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RegGuheert

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Everything posted by RegGuheert

  1. RegGuheert
    That would worry me, as well. Has the bathroom tap cleared, yet?
  2. RegGuheert
    The snow started falling sometime after 2:00 AM this morning. We are probably getting more than an inch per hour right now with a little sleet mixed in, but this is supposed to be the heaviest period. Forecast is still for around 10 inches of snow or about half that if it turns to sleet soon. Thankfully, we are not supposed to get freezing rain here, but there are still forecasts for over an inch of rain in southern Virginia. From what I saw, it might come in two parts: once this morning and again later this evening. Is anyone in southern Virginia dealing with that today?
  3. RegGuheert
    Wow! Those are good prices! The "Package 3 : Large to Extra Large Households" is very similar to what I am specifying for the typical Texas house. They price that at "From $42,000 + GST". My only guess about how that could be so much cheaper is that my prices were entirely unsubsidized (even though subsidies are available) because I want to make an apples-to-apples comparison to existing infrastructure, etc. Do you know if those numbers include a subsidy? If so, how much is the subsidy in Australia? One thing I do not like about that particular package is that it uses string inverters, meaning that the solar panels are connected in strings and then connected to the inverters. The string of solar panels produces high-voltage DC, which can be quite dangerous, both from the standpoint of shock risk as well as from the standpoint of fire risk. It is the existence of string inverters which causes many firefighters in the U.S. to be taught that if a house has solar panels on to, let it burn because it is too risky to fight the fire. This is true EVEN AT NIGHT, because the floodlights the firefighters use cause the high-voltage DC to return. I prefer microinverters, which invert the DC to AC at each solar panel, thus eliminating the high-voltage DC and making the wiring much more similar to all of the other AC wiring in the home, which is very safe, both in terms of shocking hazard and in terms of fire safety. Here is a short video which demonstrates the fire danger that exists with string inverters.
  4. RegGuheert
    That sounds like a pumped storage system, and, no, I haven’t seen a closed version for a house before. Usually, you need quite a bit of “head” (altitude difference between the storage location and the turbine) to get any significant generation out of hydroelectric. Do you have a link for this? I’d like to learn more about that! Texas generates more renewable electricity than any other state in the United States (a fact that Californians do not want widely publicized!) due to their massive wind generators out in west Texas, but as a percentage of their total electricity generation I read that they were right at 25% at the end of 2020. At this point, I will point out that Texas currently has almost no electricity storage infrastructure. THAT is THE major hurdle that must be addressed before very high levels of renewable penetration can be achieved. I see that Texas currently has over 77 GW (!!) of photovoltaics planned, which I think they need. As discussed upthread, solar production matches the load in Texas very closely. I’m sure the same is true in much of Australia.
  5. RegGuheert
    I guess it's just a parting shot right before getting fired!
  6. RegGuheert
    One of my best students from a previous year was very good at reading and typically got all--or nearly all--of the questions correct. Then one day he got everything correct except he missed six questions out of eleven on section four. After I read the section, I knew what to tell him: "You CANNOT let a passage which is contrary to your worldview cause you to completed blow an entire passage." Fortunately, he never did that again!
  7. RegGuheert
    Ha! That would be me! I'm impressed that your son does well on those! I was very proud of one of my slow readers this year. He managed to complete the reading section on the PSAT and ended up with a 680 on the R&W section (versus a 560 the previous year). His year-younger brother, who could ace any section of the test, but was all over the map, didn't get through the reading section that day. It amazes me: some of my students are super consistent day-in and day-out, while other ones are all over the map from week to week and from section to section. I even had one young lady improve her SAT score from 1350 to 1490 just between October and November! Crazy!
  8. RegGuheert
    One other thing that I did that was quite successful was "the SAT sandwich": I had all of my students take the SAT at the beginning of October, the PSAT in the middle of October, and another SAT at the beginning of November. I considered the first SAT as practice for the PSAT and the second SAT was there to have a chance to improve the superscore. This allowed the students to prep up until the beginning of November and then get on with their lives for the rest of the school year.
  9. RegGuheert
    Thanks! I will also pass these on! I used Kahn Academy with my students as available drill if they wanted it. I tried Erica Meltzer with one of my children but his scores went down a bit. Reading is like that, so I try to help students find what works for them. The biggest issue my students had with reading is if a student is a slow reader and cannot get done on time.
  10. RegGuheert
    The problem is they also put the air handlers in the attic. They probably do that so they can sell more air handlers! 🙃 (Actually, it is so they can duct air to the various rooms.)
  11. RegGuheert
    O.K. That makes more sense to me now! Now--on to parabolas! My youngest took the PSAT in October. I am happy to report that he got a 1510!! Another student (A BETTER student. Shhh!!) also got a 1510 on that test. Those two would banter with each other every week about how dumb the other one was to the point that I had parents of other students tell me that their child would come home demoralized because those two boys got over 1500 every week! Oops!! I will pass on your recommendations to the parents of the students whom I will not be teaching next year!
  12. RegGuheert
    My wife was there so I had to do my best to hide my "inner troll"! 😈 If either of us can find your contact information, one of us will send you an email to re-establish contact. I seem to remember that you sent out photographs after one of the meetups.
  13. RegGuheert
    Here is a video of an interview with an energy expert who says that he has lived through at least four polar vortex events during his 40 years in Houston. He also seems quite frustrated with ERCOT since he warned them seven years ago about this eventuality.
  14. RegGuheert
    Exactly. I started a separate thread on this topic out of respect for those who where suffering through this event. If we do not discuss this now, it will not get talked about.
  15. RegGuheert
    Great! Please have him post a link to the app when it is ready!
  16. RegGuheert
    If you do contact Garga for my contact information, just tell her you need to get in touch with the "creepy man-troll"! 😀
  17. RegGuheert
    Added above. Thanks!
  18. RegGuheert
    Sorry, I just couldn't help myself! 😉
  19. RegGuheert
    I recommend that you also print out my notes here to help guide you and/or your son about how to approach the sheet. I found that some of the students' eyes glazed over because it looks like so much. The notes above break it down so the student can know where to focus their attention. The circle sheet is good for about one question on the test, two if he is luck. It probably should be redrawn with the incorporation of my notes above to make the section on completing the square much more straightforward. I wish your son the best on his SAT in May! If you have any questions for me and I have gone back off the boards (I might soon), I think Garga knows how to get in contact with me or my wife. I'd be happy to try to help. (No charge. I am trying to GET OUT of doing regular SAT prep, but I do not mind helping where I can.)
  20. RegGuheert
    Unfortunately, the high school board is already too full of pinned things, IMO. I did add some tags. Are there other tags that would be helpful for the future?
  21. RegGuheert
    Really? You're not just saying that?? 🙃
  22. RegGuheert
    Agreed, grid-tied solar is a good idea, but note that those purchases were subsidized by both the state of Washington and the federal government AND net energy metering is also a form of subsidy (it is like renting an infinite battery for free). I also have friends near Seattle that I know from online and their solar array produces 1/6 as much electricity in the wintertime as it does in the summertime and about 1/2 as much as the same-sized array would produce here in VA. By comparison, a solar array the size of mine would produce nearly 50% more electricity in Texas as mine does here. The bottom line is that in the middle of winter, a solar array in Texas will produce perhaps 5X as much electricity as the same-size array would produce in Seattle. And in Texas, wintertime is not their peak consumption period. EVs certainly do make a lot of sense up there since most (all?) of your electricity comes form hydroelectric power plants. No need to burn fuels to drive when you have cheap, clean electricity available.
  23. RegGuheert
    To quote quote Harvey Keitel playing Agent Sandusky in "National Treasure": "How about now?"
  24. RegGuheert
    Bless you, @Lori D. , for liking the parabola sheet post!! That really was the raison d'etre for this entire thread. Yeah, the others should be useful for those doing PSAT and SAT prep, but that one is the real stand-out to me. (But, I admit it: I seem to be alone in my opinion, here!)
  25. RegGuheert
    I'm pretty sure we are in violent agreement on this point. Perhaps I was not clear in the post that you quoted.
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