114 karma · joined January 2, 2022
In my case it's largely, but not entirely, me. No matter where I go or what I do, the biggest problem will still be there.
Whatever the answer is in your situation will narrow things down.
Being in a rain forest doesn't help. Don't get me wrong, the summers are as bright as anywhere else, but the cloudy winters are brutal if you want sunshine.
If it's financed with a mortgage that's another thing to consider.
I just don't ever hear solar come up in conversations about resale. I've heard a couple Realtors mention that energy efficient design is something coming up most often. The big questions are still about the area and how many bed/bath rooms there are.
>(assuming you already have a kitchen...).
You can always get a second kitchen....a summer kitchen.
Thank you for the stroll down amnesia lane.
Seriously: Maybe residue wouldn't be an issue if it was never allowed to dry, but the corrosion-proof construction, drainage system, and pumping costs would be considerable. Then there's the 100 problems we're not aware of yet...
Do you mean that you can't meet 100% of your demands, or it can't be done for some other reason?
You could reduce, but not eliminate, the demand for purchased energy. Would that be unacceptable? Is there not a net metering programme there?
For me the big deal is usually demonstrating payback. I'm in British Columbia and my solar experience is only with single family homes; on and off grid.
There was no big cost analysis with off grid homes. You need power, or you don't. It's just another category in the budget and the cost decisions are about balancing desires and cost.
With grid-connected homes, we don't even try to sell it now. Nearly all our customers have mortgages to pay for their new house and factoring in the interest paid makes it much less attractive.
A few years ago, low interest rates and high energy costs made it an easier sale. If you were in the position of having money in the bank, you could get a better return on that money by upgrading your home to save energy. Of course it could only scale as large as the cost of improvements.
Even then, a lot of homeowners didn't intend to own the home long enough to realize the returns, and I don't think small solar systems improve resale value. The feeling in the office is that if you're planning to resell, the money is better spent on the kitchen.
I actually had a convicted killer as a helper for a short time and had even worked for his victim's company in the past.
It was a non issue because we all knew the details of the incident and knew the only person he is a danger to was dead. We didn't need to spend time researching him and there was no nagging doubts about our safety.
When the sun was setting, they came on and gave a few more hours of light.
There's also the bonus of waste heat.
Sometimes being careful means not dying from the DT's in hospital because you understated how much you drink.
Individuals vary considerably and there's no telling what's permanent and isn't for you but I think you'll be surprised how much difference moderation and good sleep will help. Also remember that angst/stress about mental fog(pr anything) adds to it.
When you compare yourself to others, consider your cohort. If your coworkers are all amazing then there's no issue with being at the tail end of the curve because someone always will be.
What's wrong with saying, "May I draw your attention to my experience? They have something to say."
The thought occurred that time dilation would result in the descendants of ISS crew members (and of their gut flora, for that matter) falling behind, but it would take a looong time in orbit to add up to a second.
The bigger is better mentality in that area results in (sometimes dramatically) shorter run cycles with an unnecessarily large compressor. It's not good for your electric bill or the equipment, and you get a monster motor dimming your lights every 10 minutes.
If I had a dollar for every time an HVAC contractor offered me a quote including an upgrade option for a heat pump three times larger than is needed...
Most places have a blanket prohibition on assisted death, which seems more authoritarian to me.
I agree that zoning shouldn't be done away with entirely.
I think you're mostly right about developers not caring. Even the ones that care on a personal level are still in business to make money, but I really think the word evil is overused and hyperbolic in this situation.
I've done work for developers trying to squeeze every dollar out of a lot. They can be indifferent, greedy, and even antisocial but I haven't encountered evil.
It would be safe to assume a business with 30 employees would bring nearly 30 cars into the street and a coffee shop could increase foot traffic.
These things aren't necessarily true, but those assumptions aren't necessarily unreasonable. I think this is where things break down.
Out my way, when zoning does allow home-based business, restrictions are mainly about yard/accessory building usage, customer traffic/parking, and number of non-resident employees(I assume because of parking).
I see it as an honest attempt to prevent nuisance activity while allowing some flexibility but it also seems lazy and too restrictive. My hypothetical garage based machine shop could be non-conforming and be one complaint away from being shut down no matter how unobtrusive it is.
No matter what, zoning won't let me have a machine shop in my garage. The thing is that machine shops aren't all the same:
If I'm servicing heavy equipment there will be low-beds delivering equipment, a driveway full of grit, disassembled machines and oil stains along with welding and arc-air gouging, etc. Not something you want next door; nuisance laws stop this.
If I'm making parts for medical instruments, everything is inside, you can't see or hear any of it when I close the door, and traffic consists of me making weekly trips to buy bar stock and the occasional courrier van. What nuisance is that?
Both are machine shops but they are far from having the same impact on a street.
When I do a daylight study, its usability in and around the home along with the impacts on energy efficiency are the top concerns when it comes to the design, but considering the neighbours is important too: In city lots at higher latitudes it's easy to cast a patio next door into permanent shade for large parts of the year.
For just this reason, I wouldn't throw away all zoning. Setbacks and height restrictions can really constrain me, but prevents me from being a jerk.
Density limits and a lot of occupancy type restrictions, on the other hand, can go to Hell. They prevent communities from having diverse properties (and the self sufficiency that comes with it) or evolving to meet local needs.
I went to a Nuclear Emergency Response Team (NERT) office at a base in Canada to pick up some radio equipment.
They had a wall map in there showing the base as ground zero with concentric circles covering most of the surrounding area and each ring had notes scribbled in them.
I took a quick look and didn't know what the notes meant, but my apartment was well within the annotated area....damn.