microdrum

Joined 9 years ago

Karma
219
Submissions
307
Member since
Apr 15
I try to be unentangled.
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Recent submissions

Comment · 1 month ago
Do they have anything as good as Amp (which is able to use free models)? Amp has been in the lead for almost a year now and doesn't seem to be relinquishing it.
Comment · 9 months ago
Yup, Growatt is the Chinese OEM that Base Power white labels to pretend it does US manufacturing. In fact this stuff is low quality. You need to be careful. There are gradations of quality at cell, pack, inverter, control levels. You will be crushed if you realize you AliExpressed your way to a home power "solution" only to have it fail young.
Comment · 9 months ago
For what it's worth, Tesla PV/batt inverters are bad, almost as bad as the Chinese manufacturers mentioned ITT. PW3 has very high failure rate ~10%+RMA, not good enough IMO to be in the path of power at my house.

(Their motor inverters are world-class, but totally different topology)

Comment · 11 months ago
exactly right -- although tesla is weak on power electronics for the industrial scale sites, too. there are SPOFs there in the power conversion chain.

but a DISASTER in residential.

Comment · 11 months ago
Tesla Powerwall products (including Powerwall 3) have a massive failure rate. Seems like 10% over lifetime. Shoddy technology compared to the leading competitors, especially the inverter. They should go back to white labeling cheap Delta inverters.
Comment · 11 months ago
Comment · 11 months ago
Of course, Sourcegraph is better.
Comment · 1 year ago
These are forcememed companies, unfortunately. Neither Palantir nor Anduril make a single thing that China doesn't, and neither one makes a single thing at attractive cost that would intimidate China in a conflict. They could disappear tomorrow with no impact to US military lethality.
Comment · 3 years ago
EVs with BrakeFlow resistive protection against thermal runaway also will have a big impact –– allowing for faster discharge into the grid. Increasing cRate for grid services can "bring forward" the point in time –– so 2030 could even happen a few years sooner if these high performance batteries from Enovix come to the EV market soon.
Comment · 4 years ago
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/05/ajit-...

The phenomenon is that consumer prices for broadband go up, even as the wholesale cost of bandwidth (what Comcast is reselling to you) goes down. The cause of this is a mix of two things:

1. Cable companies have regional monopolies. Without a choice, they can raise prices on consumers without losing customers

2. Cable companies face ever increasing 'infrastructural' costs, such as environmental review, trenching, construction, permitting, easements, etc... These costs are well established as going up in excess of inflation (part of why we can't build new infrastructure anymore) and therefore even while the product itself (internet access) gets cheaper, the 'last mile' of distribution keeps getting more expensive.

Comment · 4 years ago
Yes, I violated eli5 rules. Sorry
Comment · 4 years ago
Same reason internet bandwidth if more abundant and cheaper than ever, but your Comcast bill seems to actually only go up.

Local rooftop solar, with no reliance on utility monopolies, is the most important thing in the global energy picture, and I'm afraid it isn't even close. And I'm pro nuclear. But it's past time to recognize that it's the distribution monopolists that are the problem. Solar and batteries free you from that.

Comment · 4 years ago
Does anyone have any good articles about AWS (or other) lock in? I have Matt Prince's article about egress fees, but I'm looking for something more thorough.
Comment · 4 years ago
No, Westinghouse has designs for small reactors too.

One prob with oklo seems its amateurish funding and founding. The other is that maybe 1 mw isn’t so useful. 100mw makes a difference (with distribution), so does 50kw (without distribution.)

What is 1 mw for? An airport, maybe?

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