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Michael Bluejay
Personal blog · michaelbluejay.comscienceeconomics
Michael Bluejay's personal blog at michaelbluejay.com covers science and economics. Since 2008, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 49 times, most often “Rent versus Buy Calculator”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
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49mentions?
34HN people?
2008–2026first – last linked?
Most-linked posts?
- Rent versus Buy Calculator7 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2012-07-25
- /house/rentvsbuy.html5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-04-03
- /electricity/refrigerators.html3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-11-17
- /electricity/laundry.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-07-26
- /electricity/bicyclepower.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-01-14
- /electricity/cost.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-10-22
What Hacker News says?
They're also so much more energy efficient now : > New fridges aren't just a little more efficient, they're incredibly more efficient. A 1986-era 18 c.f. fridge uses 1400 kWh a year, while a modern energy-efficient model uses only 350 kWh — a whopping 75% reduction. At 15¢ kWh, trading in a pre-1986 fridge for a new efficient one would save about $158 a year in electricity costs. And some older fridges are even wors…
Comment linking /electricity/refrigerators.html
on “They Used To Last 50 Years”Submitted Michael Bluejays Battery Guide as a story · 73 points
HN discussion> There's an argument that Internet Service Providers should be able to charge a metered rate based on usage. For home Utilities, this is based on the fact that, indeed, your usage pattern is a couple of things 1) In the best of Utility markets, electricity has no real elasticity. Electrical demand is a constant game of just simply keep pace with existing demand as much as possible. There is no excess capacity probl…
Comment linking /electricity/cost.html
on “Keep the Internet Open”Submitted Saving Electricity (1998 – 2023) as a story · 69 points
HN discussion> There's a huge sense of entitlement with respect to iOS and Android apps. People want the world for free... Available substitutes affect the price of goods, and the internet has brought us endless hours of free distraction. (Also, prices can trend towards the marginal cost of production over time.) Supply and demand determine pricing, not the amount of labor that goes into production. The labor theory of value is…
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on “The Rise and Fall of the Lone Game Developer”Submitted Battery Guide as a story · 41 points
HN discussionModern fridges use roughly 25% as much energy as fridges from the 70s according to this page though: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html I doubt keeping a 60 year old fridge running is the cheapest option.
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on “EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short Product Lifespans”Submitted Michael Bluejays Battery Guide as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHere's the most complete buy vs. rent calculator that I have come across: https://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html His other articles are also often worth reading.
Comment linking /house/rentvsbuy.html
on “Show HN: Should you buy a house and rent it out?”Submitted Michael Bluejays Battery Guide as a story · 2 points
HN discussion"No way"? In a lot of place you can get a 1500 sq ft house for under $150k. https://www.discover.com/home-loans/blog/how-expensive-is-yo... At current interest rates you can make payments on a $150k home if you make $15/hr. http://michaelbluejay.com/house/howmuchhome.html Where in the country can you not make $15/hr by age 26?
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on “For first time since 1880s, more young Americans live with parents than partner”Submitted Michael Bluejays Battery Guide as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIn a lot of places, mortgage payments are around the same as rent, so if you can "buy" (qualify for a good mortgage) you'll be paying less AND your net worth will be growing Of course, the situation is more complicated in areas like the SF Bay and Seattle. Housing prices vs rent basically assume 5% year over year growth forever, so if you think housing prices will be flat, it's economically advantageous to rent Ther…
Comment linking /house/rentvsbuy.html
on “A global house-price slump is coming?”Submitted Don't fly if you can help it as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHere's a fun calculator (not by me) that takes all these things into account. It's great fun! http://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html The author offers a reward if you find an error.
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on “The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment”Submitted Mr. Electricity is your guide to saving energy in your home as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThis is a pretty good attempt, but I've yet to find a calculator that is as comprehensive as this gem. https://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html The site may not be flashy but the content is by far the best out there.
Comment linking /house/rentvsbuy.html
on “Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator”Submitted Rent versus Buy Calculator as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe best/ most powerful rent vs buy calculator I am aware of is the one offered here: https://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html browsing it might give you some ideas of features you can add to your calculator. It's also a small thing but having the choice to select the downpayment based on percentage down might be nice. I don't know why your calculator tells me getting a house is not worth even if it thinks th…
Comment linking /house/rentvsbuy.html
on “Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator”Submitted Michael Bluejay's Battery Guide as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe Deluxe calculator here is the one I used 10 years ago, it's quite good, but it doesn't have the best SEO, so it hide on the second page of the Google results, after a swarm of advertisement pages from mortgage companies: https://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html
Comment linking /house/rentvsbuy.html
on “Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator”Life expectancy of a car 150,000 to 300,000 miles [1] Cost of electricity: 6 to 12 cents per kWh [2] Performance of Model S: 300 miles in 85 kWh [3] Cost of Model S: $57,400 to $77,400 [3] Electricity cost: $2,550 to $10,200 Percentage of $57,400 vehicle cost: 4.44% to 17.77% There's also a supercharger 'activation fee' for the models that don't have the highest end battery [4] which presumably rolls in some of that…
Comment linking /electricity/cost.html
on “The Tesla Approach to Distributing and Servicing Cars”It would be easiest to figure that out for on-demand hot water heating, if you're talking tank it'd be a bit more complicated. You also have to figure out if electric or gas for the water heater. This site has some good starting figures though https://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/waterheaters-figures.... >Groundwater 47°F, Heater set to 110°F: 63° rise x 8.33 Btu x 40 gallons = 20,992 Btus >Groundwater 47°F, Heate…
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on “Why Do American Houses Have So Many Bathrooms?”It's a rather common thread, I'm having a bit of trouble finding an authoritative source but let's look around: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/solar.html >Incidentally, naked solar panels currently (2013) go for about $1 per watt ($1000 per kWp), installation costs are about $4 per watt, for a total installed cost of about $5 per watt, without batteries. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/11/27/the-…
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on “World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency”This one is actually a little better... http://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html
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on “This 4×6 index card has all the financial advice you’ll ever need”Average price in the EU is 0.211€/kwH [1] which is 23 us cent/kWh. A modern fridge uses around 350kWh/a which is 80$/a which is 6.66$/month [1]: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/... [2]: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html
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on “The Oppressive Gospel of ‘Minimalism’”A well-sized electric furnace will use more than 25kW in one home alone: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
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on “Bloom Unveils Its Game Changing Energy Box”I seems to me that the owners of natural gas fired power plants in Texas are being incentivized to find a way to store a few days of natural gas on site, and winterizing that storage, so they can win the lottery the next time things freeze over. [edit - back of the napkin math] Extrapolating from https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=667&t=3 it looks to me like it takes about 8 ft^3 of natural gas for 1 kwh of e…
Comment linking /electricity/fuel.html
on “Clearing price for supplying power to Texas grid –$31.65”My calculations are here[1]. Basically, $2/1000 gallons of water & $0.10/kWh for electricity (I did not bother calculating for gas dryers) were the most recent US averages I could find, and that was rounding up (e.g., electricity was actually > $0.09 but < $0.10). I used this calculator[2], and plugged in appropriate values where I could find most current data. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6107020 [2] ht…
Comment linking /electricity/laundry.html
on “Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome”It may surprise you to learn that people in cities were able to get laundry done before Prim started. Also, it costs me about $2.50 to do a load of laundry (washer + dryer), which is basically what it costs you (see: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html ). And it's in my building. So I'm not sure which concept crystalizes this notion for you, but it's not one based in reality.
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on “Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome”
