May 2015 – Page 2 – Outrun Change

Going off-grid. Would merely triple what I pay for electricity.

One of the most fun things about blogging is learning as you go. If you like watching an uninformed person slowly get informed, get a fresh cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy.

I previously discussed Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.

(My math was off. Read to the end for my new calculation.)

Also More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery.

To analyze the concept of home batteries and solar power, I’m looking at the concept from the perspective of going off-grid.

I found a few websites that provided some info on the solar array needed. I won’t list the specific sites to avoid causing any unexpected problems, like, oh, exposing commercial businesses to unwanted ridicule.

One site gave helpful tools to calculate how many panels are needed. To go off-grid and cover our actual electricity use last August would call for a 7Kw system. That would involve $18,000 of their panels plus $1,500 or $2,000 for an inverter. Installation and permits are extra.

Continue reading “Going off-grid. Would merely triple what I pay for electricity.”

More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery

More comments on the nifty new battery for home use. Mentioned this earlier.

5/3 – Seeking Alpha – The Silliness of Tesla’s 10kWh Back-up Battery – Just a few silliness tidbits from the author’s long list of silliness factors: Continue reading “More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery”

More glimpses that disruptive change is already here – (radical change #4)

The disruptive change around us is staggering. Yet I don’t see how it will disrupt my business, which is the auditing sector of public accounting. Before I get into that, here are a few more articles on the change going on around us.

Just in case you are wondering what digital disruption looks like, check out this graph of newspaper ad revenue for the last 65 years, adjusted for inflation:

(Copyright Carpe Diem, used with permission.)

4/30 – Carpe Diem – Creative destruction: Newspaper ad revenue continued its precipitous free fall in 2014, and it’s likely to continue – Above graph is from this article, which points out that print advertising has dropped 57% in six years and is down 75% from the 2000 high 14 years ago.

Adding back digital advertising puts the volume of advertising essentially at the same level as in 1950 when adjusted for inflation. Phrased differently, it took 50 years to go from $20B to $67B and merely 14 years to lose all that growth.

More examples:

Continue reading “More glimpses that disruptive change is already here – (radical change #4)”

More good stuff on the Bakken – 5/4

Here’s some fun notes on interesting news around the Bakken. Big change on the oil tax. Slowdown is drilling is having some interesting impacts on the housing market. Also, tracking the rig count.

5/1 – Dickinson Press – North Dakota still on track for oil tax break – Oil prices in April were below the level which will trigger the “big trigger” tax reduction on oil. If West Texas Intermediate is below a threshold, currently $52.29, for five consecutive months the 6.5% oil extraction tax is waived for two years on wells started after the trigger is pulled. One more month below the cut off will trigger the drop.

Continue reading “More good stuff on the Bakken – 5/4”

Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.

Tesla announced a new home battery product called Powerwall. A very cool idea. In spite of what you might think from reading my blog, I think this is a good idea.

5/1 – AP at Daily Bulletin – Tesla charges into home battery market despite challenges

It is merely the next step in a very long journey, but I can grasp the great idea. Someday storing electricity at home may be viable.

On the other hand, it is astoundingly expensive at the moment. On the other, other hand, that’s what happens at the front-end of breakthrough technology.

You can find more info on the battery at Tesla’s Powerwall site.

I’m going to stretch my knowledge, probably beyond the breaking point. Let me know if I slip a digit or miss a step.

Continue reading “Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.”