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Congressman Massie's homebrew powerwall built from a wrecked Model S

40 points by cato_the_elder 5y ago

stevespang 5y ago
slater 5y ago
[flagged]
- cato_the_elder 5y ago
  > anti-vaxxer That's a misrepresentation, and your comment is just a boring and irrelevant ad hominem.
- bequanna 5y ago
  Ah, got it. Someone doesn’t pass your arbitrary purity test so we should ignore everything they have to say? What he built is really cool and exactly the reason I come to HN. I don’t care at all about his or your lame politics in this context and your post is inappropriate. As a side note, I find it hilarious that you think that the tweet you “discovered” was so offensive that he would take it down so you posted a screenshot.
  - woodruffw 5y ago
    [flagged]
    - cato_the_elder 5y ago
      > It's both reasonable and good to hold him to a higher standard. Even if your "standard" was something reasonable, the appropriate venue for gathering a mob is Twitter, not HN.
      - woodruffw 5y ago
  - rosndo 5y ago
    The title is “Congressman Massie’s homebrew powerewall built from a wrecked Model S”, not “Homebrew powerwall built from a wrecked Model S”. Given that, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to discuss his politics?
    - bequanna 5y ago
      What is with this compulsion some people have to categorize people based on their political leanings? God forbid you ever utter something someone with a bunch of followers will interpret as wrongthink.
      - rosndo 5y ago
        > What is with this compulsion some people have to categorize people based on their political leanings? This isn’t “people”, but a politician. If him being a politician isn’t important, why is “Congressman” the first word in the title? This isn’t “Hey, check out this guys cool DIY project!”, but “Hey, check out this politicians cool DIY project!”. In that context it totally makes sense to point out that this politician who builds cool stuff isn’t necessarily a good guy. I agree that in the general case it would be weird to dig this stuff up, but not in these particular circumstances.
        bequanna 5y ago
        > it totally makes sense to point out that this politician who builds cool stuff isn’t necessarily a good guy. Ok, and you're doing this why? To "save" the rest of us from being corrupted by this bad man? No. You're doing this purely to redirect the conversation toward yourself and what you think is right or wrong. Obvious, shameless attention seeking. That is boring and has no place here, IMO.
        rosndo 5y ago
        > Ok, and you're doing this why? To "save" the rest of us from being corrupted by this bad man? I’m not doing that. I’m just explaining why it’s okay and perfectly on-topic. > No. You're doing this purely to redirect the conversation toward yourself and what you think is right or wrong. I think exactly the same criticism could be applied to your comments here. I think that mostly proves it to be a rather empty one.
- rayiner 5y ago
  Lots of people got vaccinated but opposed vaccine mandates. With respect to Massie, he had contracted covid before a vaccine was available and didn’t get vaccinated because of natural immunity. Studies repeatedly have borne out the effectiveness of natural immunity to covid: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220120/vaccine-plus-prior-infection-best-protection-covid https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220120/vaccine-plus-prior-... > Jan. 20, 2022 -- A new study from California and New York found that people who were both vaccinated and had a prior COVID-19 infection had the most protection against the coronavirus last summer and fall. > Unvaccinated people with a past infection came in second. By October, when the more contagious Delta variant had become dominant and booster shots weren’t available to most people, the unvaccinated group had a lower case rate than vaccinated people without a previous infection. Massie is pretty much exactly the sort of person you’d expect to build a Powerwall from a wrecked Tesla. An MIT engineer who is smarter than his critics but also an arrogant asshole who can’t just go along to get along.
  - cato_the_elder 5y ago
    > just go along to get along That's not really a virtue.
    - manquer 5y ago
      For a politician it is probably not, however for inventors going off the regular path and not getting along goes hand in hand and is sometimes useful . On a side note I find "Cato the elder" making this comment a bit amusing, who was known for his opposition to new ideas, of doctors and of course "Carthago delenda est"
      - cato_the_elder 5y ago
        > On a side note I find "Cato the elder" making this comment a bit amusing, who was known for his opposition to new ideas, of doctors and of course "Carthago delenda est" :-)) Not the first time I get that kind of comment around here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30383370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30383370
kaczordon 5y ago
This is super cool.
InTheArena 5y ago
It does my heart a least a little bit of good to know that somebody has at least enough of a background to do this and is still on the floor of the house. (I don’t know if he is R or D… I don’t care either)
- 0des 5y ago
  - abrookewood 5y ago
- jesussaves 5y ago
- selfportrait 5y ago
  Sadly him being one of the more technically qualified congresspeople (degrees from MIT, etc.) is a scary prospect, considering his political values and the implications that can be had on technology policy. It’s easy for people here to live in a vacuum and say “I don’t care about if he’s R or D”. This is the same guy who voted against lowering prescription drug prices (to name one out of a hundred examples) and who just recently justified voting against the anti-lynching act because he doesn’t believe in “hate crimes” as a legal concept. Just because he’s technically impressive doesn’t mean he’s moral or upstanding, unfortunately.
BuildTheRobots 5y ago
I thought house sized solar panels were at best 300w. 17kw of solar array seems like a lot - I'd love to see how much space that takes up.
solarman5000 5y ago
I think this is VERY cool. I was never a fan of Tesla's 'solution' for EVs, I think it is fitting that this one was repurposed into something more useful. I hope the bidirectional EVs like the new F150 become the mainstream option

stevespang 5y ago

slater 5y ago

[flagged]

cato_the_elder 5y ago
> anti-vaxxer That's a misrepresentation, and your comment is just a boring and irrelevant ad hominem.
bequanna 5y ago
Ah, got it. Someone doesn’t pass your arbitrary purity test so we should ignore everything they have to say? What he built is really cool and exactly the reason I come to HN. I don’t care at all about his or your lame politics in this context and your post is inappropriate. As a side note, I find it hilarious that you think that the tweet you “discovered” was so offensive that he would take it down so you posted a screenshot.
- woodruffw 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - cato_the_elder 5y ago
    > It's both reasonable and good to hold him to a higher standard. Even if your "standard" was something reasonable, the appropriate venue for gathering a mob is Twitter, not HN.
    - woodruffw 5y ago
- rosndo 5y ago
  The title is “Congressman Massie’s homebrew powerewall built from a wrecked Model S”, not “Homebrew powerwall built from a wrecked Model S”. Given that, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to discuss his politics?
  - bequanna 5y ago
    What is with this compulsion some people have to categorize people based on their political leanings? God forbid you ever utter something someone with a bunch of followers will interpret as wrongthink.
    - rosndo 5y ago
      > What is with this compulsion some people have to categorize people based on their political leanings? This isn’t “people”, but a politician. If him being a politician isn’t important, why is “Congressman” the first word in the title? This isn’t “Hey, check out this guys cool DIY project!”, but “Hey, check out this politicians cool DIY project!”. In that context it totally makes sense to point out that this politician who builds cool stuff isn’t necessarily a good guy. I agree that in the general case it would be weird to dig this stuff up, but not in these particular circumstances.
      - bequanna 5y ago
        > it totally makes sense to point out that this politician who builds cool stuff isn’t necessarily a good guy. Ok, and you're doing this why? To "save" the rest of us from being corrupted by this bad man? No. You're doing this purely to redirect the conversation toward yourself and what you think is right or wrong. Obvious, shameless attention seeking. That is boring and has no place here, IMO.
        rosndo 5y ago
        > Ok, and you're doing this why? To "save" the rest of us from being corrupted by this bad man? I’m not doing that. I’m just explaining why it’s okay and perfectly on-topic. > No. You're doing this purely to redirect the conversation toward yourself and what you think is right or wrong. I think exactly the same criticism could be applied to your comments here. I think that mostly proves it to be a rather empty one.
rayiner 5y ago
Lots of people got vaccinated but opposed vaccine mandates. With respect to Massie, he had contracted covid before a vaccine was available and didn’t get vaccinated because of natural immunity. Studies repeatedly have borne out the effectiveness of natural immunity to covid: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220120/vaccine-plus-prior-infection-best-protection-covid https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220120/vaccine-plus-prior-... > Jan. 20, 2022 -- A new study from California and New York found that people who were both vaccinated and had a prior COVID-19 infection had the most protection against the coronavirus last summer and fall. > Unvaccinated people with a past infection came in second. By October, when the more contagious Delta variant had become dominant and booster shots weren’t available to most people, the unvaccinated group had a lower case rate than vaccinated people without a previous infection. Massie is pretty much exactly the sort of person you’d expect to build a Powerwall from a wrecked Tesla. An MIT engineer who is smarter than his critics but also an arrogant asshole who can’t just go along to get along.
- cato_the_elder 5y ago
  > just go along to get along That's not really a virtue.
  - manquer 5y ago
    For a politician it is probably not, however for inventors going off the regular path and not getting along goes hand in hand and is sometimes useful . On a side note I find "Cato the elder" making this comment a bit amusing, who was known for his opposition to new ideas, of doctors and of course "Carthago delenda est"
    - cato_the_elder 5y ago
      > On a side note I find "Cato the elder" making this comment a bit amusing, who was known for his opposition to new ideas, of doctors and of course "Carthago delenda est" :-)) Not the first time I get that kind of comment around here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30383370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30383370

kaczordon 5y ago

This is super cool.

InTheArena 5y ago

It does my heart a least a little bit of good to know that somebody has at least enough of a background to do this and is still on the floor of the house. (I don’t know if he is R or D… I don’t care either)

0des 5y ago
- abrookewood 5y ago
jesussaves 5y ago
selfportrait 5y ago
Sadly him being one of the more technically qualified congresspeople (degrees from MIT, etc.) is a scary prospect, considering his political values and the implications that can be had on technology policy. It’s easy for people here to live in a vacuum and say “I don’t care about if he’s R or D”. This is the same guy who voted against lowering prescription drug prices (to name one out of a hundred examples) and who just recently justified voting against the anti-lynching act because he doesn’t believe in “hate crimes” as a legal concept. Just because he’s technically impressive doesn’t mean he’s moral or upstanding, unfortunately.

BuildTheRobots 5y ago

I thought house sized solar panels were at best 300w. 17kw of solar array seems like a lot - I'd love to see how much space that takes up.

solarman5000 5y ago

I think this is VERY cool. I was never a fan of Tesla's 'solution' for EVs, I think it is fitting that this one was repurposed into something more useful. I hope the bidirectional EVs like the new F150 become the mainstream option