraints
Where is this hallucination coming from?
Most people installing home backup batteries either have garages where they can put them, or space around their homes to do the same.
Are you implying that all people stuff and cram their living spaces and properties so that there is no excess room for batteries that maybe take up 4'x10' at most? The same goes for generators.
or residential safety concerns
Residential dwellings are built according to the National Electrical Code, which many municipalities adopt or amend.
What safety concerns are there in residential applications that there aren't in municipal applications that the NEC doesn't address? Should you maybe refer these concerns to the NFPA themselves rather than alluding to them online? Do you not want people to be safe?
impractical (or feasibly impossible) to be implemented on a residential scale
What are you talking about?
Here's four examples:
handicap residential units
Not if your Battery Management System (BMS) has active balancing instead of passive.
active cooling on small packs is a huge drain for little return
Active air cooling is currently the most economical cooling method for battery storage.
can even use geothermal cooling
Can you point out one resi, C&I, or utility scale BESS installation that uses geothermal cooling? Most use forced air or liquid cooling thermal management systems.
alternative techniques
Like what
municipal standby generators are more efficient than large numbers of residential standby generators!
Ok, irrelevant given that we're talking about improving home resilience through the use of home microgrids - not municipal or utility backup systems.
which just isn't fair
And it isn't fair that you aren't recognizing progress, instead fear mongering about how nothing is being done and we're all doomed.
do the same thing
Except I wasn't hyperbolizing. I presented scientific research, not some back hand imagination from someone clearly not part of either the industry or research fields.
the future will improve things
No, the future itself won't improve things. Humans in the present, doing research, making policy, sharing their success stories about their own home backup microgrid solutions with their friends, family, and neighbors will do this.
very biased to assume that things will improve as time goes on
Your pessimistic worldview is the antithesis to progress. You have to have the belief that things will get better, to have hope, if you want to make an inch of progress in that direction, or to push back on proponents that wish to destroy that progress.
Things are improving by the way, but I think the global economic order under capitalism is to blame for why things are still worsening overall. If we want to improve human well-being, rewild the planet, reduce pollution, reverse climate change, and allow increase our population, maybe we should consider other economic organizations.
municipal installs are better than home installs
Why do you say that? Are you implying the same electricians that do residential and municipal installs are lazier with the former? Sounds like this could be grounds for litigation. Do you have any complaints that you could make with your state's or municipality's licensing boards where they could launch investigations and revoke electricians'/contractors' licenses?
not that batteries as power storage solutions are inherently bad
Glad that we've settled that.
Just that the technology for home use, right now, is.
I've shown above that batteries are fine, and that issues may come down to installer error or faulty interconnection equipment, not the batteries themselves. Although I still recognize that batteries can fail. I don't think we have good enough evidence to say what the primary failures and failure rates are. Maybe you can start tracking that!
miscommunication
If you call fallacies and misconceptions miscommunication, then that's not my problem.
slightly less aggressive conversation
No :)
Wind turbines like solar and BESSs are inverter-based resources (IBRs), so any of them can curtail quickly.
I'm glad you responded to them point by point. So many myths, fictions, and bigoted beliefs wrapped up as valid opinion.
Solar/wind + storage is the way forward, as the latest IPCC report showed.
is a vastly inferior solution
How so?
local grid scale solutions
Which ones?
there is essentially 0 infrastructure designed to handle said batteries
If we're talking residential scale, people already have the infrastructure: it's the existing wiring inside their household. If we're talking Commercial & Industrial (C&I) scale, it's often the same answer. If we're talking utility scale, oftentimes battery developers get quoted grid improvement costs from the utility and the developer has to pay those costs in order to connect to the grid. You act like the grid can't change, and there isn't any money lying around to make improvements, when in reality there are a lot of investors in BESS because of the high ROI.
they wear out quite quickly at home scales
This is true at any scale, resi, C&I, or utility, but batteries are modular and you can augment your capacity over time to make up for degradation.
Elon popularized them with his "powerwall" bullshit entirely to pump the stock value of Tesla's battery plant
There are more manufacturers than just Tesla in the battery space, many of which who would benefit if the Powerwall failed or lost market share. Even if Tesla popularized them, their decline due to their idiotic, fascist CEO will mean that the existing demand will just look elsewhere for the same product, not exit the market entirely.
Batteries in the walls are useful in niches
In my opinion, every household could benefit from home battery storage just as much as people benefit from gas generators. They have widespread, not niche, appeal. The issue with low penetration in my opinion is lack of knowledge in both policymakers and customers.
the current technology which uses lipo/lion/lifepo4 chemistries is inherently flawed
While batteries do start to degrade the moment they leave the factory, the fact they have flaws doesn't mean they aren't still useful. You're using the argument that the perfect is the only solution to the imperfect, when that shortsightedness gets in the way of progress.
route to both dead linemen
BESS failures have been falling and bottoming out over the last few years while deployment has skyrocketed. Seems like you're telling a fiction.
massive amounts of E-waste
Recycling is projected to increase, especially as more and more battery installations reach End of Life (EOL), where as much as 60-80% of cobalt and lithium could be sourced from urban as opposed to virgin mines in the next 5-15 years. There is a sizable market opportunity for recycling to take off so long as good policy paves the way.
as it stands, it's really bad right now.
Sure, let's throw away one of humanity's better solutions to the climate crisis since it's bad now. It's not like it could get better in the future. Again, such a show of shortsightedness.
It's not like we can add some kind of magic automatic residential cutoff system
Of course we can. They're called Microgrid Interconnection Devices (MIDs).
that would just make it worse
Microgrids that can disconnect from the utility at appropriate times may in fact make it better. If homeowners responded to utility alerts of high demand and opted to disconnect from the grid during those times while still having power, that would just make grid operators and home owners happier.
residential distribution is already the problem!
Microgrids are the solution!
tho home batteries are largely elon propaganda...
While residential BESSs are largely Tesla based, they are absolutely key in the energy transition from fossil- to renewables-based power sources.
they only contribute to the above issue, not solve it.
How?
There are ways of addressing it, but they're complicated and unglamorous.
Which ways?
I've combed through the statistics for the 2024 election multiple times. Just check my profile.
The uncommitted movement were some 700,000 strong. Those numbers were on par with RFK's votes since he didn't pull out of the race by the time he endorsed Trump.
Democrats lost voters in 2024, despite the eligible voting pool increasing. Republicans gain voters ofc.
Why are you focusing on the voters when it's the politician's job to CONVINCE voters they're worth voting for? And are we forgetting the awful transition by Biden to Kamala, where she had 3 months to campaign? Are we forgetting how Biden said he'd be a transition candidate, that he wouldn't run for a second term but then did so anyway to the surprise of his staff?
We could have held a primary where the American people could have at least had the impression that they were engaging in Democracy (only for the DNC to pick their favorite anyways).
Pleaseeeeeee stop blaming voters. You're repeating the cycle where those in power never have to change.