Nice mini-split / solar story.  DIY is the bees knees when a person is able to do it.  I DIY'd my whole-home solar and battery system and I am seriously considering DIY'ing a whole-home heat pump replacement for my furnace and home A/C this year.   I've been running a small portable heat pump window unit in my living room this winter as a test, with good results.

once the snowblowers work well, it'd be cool if neighborhoods bought them for snow removal of sidewalks, like one per block, just a swarm that helps keep things clear for everyone.

You're avoiding lawsuits with the robot snowblower until it runs over someone or their pet. You'll probably also have some insurance exposure on that.

10:52 I could see sodium batteries being used as the smaller batteries to start up cars too, since it holds heat better, and maybe have lithium for the bigger battery.

Wait, you did an episode on heat pumps? Shocking! 😂

Consider 3D printing antique car parts at Jay Leno's garage/museum.  Should be a fun story there.  Probably some other technologies there, also.

I was asking for quotes from a big HVAC company here in Houston.  For a single state heat pump, it was $21,000, a 2 stage HP was $23,000, and an Inverter (aka Variable) HP was $28,000.  A few months later my 22 year old AC had a leak that could not be economically repaired.  So ran out to Sam's Club (Costco did not have one) and bought a 12,000 BTU window unit (and it was Inverter type, just like a mini-split!) for *$250*, and it was good enough to keep house comfortable though the 95+ degree summer.

BONUS! The house humidity dropped below 48%, which the main could never do, and collected about 2.5 gallons of water a day to water the tomato plants.

Ref: 26:30
Matt has included it before, but it should really get more attentions, and that is using electricity for cooking.
It saves energy and is much better for the indoor climate.

I have been building passive solar supper insulated homes .It is shocking to me to see the total lack of implementation  of building practices by both the industry on the codes that could reduce the energy demands of structures and the improved comfort of living in an efficient  home.

Listening to your conversation makes me love Europe even more! Consumer protection actually does have teeth and would fined that shop, if anyone would have complained! I.e. it would not happen automatically, because the data would not be available easily for monitoring, but a complaint would have had consequences...
and on that story on the utility helpdesk: my utility company from about 15 years ago offered a display for your home that would show you your energy consumption and you could get plug energy sensors at a discount from them, if you were a loyal customer! Of course they had also a quite extensive website on how to improve energy efficiency of your home...

I would be interested in the sneaker episode!

I am fortunate to live in a city that provided air sourced heat pumps for low income people for free that were using oil furnaces to heat their homes. I don't know if this program still exists as I received my heat pump 6-7 years ago. It is such a blessing as it works great to heat in the winter but added the great benefit to of cooling in the summer.

Split airconditioners work fine for heating, if you are in a moderate climate. If not you need to pay a bit more for a proper air2air heatpump. I loved that example of the graduate electrification!

I second the F1 tech leading to the general automotive sphere, as well as any other "higher tech" leading to daily use.

The new Tesla battery is specifically the dry anode.

The Silver Cymbal channel just did a puncture test on a Blue-Etti with a sodium battery. It was a fireworks show. I have no clue where this fits   in the battery safety conversation, but I don't feel the need for a grain of salt just yet.

Are heat pumps a scam?  No

Are the hvac equipment manufacturers peddle garbage equipment?  Yes

12:40 No worries about y'all talking about your experience. I just wanted to weigh in about Ryan and how massive the storm was. In the metroplex I think the most anyone got was like 5 inches of build up. And school was closed half the week. We are not made for any amount of snow and ice.

On sport: I know that Sleep 8 advertises the athletes that use their product. So a mashup episode about interesting tech that has come out of sport in general would be cool. I hadn't thought about some improvements to surgical technics coming out of getting athletes back on the field. Soccer players all wear I think effectively GPS now that I suspect also records heart rate and other things.

The state of Florida nows allows solar on mobile homes as I understand.   HOA's still have rules against solar, how do fight that?

Agreed the problems of living with a solar system should be kept
entirely away from the house, mine is over 200 ft.  That includes a
genset which cost far less than batteries, but has not been used for
30 years.  

Batteries cannot solve the problem that most solar energy is collected
in summer, but most heating energy is needed in winter.  Net Metering
does, but then you do not need batteries.  

The other commenter was consistent with my plan, having
multiple mini splits avoids the problem of a central heat system
causing a catastrophic winter failure situation.  Bruce Roe