What I Got Wrong Building My Net Zero Home. Go to https://surfshark.com/undecided or use code UNDECIDED at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! I have some regrets. A few years ago, I set out to build my dream net zero energy home. I've been living here for a little over two years now, and so far, I’ve been more than satisfied. I have enough solar and battery storage to balance out all of my annual energy use. A highly efficient geothermal heating and cooling system supplies me with hot water for almost no money. And this is the most comfortable and energy efficient home I've ever lived in. Overall, I absolutely love this house. But even the best laid plans have issues, and mine were no different. If you want to avoid expensive mistakes, learn what actually works in a net zero home, or just see what tech lived up to the hype, there might be some lessons you can learn from the choices I made … and the ones that I didn't make.

Watch Did I Get the Wrong Heat Pump: Geothermal vs Air Source https://youtu.be/CPwQTUaU-jI?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7FwYRnWkpCSkAeFOzrgh5h

Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/what-i-got-wrong-building-my-net-zero-home/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:02 - The Hot Water Situation

03:25 - The Infrastructure I Skipped

06:27 - The ERV Problem

08:40 - Smart Panels

10:19 - The Thermal Envelope Decision

11:46 - Solar Expansion

14:24 - Future-Proofing: Conduit Everywhere

The Mystery Behind Donut Lab's "Impossible" Battery. My wife and I are loving our Roborock Saros 20. If you’d like 13 - 14% off a Roborock Saros 20 and Saros 20X from March 23 - 29, the Roborock Saros 20 is available on Roborock (US) https://bit.ly/4bI2gac (Canada) https://bit.ly/419pcZL and Amazon (US) https://amzn.to/3PicXYg (Canada) https://amzn.to/4cN4ZjF, and the customized Roborock Saros 20X package available at Target Coming Soon and Best Buy https://bestbuy.7tiv.net/oNqZPe comes with one pair of mop cloths and one 200ml cleaning solution in addition to Saros 20! Ever since Donut Lab announced their miracle solid-state battery, the internet has been absolutely certain about what it is. A capacitor. Vaporware. A scam. Except when you actually dig into those explanations, a lot of them start falling apart. Here's what Donut Lab is actually claiming: more energy per pound than today's best lithium cells. No lithium. No cobalt. No hard-to-get metals. And a battery that charges in five minutes, but lasts a lifetime. Some experts say those specs are physically impossible. Others think they've already cracked the case and figured out who really built this thing and what's actually inside. We don't know yet if Donut Lab's claims will hold up. They’ve been releasing third-party tests slowly over the past few weeks. But let's take a closer look at what this battery could be… what it probably isn't... and what Donut Lab could possibly gain by exaggerating its claims. It’s not as clear-cut as you might think.

Watch How Close Are We to Solid-State Batteries? https://youtu.be/uspSYVssGXU?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

@TwoBitDaVinci Donut Lab Analysis:

https://youtu.be/3PwEA-tBufI?si=F_5eQRJ6y9mFcrkf

https://youtu.be/AzIpgYi4rjM?si=ZLelDrIjaHZrGDoW

@ZirothTech Donut Lab Analysis:

https://youtu.be/Qsi-TS8PX7U?si=8xEJxzamGqwS9VG3

https://youtu.be/H45HXs4xXfA?si=Ux77F5J6hVk0RGTE

Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/the-mystery-behind-donut-labs-impossible-battery/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

06:08 - Too Good to Be True?

13:01 - How This Could Work

#roborock #robotvacuum #vacuum #saros20 #smarthome @roborockglobal ​

Should You Wait for the Next Solar Breakthrough? Use my code MATT at https://eightsleep.com/mattferrell for up to $350 off the Pod 5 Ultra. Perovskite solar cells could hit 35% efficiency and cost half as much as silicon, but they're still years away from your roof. Meanwhile, silicon panels just lost their 30% federal tax credit in the US, making them suddenly more expensive. So here's the $20,000 question: what’s the better path and value? Should you wait for the next solar breakthrough technology to finally arrive, or install silicon solar panels now? Which one gives you a better bang for your buck?

Watch Did I Get the Wrong Heat Pump: Geothermal vs Air Source https://youtu.be/CPwQTUaU-jI?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/why-waiting-for-perovskite-solar-isnt-worth-it-solar-3-0/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://undecided.link/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast: Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - https://undecided.link/stilltbd-podcast

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://undecided.link/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://undecided.link/patreon

Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Geothermal vs Air Source Heat Pump: Which is Worth It? What if the most efficient way to heat and cool your home might not actually be the best choice for you? Geothermal heat pumps are the gold standard for efficiency. They're also the most expensive upfront investment you can make in your home's HVAC system. So, are they really worth it? Or should you go with an air source heat pump instead? I've been living with my geothermal system for two years now. I reached out to my friend Paul Braren, who installed an air source heat pump system in his home around the same time I was building mine. We're both in New England, we both have detailed energy monitoring, and we both ditched fossil fuels completely. It’s the perfect setup for a real-world comparison. Here's the thing, though. After crunching the numbers, this isn't going to be the straightforward "geothermal wins" or "air source is better" story you might expect. The actual data surprised both of us.

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Paul Braren - After 4 New England Winters Living With Just Heat Pumps - https://tinkertry.com/planning-for-heat-pump-comfort

Watch How 40-Ton Spinning Wheels Are Saving The Power Grid https://youtu.be/Z95t-f-0IjI?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecided.tech/geothermal-vs-air-source-heat-pump-which-is-worth-it/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!

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⚙️ Gear & Products I Like

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Visit my Energysage Portal (US):Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:56 - My Geothermal Journey

02:59 - Paul's Air Source Experience

04:10 - The Contractor Reality

05:17 - Living With The Systems

08:27 - The Dehumidifier Situation

09:13 - The ERV Integration Issue

10:32 - The Data Showdown

12:53 - Seasonal Performance

14:25 - The Cost Question

16:46 - The New England Challenge

17:32 - When Each System Makes Sense

How a Mechanical Battery Could Prevent Deadly Blackouts. Go to https://surfshark.com/undecided or use code UNDECIDED at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! When Spain's power grid failed on April 28th, 2025, it quickly became a very serious issue. Not only for the economic impacts, but life-or-death serious due to multiple, indirect deaths associated to the blackout. Emergency services, transportation, communication and other vital services were halted during this power outage. Not only did it blackout Spain, it also hit Portugal, parts of France and Morocco. But here's the thing … the UK went through something very similar back in 2019. The difference is: they've already figured out how to stop it from happening again. Spoiler: it involves 40 metric ton flywheels. Lots of them. We've covered flywheels before. But there's a wild new use case involving technology originally designed for space lasers. Yeah, you heard that right.

Watch What This Aluminum‑Ion Breakthrough Means for You https://youtu.be/svHeBLgpRQs?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecidedmf.com/how-40-ton-spinning-wheels-are-saving-the-power-grid/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server:

https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like

https://undecidedmf.com/shop/

Visit my Energysage Portal (US):Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://energypal.com/undecided

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What This Aluminum‑Ion Breakthrough Means for You. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UNDECIDED at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/undecided Your lights just flickered. Not for long. Just a split second. You probably didn't think much about it, but somewhere a battery may have just saved your city from a blackout. These kinds of batteries are for preventing the entire electrical grid from collapsing. And it turns out, the batteries doing this job need to be fundamentally different from the ones we've been talking about for years. A German research institute has built a battery that responds faster than you can blink. It's made from cheap, abundant aluminum instead of lithium, and it doesn't use a flammable electrolyte. In real-world grid tests, it reacted instantaneously to smooth out power fluctuations that would have caused widespread blackouts. But can a battery designed for speed and power instead of range actually scale into the grid-stabilizing role we desperately need?

Watch The 90% Price Crash That Changed Everything https://youtu.be/nrTCgZmUFCY?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecidedmf.com/why-aluminum-batteries-could-beat-lithium/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like https://undecidedmf.com/shop/

Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://energypal.com/undecided

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

06:22 - The Dual Ion Design

08:39 - The Aluminum Advantage

09:11 - The System Design Breakthrough

Why Everyone Gets Heat Pumps Wrong. Go to https://ground.news/undecided for an innovative way to stay fully informed on tech, energy, the climate and more. Save 40% on the Ground News unlimited access Vantage plan with my link. If you believe half of what you hear about heat pumps, you'd think they're a $20,000 scam that stops working the second it gets cold outside. But here's what the skeptics don't mention: modern heat pumps work in temperatures down to -26°C (that's -15°F), and those "reliability" complaints? They usually trace back to installation problems, which are shockingly common. The truth is, heat pumps are some of the most efficient climate control tools money can buy. Their financial and environmental benefits make them worth considering. Today I want to pull apart the biggest myths around heat pumps, so you can tell if they actually make sense for your home, in your climate, with your budget.

Watch The 90% Price Crash That Changed Everything https://youtu.be/nrTCgZmUFCY?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecidedmf.com/episodes/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:

Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like https://undecidedmf.com/shop/

Visit my Energysage Portal (US):Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

For a curated solar buying experience (Canada) EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://energypal.com/undecided

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

02:06 - The Cost

07:42 - The Cold

10:10 - The Competition

11:50 - The Conditions

13:13 - The Consistency

Are Sodium Batteries Already Dead? Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code UNDECIDED at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/undecided I’ve got sodium batteries right here in my hands, but three sodium battery companies went bankrupt in the last year. Another shut down voluntarily and returned $9 million to investors … even though their technology worked. And one had $25 million worth of orders sitting in their warehouse that they couldn't legally ship. While sodium batteries were busy getting better, lithium prices crashed by 90%. The one advantage sodium was supposed to have, just evaporated. And now we're left with a technology that works, products you can actually buy, but an industry that seems to be collapsing around it. So what does this mean for you? Should you avoid sodium batteries? Are they a dead-end technology? Or is this just growing pains before sodium takes over?

Watch Why This Solar Breakthrough Matters More Than Perovskite https://youtu.be/F_OPrOpccJs?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

Video script and citations: https://undecidedmf.com/are-sodium-batteries-already-dead/

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast: Video version - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA

Audio version - http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server: https://link.undecidedmf.com/discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like

https://undecidedmf.com/shop/

Visit my Energysage Portal (US): Research solar panels, heat pumps, and more to get quotes for free! https://undecided.link/energysage

For a curated solar buying experience (Canada)EnergyPal's free personalized quotes: https://energypal.com/undecided

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I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

Chapters

00:00 - Intro

01:56 - Batteries You Can Get Now

03:26 - The Sodium Cemetery

09:20 - But the Giants Are Still Betting Big