{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "For my wedding anniversary my wife and I went to the mountains of Southern\nCalifornia to get out of the heat of the desert. The weekend started of really\nnicely. The crisp clear air next to Big Bear Lake and the sounds of nature\nreally helped to relax us.\n\nWe were staying at an AirBNB within walking distance of the village. This was\ngreat because one of the things we really like to do is walk. This is very\nhard in the desert in the summer.\n\nWe arrived on Thursday and spent that first day just enjoying the weather and\nbeing outside. On Friday the cool mountain breeze picked up a bit, but nothing\ntoo bad. My brother-in-law and his wife have a place in Big Bear Lake as well.\nThey receieved a text message from the local power company that the power may\nbe turned off that day due to 'high winds'.\n\nNow, where we were there weren't any high winds, but the power transmission\nlines that bring the power up to Big Bear Lake were in a potential high wind\narea. The estimated time for the power to be turned off was 3pm Friday.\n\nWell, 3pm Friday came and went and the power was still on. We didn't think\nmuch of it as we walked to a restaurant for dinner. After dinner we walked to\na different place for dessert. We even closed the place down!1\n\nWe walked back to the house and at just about 9:30pm the power went off.\n\nThis was disappointing. We figured that the power would be back on the next\nmorning so we went to bed.\n\nThe next day at 6am the power was still out. At 9am the power was still out.\nAs far as I know, the power was out until the end of day Sunday, but we didn't\nstay to find out. By 10am on Saturday we had decided to leave and come back\nhome. Not only was the power out at our place, but it was out everywhere.\nLike, litterally everywhere in town. The restaurants, the shops, but grocery\nstores. No power was to be had.\n\nThe reason that a power company can just turn off the power like this is due\nto a California Law (law needed). It's couched in terms of saving lives, but\nin my opinion it allows power companies to not perform needed maintenance and\nthen just shut off the power. If you know anything about the California Energy\nmarket, you know it's kind of a shit show.\n\nWell, not everywhere. The power company where I live is one of the best ones.\nThey have inexpensive, reliable power. In the 19 years I've lived in my\ncommunity I can count on one hand the number of power outages ... and one of\nthem was due to an airplane that didn't land properly at the local airport and\nthey clipped the power lines. Within 12 hours though, the power was restored.\n\nLike really, Imperial Irrigation District is one of the best utility companies\nin ever. And the thing about them is that they are based in Imperial County.\nBut I live in Riverside County. They provide power to my part of the county\nbecause when they were first laying out power lines what would become Southern\nCalifornia Edison couldn't be bothered to provide power to the eastern side of\nthe Coachella Valley, so IID did. However, it was only for 100 years. And that\n100 years expires in 2030. At that point one of two things will happen:\n\n  1. IID will renew it's right to deliver power to the Eastern Coachella Valley (where I live) and I will still have inexpensive, reliable power\n  2. IID will not be able to renew it's right to deliver power and I'll be switched over to Souther California Edison. \n\nTo give a sense of SCE, this is the power company that consistently turns off\npower to thousands of it's customers in the height of summer to perform\nmaintenance. This endangers the lives of their crews and their customers. But\nbecause the decision makers don't live in the desert, they don't realize what\na bad idea this is.\n\nAnyway, why am I telling this story?\n\nThe experience in Big Bear Lake made me rethink about my dependence on power\nwhere I live. And that if there is a way for me to become energy independent,\nthen I should investigate it. Enter Claude Code\n\nI used Claude Code to help me plan and budget for a project to help me achieve\nthis goal. All I did was start with a simple statement\n\n> Energy Independence is achieved in two ways:\n>\n>   * limit / decrease the energy consumed\n>   * Generate your own electricity\n>\n\nwith that simple prompt Claude Code output a pretty robust plan. There were\nsomethings I needed to help guide it on (like the fact that I replaced my HVAC\nin 2017 and have kept it serviced every 6 months since so I wouldn't likely\nneed a replacement for a while) and that may roof would need to be replaced\nbefore installing Solar Panels (it's the original roof from when the house was\nbuilt 30 years ago)\n\nWould an 'expert' have given me the exact same advice? Maybe not, but it did\nmake me think about some things that I hadn't considered. Things like\n\n  * evaluating the duct sealing\n  * applying window film to windows\n  * having an energy audit done, and that my energy provider might actually do it for free\n\nI have until 2030 when the switch over to SCE will likely occur. My hope is\nthat by 2031 at the latest I'm on Solar and I have a battery backup.\n\nThis will leave me with anywhere from 1 - 24 months of being on SCE and I'm\nmostly OK with that. I'd like to have this all done before the switch over\nhappens, but it's still possible that it won't. And if it doesn't, then the\nworst that happens is I get a new roof ... which I need anyway.\n\nFor some context on the price differences for power from SCE and IID\n\nSCE: $0.316 / kWh\n\nIID: $0.1976 / kWh\n\nI'm very lucky that I am able to enroll in the average pay program and so my\npower bill each month is $136. On SCE this bill will be $217.\n\nThis still isn't a lot, but if I don't have to pay anything to them I'd be\nhappier.\n\n  1. granted closing time was 9pm, but it's been a while since I've closed a place down \u21a9\ufe0e\n\n", "2025-06-26", "using-claude-for-non-tech-stuff", "For my wedding anniversary my wife and I went to the mountains of Southern\nCalifornia to get out of the heat of the desert. The weekend started of really\nnicely. The crisp clear air next to Big Bear Lake and the sounds of nature\nreally helped to relax us.\n\nWe \u2026\n\n", "Using Claude for non-Tech Stuff", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2025/06/26/using-claude-for-non-tech-stuff/"]], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "primary_key_values": ["using-claude-for-non-tech-stuff"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.604996457695961}