derf82 @ derf82 @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

As a water professional working for a utility, it will cost way more than that.

As an actual water service professional, I kind of get it. If you control pH and add corrosion inhibitors like orthophosphate, lead pipe are not a problem. Flint fiscal managers decided to skip this to save money.

Unfortunately the plan is a largely unfounded mandate ($15B won’t even cover 10% of lead lines) with a timeline that will further jack up the price due to everyone competing for materials and contractors.

The vast majority of lead poisoning comes from old paint, not lead water pipes (and leaded gasoline before that … or now if you live downwind from a general aviation airport as piston aircraft STILL use leaded gas. Yet we won’t ban that ‘cause rich people own those planes).

Not that it isn’t good to remove lead. It’s just the aggressive timeline. It would be smarter to have a longer timeline where it is paired with replacing the main as well, as it is a smaller marginal cost to do both at the same time. The corrosion control can buy us plenty of time. I personally have a lead connection and a state licensed lab detected zero lead in my water.

But to phrase it as a state’s rights issue and claim the benefits are speculative is stupid.

Honey is a commonly faked food. At least they label it so you can avoid it.

Mine is in my finished, heated basement (which is largely above street grade, so not too much geothermal). And while some heat does go back into the room, much of it goes down the drain when you use hot water.

Great for those on the south. Not as great for those of us that have to heat our homes, meaning a furnace or another heat pump needs to make up that heat.

Not that they are bad, mind you, they are quite good, just another part of the economic equation. Makes it more of a home run where you are cooling most of the year anyway.

The rules let you get the tax credit as a rebate when the upgrade is done, though I don’t think that has fully rolled out.

That would be nice, but I cannot find a source. Heck, I was checking and it turns out these credits are NONREFUNDABLE, so you can only get a max of what you pay in taxes.

The reality is that in much (though not all) of the country, it’s cost-effective to replace a near-end-of-life fossil furnace with a heat pump, since it will lower their ongoing heating bill. People do still need to substitute capital for future fuel payments, and that’s a big deal, but it’s a lot better than it was.

Eh, sadly, it is a bit fuzzier for many of us.

I just added up the last 12 months of gas bills. Came to about $837. But as I said at the start, $43.30 is a fixed charge. So really I only spent $318 on fuel. Based on my summer bills, I use ~$7/month in gas for cooking, drying, & hot water. So the reality is I only paid less than $250 on heating fuel. Granted, it was a warm winter and those costs will likely go up in time, but still.

At my current electric rate of ~$0.07/Kwh, and assuming that the added use will be at least 1,500 Kwh, that means I save, what, $150/year? That may sound good, but that is a painfully slow playback.

And, again, that is if I can even afford ANY increased cost. Whatever I get, I will have to finance it as it is. Most of us don't have $12,000+ sitting around for HVAC. I want it, and I think heat pumps are great, but not enough is being done to make them the economical choice for those of us in colder cities with a lot of older homes.

The Inflation Reduction Act is nice and all, but it stops too far short of fixing the issues.

First and foremost, the subsidies are in the form of refundable tax credits, which means you have to have thousands to front until you get your tax refund the following year.

Second, it isn't much. You get a max of $600 for a panel upgrade. They say that can cover up to 30% of the cost, but no panel upgrade is only $2,000. Especially in an older home (where you are apt to find 60 and 100-amp service) that might need extensive wiring work to bring it up to the current NEC. It is likely it will only cover 10%-15% of the cost, which again, only comes as a refund months later.

And it is even less because it has to be combined with other energy improvements, which means you are fronting even more money.

Heat pumps are much the same. Only a $2,000 credit on what is likely a $12,000+ project.

And let's not forget there is also a $600 credit each for stand-alone air conditioning and furnace. So unless a year pump is only $800 more than a new furnace and AC, the tax credit isn't helping much.

If we want people to pick the green option, the green option needs to be the least expensive, not just in the long term, but thanks to boots theory also has to be cheaper in the short term.

I have news for you, my natural gas furnace doesn't work when there is no power, either. Turns out you need electricity to ignite the gas, run a fan to exhaust combustion gases, and circulate air through the heat exchanger and ductwork.

My dude, you are never going to have a heat pump oven.

But the neat thing is they STILL work together. The heat cast off by a fridge/freezer can be picked up by a stand-alone heat pump hot water heater. When you need cooling, both that hot water heater and the heat pump will work to cool the house. And in the winter, the heat the hot water needs will be first bought in by the heat pump.

Watch and learn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43XKfuptnik

If a homeowner switches to heat pumps but continues using gas for cooking, they’ll still have to pay the full fee, which can be as high as $34 a month

I wish it were a high of $34. My "Basic Service Charge" is $43.30, and the gas company has proposed increasing it past $50. While they claim it is for infrastructure upgrades, I am sure keeping people on gas is a huge part of it.

And it isn't just cooking. Yes, my range is gas, but so is my hot water heater and clothes dryer. And with 100 amp service, and replacing everything with electricity and canceling gas is a tough ask. And at least I have forced air. People with radiant heat are an even tougher issue

Subsidizing heat pumps with a tax credit isn't enough. We need help making all the needed changes, including service upgrades.

And HVAC companies need to get on board. Technology Connections just released a great video showing (1) that HVAC companies routinely oversize heat pumps because they just grab the capacity of the gas furnace, adding cost and reducing efficiency (as gas furnaces are no less efficient when oversized), and (2) that HVAC companies overprice heat pumps, as they are just air conditioners with a reversing valve that switches which coil is the evaporator and condenser,

My HVAC system here in the midwest is getting long in the tooth and will soon be due for replacement, but with little more than the tax credits, I don't know that I can afford to go heat pump, regardless of the environmental benefits.

I’ve done the math. I make $10,000 less today than I did in 2018, adjusted for inflation. No shit I care less about work.

The pandemic also showed how quick companies were to cut staff the second stuff happened. And while the government quickly came up with PPP, with Trump’s poor oversight, companies learned they could just pocket the money and screw the employees it was meant for.

That said, the pandemic just exposed a lot of long term feelings the younger generation has had.

The ones being singled out are poor people and the middle class. The rich get preferential rates, deductions that only apply to them, the ability to have armies of accountants and lawyers to limit their liability, and are far less likely to be audited.

It SHOULD be that all income within different brackets should be taxed the same. The rich only pay more because they have more. We all should be taxed 50% on income over $500,000, it’s just that most of us don’t have any income over that.

Yeah, the US once has a half penny. Adjusted for inflation, it is worth more than a nickel is today when it was eliminated.

But I don’t think that will give us a 9 cent discount.

This has been studied. The US uses a higher quality paper that lasts an average of 7 years. So it is actually cheaper than minting coins. In other countries that switched to coins, singles only lasted a year or two.

There is nothing stopping people from using coins now. People just don’t like them.

Ecuadorians are very touchy about the condition of their paper bills. I tried to pay for a Panama hat with some cash that included a slightly torn but fully in tact $10, and the shop owner refused. As such, more durable dollar coins, which were minted by the US but never really caught on, are quite popular.

Interestingly they do mint their own coins, with Ecuadorian half dollar, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_centavo_coins

We do have stuff like that. Ever hear of government cheese?

On the subject of wandering arguments: you never answered my initial question: what staple food are we experiencing a major shortage of?

We had shortages during the pandemic. They have largely resolved. But food companies have learned people still will buy food, so they kept prices high. What has truly hurt is consolidation. With so much food controlled by so few, competition isn’t working.

Growing food isn’t without a massive carbon and environmental footprint. Trying to force a glut which will just result is spoiled food and bankrupt farmers is not the answer.

Maybe because you can’t manifest extra dairy cows out of the aether in the winter?

The government does try to help by buying surplus dairy and turning into preservable cheese, but that has just led to bad jokes about “government cheese.”

I don’t know what the hell a cosplay farmer is, but I am assuredly not one. I do my even have a god damn garden on my 0.10 acre city lot.

Learn some history. Farmers have tried to overgrow to make more money, and it has led to collapse as the market forms a glut.

The government does do something different with corn subsidies, causing over abundance of corn, but that has just lead to the overuse of corn syrup sugar, which is a major contributor to obesity.

At times for some things. But tell me, is there a shortage right now of any major staple food/ingredient?

The farmers are not the ones getting rich. It’s Nestle, Kraft, PepsiCo, General Mills, Kellogg’s and so on. As long as they remain the big market for what the farmer’s are selling, food prices won’t change. But the farmers could go under if their prices crash due to oversupply.