foxsdaybook

[foxsdaybook]

Fun Fact: this phenomenon is described by an energy load diagram know as the Duck Curve, as observed on the Californian energy grid.

(image credit Energy.gov)

This curve describes power loading on the electrical grid during a high-solar-energy, low-solar-power day (a typical day in California for example). As seen, the load reaches its lowest point at approximately 1-2 PM, which is peek solar hours - at this point certain electrical providers will actually drop their price per kilowatt hour to encourage people to use power less their infrastructure be damaged. then at approximately 5-8 PM the energy consumption MASSIVELY increases - this is when people go home for the day, turn on their AC, stove, and whatnot, just as solar power is waning, causing the large overloading ramp.

This curve tells us a few things:

Prime time to consume power in high-solar areas is at peak solar, avoid consuming power later on if possible (an individual person won't contribute overmuch to this, but the load increase has been proven to come from the residential power sector as a whole).

Practical energy storage solutions must be implemented alongside solar generation else this effect will only get worse and worse - the average Californian grid engineer is a nervous wreak over this since its only a matter of time before the whole grid goes down because of it. Practical methods include pumped hydro (not great in drought areas, but an effective bulk storage method), flywheel storage, and MAYBE batteries (specifically redux-flow batteries - shipping-container sized batteries that may not store a lot of energy, but they are safer more ecologically viable than lithium ion)

Failing energy storage solutions, other forms of power need to be implemented alongside solar - solar is what is known as a non-dispatchable energy source - meaning that its power output can't (generally) be user-adjusted - so however much power it creates is put on the grid (other forms of non-dispatchable power include wind and some wave energy). To "smooth" the duck curve, solar installations could be replaced with either dispatchable power (hydropower, any steam-turbine based reactor, geothermal, etc) or dispatchable power that operates at different peak hours.

A final option is to implement variable loads - mass loads that turn on during solar peak hours and are off at other times. This is less than ideal since it doesn't really solve the issue, just hides it, but it does mean more consistent loading that hopefully the CAISO (California independent system operator) will interpret as greater demand for more redundant lines. Practical uses for this energy include desalinization plants, electrolysis for hydrogen fuel production, or a big siren that blares "California is experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by"

No one in California knows what a Duck looks like, considering this term dates back to 2012, and that grey line ain't look nothing like a duck.

[foxsdaybook]

ur government assigned gender for the day is the first thing u get when u click this link to a randomised wikipedia article. NO REROLLS . i am the  trollsteineggje mountain in norway

[foxsdaybook]

My sister used to have this job at a different center! the numbers probably imply that all the cats in the same litter are named glycolysis 1-6.

She said that it's a fun job to start out with, but when you find you’re naming up to hundreds of animals a week, you VERY quickly start running out of ideas.

these are the best names

[foxsdaybook]

go to this random coordinates generator and say in the tags how you would fare if you were dropped where it generates without warning. i’ll go first i’d be dropped in the middle of the fucking south atlantic ocean and perish

[foxsdaybook]

Darth Diana

obsessed with that thing about sith names coming from words that start with "in" (invader, insidious, etc) because that means that hypothetically there could be a darth gredience

[foxsdaybook]

i want to see something

reblog this post and tag it with:

whether you grew up in an urban, suburban, or rural area

and whether riding horses is a "rich person thing"

i want to see if this is actual a rural/urban divide

[foxsdaybook]

Got a new screen, s’ a little bit larger than my old one

[foxsdaybook]

WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS

Just a normal night in snowy Portland, yep, nice and relaxing

[foxsdaybook]

Oregon Coast Rains

[foxsdaybook]

the Orange needs to be a little more burnt, but yeah, it me

Wednesday Soup - Submitted by SeesawSiya

#c56648 #d89a4d #f3e2d0 #ccb89d #432f28

[foxsdaybook]

Little Olivella doin’ their thing on the beach

[foxsdaybook]

Repotting an Entryway

So: my COVID project was (apparently) to make a bunch of planters, and repot... my parents whole front area? all but 2 plants you see there were repotted

most of these planters I made (the exception being the right-hand most side, and the large tea tree in the background) out of scrap 1-by-X boards and 2x4s

here is a cryptomeria, a sciadopitys, an Australian fuchsia, and... a few more smattered around... we also have lots of random metal bits, people who owned our property before us used it as a sort of junk yard, dating back to the early 1900′s, so we find some interesting looking things (car parts, old agricultural equipment, some random housewares, etc)

on this side we have 2 varieties of manzanitas, a maple or two, the tea tree in the rear-center and... a LOT more (also complementary background dog)

Thats about it, I wish I had a before picture so you can see the drastic change... but then I also don’t wish I had one, b/c it was... very ugly... all plastic pots, some plants getting too much shade or water, etc

[foxsdaybook]

“The average person writes 3 books a year" factoid actualy (sic) just statistical error. average person writes 0 books per year. Chuck Tingle, who lives Buckaroo life & writes over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[foxsdaybook]

Mac Battery Replacement

Hey all, I’m not dead, though my computer wasn’t in a great state... which isn’t the reason I haven’t posted in awhile, that more that I haven’t had anything to post.

anyway, I replaced my mac battery, thing was swelling up like crazy and boy howdy was it a piece of work to replace it.

full spread of all the work halfway thru the procedure: the old battery was actually glued into the mac (b/c thats how apple do now), and removing a... unstable at best li-ion battery thats glued down by using a solvent is... nerve wracking.

old battery (top) compared to new battery (bottom), you can really see the swell on the left-most cell, but just in case I also got a...

bam, side profile pic, bit odd to me that the side most cells swelled the most, and it was reduced towards the center... the two center cells are almost fine, but... still don’t want to mess with them, partial battery replacement sounds like a terrible idea.

there is the shell of the mac...

and there is the logic board... didn’t realize you couldn’t even swap out the ram without replacing the whole board... seems like bad design, but thats apple’s “no touch” policy in a nutshell.

For those wanting to do this repair on their own... I would only recommend it if you feel comfortable ripping apart your whole computer, and confident enough to handle li-ion batteries that could explode/ catch fire/ etc while removing them from the laptop. That said, I did this whole thing as a kit from iFixit, so check them out if you feel you need this/ similar upgrades/ repairs, and don’t want to take it to a specialty shop.

Hope to post more in the coming months, but idk when/ why/ how/ etc... and btw: upgrade worked fine and mac is now back to full functionality.

[foxsdaybook]

So uh... our potatoes in our root cellar... may have gone to sprout a little bit...

turns out this is like, ~15 potatoes

[foxsdaybook]

Here is a totally normal fruit for Oregon.

[foxsdaybook]

So after watching a few youtube videos about apple presses, my dad found the worst thing: a centrifugal apple cider press that uses a washing machine.

The apples are loaded into the tube where they are deposited on a spinNING PLATE OF DEATH (a piece of plywood with a bunch of screws in it)

This grinds the apples up into a surprisingly fine pulp, which is thrown against the sides of the washing machine, and in the same way water is removed from clothes, pure apple juice is extracted from the apples and goes into the pump system (which I have been assured has been taken apart for cleaning)

and it just comes out the same port it does for water...

This (as seen in the video) actually works, and that terrifies me.