Evan Hoffman

Home NAS build - 2026 Edition

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 06:18:40 +0000

My journey building a new home NAS in 2026 I outgrew the one I had previously built in 2017. I discuss CPU and disk selection, benchmarking raid levels, optimizing configurations with docker and how to leverage AI assistants to simplify configurations.

Why Is My PSE&G Bill Higher? Exploring the CBC Charge

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 23:49:54 +0000

The author received a PSE&G bill for $30.38, higher than expected. Investigating, they discovered a new Customer Benefit Contribution (CBC) charge, aimed at covering social program costs for net-metered solar customers. This charge could lead to significant annual expenses, despite minimal grid usage, causing frustration over the unexpected added cost.

One Year of Real Data From My Solar and PowerWall System

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 09:24:38 +0000

On November 8, 2025, I marked the one-year anniversary of my home solar panels. Installed by Empower, the system includes 36 solar panels and two Tesla PowerWall batteries. Overall, it generated 17,122 kWh while my usage was 18,644 kWh, resulting in reduced utility bills. I find the system beneficial, despite minor issues.

Long Island Solar Panels

Fri, 16 May 2025 08:17:34 +0000

All my posts about rooftop solar panels (installed by Empower on Long Island in summer 2024) are listed here for convenience: </category/solar-project/>

Solar Energy Update: My Experience After 6 Months

Sat, 10 May 2025 08:57:08 +0000

It’s now been 6 months since my rooftop solar panels were brought online and started producing power so I figured it was a good time for an update. So far I haven’t had any problems with the system at all and am very satisfied.

Below are charts of weekly total kWh, blue is pure solar generation, green is power grid net draw/return, and yellow is how much the house actually uses (load):

My First Net Zero Bill with Solar Power

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 03:54:34 +0000

I recently got my PSE&G bill for Feb 20th to March 20th and it was $15.30. Looking into it I saw that my billed kilowatt-hour (kWh) for this period was 0 - zero! The $15.30 charge is from PSE&G’s $0.54/day charge to be connected to the grid plus some taxes, so this is as cheap as it can possibly get while still being on the grid. I was actually surprised to get to net zero this early in the year, I figured it would take another couple months of high-insolation to build up the energy credits, so this was pretty cool.

No Grid Draw for 20 Hours: A Solar Success Story

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:32:37 +0000

Solar, battery, grid for Feb 23, 2024

Above is a chart of solar generation (orange), grid draw/return (yellow), and battery charge percentage (red, right Y-axis) for yesterday, February 23, 2025. I was surprised to see basically no draw from the electrical grid from ~8:00 AM on 2/23 until 4:30 AM on 2/24 - nearly 20 hours.

I’m really curious to see when I’ll make it to a full 24 hours - possibly within the next month! Summer will definitely be interesting since there’s a lot more hours of sun, but also much higher baseline load in my house due to air conditioning.

Powerwalls Achieve 100% Charge from Solar Energy

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:50:02 +0000

Today was the first day of 2025 that the Powerwalls charged to 100% just from solar power. Once they got to full power, excess power was sent back into the grid. Check out the graph below:

Power production for Jan 27, 2025

Sunrise was at ~7 AM and the sky was pretty clear all day today. The Powerwall got to 100% around 2:48 PM and didn’t start discharging until around 3:50 PM. This is pretty cool since it’s only been 37 days since the Winter Solstice. I didn’t really expect to generate this much power until much closer to Spring.

Snowstorm Impact on Solar Production: 5 days Later

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 14:08:37 +0000

It’s been 5 days since the “big” snowstorm that covered the solar panels and today is the first day the temperature has really gotten above freezing:

Temperature for the past week (Jan 17 to Jan 25, 2025)

I’m finally starting to get back to some reasonable solar production:

Solar production - Jan 24, 2025

Looking back over the past 10 days, this is still significantly below pre-storm levels:

Snow Day: How much does snow affect solar production?

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 13:28:06 +0000

Panels covered in snow

It snowed yesterday (Jan 19th, 2025) and left a nice layer of snow on the solar panels, so I figured this was a good time to see how snow on the panels affects production. As you might expect, it affects it quite a bit!

Here’s a chart of solar production from last week, on Jan 14 2025:

One Month Later: Analyzing My PSEG Bill With Solar Panels

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 14:06:41 +0000

I finally got my first PSEG electric bill that covers a full month since the solar panels were turned on. My bill for the period from November 19th to December 19th was $211.69. I’ll admit that this was a lot higher than I expected, however looking at the actual usage it makes sense.

The main reason for the high bill is likely my Powerwall configuration, which was setup to fully charge the batteries during super off-peak (after 10 PM) and then dump the power back into the grid during peak times, to offset the most expensive power usage. This actually did work, and I ended up with $0 peak usage and 236 kWh peak credits banked with the utility. However, my super off-peak usage was naturally way up since that’s when I was charging the batteries, and also charging my EV.

Solar Panel Installation on Long Island: My Summer 2024 Experience

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 19:01:14 +0000

Intro

This is a writeup of my adventure in getting solar panels installed at my house. I’m writing it in case it’s helpful to other people considering solar.

My story has a (maybe) strange beginning. In April 2024 I was in my yard playing with my dogs when a door-to-door solar salesman saw me and in a moment of weakness I gave him my contact information. He was from a company called NYS Solar and he scheduled a consultation for me with a sales rep. A couple weeks later I met with the sales representative and I wasn’t really sold on it - the costs he quoted didn’t seem to make any sense, and he didn’t provide me anything in writing either, he just showed me some stuff on his ipad. I didn’t get a great feeling from him, but it did make me start considering solar for my home.

5 Boro Bike Tour - May 5 2024

Mon, 06 May 2024 10:35:06 +0000

Yesterday my son (18) and I did the 5 Boro Bike Tour for the first time. Here are some notes and my thoughts.

2 weeks before the race, I bought parking at the parking garage next to the SI Ferry at 55b Richmond Terrace on Staten Island on Spothero.com for $11. I saw a lot of posts about parking on the street but $11 is cheap for a full day parking so this was a no-brainer.
I picked up my packet at Center415 on Thursday, May 2 at ~3:30 PM. It was basically empty at that time and picking up the packets for my son and myself took about 2 minutes. I walked through the merch area and bought 2 t-shirts, one that said “FINISHER” which I hoped to be! We were in wave 5, starting at 9:50 AM.
On the day of, I woke up at 5 AM and took a long hot shower.
Checked the forecast one more time, temperature was going to be 50-52ºF and showers/rain in the afternoon.
Clothing layers:
- Base layer was a DSG (Dick’s) thermal long-sleeve shirt. I went to the Under Armour store at the mall but since it’s May they only had 1 thermal shirt there (which I bought for my son), but the DSG shirt was fine.
- Next layer was the short-sleeved “Tech” (Polyester) 5 Boro Bike Tour shirt I got at the packet pickup.
- Next layer was the 5BBT jersey, short sleeve zip-up. I never had a bike jersey before and this was pricey but I wanted it for a souvenir.
- Outer layer was a light synthetic Gerry hoodie from costco. I think this cost like $15?
- Underwear was SAXX full synthetic
- 5BBT bike shorts with the padding in the crotch
- When I asked a guy at the bike shop about how to handle rain, he said just make one of your inner layers a 13 gallon trash bag. Around mile 20 of the race, I did exactly this. I took out a white trash bag, ripped holes for the head and arms, and wore it right over the jersey. I then put the hoodie back on. This served as a very effective windbreaker, kept heat in, and also kept my core pretty dry. A lot of people wore ponchos or full rain gear as their outer layer and they looked like parachutes on wheels in the wind.
- I wore my usual Brooks Adrenaline GTS 23 sneakers and merino wool socks.
- GIRO bike gloves
- Wore a merino wool beanie under my helmet
Food/Drink:
- We bought a box of Peanut Butter Clif bars and one of Chocolate Chip Clif bars. The Peanut Butter ones are far superior. We packed 7 or 8 total.
- I had 4 bottles of Kirkland alkaline water (Costco) in the car but I forgot to attach a second drink cage to my bike so I just had the 1 bottle of water, and my son had 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of gatorade with him. Going over a bump in Central park the gatorade flew out and was lost to the ages so we just had the water, and despite the warnings about dehydration neither of us was ever really that thirsty. There were water fill-up stations at all the rest areas but we didn’t need them.
- At one of the rest areas there was a lot of food but a long line. It looked like they had bananas, oranges, and bagels. I managed to grab a banana and we split it.
- At another rest stop there were some PWR LIFT drinks and we each had one of those.
- The night before the tour I just had some frozen chicken strips and didn’t go crazy - didn’t want to worry about the bathroom during the ride.
Timeline:
- Left the house around 6:45 AM
- Driving from Long Island, Google apparently thought the Verrazano bridge was completely closed and wanted to route me up around Manhattan and said it would take nearly 2 hours (the night before, taking the Belt Parkway and the bridge, it was 41 miles and ~1 hour). I knew that only the bottom level was closed (for the race) so continued that way and as soon as I got on the onramp for the bridge the ETA went from 9AM to 8AM.
- The parking garage was a bit of a zoo but we got a spot and then finished getting ready. We loaded up the hip bag - backpacks with straps were apparently not allowed, so I bought an “evoc” hip bag on Amazon. In the hip bag I put the backup battery, a USB-C cable, 7 Clif bars, my wallet, 2 13 gallon trash bags, and my wool hat.
- At 8:50 AM we were on the line to board the SI Ferry. The ferry ride was fine but really windy.
- We walked/rode up to the starting line, following the crowds and the signs, and finally crossed the official Start line around 10:00 AM.
- 12:09 PM we were on the Queensboro bridge, top level. Great views, even in crappy weather.
- 12:33 PM we were in Astoria park for a drink break. I think they ran out of snacks here but they did have some PWR UP energy drink (or something like that).
- 1:40 PM we were at Commodore Barry park in Brooklyn (near Brooklyn Navy Yard) to pee
- 2:40 PM we were on the Verrazano
- 3:35 PM we were back at the parking garage and ripped off all our wet clothes. (Bring a change of clothes for everybody, including flip-flops or crocs, or another pair of sneakers, and towels and maybe blankets!)

Overall I thought the tour was extremely well run. The weather sucked but I still had a great time. If possible I highly suggest going with other people, I don’t know if I would have had as much fun if I went alone. Part of it was me keeping myself in good spirits just because my son wasn’t having such a great time, so I was hyping him up. Physically, I was definitely not warm but my core was very warm and my legs felt great, I never felt fatigued at all. Since it was raining there was no desire to go fast - my biggest worry was skidding out and eating the pavement, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

Tesla Ownership, day 9

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 16:16:39 +0000

I’ve had the 2024 Tesla Model Y Long Range a little over a week now. Overall I’m very happy with it. My main gripe so far is the lack of Apple CarPlay. While the built in infotainment system is sufficient, it’s simply not as good as CarPlay. One of the most irksome things is the color scheme in the map. The whole map is basically black and white, and the turn-by-turn directions are also monochrome. I find it visually confusing; if the next-turn instruction was a different color it would solve this particular issue.

Selling my car in 2024

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 20:06:07 +0000

The last time I sold my car was in 2013. I had an old 1999 minivan with 130k miles and there was no way it would be accepted in a trade. I posted it on Craigslist asking $1,000 and ended up selling it for $900 and thinking I was still ahead just having someone take it off my hands.

Now in 2024 it was time to sell my car once again. The entire landscape for selling used cars has changed in the 11 years that have passed. Facebook Marketplace seems to have totally crushed Craigslist for “classified ads” type postings, and Carvana and Carmax have also become huge players in this space as well (sorry if I left anybody out, I had to become an “expert” in car selling in the span of a week).

I'm just trying to buy wiper blades

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 18:55:09 +0000

So I have a 2020 Mercedes GLE350 and I want to replace the wiper blades. My whole life I’ve just gone to AutoZone or Advance or Walmart or whatever and just gotten some Bosch or Rain-X blades or whatever but I’ve never owned a fancy car like this. Apparently Mercedes blades are special. So I find the item number on the Mercedes OEM parts site: 167-820-94-01. Now, I can’t tell if this is one blade or two:

Matrix Revolutions Review

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:08:42 +0000

The first ⅓ to ½ of the movie was extremely weak. The dialogue in particular was very cringe around how Tom was a nerd too scared to talk to Tiffany. In the original Matrix, Thomas Anderson was like a dark web hacker doing illegal shit, and now Thomas Anderson is a rich coward apparently. Also the movie felt like extremely anti-video-game? Like they harped on it a lot that video games were bad, which is weird considering the cross-promotion with Unreal.

Get your COVID Vaccine do-whatever-you-want maskless t-shirt!

Thu, 20 May 2021 12:08:45 +0000

Last week the CDC came out with their new guidance that vaccinated people basically never have to wear a mask. To celebrate I made this t-shirt with their infographic, on CustomInk.

Custom T-shirts - Design Your Own T-Shirts Online - Free Shipping! (customink.com)

I ordered one and it arrived yesterday. It looks great! Get yours to let everybody know how great vaccinated life is!

Not much to say?

Wed, 08 Jul 2020 14:17:47 +0000

I forgot I had this site. Life continues, not much interesting to report. Been working from home since March 10, 2020, about 4 months ago. Glad to have the office, but need air conditioning down here.

2010 Hyundai Sonata review - 10 years later

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 13:03:46 +0000

It’s been nearly ten years since I bought my 2010 Hyundai Sonata. It was a big milestone for me because it was the first new car I ever bought, and I got a pretty great deal on it. It’s been a pretty good car, but it’s starting to show its age and enough minor things are starting to break that I think it’s time to replace it.

First, let me say that the car has been for the most part fantastic. We drove it to Florida and back in 2011 (which was pretty cramped, but it did great), and even today it gets 32-33 miles per gallon on the highway, even with a 3.3L V6. It’s pretty peppy and I still think it looks great.

One Year Later

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:38:13 +0000

Today marks one year since I had the Achilles’ tendon repair surgery. Life has mostly returned to normal and I can do everything I was doing before the injury. I do get stiffness in the tendon area, but I actually get that on both legs even though it was only my left tendon that ruptured. And, thinking about it now, I realize that I had had stiffness in both tendons for a while. After sitting for a while, usually an hour or more, when I first stand up I can barely walk for about 10 seconds until it loosens up, and then it’s basically fine. But I can ride my bike, walk, sprint to catch a train, take stairs two at a time, and have even gone back to the ocean a couple times - which was the real leap of faith, since that’s how I injured it in the first place.

Home NAS with ZFS - failed disk!

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 15:12:27 +0000

It’s been over two years since I built my home NAS box. A couple days ago I logged in and noticed some file operation was taking a while, so I did a “zpool status” and was shocked to see one of the disks had failed at some point. I really have no idea when it happened, but the “last scan” date said something about December, so it could have been months. I was a bad Sysadmin and didn’t have alerting for this case - silent HA failover is a risk most people don’t think of, though coincidentally it’s one of the projects I’m currently working on at work.

180 days post-op

Sat, 12 Jan 2019 12:13:24 +0000

It’s now 180 days since my Achilles’ tendon repair surgery. Life is sort of back to normal, though my leg is still not back to 100%. I can’t do a single-leg raise on my bad leg, and running isn’t something I want to try, but most of the pain is gone. Physical therapy has helped a lot but I am winding that down now as well. Anyway, just wanted to give an update for anyone facing this surgery.

2018: good riddance

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 17:00:30 +0000

As 2018 draws to a close and I look back on it I can’t help but think it has been the worst year of my life. Obviously I’m in a very privileged position but the problems started early on and kept on coming.

First of all, I had resolved at the end of 2017 that this would be the year I “took care of” the ruptured disc in my neck that was impinging on the nerve root. So I spent the first couple months obsessing about whether to have ACDF surgery ( vertebrae fusion) or CDR (replace bad disc with artificial one). So I was already pretty anxious as the year started. Regarding the disc, I ended up with another MRI and a doctor informing me that surgery was only 50% effective in fixing numbness in the fingers, and was really only recommended for cases of extreme pain. So I guess it was good news - doing nothing is the right course of action.

16 weeks post-op

Mon, 05 Nov 2018 15:51:17 +0000

Today is 16 weeks since my Achilles’ tendon repair surgery. I spent the weekend mostly resting and am back at work today. Every step I take now is pretty painful in the ankle area. I’m not sure if it’s inside or just the scar being stretched when I walk but I’m starting to develop a limp because it hurts pretty badly when I walk. Still been doing PT 2 days a week, and it’s helped with flexibility and strength but the pain the past 10 days or so has actually been getting worse. Also my calf and ankle seem a lot more swollen now. Definitely a bummer since I thought my recovery was going pretty well.

Day 106 update

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 05:15:44 +0000

106 days since surgery. Pain is starting to come back now, maybe as nerves are coming back. Had to get some new shoes with lower backs that don’t run against the scar.

Day 77 post-op: 11-week doctor's visit

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 08:16:58 +0000

This Monday, October 1st, marked eleven weeks since I had surgery to repair my ruptured Achilles tendon. At my follow up visit with the surgeon, he looked at the incision scar and seemed impressed at how well it’s healed. He said this is how it usually looks for patients after a year of healing. I guess there’s no way to know how much of that is just how my body heals and how much is due to my physical therapist working the scar tissue with his IASTM torture device (joking).

Day 63 post-op: back to the office

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:09:16 +0000

This past Monday, Sept 17th, I finally returned to the office, after almost 11 weeks being out. I was on long weekend (July 4th) when the injury occurred, and worked from home the following week. I then had the repair surgery on July 16th, and spent about two weeks just sitting on the couch recovering - WFH wasn’t really an option for that, since I had to keep my leg elevated above my heart. Since then I’ve been working from my home office.

Day 45 post-op: started physical therapy

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 12:16:26 +0000

Had my first physical therapy session today. The doctor’s prescription said nothing past 0 degrees planar flexion so there wasn’t a lot they could do, but they did a pretty good massage on the calf and worked the scar tissue a bit, and gave me some basic stretching and exercises to do. Rocking the foot front to back, side to side, and around in an orbital motion, as well as scrunching up the toes. Nothing really special, but I guess it’s progress.

Day 38 post-op: no more wedges

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 12:53:58 +0000

Had my “6 week” followup with the surgeon today. 38 days isn’t really 6 weeks, but due to some scheduling issues this is as close as I can get. He took off the last strip of tape on the incision and declared that healed. Most of the scabbing has fallen off and it there’s just a scar there right now.

He had me remove the last wedge from the boot, and also had me stand on the floor without the boot on for the first time. It felt a little weird, but no pain. It definitely felt tight if I bent my knee a bit, and he said it looked like there was noticeable loss of muscle mass in the left leg as well.