Post B2gZuXC66QHdrmxACe by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
(DIR) More posts by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
(DIR) Post #B2gZuTq0a5pdSPayrA by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T15:59:47Z
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My electrical bill has doubled in the last year, but my natural gas bill is still nice and low. I should just build my own little natural gas power plant
(DIR) Post #B2gZuV6hrUmbOUPpWS by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T16:06:20Z
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I have a Smart Guy™️ friend who actually proposed to me that the two of us should design and build home systems that pair a diesel generator with a computer that spot checks the price of electricity in the market and turns the generator on when the price of utility electricity goes higher than the price of running the generator. He said we could make a lot of money.I told him I would not touch that with a ten-foot pole because it would be a terrible source of noise and air pollution if everyone had those, and that he should just stop keeping his giant house air conditioned to 60 degrees all summer long.
(DIR) Post #B2gZuWLzEAbFGAZXyi by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T16:15:37Z
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He's a good guy, but he's an engineer with engineer brain, and engineer brain seems to default to developing solutions without any bigger thoughts about the negative societal and environmental effects those solutions might have.
(DIR) Post #B2gZuXC66QHdrmxACe by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
2026-01-26T16:16:56Z
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@MLE_online Solar panels??
(DIR) Post #B2gZuXxxEUZ4GDLNnU by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T16:19:53Z
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@VE2UWY There's a whole backstory there
(DIR) Post #B2gZuYt1oIDb7E2xl2 by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
2026-01-26T16:21:42Z
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@MLE_online He was trying some sort of arbitrage with electricity vs oil ... but why not gas? It's not *much* better than Diesel in the grand scheme, but it is better ...
(DIR) Post #B2gZuZo6O5s7yEkXia by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T16:22:37Z
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@VE2UWY Probably because he looked online at generators and saw diesel generators he could pick up for a reasonable price.
(DIR) Post #B2gZub45i8Fvs7EpHM by MLE_online@social.afront.org
2026-01-26T16:23:03Z
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@VE2UWY You cannot ask me to explain the rationale of the irrational mind in much depth, I'm afraid
(DIR) Post #B2gZucCzSWy7Q0PRmy by piggo@piggo.space
2026-01-26T18:57:02.625154Z
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@MLE_online @VE2UWY this setup is common at industrial scale, there even was a case of someone getting tons of money for the promise of turning the generator on if the grid needed it. And he never actually started it