crimsonlonghorn

Just lost power in Greatwood again after having it all day. We had moved back in from the farmhouse and now we are headed back there for the night. Lights are still on there but no water. I’m pretty sure with the power loss our neighborhood water pressure is going to rapidly deteriorate. Considering it came on this morning right at 8:00 and then went off again right at 5:00, I’m thinking this is planned and it won’t be back for a while Fuck you, Centerpoint.

I know I don't know anything about cows, but I was surprised by how easily my tenant's took the cold this week. My chickens too, for that matter. Went to check on all the animals yesterday morning and they were all acting normally. I guess single digits isn't cold enough to bother them like I thought it would be.

I turned mine off from the start just in case. Wife thought I was crazy. Then when we went to turn it back on on Monday, there was nothing and we were afraid we had screwed something up and had frozen up anyway. Turns out our water company had lost pressure. This morning they turned their pumps back on and we had water just fine. I was very gruntled. However, I did manage to burn up my pool equipment when the power came on. I forgot to switch than breaker off when we lost power, then we were gone when it came back this morning and pumps decided to try to run all frozen up. Lots of smoke and steam coming out of those pumps. Now it's my insurance company's problem.

If the pressure is low, the ice can sometime expand inside of the pipe instead of through the side of it. Unusual, but can happen. The problem with burst pipes usually comes from pressure on both sides of the ice and it has nowhere to go but through the wall of the pipe. Could be a blessing in that case when your water utility pressure goes down.

LOL, I loaded up on propane on Friday for my outdoor heaters and fire pit this week. Had no idea my hoarding would pay off inside the house.

In about 40 hours of total use (turned off while we are asleep in a small room with the doors closed), maybe about a quarter of the 20# tank, probably a little less. Designed to be used with 1# bottles and I’m sure I would have blown through a few of those by now. Still, it is pretty efficient I think. edit: this is in respone to @Somnio my phone screwed up the reply

Didn’t know what I was picking up last week in my hasty preparations, but I’m definitely team Little Buddy at this point. Going to acquire a couple more and some more 20# adapter hoses as insurance before next winter. Much better than electric space heaters, especially when there is no electric to use.

Agreed. Ercot can only distribute what they have. They don’t own any power plants or utilities. This is mostly on the generators for not being ready and on the severity and broad duration of the event relative to infrastructure. This was truly a tail event given the excessive cold over the entire state. But Ercot is certainly to blame in the sense that they have regulatory oversight duties that obviously were not performed in getting the generators and infrastructure ready for a situation like this.

Turn it down to the lowest setting and let your hot water trickle. Some would advise to turn it completely off and relight later, which isn’t a bad option either.

Goddamit. I turned off and drained the water at the farm and barndo on Sunday. We were looking forward to turning it back on this afternoon and having hot showers and flushing toilets... walked outside a few minutes ago and saw water on the ground under the sediment filter. I didn’t think to take that off Sunday and now the saturated filter froze and cracked the housing. No water today because now I gotta heat it up and get it off and then find a new housing before we can turn it back on in the grand scheme of things it’s minor and there’s no ancillary damage and it will be easy to fix, but in the grand scheme of things it’s extremely annoying.

My dad in Snyder says they haven’t lost power. Same with brother in Lubbock, who happens to work for the electric coop and was sending “oh shit” texts early yesterday morning before it became obvious to normal people what was about to happen.

Stupid ducking autocorrect. LOL

Found out late this afternoon that our barndomonium had power and internet so we headed out to the farm for the night. No water but we have lights and space heaters. Looking at the weather data log, it appears the power never went out here. We are about 2 miles from the Parish power plant. Maybe that has something to do with it. Or maybe Booth is just higher priority than Greatwood. 😉

I live less than 10 miles from a coal plant that hasn’t been shut down. WTF is my power off?

We shut our water off and drained it last night night and then when we went to turn it back on this morning, there was nothing. I’m presuming it’s frozen somewhere between the house and the street. Not good, but at least it didn’t freeze (and burst) inside the house. We’re also one of those whom centerpoint says can kindly get fucked now that the rolling blackouts are over. I’m fine with resource issues - I understand why there was a problem - not sure I understand or appreciate now the idea that they are picking and choosing who gets to freeze and who gets to lounge at home in comfort.

With the power out, I’m now worried about my pool equipment.

Have lived in this house 7 years and just now turned on the gas fireplace for the first time. Kind of nice considering the circumstances.

Finally lost power in Sugar Land about 7:45. Mrs CL is a real company woman and is losing her mind that she can’t turn on her computer and start working. Lord help us all. The kids are less worried about their Xbox.

They have the exact opposite situation up north. When I lived in Massachusetts, most of the homes in our "nice" neighborhood didn't have air conditioning and those that did were considered to be a luxury. We had central AC and we only had to run it 10-15 times a year. Oscillating fans in front of open windows was usually all you needed. But one year there was a "heat wave" (i.e. 100 degrees for 3-4 days) and our neighbors thought they were going to die. But every house damn sure had a heating oil system with a boiler and radiators. You plan for what is normal.

That too. I forgot to mention that part. I bet they could handle cold with no precipitation. But ice on the lines causes problems.

Saturday I have a shoot and Sunday we have our first Little League practice. Life returns to normal quickly in Houston.

This kind of thing is so rare - the last time this happened was 40 years ago - the cost of planning for it, or retrofitting, is way too high relative to the risk. One night in 40 years. That's 1 in 14,600 compared to the A/C running maybe, 7,000 of those nights? I'm not an engineer, but this is a common problem... how much deviation do you plan for relative to your budget? We could make every house gas with a backup propane tank and a backup generator. but it would raise the cost of the house by another $50,000. Is that "worth" it for one night in 40 years? Most people would say "no" and those affected tonight will probably forget about it in a few weeks. And that ignores the added expense of buying all the propane and laying all of the gas lines, etc etc. Utilities do this kind of planning all the time. Someone else mentioned as well that most madd built new construction homes are engineered to last through the 1-3 year warranty period and that's it. They're not going to put more money into a tract home than they have to. And most of the buyers are fine with that because they get granite counter tops and "wood" floors and that new home smell. (Not making a judgment at all, just an economic observation about preferences) The bottom line is that we could seriously prepare for this, but is it really worth the money or could that money be better spent relative to the rarity of the circumstances?

Because the power profile of a hot summer day is different than that of a cold winter night. Electric space heaters are extremely inefficient and draw a shit ton of power. Most people running them at night at probably still using more power than they normally do during the day with all the lights and televisions on. And some houses, even without space heaters, are still running electric forced air heaters, which are still more inefficient than cooling systems. Also, during hot summer days, you have wind and solar providing a lot of capacity in Texas. You have neither during a cold winter night because the sun isn't shining and the turbines can freeze up. So you have extra demand and reduced supply. That adds up to shortages. If these types of nights were more common they'd adjust the system to be able to cope with better, but these types of event are extremely rare so instead of spend the money for something that happens once in 40 years, they just say, "tough it out" and deal with it for the 24-48 hours it lasts and then they get back within the normal bounds they have prepared for. EDIT - quoted the wrong post for response, now fixed

I'll say.