Englerdy's recent activity
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Comment on Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. in ~enviro
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Comment on Duty to Warn's John Gartner breaks down Donald Trump's cognitive decline in ~health.mental
Englerdy Link ParentI'm not sure if you accidentally responded to the wrong comment, but their concern is illustrated pretty clear in my opinion. The US will choose between two men both of whom are significantly...I'm not sure if you accidentally responded to the wrong comment, but their concern is illustrated pretty clear in my opinion. The US will choose between two men both of whom are significantly older than all previous presidents at the time of their appointment (Reagan was 77 at the end of his presidency). The median age of presidents at inauguration historically was 55.
So I don't think there concern is with Biden as a person or politician in this context, but that both Biden (currently 81) and Trump (77) are pretty old. I think it's reasonable to be concerned regarding both men about how any health challenges due to their current age will affect their ability to lead one of the most powerful countries on earth. But I don't see anything in @gowestyoungman's comment about some perfect candidate or something.
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Comment on US aiming to ‘crack the code’ on deploying geothermal energy at scale in ~enviro
Englerdy Link ParentI can touch on this a bit. I'm a graduate Mechanical Engineering student focused on buildings, but work adjacent to a lot of advanced energy engineering folk. I don't believe advanced geothermal...I can touch on this a bit. I'm a graduate Mechanical Engineering student focused on buildings, but work adjacent to a lot of advanced energy engineering folk. I don't believe advanced geothermal as it's being discussed creates the same issues as fracking in part because the holes drilled are going miles straight down rather than down a little ways and then horizontal. Additionally, once the wells are established water is just going to get pumped down and recirculated to collect the heat. As opposed to fracking which (to my understanding) uses blasts of pressurized fluid to break up the rock and release trapped oil and gas.
So with fracking, there's mass extraction from the ground (pumping out fossil fuels trapped in the rock) AND the whole process is focused on breaking rock up along a horizontal plane instead of just directly under the well head. While I'm not familiar with the current state of research on fracking related earth quakes or sinkholes, the process certainly has components that suggest it could do that.
Once established, I think the advanced geothermal wells are going to be pretty boring. There shouldn't be much pressure variation in the ground once the plant is running. Also because the hole is drilled vertically it also shouldn't disrupt the stability of the surrounding ground.
To @PetitPrince's point, these wells are so deep they should be drilling well below the water table and any aquifers. You'd probably want to pick a site that doesn't have you drilling through an aquafer but this gets too far outside my area of experience to feel comfortable speculating. It's not a heat pump for this application though. The ground is still acting as a heat exchanger, but the goal is to pump water so deep underground that the higher temperature of the earth heats it up hot enough to drive a power cycle (I think most geothermal uses Organic Rankine cycles). So the water would circulate through the ground, become super heated, and return to a heat exchanger which would transfer heat to the working fluid of the power cycle.
I think what's effectively being proposed is the creation of artificial geothermal water wells directly where we want to generate power which I think is a crazy cool idea. We may not be a space faring species yet, but tapping our planet's high temperature heat directly is a pretty advanced feat if we can pull it off. Hard not to see this (combined with renewables) as big steps in our relationship with energy.
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Comment on ‘Matrix 5’ in the works with Drew Goddard as director, Lana Wachowski as executive producer in ~movies
Englerdy Link ParentI think Resurrections falls into a similar category of those being discussed over here: The fans aren't always right. It's not the matrix follow up that a lot of people wanted, but also a viewer's...I think Resurrections falls into a similar category of those being discussed over here: The fans aren't always right. It's not the matrix follow up that a lot of people wanted, but also a viewer's experience is definitely colored by their expectation going in to the film. I for one was very excited to experience a Matrix film which still included original cast on the big screen in a theater even though I knew it would not be the same experience as the original films. I think viewing a film recognizing that you can critique it based on its own merits completely changes the viewing experience. So as a sequel matrix movie it was just alright, but on its own and as a potential intro to the matrix for a new generation, I think it is a very fun film in its own right.
Hard to know where to draw the line when it looks like a franchise is getting milked for all it's worth, but I think there's still a lot of fun ideas that can be explored with something like the Matrix with the right creative team.
I for one welcome this news in that I think it will still be a very fun movie in its own right even if it's not what I might hope it will be. 😂 (Which let's be honest is always way to high a pedestal for sequel films).
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Comment on Why crypto could be green power's unlikely new best friend in ~enviro
Englerdy Link ParentYou make a great point. I think my short term concern would be to see utilities incentivize this to companies/miners and end up with agreements that come back to haunt the collective grid as the...You make a great point. I think my short term concern would be to see utilities incentivize this to companies/miners and end up with agreements that come back to haunt the collective grid as the need for more storage increases. Because consuming power just to match overproduction still seems like a waste rather than find ways to store it for use later (such as incentivizing buildings to integrate chilled or hot thermal storage that charges during low rates/oversupply or even just to add behind the meter battery capacity). Incentivizing those types of investments is going to contribute better to the grid long term than just consuming excess supplying the short.
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Comment on Have you ever "homebrewed" fermented beverages? in ~food
Englerdy Link ParentFarmers markets are a good place to find unpasteurized kombucha!Farmers markets are a good place to find unpasteurized kombucha!
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Comment on Have you ever "homebrewed" fermented beverages? in ~food
Englerdy Link ParentYou don't even need bits. There's bacteria and yeast suspended in the liquid even if the kombucha is strained. Most of the bits are cellulose byproduct from the bacteria and from what I understand...You don't even need bits. There's bacteria and yeast suspended in the liquid even if the kombucha is strained. Most of the bits are cellulose byproduct from the bacteria and from what I understand there's not a ton of bacteria actually with those. So the obsession to maintain a scoby or to get a scoby starter is kind of silly as it's the liquid where most of the action is.
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Comment on Why crypto could be green power's unlikely new best friend in ~enviro
Englerdy (edited )LinkI'm torn because to a certain extent this is a legitimate solution to overproduction. However, it feels like it's a short term solution ill prepared to meet long-term grid needs. I fail to see how...I'm torn because to a certain extent this is a legitimate solution to overproduction. However, it feels like it's a short term solution ill prepared to meet long-term grid needs. I fail to see how consuming excess generation through mining is better than pursing energy storage/arbitrage solutions.
Why waste the electrons on crypto when they can be stored and used once that overproduction period passes? This ensures more of the grid demand can be met with renewables which is the goal after all. And even if the grid demand isn't there yet (so storage doesn't make sense yet) the demand certainly will be a few years down the road. So why build out infrastructure that's going to just create a new problem later rather than build out infrastructure to add better capacity capability through storage solutions? I understand the economics of storage aren't often there in the current market, but long term it looks like they're moving that direction. I'm not sure Crypto has the same long term horizon of benefit for grid stability.
Edit: double checked the publication date to make sure I didn't take the bait for an April fools gag. But no, published a few days ago. :/
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Comment on Have you ever "homebrewed" fermented beverages? in ~food
Englerdy LinkThis is a fun topic as it's something I recently took an interest in. I'm going to try summarizing answers and then if you want you can read my longer initial response I wrote for extra detail....This is a fun topic as it's something I recently took an interest in.
I'm going to try summarizing answers and then if you want you can read my longer initial response I wrote for extra detail.
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Have you ever tried homebrewing?
Yes, just started again recently but the goal is fermented soda instead of alcohol. -
What were lessons learned?
Just try something and see how it goes. Keep it super simple initially. Don't over think it, there's so much conflicting advice on the Internet which usually means there's several right ways to do something. A lot of fermented foods and drinks aren't as delicate as people fear they are. At worst you accidentally kill it and just start over. -
Did you regret the up-front investment?
Nah, haven't spent more than $20 on bottles, a big jar, and a hand siphon. -
Do you bottle or keg?
Bottle -
What are your favorite recipes?
None yet, but fingers crossed the ginger pineapple or ginger pear turns out! -
What is your setup like?
A big jar on the counter, a flip top bottle and a screw top bottle, and a cheap siphon from Amazon. The siphon is absolutely worth it and even works well if you want to pump the liquid from one jar rather than as a constant stream. Very useful!
I don't like alcohol but, I really enjoy the artistry and science in brewing and fermenting. It's hard to shake the sense of magic even if you understand the science. You'll not convince me it's not properly alchemy to turn one beverage into another.
I tried kombucha last year which went alright. Started with some farmers market kombucha that I thought was ok. I added the last of a bottle to a fresh batch of sweet tea and over a couple weeks a scoby formed which was neat to see. However life got busy and I was a bit put off after trying to revive the kombucha starter after it had spent a few months in the fridge. What ever yeast and bacteria survived created an awful tasting beverage and I scrapped the project.
Recently I pulled out the big 1 gallon widemouth jar I bought for the kombucha to try making fizzy fermented ginger soda. This in my opinion is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than kombucha. I bleach sanitized my jars (which I've seen frowned open but look, at least there's no doubt in my mind I've got rouge bacteria in the bottles before I start). I've been doing an open air ferment (with folded cheese cloth rubber banded over the mouth of the jar) to minimize alcohol present. I'm not really a ginger person but I'll be honest, I really like the taste of the ginger soda. It's spicy and after fermenting it's got a more complex taste to it. I made my first bottle last week where I added about a cup of starter to an IKEA flip top bottle and added a blueberry pomegranate juice to fill the rest of the bottle. It was kind of a weak tasting juice but after 3 days on the counter and a day in the fridge it had a very nice level of fizz to it!
There's so much on the internet that all disagrees and can feel overwhelming to start so my philosophy has been to keep things simple and easy, and if it works then I won't mind continuing. For my starter initially I did about 4 or 5 cups of water to about 100 grams of fresh shredded ginger and 100 grams of sugar. I have a small scale so doing an even weight of each is the easiest to track. Then every few days I added another half cup of water until the jar was a little over half full with another 50 grams of sugar and 50 grams of ginger. Then I started tasting the starter ever few days to see when it stopped tasting sweet before adding a bit more sugar to feed the yeast. The jar stays in the corner of the kitchen and seems to carry on just fine despite not babying it like a lot of guides recommend. When I was ready to bottle I threw a last refresh of ginger and sugar (50 grams each) into the jar a day before. Then bottled the following afternoon and let it sit on the counter. I'm getting ready to try a second batch tomorrow with pear and pineapple juice and am hopeful at least one will be tasty.
It's very magical and surprisingly tolerant of just eye balling it. Some days I've just added a spoon of sugar if it had been 3-4 days since I'd last checked and I didn't have time to do a proper taste. Fermenting seems to largely be about letting nature do what it's good at so if you're curious just give something to looks fun a shot! Watch a few videos and then take the average of what you learn for your first attempt and then improvise from there.
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Comment on Nobody warned electric vehicle owners how quickly they would burn through tires in ~transport
Englerdy Link ParentWhat your describing as free acceleration may not actually make sense in an EV. If you're going faster in order to coast on a downhill, you're increasing the drag the car experiences. You'll most...What your describing as free acceleration may not actually make sense in an EV. If you're going faster in order to coast on a downhill, you're increasing the drag the car experiences. You'll most likely get longer range going slower and utilizing the regenerative brake to recapture the gravitational potential energy. There's likely a bit of overlap between let the car coast faster even though the drag on the car increases (which eats away at the gravitational potential energy you're regaining coasting down the hill) vs the energy losses from the regenerative brake.
I haven't seen analysis on this, but as a rule of thumb I'd wager that for most hilly driving letting the car regenerative brake on the downhill will result in much more range than letting it coast and accelerate down the hill (and recapturing energy at the end if you have to brake before rolling off speed) as the energy loss due to drag becomes really big the faster you go (so the jump from 35 mph to 45 is big, and the jump from 45 to 55 is even bigger).
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Comment on Nobody warned electric vehicle owners how quickly they would burn through tires in ~transport
Englerdy Link ParentI've found the regenerative braking to be significantly less jerky than regular brakes. It's much easier to control the amount of brake power once you have a bit of practice (assuming you're also...I've found the regenerative braking to be significantly less jerky than regular brakes. It's much easier to control the amount of brake power once you have a bit of practice (assuming you're also practicing being a mindful driver). It felt jerky and first but I've found regular brakes to be significantly harder to control going back to a gas car if you're trying to make a smooth stop. Certainly possible to brake smoothly with regular brakes (also a practice and driving habit thing), but 1 pedal driving in an EV has much more potential to be a smooth experience.
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Comment on Industrial-scale thermal storage unit in Pornainen, southern Finland, will be the world's biggest sand battery when it comes online within a couple of years in ~enviro
Englerdy Link ParentAre you referring to a larger container under the idea of converting electricity to heat, and then back again? Or for storing the heat and using it later? A bigger container will certainly help in...Are you referring to a larger container under the idea of converting electricity to heat, and then back again? Or for storing the heat and using it later?
A bigger container will certainly help in either case, though I'm not sure it will practically help for the electricity to heat case at a residential scale. Because the other issue you run into is how to plan to turn the heat back into electricity. I think all the large grid storage systems being proposed plan to use a Brayton Power cycle (same cycle used for a natural gas power plant), and I'm not sure you could get something like a home generator that could use the heat from the sand to drive a cycle in the same way. Though that in itself is a very interesting idea. Still this assumes you're on a time of use rate and buying electricity cheap and then discharging your system when electricity is expensive.
Now if you just want the heat, there may be some potential to combine a solar collector with a heat pump system. If you took heat from a solar collector and used a heat pump to push the heat to a higher temperature in a storage device (hot water or sand), then you could potentially see cost savings on electricity as your storing solar heat for use later.
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Comment on Industrial-scale thermal storage unit in Pornainen, southern Finland, will be the world's biggest sand battery when it comes online within a couple of years in ~enviro
Englerdy Link ParentI think the answer to "are these batteries mainly used as a heat source as the final energy product," is no. The ones you're seeing in the news are massive projects with the goal of turning excess...I think the answer to "are these batteries mainly used as a heat source as the final energy product," is no. The ones you're seeing in the news are massive projects with the goal of turning excess electricity into heat, then back to electricity. Some similar companies (using mediums other than sand) that jump to mind are Malta and Antora. There are quite a few losses in this process as you touched on, but at a big enough scale you can still get on ok (60%-80%) round trip efficiency. That comes down to having massive tanks, good insulation, and high quality turbo machinery. Now at least in the case of Antora, they are trying to design a system where you can discharge the heat, OR convert it back to electricity, or a mix of both depending on the customer's needs. For certain industries having high temperature heat stored to use directly may be more useful (and using the heat directly would be more efficient anyway).
A sand battery at the scale of your home would have a completly different meaning. The round trip efficiency would be abismal if your goal was to go from electricity, to heat, to electricity. You'd lose most of the stored heating wait to use it since the tanks would be so small. And you lose heat faster as the difference in temperature between something hot and it's surroundings increases (heat is a slippery bugger). So compared to electrochemical store where the round trip efficiency for a home battery system is pretty close to 90% I'm not sure thermal storage for electric power will ever be practical. Batteries have gotten really good and continue to make huge improvements every year.
However, in a cold climate there is certainly merit to storing heat when electricity is cheap, especially if you're relying on something like baseboard resistance heating to warm your home. Electric and heat pump water heaters are kind of where we already see this, though I'm not sure integrating them with a home's HVAC is very popular yet (though I think it's coming). You could potentially put a resistance element inside a sand tank, heat the sand up when energy is cheap and then blow air through it later when you need the heat back. Losing heat over time isn't that big a deal since the goal is to heat the home anyway.
Let me know if that all makes sense. It would be super cool to have an efficient way of going from electricity, to heat, to electricity with something like a sand battery at a home scale since the materials to make it are so abundant, but that's definitely a case where I don't think it'll ever practically compete with rechargable batteries.
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Comment on Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies (gifted link) in ~transport
Englerdy Link ParentThanks, after some more investigation I found out my OnStar account didn't like to my Chevrolet account. I signed in online and it prompted me to connect them and now the app works. Glad I tried...Thanks, after some more investigation I found out my OnStar account didn't like to my Chevrolet account. I signed in online and it prompted me to connect them and now the app works. Glad I tried it again.
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Comment on Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies (gifted link) in ~transport
Englerdy Link ParentI agree there. Pretty expensive for essentially nothing I don't already have in a smart phone that does it better as far as I can tell. What the name of the app? I'm wondering if I got the wrong...I agree there. Pretty expensive for essentially nothing I don't already have in a smart phone that does it better as far as I can tell.
What the name of the app? I'm wondering if I got the wrong one initially because I couldn't even sign in. -
Comment on Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies (gifted link) in ~transport
Englerdy Link ParentJust curious as a recent Bolt owner, are you paying for OnStar to use the app? I tried setting it up when we first bought the car but after some googling came to the conclusion I needed OnStar to...Just curious as a recent Bolt owner, are you paying for OnStar to use the app? I tried setting it up when we first bought the car but after some googling came to the conclusion I needed OnStar to use the app which I wasn't interested in paying for so I just deleted the app. Is that the case?
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Comment on Industrial-scale thermal storage unit in Pornainen, southern Finland, will be the world's biggest sand battery when it comes online within a couple of years in ~enviro
Englerdy Link ParentIt's certainly an interesting idea, however integrating it into the a house's existing HVAC system might be tricky. You could potentially just use a blower fan to circulate hot air through the...It's certainly an interesting idea, however integrating it into the a house's existing HVAC system might be tricky. You could potentially just use a blower fan to circulate hot air through the battery to blow it into your house if you had a convinient place to pop the piping in an out. That's kind of the catch though with any storage idea: integration. He uses wood to heat his sand battery, did you have an idea of what you wanted to heat yours with? Electric resistance heating for example.
I'm a graduate student studying Mechanical Engineering with a focus on building energy, so if you had ideas and wanted to chat I'm all ears. These projects look really fun even and I like chatting about them since I don't have the resources to experiment with them now.
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Comment on The more I use Linux, the more I hate every distro in ~tech
Englerdy Link ParentI think this is the way, or close to it. I was trying to install Word on my new laptop last year and installed the Office 365 app (from a web download, not the app store) first and got the awful...I think this is the way, or close to it. I was trying to install Word on my new laptop last year and installed the Office 365 app (from a web download, not the app store) first and got the awful web interface. I searched around longer on Microsoft's site and found the full office installer which after installed I could activate by signing in with my account. You can definitely still download the native apps for 365 though.
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Comment on GUI dev using Godot in ~comp
Englerdy LinkIf you revisit making GUIs in python, check out NiceGui! It builds a front end and fastAPI backend simultaneously with very little code. You can run in a browser or as a pywebview app which makes...If you revisit making GUIs in python, check out NiceGui! It builds a front end and fastAPI backend simultaneously with very little code. You can run in a browser or as a pywebview app which makes creating a GUI python app much lighter than an electron app.
I've been working on giving small projects a GUI with NiceGUI and it's by far my favorite library for creating Python GUIs. With few lines of code you get a really modern, reactive interface written in a way that feels pythonic. GUIs are not my forte so I've been really excited to share this library with others when the topic comes up because it's the first one I've like.
Godot for a GUI sounds really interesting though. Thanks for sharing your experience with it. I haven't played with Godot yet but keep seeing it come up here and look forward to checking it out.
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Comment on Your appendix is not, in fact, useless. This anatomy professor explains. in ~health
Englerdy Link ParentAs someone who had their appendix rupture while thinking they just had stomach flu, nah, just get rid of it once it starts causing problems. While avoiding surgery if you can is great, I'm not...As someone who had their appendix rupture while thinking they just had stomach flu, nah, just get rid of it once it starts causing problems. While avoiding surgery if you can is great, I'm not sure the appendix is worth playing that game because if it ruptures you're in for a bad time! I was pretty young at the time, but it was still a two week recover since it had actually ruptured.
Just on the topic of Perovskites, there's one company (Verde) I've seen so far that looks close to commercial deployment of Perovskite panels. This is a big leap from a few years ago where rapid cell degradation (short cell life) was the biggest limiter on commercial scale up. So perovskite panels as a product is looking extremely close to reality!
https://www.verde-technologies.com/