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paulbraren.bsky.social
Paul Braren, TinkerTry.com
@paulbraren.bsky.social
290 followers 1.1K following 160 posts
Dad. IT Ops Engineer, previously SE @Pure/Dell/VMware, IBM team lead. VMware vExpert & Certified Pro. #2681.
Sustainability advocacy & consulting.
EV Club of CT co-leader.
TinkerTry.com -PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency & more
YouTube.com/TinkerTry
Posts Replies Media Videos
paulbraren.bsky.social
I earned $3,205.51 for selling power back to Eversource last summer during early evening peak loads. I used those earnings to pay for any grid-power needed for my all-electric home's water/heating/cooling/EVs in winter when solar is lower, resulting in ~zero net energy costs per year!
#VPP #HeatPump
$3,207.51 VPP earnings 1,997 Fleet Homes All electric home in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
November 1, 2025 at 2:06 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
From the hundreds of folks I met during my travels back in VMware's heyday, have any of you found me here on Bluesky?

Photo - Duncan Epping and Paul Braren at the VMware booth, during VeeamON 2018 in Chicago.
Duncan Epping and Paul Braren at the VMware booth at VeeamON 2018.
October 26, 2025 at 2:08 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
As a very active VPP homeowner living off heat pumps year-round, this will be interesting!

Susan is great, see:
"New Report Confirms Trump’s Attack on Offshore Wind Will Raise Electric Prices Across New England"
Statement by Susan Muller, Union of Concerned Scientists
www.ucs.org/about/news/n...
Susan Muller, Pat Knight, Amanda Barker, Larry Chretien
September 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Tech such as wind turbines, see pictures I just took in New London, Connecticut recently, with new developments:

"...Administration Orders Work Halted on Wind Farm That Is Nearly Built"
apnews.com/article/offs...
@apnews.com

ctmirror.org/2025/08/23/r...
@ctmirror.org
New London State Pier on Aug 9 2025, photo by Paul Braren. New London State Pier on Aug 9 2025, photo by Paul Braren.
August 25, 2025 at 1:34 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
With another recent podcast
"Still TBD Podcast - 278: The Super Cheap Battery Revolution"
talking about possible breakthroughs in ESS affordability and grid transformation.

mattferrell.bsky.social‬ at this spot:
https://youtu.be/CRqwU8hZg9A?si=ocf4Mgm6vWC2ZEsz&t=1289
w/ byseanferrell.bsky.social���
Matt Ferrell Still TBD Podcast - 278: The Super Cheap Battery Revolution
August 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Great that you covered these topics:
ESS (Energy Storage System)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_...
DER (Distributed Energy Resources)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distrib...
VPP(Virtual Power Plant)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual...
on a podcast with over 100,000 weekly listeners!
August 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Thanks for timely topics on latest This Week in Tech!
leolaporte.me @ this spot:
youtu.be/uS2LHm3X5vA?...

lschmeiser.bsky.social :
youtu.be/uS2LHm3X5vA?...

jp2e.bsky.social :
youtu.be/uS2LHm3X5vA?...

sam.abuelsamid.com :
youtu.be/uS2LHm3X5vA?...

twit.tv/shows/all-tw...

@lisalaporte.bsky.social
This Week in Tech 1045 The Juice Ain't Worth the Squeeze - Meta's Flirty Chatbot lschmeiser.bsky.social Lisa Schmeiser jp2e.bsky.social Jennifer Pattison Tuohy sam.abuelsamid.com Sam Abuelsamid wheelbearings.media
August 21, 2025 at 12:23 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
So glad you talked about rising electricity prices with sam.abuelsamid.com explaining how VPPs (Virtual Power Plants) in homes (like mine in New England) can both help the grid and lower costs.

leolaporte.me, jp2e.bsky.social, and lschmeiser.bsky.social,
ask me anything!

mattferrell.bsky.social
All electric home in Connecticut Dual EV charging garage, charges with sunbeams As of Aug 19 2025, 1,975 Fleet Homes in my local VPP $3207.51 Payout for participating in VPP last summer of 2024
August 20, 2025 at 2:34 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
@volts.wtf Fun & evocative thread! Brings back memories of trying to say something smart during conversations with my then-professor Daniel Dennett. Majored in philosophy & psychology, with both kinda intersecting over 3 decades later, since I'm now using AI for researching technical solutions.
August 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
@35:12 @mikegrunwald.bsky.social quotes Tim Searchinger:
"100 acres of corn grown for ethanol to generate the energy of a one acre solar array. So humanity would have to use 30% of its cropland to produce 2% of its energy. It just doesn't work."
@timsearchinger.bsky.social
@chrisnelder.bsky.social
[Episode #253] – Bioenergy Illusions
July 27, 2025 at 1:17 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
…it was a great evening for a stroll, to take in the sights and to see others enjoying them too.
July 13, 2025 at 4:04 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Boston, you sure looked good tnite!
July 13, 2025 at 1:35 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Way to go, Lon Seidman,
Tech Expert @lon.tv and @nbcconnecticut.com for helping Connecticut residents avoid scam texts!
At 1 min. mark here:
nbcconnecticut.app.link/RbeGw7FqUTb
Lon Seidman of LON.TV warns of spam texts.
June 3, 2025 at 10:18 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Join BuildGreenCT & I tomorrow at 9:30am ET!

"Green Homes Community Roundtable"
Led by Andrew Baumer
- Home Committee Chairman, Connecticut Green Building Council
- Sustainability Consultant, Energy Efficient Building & Alternative Transportation

Free registration:
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
May 8, 2025 at 12:38 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
After 9+ years with Ubiquiti's EdgeRouter Lite and EdgeRouter 4 firewalls/routers/gateways, it's time for an upgrade
techspecs.ui.com/unifi/cloud-...
to get my home network ready for WiFi 7 and >1G internet speeds.

(this isn't a sponsored post/not affiliate links)
May 8, 2025 at 12:05 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
>320K view article updated!

How to update any VMware ESXi Hypervisor to the latest using ESXCLI for easy download and install

ESXi 8.0 Update 3d | 04 MAR 2025 | Build 24585383
ESXi 8.0 Update 2d | 04 MAR 2025 | Build 24585300

tinkertry.com/easy-update-...
@vmware.bsky.social @vexpert.bsky.social
March 29, 2025 at 2:08 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Not the greatest timing for me personally, but I can't claim that I wasn't warned.
#homelab
March 29, 2025 at 12:58 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Especially when you consider this hack
www.perplexity.ai/search/info-...
that few people don’t seem to know about.
March 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
IoT SuperServer SYS-E403-14B-FRN2T (New, Intel Xeon 6)
www.supermicro.com/en/products/...
March 13, 2025 at 3:27 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
That time of year - sun getting stronger faster as we near the vernal (spring) equinox here in New England. Coincides with my heat-pump based whole-home heating/ventilation/humidification demands lessening quickly.

This “SUN-DAY!” span.io app alert never gets old!
@mattferrell.bsky.social
SPAN iOS App alert says: “SUN-DAY! (Star emoji) Tuesday was a SUN-DAY! 92% of your home was (lightning emoji, meaning power) by (sun emoji). Span.io App on iOS shows my 28,678 kWh annual solar generation curve for 2024 here in Connecticut.
March 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Just got back in, after this exact sequence, that’s good, and all my priorities of my circuits look just fine.
March 5, 2025 at 3:58 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Issue w/ screenshots, here's the error re-post:

"SPAN Action Requested
We are aware of an issue where backup priorities have been set to non-essential. We are working to restore your priorities and encourage you to reset them in the meantime.”

-3rd view by (unsupported) API in @home-assistant.io
March 5, 2025 at 1:14 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
@tommolog.bsky.social
March 4, 2025 at 3:19 AM
paulbraren.bsky.social
Glad you're looking into this Tom, thank you! It’ll be interesting to discuss this with my experienced electrician who installed my SPAN panel, dual 48A EV charging, heat pumps & heat pump water heater. He also services DC fast charging gear.
TinkerTry.com/span-smart-p...
@mattferrell.bsky.social
Powerwalls and Bosch IDS 2.0 heat pumps.
February 20, 2025 at 9:07 PM
paulbraren.bsky.social
If you have an Ego 24" two-stage snow blower, you may want to have wear items on hand to keep going during storms, even if something wears out/breaks. Yesterday, finding sheer pins at a Lowe's turned into a bit of a challenge, so I had to drive before I plowed (just 3").
@mattferrell.bsky.social
February 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM