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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on

Parliament

By Parliament
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troph

troph 24560

Posted
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2 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

having fun with the infrared thermometer checking out temps at various places in the house (because what else are you going to do going on hour # 43 with no power).

 

got to the fireplace.  Don’t you dare round up a degree...

 

 

615EC6C9-2869-4D59-B7C6-125A44E76F7B.jpeg

A tenth of a degree up and I’d be freaking out. 

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SubliminalHorn
SubliminalHorn

Power back on. 109 hours. I almost want to cry a little 

Machinator
Machinator
BradInATX
BradInATX

I've actually been turning my heat up a degree every time a new Surly member loses power on this thread. It's a nice balmy 94 in here.

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45491

Posted
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10 minutes ago, Podrick's Magic Cock said:

My house was built in 2000 and has a customer cut off valve and a pressure regulator valve (?), too.  The city has their own manhole with the meter and cut off valve.  Older places probably don't have customer side cut off valves. 

Yeah, mine was built in 2010 and when we moved in the builder was clear to point out the water cut off valve in the wall in the garage.  I've never used it, but I damn sure hope it works if I need it in the next few days.

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dhornf

dhornf 52

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gmr548 said:


No. We turned ours off preemptively, tried to turn it in today and got nothing. Girlfriend mentioned it’s all over next door. Apparently a water main broke at 34th/Shepherd, though I’ve heard of water issues throughout the city.

We lost water around noon. Sec. 1 OF. Had sinks and bathtubs dripping and all of a sudden all stopped. About an hour ago decided to shut off main to house and close all but a few faucets in house. Hopefully I made correct decision when it comes back. Hoping the rumor of water main break is correct and not something else.

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BradInATX

BradInATX 9208

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I don’t blame them.  I am in a similar neighborhood where my half has rolling blackouts for days and the other side has had zero issues.  On the neighborhood Facebook page the people with power are posting if they can use their heat pump for the pool or keep their water features on in the pool while my side is freezing our asses off.  One of them even posted how their houses will now have more resale value since they are on the grid that doesn’t get blackouts.  Could be violence soon.

Yeah, but you gotta be careful with that stuff. My neighborhood has a lot of successful blue collar types, so there are definitely a good amount of whole home generators here. For all we know the family with the house that looks like a casino has 2,000 gallons of buried propane tanks running a huge generator. 

The Facebook posts about heating pools, yeah, that would piss me off too. Read the room, guy.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31240

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3 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

I don’t blame them.  I am in a similar neighborhood where my half has rolling blackouts for days and the other side has had zero issues.  On the neighborhood Facebook page the people with power are posting if they can use their heat pump for the pool or keep their water features on in the pool while my side is freezing our asses off.  One of them even posted how their houses will now have more resale value since they are on the grid that doesn’t get blackouts.  Could be violence soon.

Fucking people.

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Pancho

Pancho 44437

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I'm doing my part by explaining those those on Nextdoor this has nothing to do with Sylvester Turner and have more to do with Hot Wheels, Danny, Cruz, and Corn.  They seem to be okay with that response so far as I get no replies to my reprimanding responses. 

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Beantown Express 2.0

Beantown Express 2.0 6552

Posted
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2 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Yeah, but you gotta be careful with that stuff. My neighborhood has a lot of successful blue collar types, so there are definitely a good amount of whole home generators here. For all we know the family with the house that looks like a casino has 2,000 gallons of buried propane tanks running a huge generator. 

The Facebook posts about heating pools, yeah, that would piss me off too. Read the room, guy.

These aren’t generator folks.  Apparently their grid is tied to a water tower or something so it has stayed untouched from blackouts.  

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dcar00

dcar00 14028

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6 minutes ago, Podrick's Magic Cock said:

My house was built in 2000 and has a customer cut off valve and a pressure regulator valve (?), too.  The city has their own manhole with the meter and cut off valve.  Older places probably don't have customer side cut off valves. 

the older homes have a small hole and cover near the big city manhole. the small hole has the customer side, the manhole has the city side.  the customer hole is almost always full of dirt and the handles snap off regularly. Today I was talking with 2 neighbors who didn't know how to cut off the water and both of there's were snapped off.

original owner of my house had a backyard man shed with water run to it for a sink.  Came home one christmas after a freeze and water is pouring out of the shed.  I'm looking for the water cutoff in the garage because I was in a newer house before this older house that had one.  finally had to go to the city side because the customer side was completely buried.  needless to say I had a valve put in to cut off water to the shed and drain it in the winter.

Its a good thing to understand how to cut off water to your house and its amazing how many homeowners don't know.

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23390

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Posted
23 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

the waitlist for cut off valve replacement after this is going to be 12 months.  I just use the city side. I realize there is some type of liability on me but yeah fuck them.

What's the real risk here?  The cutoff is an easy turn with the right tool, and its on the city side of the meter (should drain out with teh rest of the house to avoid any fuckery).  At previous house I always used the city side to cut off cause my side was old as shit.  I usually use the valve on my side of meter at new house, but figured I'd just go ahead and shut down the city's side this time.

 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89396

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

When I have the money to build a home I am referring back to this thread.  Maybe the next 24 plus hours won’t be as bad as forecasted. Hope. Hang in there! Don’t hesitate to reach out for help. There is no shame in that at all. Glad to see some many good Surlies! 

Had a friend who did a partial tear-down/rebuild/2nd-story add-on a few years ago in our neighborhood.  He's the guy who watches This Old House, etc., and gets aroused by that stuff.  Basically, he likes gadgets.  He spent a bunch of money on a fancy plumbing system that has the water equivalent of a breaker box in his garage.  The garage also has a vent from the house HVAC, that he normally keeps closed.  Anyways, the plumbing system allows him to shut the water off to any room and the outdoor faucets from the garage.

At the time he was talking it up, a couple of us he was showing it to were like "yeah, that's pretty cool if you need to replace something, you don't have to shut the whole house down, whatever".  

Now I would consider it a necessity.

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atomheartbevo

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Posted
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16 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

On my neighborhood Facebook the folks without power are now shaming the folks with power. Posting pictures of one house that's lit up like a Christmas tree, and some other lady griping about people's landscape lighting (which in a majority of cases are solar). We're like 12 hours from going full Lord of the Flies here.

Tell that lady that you will be more than happy to light up her landscaping if her husband can't provide the power.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89396

Posted
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15 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

All I know is my power is out, I’m sitting in the dark, cold and trying to read surly on a cell phone with no WiFi and it’s loading data at a pace like watching porn using dial up in the 1990s.  This sucks.

At least you don't have to use a sock under the desk, and can take it into your bathroom and do your bidding there like a civilized person.  

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troph

troph 24560

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Posted
1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

Had a friend who did a partial tear-down/rebuild/2nd-story add-on a few years ago in our neighborhood.  He's the guy who watches This Old House, etc., and gets aroused by that stuff.  Basically, he likes gadgets.  He spent a bunch of money on a fancy plumbing system that has the water equivalent of a breaker box in his garage.  The garage also has a vent from the house HVAC, that he normally keeps closed.  Anyways, the plumbing system allows him to shut the water off to any room and the outdoor faucets from the garage.

At the time he was talking it up, a couple of us he was showing it to were like "yeah, that's pretty cool if you need to replace something, you don't have to shut the whole house down, whatever".  

Now I would consider it a necessity.

Yeah but if you run lines correctly and protect your power that’s less needed I would think.  We’ve managed here with limited plumbing issues because we are half a mile from a wastewater treatment plant and with reliable energy our pipes are fine.  Now our build? Guarantee you we’d be out of luck, it’s BFE and I have no idea how close any critical infrastructure is.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31240

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When mine went back on a few minutes ago, I went and checked the Ercot graph.  The spread was about the same as it was at 2 when it went back on.  When it went off again at 6, the spread had narrowed and I think they were anticipating high demand.

The spread seems to be on an increasing trend for the rest of the evening.

This may signal a return to actual rolling cutoffs.

Let's hope so.

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Pancho

Pancho 44437

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

When mine went back on a few minutes ago, I went and checked the Ercot graph.  The spread was about the same as it was at 2 when it went back on.  When it went off again at 6, the spread had narrowed and I think they were anticipating high demand.

The spread seems to be on an increasing trend for the rest of the evening.

This may signal a return to actual rolling cutoffs.

Let's hope so.

Thought the same thing.  If it goes back out again, and then comes back on, then I think we're actually in rolling blackouts. 

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Shoxthemonkey

Shoxthemonkey 1976

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9 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Had a friend who did a partial tear-down/rebuild/2nd-story add-on a few years ago in our neighborhood.  He's the guy who watches This Old House, etc., and gets aroused by that stuff.  Basically, he likes gadgets.  He spent a bunch of money on a fancy plumbing system that has the water equivalent of a breaker box in his garage.  The garage also has a vent from the house HVAC, that he normally keeps closed.  Anyways, the plumbing system allows him to shut the water off to any room and the outdoor faucets from the garage.

At the time he was talking it up, a couple of us he was showing it to were like "yeah, that's pretty cool if you need to replace something, you don't have to shut the whole house down, whatever".  

Now I would consider it a necessity.

I put in a 20 station Viega Manabloc when I built my house. It has 8 hot circuits and 12 cold. It's mounted on a wall in my basement utility room. All pex.  Worth it's weight in gold.

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Okie State

Okie State 3788

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Posted
My house was built in 2000 and has a customer cut off valve and a pressure regulator valve (?), too.  The city has their own manhole with the meter and cut off valve.  Older places probably don't have customer side cut off valves. 
I have the meter by the street and a valve in my office wall. I usually use the office valve if I'm just working on shit. If I get a break I'm shutting off at the meter.
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Podrick's Magic Cock

Podrick's Magic Cock 191

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Posted
14 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

the older homes have a small hole and cover near the big city manhole. the small hole has the customer side, the manhole has the city side.  the customer hole is almost always full of dirt and the handles snap off regularly. Today I was talking with 2 neighbors who didn't know how to cut off the water and both of there's were snapped off.

original owner of my house had a backyard man shed with water run to it for a sink.  Came home one christmas after a freeze and water is pouring out of the shed.  I'm looking for the water cutoff in the garage because I was in a newer house before this older house that had one.  finally had to go to the city side because the customer side was completely buried.  needless to say I had a valve put in to cut off water to the shed and drain it in the winter.

Its a good thing to understand how to cut off water to your house and its amazing how many homeowners don't know.

Damn, I've been in this house 21 years.  I had no idea they were putting the customer cut off valves in garages, now.  That makes way more sense. 

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dcar00

dcar00 14028

Posted
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10 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

What's the real risk here?  The cutoff is an easy turn with the right tool, and its on the city side of the meter (should drain out with teh rest of the house to avoid any fuckery).  At previous house I always used the city side to cut off cause my side was old as shit.  I usually use the valve on my side of meter at new house, but figured I'd just go ahead and shut down the city's side this time.

 

none in reality, unless the valve breaks or some other damage.  In the old days it was to shut off the water for non payment.  IIRC, originally the manholes were made to be difficult to open unless you had the key.  I can pull mine up with any long screwdriver.

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troph

troph 24560

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One of my best friends handyman is holed up with his family in an RV and below 40 degrees several hours ago. Refusing help from several directions says they have it covered.  Last concern was pets and more than 2 people offered to take them in with all pets welcome. Very worried. Ugh. 

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gmr548 said:


No. We turned ours off preemptively, tried to turn it in today and got nothing. Girlfriend mentioned it’s all over next door. Apparently a water main broke at 34th/Shepherd, though I’ve heard of water issues throughout the city.

Hard to believe, the city does such a great job with it's water infrastructure....

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23390

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1 minute ago, dcar00 said:

none in reality, unless the valve breaks or some other damage.  In the old days it was to shut off the water for non payment.  IIRC, originally the manholes were made to be difficult to open unless you had the key.  I can pull mine up with any long screwdriver.

Yeah.  The city side has a place where you can padlock it shut.  The manhole is nothing to remove though.  I threw a bunch of leaves down there for insulation after I shut it off. 

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Gardner Barnes

Gardner Barnes 1562

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Posted
I have the meter by the street and a valve in my office wall. I usually use the office valve if I'm just working on shit. If I get a break I'm shutting off at the meter.

I have no idea where my cutoff is. I had to use the city side last night.

Fixed it and turned it back on this am.

Don’t tell austin water.
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dcar00

dcar00 14028

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Is it safe to assume at this point that if you haven't lost power at all yet, that you're on a grid that is tied to something considered critical? I can't make any sense of it, and I can't figure out for the life of me what would be near me that would qualify.

thats it motherfucker, we are all coming to your house with no masks...but will bring bourbon, beer, bbq and porn.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted
16 minutes ago, SubliminalHorn said:

Just got word that MIL who has had power the whole time just lost it. She near a hospital. I wonder if if it finally got to the point that even circuits near hospitals are getting taken off. 

Yeah, ERCOT---being proactive as they are---has declared that even critical circuits could be vulnerable to rolling blackouts.  i think it's inevitable in the next 48 hours given their incompetence and political coverage.  However, I have a modicum of optimism that it wouldn't last long because while they are rebooting power to folks, in large part, based on when it went out...the critical circuits can't be off-line for much longer than a few hours.  But then again, it's ERCOT...if they can fuck it up and cause hospitals and fire departments to drain temporary generators to save face...they will.  "You guys remember that Texas storm of 2021...boy the state really Ercot'd that one."  

I am thankful for the power we have had and hope we can make it through any outages.  

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CHIEF

CHIEF 5067

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We are back on power after 36 hours. Been delivering hot meals and checking on houses all day. Came on about 2, so 9 hours. We are blessed, just off the main line and we are still up, running only essential items, no lights, no TV. There are assholes on my block running every outside light, inside light, running the dishwasher, and doing laundry. Fuck those motherfuckers. Would love to turn them off at the meter and put a lock on that bitch. I'm willing to go back off-line for a couple of hours if someone else gets to come back on-line, selfish motherfuckers.

CHIEF

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HiggyBaby

HiggyBaby 2513

Posted
Posted
Is it safe to assume at this point that if you haven't lost power at all yet, that you're on a grid that is tied to something considered critical? I can't make any sense of it, and I can't figure out for the life of me what would be near me that would qualify.


Yeah in the same boat in DFW but not complaining. Blocks away from those who have been out since Monday morning.
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Dewey

Dewey 3280

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Don't tell me these things.  Not now man.

Hospitals have huge generators,  they usually kick on about 5 seconds or less after main power fails. They have a team of maintenance people who test them regularly, not sure how often, if you're near a hospital when one kicks on, it's pretty damn noticeable. Inside the hospital,  most won't even notice the switch, like a flicker of a light and they've switched from main to generator. 

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justhookit

justhookit 4174

Posted
Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, Tailgate said:

Team No Water need more players? I’m ready.

I joined the team about 2 hours ago. Apparently it’s citywide or really close to it. I’m just happy I’ve had power since early afternoon. And was able to gas the car up again without waiting in line this evening. Mid-afternoon the one gas station in town with power had over an hour wait. Overall, things are way better than yesterday.

Edited by justhookit
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troph

troph 24560

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, HiggyBaby said:

 


Yeah in the same boat in DFW but not complaining. Blocks away from those who have been out since Monday morning.

 

Look nearby for public safety, public works or utilities. So power, water, wastewater, critical government departments, police, fire, hospitals.  We were just waiting for our turn then I found a wastewater plant around the corner - half mile as the crow flies - and I’m certain that’s it.

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