How much innovation has there been in the ballpoint pen in the last decade?
this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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A fucking ton dude
How do you know when the grid needs more power? Does a bell ding?
How long does it take to ramp up from cold?
Does a bell ring? Basically yes, at least in my state. Days that are extreme in either direction (hot/cold) require considerably more electricity. Say its gonna be 105 F today. Major utility plants will all be operating at as close to max output as possible. Some plants even exist mostly to only come on line in high demand times.
How long does it take to ramp up from cold? Completely depends on the system but ideally you bring any boiler/steam system up slowly and progressively. Most boilers are kept warm enough to start relatively quickly. To truly start from cold takes awhile, trying to rush that process can be dangerous.
That's pretty neat! Is there a central computer system that determines which power company or which specific plant needs to turn on or ramp up, or do y'all just jockey to fill the need first so your company gets paid?
Everything is organized at a high level depending on the state/municipality. I'm currently in a very large hospital plant but we are also considered a utility. So, we generate 95% of the hospitals electricity day to day. We could generate 100% but we want to stay tied to the utility. So, sometimes on high demand days we get called on to produce as much as possible and feed back to the grid. The money generated by that feeding goes back into the hospital's bank account. At some plants operators and engineers get FAT bonuses based on total generation.
That's interesting! Thank you.
Texas has a private energy grid and it sucks. How could you sell them on standardized energy?
No clue, thats for politicians to figure out. I stay in my lane.
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How much of the math is memorized versus just knowing where to look for answers?
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Hypothetical: you have no access to paid tools for things like FEM and CFD, how do you accomplish your hobby project?
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Solar panel challenge: What would you produce as a physical, marketable product of value as passive income based upon a mostly self contained system powered by a single solar panel? You may add precursors, but may not interact further until the cycle is complete. There is no other temporal constraint.
- Lots of equations are memorized but ones that aren't commonly used are forgotten after licensing testing. Anything you need to figure out can be looked up or a chart exists to simplify it. Mollier charts are a good example of this. If you've never seen one, definitely look it up.
- I've never tried to design a hobby system. I just keep current ones running. Understanding every aspect of a boiler system that includes chillers, various boiler types, turbines, heating systems and emergency generators takes a considerable amount of time. Just to grasp what each component does and how it interacts with the rest of the system.
- No idea, you'll have to check shark tank for your next million dollar idea.
To answer your first question engineers usually add a two to three times safety factor to their equations so it doesn't really matter they just make numbers up.
I assume there's some sort of main relay that connects the turbine/generator/hampsterwheel to the grid. I suspect this relay might be more beefy than the ones I've worked with in 24V, 230V and 400V systems...
How is a relay of powerplant-beefidity constructed so that the contacts aren't welded from the current upon initial contact?
I don't know the answer to that aside from transformers being utilized to feed back to the grid.
How much would it cost to update the US power grid?
How much would we save in reduced costs?
Absolutely ridiculous amount of money. I don't have any idea how to estimate the cost across all the states.
Question too broad, might want to dial it in.
This is all just so you can kill-a-what? isn't it?
I MEG I dont KILL 😉
Sounds like you are pretty current!