Biden declares a winter emergency for Texas.

[[DHT]Osiris]

I almost wish they wouldn't sell AC T-Stats that could be set below 75 or heat T-Stats that could go above 70.

Unfortunately there are people who for medical reasons NEED temperatures outside those ranges.

I'll give you heat to 60 if you give me cool to 70.

 

[nakedfrog]

I hope you don't like AC, gang!

 

[Zorba]

Small sacrifices to potentially benefit themselves. Providers may be forced into rolling blackouts or worse. The amount of power involved is stupendous, so when things start blowing up it gets ugly fast. It's specialized equipment & spares are scarce. Like anything else, it won't last nearly as long running at the redline.

You obviously don't know many Texans.

 

[Zorba]

I'll give you heat to 60 if you give me cool to 70.

I'm fine with 75 during the day, but at night I need the cool. Keep my house at 62 during the night in winter.

While I've been working at home, I still let my house go into setback until 4, usually around 79 or 80 by 4 but the AC hasn't ran all day, thank god (Owens Corning actually) for good insulation.

 

[Jhhnn]

You obviously don't know many Texans.

They're gonna do what they're gonna do, then deal with the consequences as they arise. Freedumb & shit.

 

[Paratus]

Interesting view on the issue from a plant repair engineer

 

[Fenixgoon]

Interesting view on the issue from a plant repair engineer

so if i get this right...the free market will save us? /s

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Interesting view on the issue from a plant repair engineer

The way I look at it - people like this guy with a high billing rate - along with people continuing to crank their usage and NOT lowering their thermostats are what gets action.

Anyone who tells you to reduce use, blah blah blah - are the people who have a monetary ADANTAGE to you NOT using electricity. Why? Because since we operate on real-time market rates, continued usage during high market-pricing = companies losing.

Fuck em. Adapt or die.

 

[Fenixgoon]

The way I look at it - people like this guy with a high billing rate - along with people continuing to crank their usage and NOT lowering their thermostats are what gets action.

Anyone who tells you to reduce use, blah blah blah - are the people who have a monetary ADANTAGE to you NOT using electricity. Why? Because since we operate on real-time market rates, continued usage during high market-pricing = companies losing.

Fuck em. Adapt or die.

i've read this post multiple times now and i still have no idea what you're actually trying to say.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

i've read this post multiple times now and i still have no idea what you're actually trying to say.

No worries, I know you're slow. You don't have to keep telling us.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm fine with 75 during the day, but at night I need the cool. Keep my house at 62 during the night in winter.

While I've been working at home, I still let my house go into setback until 4, usually around 79 or 80 by 4 but the AC hasn't ran all day, thank god (Owens Corning actually) for good insulation.

Yeah, we've got excellent insulation too. As long as it's 80 or less, I can usually carry the night air without turning the AC on at all.

 

[sandorski]

No worries, I know you're slow. You don't have to keep telling us.

Your act of defiance is useless.

 

[Paratus]

i've read this post multiple times now and i still have no idea what you're actually trying to say.

What he’s saying is hurting the power providers because they have to pay emergency prices to expensive engineers and purchasing expensive fuel at market rates to provide power to customers at fixed rates who aren’t reducing power is the only way to make them fix their infrastructure.

If we all simply cut back as they are asking then there’s no reason to make the grid more robust as the customer can be the one to bare the pain.

 

[sactoking]

Are you

What he’s saying is hurting the power providers because they have to pay emergency prices to expensive engineers and purchasing expensive fuel at market rates to provide power to customers at fixed rates who aren’t reducing power is the only way to make them fix their infrastructure.

If we all simply cut back as they are asking then there’s no reason to make the grid more robust as the customer can be the one to bare the pain.

Are you sure about that? Because "We need to take a bad situation and purposely make it worse because killing people I don't know is easier than voting for people who will fix the problem" seems like a valid interpretation as well.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Yeah, we've got excellent insulation too. As long as it's 80 or less, I can usually carry the night air without turning the AC on at all.

Insulating the outside walls even in a older home is worth it.
Roof is most important but walls often get ignored in older homes.
Was totally worth adding in our 1960 home

 

[Zorba]

Yeah, we've got excellent insulation too. As long as it's 80 or less, I can usually carry the night air without turning the AC on at all.

Yeah, it's been 96 and humid this week and have been able to work in my office all day without the AC running until 4 pm. I did get the office windows tinted last year to eek out the last 30-45 minutes.

 

[Zorba]

Insulating the outside walls even in a older home is worth it.
Roof is most important but walls often get ignored in older homes.
Was totally worth adding in our 1960 home

How'd you do it? I'd like to insulate my garage walls, but don't want to rip out all the sheet rock to do it.

 

[Zorba]

What he’s saying is hurting the power providers because they have to pay emergency prices to expensive engineers and purchasing expensive fuel at market rates to provide power to customers at fixed rates who aren’t reducing power is the only way to make them fix their infrastructure.

If we all simply cut back as they are asking then there’s no reason to make the grid more robust as the customer can be the one to bare the pain.

And next year, when everyone adjusts their rates, they are going to get their money back and the infrastructure will still be shit because the GOP will still not do anything to force them to upgrade and it cheaper for them to just shut off your power than fix their shit. And a ton of the operators are probably making more money with some of their plants offline, see Enron.

@Jhhnn see, everyone in Texas is just a FYGM meme.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

How'd you do it? I'd like to insulate my garage walls, but don't want to rip out all the sheet rock to do it.

insulation guys took off a small amount of siding, cut small hole in outside of the wall, blew in cellulose, repaired where cut was made, reinstalled siding.
If I remember correctly the top was a foam insulation and that also helped where they cut a little. Sort of forgot it was 10 years ago.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

insulation guys took off a small amount of siding, cut small hole in outside of the wall, blew in cellulose, repaired where cut was made, reinstalled siding.
If I remember correctly the top was a foam insulation and that also helped where they cut a little. Sort of forgot it was 10 years ago.

These days they have a spray foam that doesn't expand, that I believe they have replaced the old blow in type with that all around.

Anyhow, curious on the bill for that kind of work, I'm about to start getting quotes for that stuff myself.

 

[Wreckem]

My 12 month average is 566kwh. I use about 300 in March and close to 1000 in Jan. and Feb. This place is about 400 square feet but it leaks like a sieve.

As I was typing my original reply I actually thought about pool chillers for those that live in Texas. I don't know anything about them but I would have thought they use a bunch of energy. It's Interesting to here that isn't the case.

Your bills are pretty reasonable considering it's a home.

There are really three types of chillers. There’s the super expensive heat/chill combo heat pump that uses a moderate amount of electricity.

There is basically a condenser type similar to ac unit that costs about $30 to run 12 hrs. This cools the best. This is the middle priced options atleast upfront.

Then there is the cheapest options that relies On evaporation. The main brand is arctic chillers. It’s basically a large barrel with a pump and a fan. Cools a pool 12-15 degrees, from mid 90s to low 80s. Cheapest upfront cost and less than a couple bucks a day to operate.

 

[Wreckem]

What he’s saying is hurting the power providers because they have to pay emergency prices to expensive engineers and purchasing expensive fuel at market rates to provide power to customers at fixed rates who aren’t reducing power is the only way to make them fix their infrastructure.

If we all simply cut back as they are asking then there’s no reason to make the grid more robust as the customer can be the one to bare the pain.

Neither of y’all really make sense.

Texas has a deregulated market. And ERCOT the one calling for conservation and PUC oversee that market. In the market you have the generators(they generate electricity), the transmission companies(they own the lines), and the retail power providers(they buy electricity from the generators and sell it to you over the lines owned by the transmission companies). Y’all are saying hurting the retail power providers will cause change. It will not.

ERCOT is the grid and the body that ensures grid stability. It is also the middle man for payments between the various parties in the market, namely the generators and retail power providers. They are the ones that have been calling for conservation, and can call for blackouts to ensure the grid remains operational. ERCOT doesn’t even give two shits about retail power companies. They mainly exist to benefit the generators.

Which gets back to y’all’s point about retail power companies adapting or dying. Yeah, that’s not going to happen either. ERCOT and the generators are owed what $6-10billion(the number keeps changing) from the Feb. storm. That money is going to come directly from customers via surcharges to all consumers on the ERCOT grid over the next ten years. Atleast that is the proposed plan.

You may think you have a set rate, but once the surcharge is approved(and it’s all but certain to be approved), everyone that has an account for electricity and they are on the ERCOT grid, will be paying that surcharge to cover the costs incurred during the Feb storm(and maybe this week too/later this summer as this seems like it’s not going to be isolated).

The generators made off like bandits in Feb. The plants too expensive to operate were offline and those that were up made a killing. They want their money and they are going to get it. And the way the system is designed, the generators may be paying big bucks for engineers to fix things but that gets passed on because they the rates they charge go up. Like they did to $2000-4000 a MWh on Monday. Again, the generators will get their money and profits, the system in Texas ensures that.

Retail power providers are the small fry that don’t really matter. Which is why you have hundreds of them, many are fly by night companies. They are merely commodity brokers that deal directly to consumers. It doesn’t matter if they go bankrupt. The system ensures the generators still get paid.

Deregulation in Texas was a huge scam that was done to benefit the generators. No one else.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

These days they have a spray foam that doesn't expand, that I believe they have replaced the old blow in type with that all around.

Anyhow, curious on the bill for that kind of work, I'm about to start getting quotes for that stuff myself.

tricky to say because of two things:
First it was during the housing meltdown, contractors were very affordable at the time
Second Massachusetts has a insulation program where you get a shit ton of money off or back. We paid a few hundred for the work more than $200 less than $500. If I remember correctly we qualified for up to $2000 in materials and $2000 in labor. Going to guess it cost a few thousand at the time.

doing the walls trimmed about 15% of our oil usage. This number is tricky because we only had part of one winter in the home.
What I am saying is if your home doesn’t have any in the walls and everything else is sealed up do the walls. Unexpected side benefit is after having it done there is less noise from outside.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

tricky to say because of two things:
First it was during the housing meltdown, contractors were very affordable at the time
Second Massachusetts has a insulation program where you get a shit ton of money off or back. We paid a few hundred for the work more than $200 less than $500. If I remember correctly we qualified for up to $2000 in materials and $2000 in labor. Going to guess it cost a few thousand at the time.

doing the walls trimmed about 15% of our oil usage. This number is tricky because we only had part of one winter in the home.
What I am saying is if your home doesn’t have any in the walls and everything else is sealed up do the walls. Unexpected side benefit is after having it done there is less noise from outside.

Gotcha, kinda what i expected - with todays inflation, etc... I would figure I'm paying $3-6k depending on the amount of work.

I'm just discovering that apparently our original home builders decided it wasn't needed for some of the walls to have the insulation that all the rest of the walls had.... *sigh*

Oh well. My AC guy came out with a thermal imaging gun the other day - certain parts of the wall had it coming in at 85+ degrees.

The thing is I'm going to want the insulation company to do similar where they look in every room and every wall to see anywhere and everywhere that it might be needed.

 

[K1052]

Seems almost inevitable that the main TX grid will eventually fold one day under the right set of circumstances (as it nearly did this winter) if they keep running on the ragged edge for generator profitability and nothing else.