Random Thoughts - Part III The Search for Spark (No Politics)

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

I remember years ago a gal at work sold her civic and leased a Leaf. Her monthly electric bill went up $350. She said she usually spent about $60 on gas a month with her Honda. She didn't have the leaf long.

Something is really wrong with that. A quick check shows that a Leaf from dead to a full charge costs an average of $10 to complete (todays money not the several years ago she would have had it) in California. To get a bill for $350 she would have had to completely drain and fully charge it every single day of the month plus a few.
If she was only paying $60 a month for gas then she was not doing much driving and the daily full charge would simply not happen.
Either she was somehow mistaken or full of shit since the math just does not lie.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

A quick question for the techie types. A lot of folks have been talking about data storage and computing hygiene - I've been thinking of putting together a NAS for several years and decided last' fall to go ahead with it. My son and I rebuilt my home desktop in December and I've put the old hardware in a cheap(ish) case. Planning to grab a couple of 6 to 8 TB NAS drives later in the month and run it on TrueNAS core.

Any suggestions? Things to watch for? Potential pitfalls?

What OS will you run,and what(if any) flavor of RAID? Oh... you said what OS. Everything I've read lately says software over hardware RAID (esp if it's the basic onboard stuff). Also don't expect anything amazing for performance. Though unless you're running all wired Ethernet over 1gbit it'll be plenty. Do wire the NAS system. And it'll be more power hungry than an appliance.
I'm running my old (amd 965 phenom) setup as a VM host with HomeAssistant and a windows VM for hosting sim races. Have considered adding storage. Not sure what I'd use it for though. Backups are drive clones, so it's not suitable. Data doesn't need to be always on, and ssd on the main system is so much more power efficient...
If you're interested I have an unused 3 drive hot swap bay with cages, fits in 2 5.25" drive bays. IcyDock. Have one in the server noted above also... I used to need multiple drives.

[spcmafia]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Since 2006 my daily has been my '06 F150. Not exactly a fuel sipper, but it's been paid for for 15 years, has a 4.2 V6 std trans, and manual everything else and as far as I can tell is close to infinitely repairable. That's the current plan. If/when the wife's Camry needs replacement the intent is to go EV. But, best laid plans and all.... We'll see.

I know it doesn't help everyone's wallets, but gas prices in the US have never covered the true cost of its consumption. A few economists have been pointing out the externalities built in to fossil fuel use for years and US energy policies have amounted to significant subsidies resulting in artificially low gas prices. Now that we've pretty much wrecked the planet, I suspect this particular piper's bill is going to be painfully difficult to pay.

All we can do is adapt and overcome. Just like we have done so many other times. Easier said that done, of course. I'm just thinking long-term with the BRZ, my first project car that I can hopefully hand the keys off to my future kids. Pains me to think that 20+ years down the road, it will be considered a classic. Imagine people staring at one of last living examples of ICE vehicles as more folks switch to those pesky EVs.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Something is really wrong with that. A quick check shows that a Leaf from dead to a full charge costs an average of $10 to complete (todays money not the several years ago she would have had it) in California. To get a bill for $350 she would have had to completely drain and fully charge it every single day of the month plus a few.
If she was only paying $60 a month for gas then she was not doing much driving and the daily full charge would simply not happen.
Either she was somehow mistaken or full of shit since the math just does not lie.

Could be. She could have been exaggerating. Who knows. She was pretty upset over the cost of the leaf.

Anyone here ever own a leaf?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Could be. She could have been exaggerating. Who knows. She was pretty upset over the cost of the leaf.

Anyone here ever own a leaf?

Not a hope in hell.
Made me curious though. A new one here is around $43K. Would need to save a pile on charging to make it worthwhile for what you get.

Apparently even 9 year old ones are still worth a bit. Love the description.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Since 2006 my daily has been my '06 F150. Not exactly a fuel sipper, but it's been paid for for 15 years, has a 4.2 V6 std trans, and manual everything else and as far as I can tell is close to infinitely repairable. That's the current plan. If/when the wife's Camry needs replacement the intent is to go EV. But, best laid plans and all.... We'll see.

I know it doesn't help everyone's wallets, but gas prices in the US have never covered the true cost of its consumption. A few economists have been pointing out the externalities built in to fossil fuel use for years and US energy policies have amounted to significant resulting in artificially low gas prices. Now that we've pretty much wrecked the planet, I suspect this particular piper's bill is going to be painfully difficult to pay.

In Canada where we do not have such subsidies the price for premium right now is $8 a gallon. And you guys are complaining?

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by cjd

What OS will you run,and what(if any) flavor of RAID? Oh... you said what OS. Everything I've read lately says software over hardware RAID (esp if it's the basic onboard stuff). Also don't expect anything amazing for performance. Though unless you're running all wired Ethernet over 1gbit it'll be plenty. Do wire the NAS system. And it'll be more power hungry than an appliance.
I'm running my old (amd 965 phenom) setup as a VM host with HomeAssistant and a windows VM for hosting sim races. Have considered adding storage. Not sure what I'd use it for though. Backups are drive clones, so it's not suitable. Data doesn't need to be always on, and ssd on the main system is so much more power efficient...
If you're interested I have an unused 3 drive hot swap bay with cages, fits in 2 5.25" drive bays. IcyDock. Have one in the server noted above also... I used to need multiple drives.

Appreciate the offer. I think the architecture I have will work. My initial plan is to run it in raid 1. Truth be told I probably don't "need" it. My photography hobby has begun to consume lots of drive space. Raw image files are starting to run over 150MB and some stitched panoramas in the neighborhood of 500MB. Hence, the desktop upgrade. But in reality the NAS is more an interesting thing to fool around with than a necessity.

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

In Canada where we do not have such subsidies the price for premium right now is $8 a gallon. And you guys are complaining?

Not me. Early in grad school I wrote a paper for a political economy class arguing in favor of imposing a tax on petro products to raise the (1980) price to $6 a gallon to reduce consumption, and fund alternate fuel and enhanced efficiency research. The funds could also have been used to alleviate pain felt by working class folks.

edit: I preached that sermon for decades and no one joined the church. We ended up pouring petro-dollars into the middle east and lining the pockets of the folks who then gave us 9/11.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by soundman98

Grom's are still about $3k...

I keep thinking about it.

I once liked the idea of an ev. It would work for everything I need daily except fun and utility. I also used to say once leafs dropped under $10k, I'd get one.

But I'm learning the truth is I can't bring myself to buy a Nissan. I'd rather a motorcycle to use on narrow dark back roads with deep ditches and potholes than a soul sucking nissan

Then you need a Zero motorcycle....I'm seriously considering it.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

I remember years ago a gal at work sold her civic and leased a Leaf. Her monthly electric bill went up $350. She said she usually spent about $60 on gas a month with her Honda. She didn't have the leaf long.

That's changed, depending on where you live. I can charge an EV (up to a certain amount) overnight for free with my electric co-op, and can charge for free right outside my window at work (4 L2 chargers).

I could not, however, drive a Leaf. There are a lot of them in Georgia though, as at one point you could lease it at a level that, with the government and state incentives, basically made it free for 3 years. Now those are off-lease and available for low, low prices.

EDIT: Went and looked, the "free" electricity from my co-op is 400 KwH per month between the hours of Midnight and 6am

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Could be. She could have been exaggerating. Who knows. She was pretty upset over the cost of the leaf.

Anyone here ever own a leaf?

My uncle has had one for 4-5 years. He used to give his office employees a fuel card when they had to show a rental property or to have his maintenance guy do repairs. What he payed to buy it, charge it, and insure it in that time he is ahead. He's the reason I was considering one. I know they are pretty bottom tier, but I just need something to commute during the rainy season that gets better mileage. I could also charge at work. My second option is another twin, but even salvage title ones are kinda pricey and a lot of the ones I have seen are ones people have bought as projects and couldn't finish.

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Then you need a Zero motorcycle....I'm seriously considering it.

I was supposed to go to Zero in January with our GM to talk with them about working with us on a powertrain. Trip fell through though, was really looking forward to that one.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

A quick question for the techie types. A lot of folks have been talking about data storage and computing hygiene - I've been thinking of putting together a NAS for several years and decided last' fall to go ahead with it. My son and I rebuilt my home desktop in December and I've put the old hardware in a cheap(ish) case. Planning to grab a couple of 6 to 8 TB NAS drives later in the month and run it on TrueNAS core.

Any suggestions? Things to watch for? Potential pitfalls?

Depends on what you want to use it for, as it may no longer be the right solution. The setup you are talking about is fine, but would you be better served by just having a cloud storage account?

I have an old NAS at home that has our home video/ripped music on it, but I really need to update it. For everything else, I've converted to cloud storage for replication and backup. Much simplier, as long as you have the bandwidth.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Not a hope in hell.
Made me curious though. A new one here is around $43K. Would need to save a pile on charging to make it worthwhile for what you get.

Apparently even 9 year old ones are still worth a bit. Love the description.

AutoTrader has several near me that age for between $6,665 and $8,000 US. Most in that price range have 80K+ miles on them, which is normal for a car that old.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Oh, just make do with what you have -

My office desk is a door laid across a dresser drawer and a filing cabinet. I'm sitting at it now.