Thanks for the feedback but openstreetmap.org is a Cloudflare site, which is a non-starter for me. Perhaps I can use a proper editor but so far that has also been a disaster. JOSM is another option but Java gives me problems.
activistPnk
If all options feed baddies, I often go without. T-Mobile is a clear lesser of evils compared to VZ and AT&T, but if I think I need mobile phone service, my “needs” probably need an adjustment. Which the Tyranny of Convenience essay helps with. Of course in the unlikely case that mobile phone service is trully a need, then the lesser of evils wins my business (T-Mobile, perhaps via an MVNO).
Indeed Hershey would not typically be a lesser of evils. Apart from child labor Hershey is also an AIPAC feeder.
What if you want to sell the house
I’ve not read the contract yet. Considering they include removal an reinstallation labor for free if someone renovates their roof, they theoretically might as well relocate them to another house when moving within their service area (which is constrained as well by the region of the green certificates).
What happens when you want to exit the contract within the 30 years?
Certainly you can buy the gear. And if you buy all the panels you are out of the contract. Price per panel as they age is something like this:
- years 0-5: €850
- years 5-10: €750
- years 10-15: €650
- …
- year 30: €0
If you want to exit the contract and return the panels, I have no idea. But since these prices seem to be heavily inflated to cover their labor, I imagine it’s quite uninteresting to return the panels because they likely factor in the labor.
When the sun is shining at peak brightness, what’s the guarantee that you get to use all of it?
All the boxes have LCDs. The 1st box shows the power generation. Then another box shows what of that you are consuming. I don’t recall what the 3rd box shows but I can only imagine it’s the energy fed to the grid. I assume the original electric meter is still installed, in which case it might be possible to check the math.
There could still be shenanigans because it’s probably hard to verify. I think as a low consumer I might be better off buying the panels and getting an i/o meter (not sure what the correct term is but something that compensates me for what is fed back to the grid).
Anyway, I appreciate the reply. I’ll have to mirror some of those questions to the supplier.
I can only guess. I don’t think that could even be in contract. My guess:
- another company buys it: the buyer takes over the contracts
- liquidation: normally assets go to the creditors. But every homeowner is a creditor for the property in the future. So I think a reasonable court would just turn ownership over to the homeowner. OTOH, the energy company is also a party to the deal because the energy supplier gets the unused power. Perhaps the panels would be taken over by the energy supplier until the 30 year mark.
The cost of installation, wiring and transformers is more than the cost of panels.
They likely factor all those costs into the panel costs. But would labor and parts overhead represent 9/10ths of €8500, for example? Looks like they install 3 boxes in the basement plus panels for around €7500.
That may be where the fat is. So I’m tempted to say this is only a good deal for someone who really wants hands-off on-grid solar power for 30 yrs. And perhaps a bad deal if someone foresees going off grid and doing their own labor.
After the 30 years of “borrowing” the panels, who pays for their removal and recycling?
I assume that’s the homeowner because the supplier simply makes it all the homeowner’s property after 30 years.. likely so they don’t have to deal with it.
I just get a white screen, even after enabling JS. I have images disabled. Is the whole page just an image?
They’re slow
Okay but that’s not the real deterrant. It’s the cost you mention. I would like to take a transatlantic cargo ship despite the extra long journey, but the cost blows it.
I don’t think cargo ships do much better on GHG than jets. But an airship would be vastly more eco responsible than ships or jets. Cost is really the issue though and that can be solved. People taking jets could be forced to subsidize those traveling more responsibly.
Today human hibernation is widely thought to be crazy talk but it’s not far off. We will see it in our lifetime. People in hibernation eat less, need less space, and need less customer service.
external GPS server
GPS → old phone (calculates position) → bluetooth → current phone
This relieves your current phone of the workload of tracking and calculating a fix, which costs energy. Bluetooth uses much less energy so your current phone only burns energy keeping the LCD lit. It would increase navigation range on a charge because effectively you would be using two batteries. Also avoiding the battery performance hit due to heat because the processing is distributed. The problem is I think no FOSS nav apps support external GPS. There are FOSS apps and drivers to feed and read the mock gps but the nav apps don’t use it.
bluetooth radio receiver:
Old phone has bluetooth enabled and pairs with whoever at the party wants to be the DJ. The headphone output goes to a channel on the (otherwise bluetooth-incapable) mixer or amp.
fake hotspot:
Setup a hotspot with no internet uplink. Use the SSID as a bumper sticker (e.g. “ImpeachTrump_optout_nomap!”). You could theoretically run a web server on the phone which redirects all access attempts to a captive portal that broadcasts whatever msg you want (e.g. anti-Trump memes or announcements for neighbors). It need not give WAN access.
Maybe incorporate Rumble: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.disrupted.rumble/
cryptocurrency:
It could serve as an offline/airgapped cryptocurrency wallet.
car telemetry:
Keep the old phone permanently in the car and attached to the OBD.
The article has some interesting info but there are some oversights:
- Unburnt natural gas is methane gas, which is over 25× more impactful as a greenhouse gas than CO₂. And you cannot burn natural gas without unburnt gas escaping -- not just at ignition but the whole infrastructure leaks unavoidably. So some folks are saying natural gas is more environmentally dentrimental than coal. The gas is also toxic and kills brain cells. Nasty stuff.
- Follow the money. If you consume natural gas, you likely pay for it using banking services. Some regions in Europe have secretly/silently removed the option to pay for gas using cash. Banks are terrible for climate (ref: “Banking on Climate Chaos” annual reports). Even if you can pay with cash, the gas companies themselves finance republican politicians in the US. Republicans are terrible for the environment.
Also worth noting that biomass powerplants are considered renewables, and they are in fact burning wood. Hopefully they have the secondary burning rigged up so the smog itself gets burnt again.
original post text
Progressive tax regimes are conducive to anti-work philosophy, right up until you take a year or more off.
Having a progressive tax system means tax rate increases disproportionately with the more work you do. And that’s a good because working less is encouraged by a reduced avg tax rate.
But what happens when you take a year (or 5 years) off? You live off savings that were taxed in higher brackets while earning zero. IOW, consider:
- Bob works 6 years straight earning 50k/year.
- Alice works 3 years earning 100k/year then takes 3 years off.
They both had the same gross earnings per unit time but Alice gets screwed on taxes because of the progressive tax system. My pattern is comparable to Alice due to forced full-time gigs that refuse part-time. My refuge is to subject myself to being over-employed for a stretch then quitting for a stretch of bench time. The only remedies I see:
- Take a 1-year contract starting in June. Do not work the first ½ of the 1st year, and do not work the second ½ of the 2nd year.
- Form a corporation, work as independent and direct your own “false independent” 1-person company. Money builds in the company as you pay yourself the same amount whether you are working or not. (Some people put the company in Hong Kong because it accommodates this well and the company feeds the director gradually and persists well after retirement – or so I’m told)
- Work in a country that adjusts for income fluxuations by giving you a tax credit if your income drops substantially from one year to the next.
I made up number 3. Does that exist anywhere?
Any other techniques to hack around forced full-time scenarios? Or to deliberately fluxuate working hard and not working without the tax penalty?
I appreciate the info. JOSM is java which gives me issues. OSM’s website is Cloudflare (a non-starter for me.. I won’t touch Cloudflare). I did not know about rapideditor.org, so I’ll have to check that out.