I tend to agree. What we need is to actually bring back service and service by humans. Who here has not in frustration with automated phone support systems started ranting "Agent" or "Representative" because the fucking automated system is shit. AI is not helping. And here is a thought to google/tesla/amazon, how about real phone numbers that have real people behind them for customer complaints or a PR dept to respond to news requests for info? Instead we have a modern version of "Let them eat cake".

Because it would be illegal and people could go to jail. Have you never submitted data to gov orgs? It is right there in the request. I realize people lie all the time, but most of us don't want to risk jail over trivial crap. Maybe I'm weird, but I submit accurate tax returns too.

I get that, I was just surprised no one had posted something to that effect. It sounds like we agree, the problem is much more serious than CBO hack. Much. I also think the rails are about to come off in a big way. The accumulation of the shutdown, DOGE, ACA, and the latest crack I am seeing. The Fed just said they may have to start another QE. Translation, those interest rate cuts are not sustainable. People/orgs won't buy treasuries at the current interest rates so the fed will need to step in, IE print money. And that stepping will turn into running if they kiss the ring and cut rates even more. And the net effect of that will be 6 mo from now, inflation will be ticking up like it has every time they have done a QE. And there is no reason to do any of this, we should not be in crises mode. Pandemic is over and we are not at war, well except with ourselves.

And I'm surprised no one has posted this, if CBO got hacked, a relatively non-secret kind of org, how many really secure agencies have had breaches with DOGE's rampant cuts. You can spend 500B doing research on some new defense thingie and have all that money flushed by cutting 100M from the security that protects it.

Forgot one more thing. To give you an idea of how constipated the city is, it was taking 3 months to get the permit to do a new install. I hear it is down to around a month. For a fucking permit. The install takes a couple days max.

Ah you are getting the idea. Most cities(US) do not allow offgrid installation and maintain your certificate of occupancy. Mine is among them. More common than you might imagine. Couple more fun facts I discovered. If you want to install more than 20KWh of battery, Fire dept must also give the ok to the installation. If you want to locate the batteries on the interior wall of the garage opposite the garage door, bollards must be added to prevent the car from hitting the batteries. And mind you, this is Austin, which is considered the liberal oasis of Texas. Austin is psycho on renewables They want you to put them in and then slap you around. It has changed, 20 some years ago when I put my original panels in they were all positive and none of this shit. Now it is all shit. Like Trumpy level shit.

Probably hard for anyone with a heart to do though. People will literally die without the ACA subsidy, and it will spiral health care even higher. More will just not get insurance and will as a result end up in ER, get a 400 grand bill, and go BK. Their bill will end up pushing up everyone else's. And if you think that 400K is crazy, well a friend had a panic attack, went to ER, and walked out with a 20K bill for about 5 hours worth. So 400K for a real problem is very possible. He had good insurance fortunately. Rural hospitals will close also.

Can't find it now, but I think you are right. I saw something in the past couple of days doing an analysis of who was using the premium reduction. I think it was TX that had numerous R districts where large numbers of people were using ACA to get premium reductions. At 60+ and the I think 10% of income threshold, many even moderate income people qualify. As one example I think the article described a 62 year old couple would see a 22000 annual increase in their plan premium without the subsidy. 22 grand is going to motivate people to vote next year. And I know when I was using ACA, I started looking Nov 1st, so the damage has already started to accrue. I expect the flight thing is to pressure the dem's to cave. I would hope they would not. It is almost laughable that the R's suggest they would revisit health care after the budget passes. Yeah right.

Thanks, but, it would not work for multiple reasons. Firstly, it would need to be installed by a licensed electrician since I'm grid tied. Secondly it is dc and the new system if I opt to put anything up again will be ac micro-inverters. Part of the crazy pricing is getting a licensed electrician to pull the 1K permit price from the city and have it properly inspected. I had to pay 3500 for a stupid water heater installed that probably cost 600 dollars because code required a couple new things and since I was not interested in doing it myself, and no plumber is going to risk losing their license, I had to fork over the money. So many on /. think their country/state/city rules apply worldwide, they don't. Personally I think it is absurd what they are doing. With all the overhead, price per kw installed for solar has barely moved in 20 years from my original system in this city. Given panel price per watt is 1/10th or even less of the system that went in 20 years ago, it is absurd. I expect the installers are collecting more profit and certainly the city to a lesser extent, permit prices have skyrocketed. And if you think my town would not fine me for out of compliance, think again.

Actively looking at replacing my system. A battery add of 10KWh was 17K, so more than 1K/KWh installed, closer to 2. Will end up just doing a panel replace.

Agree, Cal does some time of day pricing which is smart. Austin has taken the reverse approach. Absolutely no incentives when juice is plentiful and it is stupid. I've one pretty green friend who has had an EV for I think almost 10 years. (3 different ones over the period). He charges when convenient because in his words, "why would I, price is the same." So here is one case where tilting the rate when the sun is out would stabilize things. They are also insane with battery/solar systems. Again no incentive for the person with batteries to charge during peak generation when wholesale rates drop to near zero and push energy to the grid from those batteries during high wholesale rates. And wholesale can easily cross into the 10-40c/KWh range most days. Austin Energy has really just become brain dead.

Depends much on where you live. In the US, batteries are way more. To the point it is less to buy a vehicle with a large battery that can hook in to your system. I don't know why, but it is. US prices run roughly 1K/KWh installed. And maybe it is that "installed" thing. But again in the US, self install is not an option in most cities. Must be done by a licensed electrician if you are tied to grid.

Well, my panels installed 2005 are just now coming down. Needed a new roof and figured it would be crazy to reinstall the old ones with maybe 5 years left. The current 20 year old panels are probably running 85-90% of installed power. Now new panels have much higher efficiency than my old ones, so the same area is going to make around 2X what my old ones did. As to size, maybe 1/2 my roof is covered and I expect near 0 net with the new panels. Just a tad under, but the way rates work here, overproducing gets no dollars. They will only discount. Credits are only forwarded to the next month bill. And I believe for a max of 1 year and then it goes away. So in this case, the panels outlasted the roof. Panels are much tougher than shingles in hail.

It is a business model. When humans do it, it is copyright infringement.

"When the first humans started making texts"... as I said in my post, there was a first human who made those posit's. Humans. So there was at least one human who made it. Maybe we aren't conscious anymore by that standard, but at some point we were.