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New England Met Autumn 2023 Banter


bristolri_wx
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Just now, tamarack said:

No matter how tame it looks, it's still a wild animal.  Many years ago, when I was a forester in northwest Maine, the game warden posted on the border across from St.-Pamphile, PQ had obtained 2 coyote kits while their eyes had not yet opened and raised them to adulthood.  When we'd stay at the Seven Islands camp, we'd often hear them howling.  They seemed utterly tame but were imprinted on the warden.  One day the warden's wife went to feed them and one slashed her for about 20 stitches, the warden thinking that it was jealousy (the warden is mine!!) but the warden realized that the coyotes were still wild at heart and a danger to his wife and others, so sadly, he put them down.

Oh believe me I understand.  Half joking here... however there's a type of fox called a fennec fox that is allowed to be kept as a pet in all of our neighboring states, except the Massachusetts

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1 minute ago, UnitedWx said:

Oh believe me I understand.  Half joking here... however there's a type of fox called a fennec fox that is allowed to be kept as a pet in all of our neighboring states, except the Massachusetts

Maine can allow keeping of some species of wild animals if the keeper obtains a special permit, which I suspect is not issued lightly.  Two towns from my place, in Mount Vernon, one can visit DEW Animal Kingdom during the milder seasons, and can see everything from big cats, tropical birds, monkeys and domestic sheep.  The owners obviously have the requisite permits and also receive some roadkill deer/moose when the carcass is unfit for human consumption but not dangerous to the carnivorous critters.   
(DEW stands for domestic/exotic/wild.  Almost all of the animals and birds are either seized from unpermitted folks or otherwise unable to be rewilded.)

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1 hour ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

It's going to be real entertaining in here when folks are required to buy an electric vehicle and put solar panels on their roof. Going to start making pop corn now.

My town announced it's banning gas-powered lawn mowers in 2025.  People are losing their shit and it's hilarious.

There was a barn sale up the street last weekend and I picked up one of these for $5.  Gonna clean it up/sharpen it.  I've been gradually shrinking my lawn footprint and replacing with native species and food-bearing plants, so this will work just great for what I have left.

Barn sale had a scythe, too, but the wife said no, unfortunately.

 

10 Old Lawn Mowers You Just Have to See | Family Handyman

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3 hours ago, tunafish said:

My town announced it's banning gas-powered lawn mowers in 2025.  People are losing their shit and it's hilarious.

There was a barn sale up the street last weekend and I picked up one of these for $5.  Gonna clean it up/sharpen it.  I've been gradually shrinking my lawn footprint and replacing with native species and food-bearing plants, so this will work just great for what I have left.

Barn sale had a scythe, too, but the wife said no, unfortunately.

 

10 Old Lawn Mowers You Just Have to See | Family Handyman

I used to mow my parents lawn with one of those when I was a kid, damn thing was heavy, eventually my uncle gave me a newer one that was much lighter and easier to push.

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22 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

I used to mow my parents lawn with one of those when I was a kid, damn thing was heavy, eventually my uncle gave me a newer one that was much lighter and easier to push.

Ha.  The guy had 5 of them and I picked the one that was newest/lightest.  The older ones were like 25 lbs.

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18 hours ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

It's going to be real entertaining in here when folks are required to buy an electric vehicle and put solar panels on their roof. Going to start making pop corn now.

I’m all for going solar and for getting EVs for my household.  There are numerous issues from my viewpoint right now.  
1. Should not be mandated until the tech is much better and cheaper if ever 

2. Ease of transition to solar has to improve. Right now it is typically difficult. 
 

3. EVs need to be overall more reliable and cheaper.   Tesla tends to rank poorly for reliability.  I have not seen data on specific models from legacy manufacturers or smaller brands like Rivi an.   The prices are way to high for most people. 
 

4. Obvious infrastructure improvements specifically for those who don’t own their own homes.  Where can they charge. 
 

5. Range and quick charging need to improve.  Solid state cells might solve this but still a ways off. 

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put solar panels up 7+ years ago when my house needed a new roof, haven't paid an electric bill since, and have a 4-figure credit for excess unused power I generated and sold back to the electric company

will get an electric car when the technology, availability of different models and prices improve.  right now, most electric cars on the market are higher-end vehicles, I prefer smaller, lower cost, high production run vehicles since they are less expensive to insure, drive and repair

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1 hour ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

I’m all for going solar and for getting EVs for my household.  There are numerous issues from my viewpoint right now.  
1. Should not be mandated until the tech is much better and cheaper if ever 

2. Ease of transition to solar has to improve. Right now it is typically difficult. 
 

3. EVs need to be overall more reliable and cheaper.   Tesla tends to rank poorly for reliability.  I have not seen data on specific models from legacy manufacturers or smaller brands like Rivi an.   The prices are way to high for most people. 
 

4. Obvious infrastructure improvements specifically for those who don’t own their own homes.  Where can they charge. 
 

5. Range and quick charging need to improve.  Solid state cells might solve this but still a ways off. 

Yeah, I’m all for renewable, but you can’t force high cost items on people with a grid that can’t really support it.

Id get an electric car if the we had actual infrastructure to support it, but we don’t yet. Is what it is.

 

 

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47 minutes ago, Brewbeer said:

put solar panels up 7+ years ago when my house needed a new roof, haven't paid an electric bill since, and have a 4-figure credit for excess unused power I generated and sold back to the electric company

will get an electric car when the technology, availability of different models and prices improve.  right now, most electric cars on the market are higher-end vehicles, I prefer smaller, lower cost, high production run vehicles since they are less expensive to insure, drive and repair

I bought my panels in cash 8 years ago and they reached their return on investment in less than 5 years. They have been producing around $2.8k a year in basically free electricity. My electricity bill has been the $9 minimum service charge every month. The satisfaction of telling Eversource to fuck off has been the best part of it. 

New England has the highest electricity rates in the lower 48. Solar makes a ton of sense here...

 

 

Screenshot_20231104_060844_Chrome.jpg

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6 hours ago, BrianW said:

I bought my panels in cash 8 years ago and they reached their return on investment in less than 5 years. They have been producing around $2.8k a year in basically free electricity. My electricity bill has been the $9 minimum service charge every month. The satisfaction of telling Eversource to fuck off has been the best part of it. 

New England has the highest electricity rates in the lower 48. Solar makes a ton of sense here...

 

 

Screenshot_20231104_060844_Chrome.jpg

My house has like a 98 percent sun score, it would be absolutely perfect. Looks like kind of a ridiculous permitting and insurance process though when I contacted a company.

im on municipal electricity so my costs aren’t nearly as bad as some.

I told them I’m not doing it if my insurance rates will increase, it will lower the lifespan of my roof, and if the monthly payment for the panels isn’t lower than my average monthly electric, and they couldn’t promise me any of that, so I didn’t move forward 

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35 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

My house has like a 98 percent sun score, it would be absolutely perfect. Looks like kind of a ridiculous permitting and insurance process though when I contacted a company.

im on municipal electricity so my costs aren’t nearly as bad as some.

I told them I’m not doing it if my insurance rates will increase, it will lower the lifespan of my roof, and if the monthly payment for the panels isn’t lower than my average monthly electric, and they couldn’t promise me any of that, so I didn’t move forward 

Was just in your hood for soccer games. Tossed a few towards the Hockomock.

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37 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

My house has like a 98 percent sun score, it would be absolutely perfect. Looks like kind of a ridiculous permitting and insurance process though when I contacted a company.

im on municipal electricity so my costs aren’t nearly as bad as some.

I told them I’m not doing it if my insurance rates will increase, it will lower the lifespan of my roof, and if the monthly payment for the panels isn’t lower than my average monthly electric, and they couldn’t promise me any of that, so I didn’t move forward 

Lower your roof life? It actually shields your shingles from UV exposure. I had mine installed at the same time I had a new roof installed. Didn’t impact my insurance at all. Of course MA has ridiculous insurance rules. 

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6 hours ago, BrianW said:

I bought my panels in cash 8 years ago and they reached their return on investment in less than 5 years. They have been producing around $2.8k a year in basically free electricity. My electricity bill has been the $9 minimum service charge every month. The satisfaction of telling Eversource to fuck off has been the best part of it. 

New England has the highest electricity rates in the lower 48. Solar makes a ton of sense here...

 

 

Screenshot_20231104_060844_Chrome.jpg

I had mine installed just over 2 years ago....It produced all the electric I needed per year and then some. I have since converted to all electric, minus our oil furnace (We dont actually use much oil since we installed our woodstove),  purchased a plug-in hybrid. The issue is getting a company to add panels to our system. I would really like to get back to having no electric bill, but can't complain because despite the high electricity costs, for our vehicle it is still cheaper to charge at home than it is for a gallon of gas....

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You want to own the panels, that's the best deal.  When you lease them, some one else is also making some of the money from the electricity the panels generate. 

41 minutes ago, Spanks45 said:

The issue is getting a company to add panels to our system

this is an issue.  if you are considering solar, electrify everything first so you can prove to Eversource that you actually need that many panels.  When my panels were installed, one of the requirements to get the utility company connection permit was the system had to be size limited to generate no more power than the house had been using on an yearly average basis.  

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38 minutes ago, Brewbeer said:

You want to own the panels, that's the best deal.  When you lease them, some one else is also making some of the money from the electricity the panels generate. 

this is an issue.  if you are considering solar, electrify everything first so you can prove to Eversource that you actually need that many panels.  When my panels were installed, one of the requirements to get the utility company connection permit was the system had to be size limited to generate no more power than the house had been using on an yearly average basis.  

So essentially so you can’t generate any revenue from it 

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42 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Oh yeah near the dump. Yeah 138 off 495 is my exit. Like like a mile NW of the exit 

I went to HS at the now non-existent Coyle and Cassidy HS. Know the area well. Took the bus from Brockton until senior year and drove there from Marshfield during senior year. Some really wild weather differences from Taunton Green to about 106 and Bay Road where my bus stop was in Easton. Yea I had to drive to my bus stop lol.

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59 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So essentially so you can’t generate any revenue from it 

Not really, you're really just locking in your electric cost at about what you now pay or a little cheaper so if rates go up you're protected. That's why buying them is the best way to go, there used to be a program through FHA where you could finance the solar panels at 0% interest for I think 10 years, that was the way to go, not sure if they still have that program.

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51 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

I went to HS at the now non-existent Coyle and Cassidy HS. Know the area well. Took the bus from Brockton until senior year and drove there from Marshfield during senior year. Some really wild weather differences from Taunton Green to about 106 and Bay Road where my bus stop was in Easton. Yea I had to drive to my bus stop lol.

A coyle grad, wow, didn’t know that. And yeah, coyle is kind of in a so so area, definitely not the best part of Taunton.

Im telling you, people don’t know how night and day it can be from Taunton and east Taunton to up towards where I’m at. Different worlds 

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1 hour ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So essentially so you can’t generate any revenue from it 

No, but I have built up a sizable credit by improving generation (targeted tree removal) and reducing consumption(eliminated the furnace and switched to LED lighting).  When I finally get an electric car I'll have a couple of years worth of free fuel credit from the power company.

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1 hour ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

A coyle grad, wow, didn’t know that. And yeah, coyle is kind of in a so so area, definitely not the best part of Taunton.

Im telling you, people don’t know how night and day it can be from Taunton and east Taunton to up towards where I’m at. Different worlds 

Oh I know. I’ve seen it. Was a big difference sometimes from Brockton to Coyle. 

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