Submitted 2 days ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to technology@lemmy.world
The working class get the ‘get fucked’ tax on top of the costs. Companies get cheap power to make more money.
I’d like to see this graph with the EU power costs. I pay AVG € 0,27 per kWh now. Used to be € 0,20 before the attack on Ukraine began. That’s a 35% increase.
It’s what the maga working class voted for. That, and cruel deportations.
You think fucking over the working class is MAGA specific? Fucking us over is 100% bipartisan.
What? I pay around ninety cents! What is this shit.
My electric bill last month would have been $1,700 at that rate. We would just have to freeze to death.
Civilian bills increase while corporate discounts abound? Ya’ll need to fuck someone up with the 2A.
The idiots are convinced they’ll “be one of them someday”
Cue the “Fry, you arent rich!” Scene. Its very very real.
I have a friend that literally blames all problems in America on “The Poors” (his words) and when I try to tell him he IS the poors and is nowhere near rich, he doesn’t listen. Doesn’t believe workers should own the means of production because “when he owns HIS business, he wants to keep his money HE earned”
Brainwashed idiocy.
He rents, has a 20 year old car, is a bartender, and shops at Walmart exclusively. Also loves Grok.
America is doomed.
Always loved that Futurama scene, for the way it’s perfectly in line with Fry’s character and his amazingly broken reasoning facilities, while also just directly pointing out the bitter hatred of self, as a class, this kind of thinking always entails.
2024 and 2025 not included in their data.
How to pin someone else’s comment?
The star will save it so you can easily read it later. I got a bunch of effortposts from here saved for rereading.
Yes, I am Fucking Pissed at my energy bills for the last 6 months. Like WTH. It is like $500 a month vs what was $300 max. I told my husband… it is time to start investing in solar generators. We are getting screwed for some stupid tech boy.
I would love if this creates some kind of decentralized energy network. You know how you can sell your energy back to the grid when you have solar surplus? We should have the option of choosing the rate too. If they don’t want to pay our prices, they don’t need our electricity,
I don’t know anywhere you can actually sell it back to the network, usually they just give you credits that deduct future payments, so you can’t ever get money out of it. But maybe that’s only some places.
You know how you can sell your energy back to the grid when you have solar surplus?
I know this is for the USA, but I’d like to point out something really fucked: in Denmark, if you don’t use the energy your solar power produces, YOU have to pay the energy company for the extra electricity you put into the grid! Like… What‽‽‽
We all have to do our part and stop using AI. It’s time ro pop the bubble.
You think they’ll drop those prices when the AI pops?
come on Muricans, stop complaining and get a third job to pay for the slop machine until the bubble burst and the youehave to pay for the bailout
stop complaining, remember “you are not there yet”
I ran three jobs for a couple of years. I ended up high enough up in my current job that they’d take offence to a second job. And the market is shit. I just want to move to a nice quiet country where your neighbors aren’t an actual liability with decent healthcare and work until I’m dead giving my kids a chance at living a happy life. Is that too much to ask?
Here in Germany we have balcony solar panels. They are just plugged into a socket - no electrical installation needed - and pay off quickly.
I have something like that I bought here in the US but the power generated won’t power the whole home. It does charge my emergency battery though for when the power is out.
to power the whole home you need a hell of a lot more than the balcony ones. but every little bit helps.
Right but the way I understand it is if you get the plug in style and let it generate some power during the day it will offset your usage and save you money on the bill.
Huh that’s neat, I didn’t know they just plugged into a socket. From what I know balancing the voltage and frequency of an electric grid is extremely delicate business, but I guess it’s fine since it’s so much electrically smaller than the main generators?
Also stuffing an inverter in random small electronics is probably so much easier than it used to be not that long ago.
If mains goes down they stop feeding in power within 10 ms, or so. Of course, you can illegally feed in more, if you know what you’re doing.
How does the outlet work putting electricty back into it? You sure it’s not a special outlet?
No. It is just wires that transport energy. Old power meters will even run backwards.
For safety, these panel have some electronics that switch them off when it is not plugged in, or during power outages.
Depends on the country iirc. But most European countries allow you to discharge 800 watt unless you install it on a separate breaker. Regular socket
You can plug anything back into your how power system so long as the reverse current is not more than the ratings of the wires & equipment that current runs through.
In the US, most residential outlets are rated for 15-20 Amps at 120 Volts. There are what’s called “AC solar panels” or just panels with micro inverters that transform the DC electricity from the panel to AC right on the panel itself. As long as the circuit you plug into is rated for it, you can plug as many panels like this into your home power system.
I’d have to check the National Electrical Code (NEC), but I believe that if you’re planning on making those solar panels permanent, and since the hypothetical ones in this conversation have “plug and cord” connections, you’d need to hardwire those panels with wiring hidden behind drywall. If you truly plan to use those panels temporarily, such as seasonally, maybe you can make the argument that you don’t need to do that.
It’s all up to your Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), which is usually your town’s or city’s Building or Electrical Department.
I was surprised when I read about it too, but it’s true, they quite literally just plug them right into the normal plugs.
It works because there’s a certain tolerance on the German breakers that allow for power to reverse. The balcony panels take advantage of this. However this also limits the possible output to whatever the tolerance is, otherwise it would overload and shut off or worse.
It doesn’t have a direction.
I have 54 solar panels that are 1x2m apiece (108m2 total), and they generate barely enough to keep my house running in the winter, and have to be supplemented by a generator in the winter for December and January since it’s entirely offgrid.
I don’t think a couple panels on a balcony are doing much more than charging a couple phones.
Since a lot of people live in rented flats, the 800w these so called “balcony solar plants” can cover your base load, thus reducing your electric bill. Of course they can’t support whatever setup you seem to have where 108m2 of solar can’t cover it
Sadly, Switzerland missed the oportunity and even conventional solar installations barely pay off now.
The AI data centers and crypto miners should be paying much higher rates than everyone else.
That’s not how capitalism works.
Privatize the profits, socialize the costs
God don’t I know it. Looking at 500 dollar a month electric bills and I’m possibly disconnecting my heat pump.
Where are you? That’s what I pay a year, granted I live in a shoebox.
$600 last month to run my heat pump. Can’t really disconnect it because it’s 30 degrees here rn. Awesome
This shit is a failure of local and state governments, and the people who elect them. Now that AI costs are hitting citizen pocket books, many municipalities are fighting back.
“All politics is local.”
In particular, its a failure of state utilities commissions, which have power over electric pricing.
Don’t know about your jurisdiction, but we vote those people in and out around here. Well…
We used to have a quasi-private/public power company. County commissioners voted us out of that. (Still our fault.) We do still have such a water setup. For now.
You’ll find that representative democracy is not all that representative.
I suspect that it’s always been the case that bigger customers are able to negotiate better prices. 1 car a year vs 1000 cars a year? 200 pounds of bread vs. 200 tons of bread?
Also, isn’t a steady state power consumption of a data centre easier to manage than homes flipping toasters on and off? I suppose that the inefficiency drives up the costs for home usage
Big customers lock in deals for a fixed price of Y for X years.
Smaller customers can also get similar deals but retail customers (normal people) rarely can lock prices for more than 1 year. Most pay spot prices.
ok damnit, how many more servers do i need to install…
My city still owns the utilities and the council doubles as the utility board. They’ve been trying to privatize it, but it’s very contentious. Rightly so.
The lowest rate I can find here in Texas was triple what I was paying last year.
It’s almost that time of the year when NY electric rates get hiked up and then get “frozen” to avoid further rate hikes
JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Here’s the crux of the article for you.
morto@piefed.social 2 days ago
Even if you don’t like or use ai, you’re forced to pay for it
aaa@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
But why is it this way? Why wouldn’t they want to charge both groups more for a higher profit margin?
Nikelui@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Wouldn’t want to upset corporate overlords.
unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
It’s easier to screw over consumers than businesses.
Busunesses like to complain. They have long-term contracts. They have a lot of purchase power. They’re more likely tp swotch to a competitor. When they threaten, they’re more likely to go through with it. Since they have both money to burn and employees to blackmail with pay cuts.
Anmong other things.
trougnouf@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
I pay 40c/kWh ^^’