ERCOT Urging For Energy Conservation

[atomheartbevo 89514]

1 hour ago, synoptic said:

Some are in worse shape than others, but grids all over the country are becoming less stable.  A combination of many challenges has led to this decrease in stability - technical, environmental, political, economic.  The entire energy infrastructure needs a major overhaul to achieve carbon neutral reliable power.  This will take decades and trillions of dollars to achieve.  We’ve kicked this can down the road for far too long, and now consumers are going to pay much more for less reliable power.  

We went cheap in a lot of places, or were restricted in some manner, with things like leaving our power lines above ground on poles.  Good windstorm, ice storm, etc., and we get fires, or power outages, etc.

Bastrop Fire - 1,600 homes wiped out, over $325 million in damages, because 30mph winds knocked some trees down on power lines, causing lots and lots of sparks.

That's just one example.

[Guest]

Alaskan Cruz, anyone? Don't open if something non-political about a political figure offends you...

Spoiler

 

[Captainant 27524]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

We went cheap in a lot of places, or were restricted in some manner, with things like leaving our power lines above ground on poles.  Good windstorm, ice storm, etc., and we get fires, or power outages, etc.

Bastrop Fire - 1,600 homes wiped out, over $325 million in damages, because 30mph winds knocked some trees down on power lines, causing lots and lots of sparks.

That's just one example.

Wasn't PG&E's reluctance/feet dragging on maintaining their above-ground lines what touched off the last few rounds of California wildfires? Seems like above-ground lines are super cost-effective relative to buried cables, but carry a significantly higher risk with use in some biomes

[UT_OB1 2204]

39 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

About a 9-13 month lead time on a generator at this point

Gold plated?  I can get one delivered to my house by 7/1 if I don’t want to drag my ass to Home Depot. That took about 60 seconds of interneting to figure out 

Edited June 16, 2021 by UT_OB1

[Nivek 16887]

I just installed a new HVAC system. My asshole is already gaping wide open. As long as they use lube....

Ahhh did the variable compressor. I love the system, quiet, works.

[PantsTent 2002]

Gold plated?  I can get one delivered to my house by 7/1 if I don’t want to drag my ass to Home Depot. That took about 60 seconds of interneting to figure out 

Ballgame!

[Beau Vine 54078]

6 hours ago, nineliveslost said:

get ready to be ass raped by how expensive windows are

Last month, a window guy was going door-to-door in my neighborhood offering free estimates to replace all windows in the house.  

The estimate he worked up for me came to $32K.

[UT_OB1 2204]

 

5 hours ago, Bateshorn said:

My local Costco was selling 50/pint a day dehumidifiers for 169 last week.  FYI.

 

7 hours ago, fuggled said:

We have a small one in our bedroom:  https://www.amazon.com/hOmeLabs-Dehumidifier-Dehumidifiers-Basements-Continuous/dp/B073VBWKJZ/

Even those small units have a hose hookup they'll drain automatically.  You just have to have a drain to run it to.

Y’all talked me in to it. Got this one for 149.  $30 cheaper than the same unit on Amazon. Also, the Amazon listing is full of inaccuracies if you compare to mfg specs.  Anyway, should work perfectly in our kitchen/living room (cookie cutter open concept house, so it is one large room separated by a “bar” aka wife and kid shit storage). Humidity is sitting at… 50%, but we have to run the ac all day at 73 to get there. Would jump up to 55-57% if we didn’t run as much.  Will report back when I’m running AC at 84 because the humidity is 10% and I’m saving $200 a month. 
 

https://www.teccpotools.com/collections/home-appliance/products/teccpo-dehumidifier-2-500-sq-ft-energy-star-1-gallon-water-tank-capacity-auto-or-manual-drain-dehumidifier-for-basements-home-large-rooms-50-pint-2012-doe?token=EC-1UR28614WN1733147

Edited June 16, 2021 by UT_OB1

[Beau Vine 54078]

9 hours ago, Cajun said:

https://www.taotronics.com/collections/dehumidifier

Just bought for $172.

I already have a humidifier that we used in the previous house in the winter, so the first thing I'm going to do when it arrives is put them in the same room, plug them in, close the door, and let them fight it out.

[Cajun 11702]

[texhorn 351]

 
Y’all talked me in to it. Got this one for 149.  $30 cheaper than the same unit on Amazon. Also, the Amazon listing is full of inaccuracies if you compare to mfg specs.  Anyway, should work perfectly in our kitchen/living room (cookie cutter open concept house, so it is one large room separated by a “bar” aka wife and kid shit storage). Humidity is sitting at… 50%, but we have to run the ac all day at 73 to get there. Would jump up to 55-57% if we didn’t run as much.  Will report back when I’m running AC at 84 because the humidity is 10% and I’m saving $200 a month. 
 
https://www.teccpotools.com/collections/home-appliance/products/teccpo-dehumidifier-2-500-sq-ft-energy-star-1-gallon-water-tank-capacity-auto-or-manual-drain-dehumidifier-for-basements-home-large-rooms-50-pint-2012-doe?token=EC-1UR28614WN1733147

Might cost you just as much to run the dehumidifier. Even all the energy star ones like power.

[Guest Lobo]

1 hour ago, Cajun said:

You let 'em fight it out? 

#bothsides

[Cajun 11702]

The other night I broke into someone's house and replaced everything with exact replicas...

[Guest Lobo]

Speaking of energy conservation...   

I remember when my grandfather died, I was a little boy.  And I went to the wake with my aunt, and I was kneeling down at the casket.  And I was looking at him, inside the casket.  And I started thinking about my flashlight.  I started thinking about the batteries inside my flashlight.  And then I said to my Aunt, "Maybe he's not dead, maybe he's just in the wrong way."  

[Cajun 11702]

That's a really damned sweet story/memory.

/no homo

[Deej 76657]

Haha. 

I once gave two batteries to an attorney I worked for who needed them for her dictaphone. She got angry with me because I gave her two negative batteries. 

If the law involved common sense, we wouldn't need lawyers. 

[Revolution512 1482]

17 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

We went cheap in a lot of places, or were restricted in some manner, with things like leaving our power lines above ground on poles.  Good windstorm, ice storm, etc., and we get fires, or power outages, etc.

Bastrop Fire - 1,600 homes wiped out, over $325 million in damages, because 30mph winds knocked some trees down on power lines, causing lots and lots of sparks.

That's just one example.

It’s complicated like most of the difficult issues. There’s only so much ROW and easement room, space is limited both above and underground. 

[drt 637]

15 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

It’s complicated like most of the difficult issues. There’s only so much ROW and easement room, space is limited both above and underground. 

Shockingly most of Europe has figured out how to get the majority of their utilities underground with more constraints and less room than what we have. 
 

All my coworkers from Germany look at our telephone poles for power and shake their head every time they visit. It’s not that hard.  Just costs more. 

[Chet Steadman 940]

I know nothing about ERCOTs security features but I would imagine, given recent past performances, they’re ripe for the next big hack by a foreign source.   

[crash_davis 23090]

7 minutes ago, drt said:

Shockingly most of Europe has figured out how to get the majority of their utilities underground with more constraints and less room than what we have. 
 

All my coworkers from Germany look at our telephone poles for power and shake their head every time they visit. It’s not that hard.  Just costs more. 

take that socialist idea to hell!

[phdhorn 6224]

20 hours ago, nineliveslost said:

get ready to be ass raped by how expensive windows are

Did a complete house replacement over 3 years.  $14K but they're like triple-quadruple paned and good for the life of the universe or whatever.
And they were "on sale".

But you know what?  I don't have to worry about windows ever again and they do a tremendous job of blocking out temperature extremes.

[crash_davis 23090]

1 minute ago, Chet Steadman said:

I know nothing about ERCOTs security features but I would imagine, given recent past performances, they’re ripe for the next big hack by a foreign source.   

if's funny that you think that our critical infrastructure isn't hack. these companies are run by bubba's who only care about maximizing profits.

Joe Bob CIO: IT security? What's that? Can we make money from it? Then fuck it.

[WBT 20513]

12 hours ago, texhorn said:

Might cost you just as much to run the dehumidifier. Even all the energy star ones like power.

You gotta get one of those models that reduces the latent heat of condensation

[SquishMitten 10403]

23 hours ago, Captainant said:

TL:DR from the other conversations is: a ~10KW genny will run most of a house in a pinch, look for one that runs on natural gas so you can connect it directly to your home's natural gas line, and hire an electrician to install a transfer switch so you won't kill some poor linesman while powering your house

Thanks!

23 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:

About a 9-13 month lead time on a generator at this point

If the good captain is correct, then Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart all have sufficiently powerful generators in stock (or delivery within a few days if not in a local store).

[Brisketexan 104803]

5 hours ago, Chet Steadman said:

I know nothing about ERCOTs security features but I would imagine, given recent past performances, they’re ripe for the next big hack by a foreign source.   

I'm confident it's one of these, and the password is "password":

 

[Captainant 27524]

18 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Thanks!

If the good captain is correct, then Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart all have sufficiently powerful generators in stock (or delivery within a few days if not in a local store).

Before you start spending money, you should spend an afternoon tracing some circuits in your home that you're thinking of powering and trying to tabulate how much power you'll draw for the entire circuit. From there you'll have a decent idea of what sort of base load you should plan for. If you get a transfer switch installed you basically are powering entire circuits through your breaker box off the generator

During the Feb Freeze this year, we were able to run a fridge, TV, charge a shitload of batteries, and even get some electric blankets going on a 3500W gas unit and a few heavy duty extension cords. I'd imagine that 10KW will let you run most of the critical circuits in your home (and prolly a window unit to boot) but I'm just a jackass on a message board so grain of salt etc

edit: also remembered that if you're running on propane/natural gas, you'll take at 10% hit to power output - so worth considering when purchasing too

Edited June 17, 2021 by Captainant

[Nice Guy Eddie 13426]

5 hours ago, drt said:

Shockingly most of Europe has figured out how to get the majority of their utilities underground with more constraints and less room than what we have. 
 

All my coworkers from Germany look at our telephone poles for power and shake their head every time they visit. It’s not that hard.  Just costs more. 

A buddy of mine is from England but lives in Houston. He had mentioned that his parents thought the US looked like India with all of the above ground power lines.

The newer suburbs of Houston do look better without power lines everywhere. 

[Deej 76657]

5 hours ago, drt said:

Shockingly most of Europe has figured out how to get the majority of their utilities underground with more constraints and less room than what we have. 
 

All my coworkers from Germany look at our telephone poles for power and shake their head every time they visit. It’s not that hard.  Just costs more. 

Then where would all the grackles roost?

[Brisketexan 104803]

Then where would all the grackles roost?

Wherever your car is parked.

[atomheartbevo 89514]

26 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

A buddy of mine is from England but lives in Houston. He had mentioned that his parents thought the US looked like India with all of the above ground power lines.

The newer suburbs of Houston do look better without power lines everywhere. 

Yep, same with friends and relatives from overseas - they don't get why our cities and the infrastructure look like absolute shit.

Friend moved to a newer subdivision near Katy, and their stuff is buried.  Looks so much better, and they don't have as much to worry about with bad storms (and the flood control infrastructure around their subdivision looks to be a lot better than what we had in the early 90s).

[Nice Guy Eddie 13426]

9 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Yep, same with friends and relatives from overseas - they don't get why our cities and the infrastructure look like absolute shit.

Friend moved to a newer subdivision near Katy, and their stuff is buried.  Looks so much better, and they don't have as much to worry about with bad storms (and the flood control infrastructure around their subdivision looks to be a lot better than what we had in the early 90s).

I can't recall any discussion in Houston about a long term plan to bury electric/phone/internet lines.  You would think they would at least put a plan in place to bury 1% of the above-ground equipment each year. That's a 100 year plan but at least it's a start. Hell, even cherry pick the areas that would be the easiest to convert. 

[atomheartbevo 89514]

3 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I can't recall any discussion in Houston about a long term plan to bury electric/phone/internet lines.  You would think they would at least put a plan in place to bury 1% of the above-ground equipment each year. That's a 100 year plan but at least it's a start. Hell, even cherry pick the areas that would be the easiest to convert. 

They have plenty of ROW, etc. in a lot of areas, and at the very least they could get part of it buried.

If it's a new build, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't that much. more expensive to bury from the start, since you can do that stuff before the homes etc. are built.

I have a feeling some bean counters have crunched the numbers on retrofitting, and decided it's cheaper to let storms take the stuff out and just run new line between the poles, than to actively take older stuff developments and bury the infrastructure.  

I get it in places like parts of Austin where they'd have to be dealing with cutting through rock, but Houston?

[Biff Tannen 45597]

20 hours ago, UT_OB1 said:

one large room separated by a “bar” aka wife and kid shit storage)

lulz

[The Dog 43884]

We definitely need to upgrade our infrastructure, but keep in mind many of those European cities (especially Germany) were completely leveled in WW2 and so they had to build everything from the ground up starting in late 1945.

In fact, no building in Frankfurt is older than 1945 as they leveled the entire place and build new in an attempt to be named the new West German capital. 

 

[Brisketexan 104803]

5 minutes ago, The Dog said:

We definitely need to upgrade our infrastructure, but keep in mind many of those European cities (especially Germany) were completely leveled in WW2 and so they had to build everything from the ground up starting in late 1945.

In fact, no building in Frankfurt is older than 1945 as they leveled the entire place and build new in an attempt to be named the new West German capital. 

 

So, what you're saying is, we need to carpet-bomb ourselves?

I'm listening.....

[atomheartbevo 89514]

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

So, what you're saying is, we need to carpet-bomb ourselves?

I'm listening.....

Or have a major hurricane move through and do part of it.

[atomheartbevo 89514]

The good news for the power grid, is that the state leadership says the grid is better than it's ever been.

[Captainant 27524]

37 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

The good news for the power grid, is that the state leadership says the grid is better than it's ever been.

Which to be fair - may be completely true. But the bar is preeeetty low

[Updawg 2263]

7 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Did a complete house replacement over 3 years.  $14K but they're like triple-quadruple paned and good for the life of the universe or whatever.
And they were "on sale".

But you know what?  I don't have to worry about windows ever again and they do a tremendous job of blocking out temperature extremes.

Who did you use?

[The Dog 43884]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

So, what you're saying is, we need to carpet-bomb ourselves?

I'm listening.....

Now that you mention it we could always start with Norman and College Station...

[MissingInAction 24880]

College Station already looks like a post war city in Eastern europe.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10192]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I can't recall any discussion in Houston about a long term plan to bury electric/phone/internet lines.  You would think they would at least put a plan in place to bury 1% of the above-ground equipment each year. That's a 100 year plan but at least it's a start. Hell, even cherry pick the areas that would be the easiest to convert. 

Almost all new Houston area residential areas have been built with underground lines since the 90s. Its mainly just the older areas and just about 100% of all the transmission lines.  I know they looked at doing it but cost was of course the main issue.  Also since we flood they have to weigh the issue that while they would have lower chance of getting knocked out, if they did it could take much longer for them to be able to get them back online.

For transmission lines (where much of the issue happens in storms), besides being about 1/10 the cost of underground lines its easier to add capacity and the lines themselves can carry more power as they are better able to dissipate heat.

[Mole 4320]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I'm confident it's one of these, and the password is "password":

 

It’s perfectly secure:

 

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Mole

[atomheartbevo 89514]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

Which to be fair - may be completely true. But the bar is preeeetty low

A friend was joking that we aren't far off from ERCOT coming out and saying that rolling blackouts/brownouts are going to become the norm as more and more people move in, and construction of new homes/buildings/etc. keeps booming.

[Cajun 11702]

10 hours ago, Chet Steadman said:

I know nothing about ERCOTs security features but I would imagine, given recent past performances, they’re ripe for the next big hack by a foreign source.   

I imagine Putin’s hackers reporting back to Vlad that they can’t do anything to augment the damage ERCOT does on it’s own.

”Comrade President, in Amerika it appears the Capitaleests hack themselves!”

Edited June 17, 2021 by Cajun

[Brisketexan 104803]

2 minutes ago, Cajun said:

I imagine Putin’s hackers reporting back to Vlad that they can’t do anything to augment the damage ERCOT does on it’s own.

”Comrade President, in Amerika it appears the Capitaleests hack themselves!”

Alternate version: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

[Cajun 11702]

1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

Alternate version: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Why you gotta bring aggy into this?

[atomheartbevo 89514]

 

[gmr548 16559]

I know nothing about ERCOTs security features but I would imagine, given recent past performances, they’re ripe for the next big hack by a foreign source.   

ERCOT would probably give hackers computer AIDS. I imagine they’re all running Windows 98 and filled with viruses like an 80 year old

[gmr548 16559]

We definitely need to upgrade our infrastructure, but keep in mind many of those European cities (especially Germany) were completely leveled in WW2 and so they had to build everything from the ground up starting in late 1945.
In fact, no building in Frankfurt is older than 1945 as they leveled the entire place and build new in an attempt to be named the new West German capital. 
 

Much of America is post war.