Induction Electric Cooking

[petek]

Mr X

It used to be that way in N.America but with so many people plugging in now and perhaps the effects of deregulating the power industries in pretty much every jurisdiction something seems to be going wrong. For those of us a bit older growing up in the 50's early 60' we were promoted in early advertising to "live better electrically" and that nuclear power would one day be so cheap it would be free...HAH. That being said I do try and conserve without affecting my lifestyle and have changed nearly all my general lighting to mini fluoresents where I can as well as turning things off more than I used to. Heck I even go around turning off the mini fluoresents but sometimes think it may be better to leave them on if I'm going back within an hour or so. It's great to be able to light up 2 or 4 rooms for the cost of just one 100 watt bulb.

 

[toggleswitch]

Regarding our "national" power grid:

Due to the size of this country, and the way the US Gov't ....also known internally as the Federal Gov't (Federal= pertaining to/ in charge of / over / the federation of states).... is legally restricted, any rights not specifically enumerated to it default to the state governments. Things such as drivers' licenses, marriage, divorce, incorporation etc. become enacted on the state-level. For cohesiveness and unity, one state agrees to legally and equally recognize the other's granting of such ....agggghhh the word escapes me... decrees, I guess. Similarly many of our commercial and other laws vary tremendously state-by-state. The Federal gov't CAN however get involved if something crosses state lines (involving more than one state) Example: mailing (sending by post) a pirated movie from one state to another. This is best decribed, I'd say as a mother of semi-autonomus teenagers... they have their own ways, thoughts and lives and settle issues between themselves, but momma rules over them, utimately.

So to tie this in to the thread, I believe it becomes impossible legally for the US govt to do certain things on a national scale, even when reasonable to do so. For example: During the oil-embargo and (our) energy crisis of the 70s, when the US govt wanted to reduce speed limits on roads nationally to save energy it could not DIRECTLY do so. It had to say to the states... do this, this, and this or you do not get money to build highways, etc. So it got what it wanted in the national interst --the speed limit reduced to 55 mph (90 km/h?)in all states, but it was the state's authority and soverignty that technically governed. I am therefore of the opinion that it can not dictate and govern directly/easily such things as maintaing the power grid. I have a feeling these things are privately owned or belong to the states.

Thanks for listening..

 

[kenmore1978]

The word is

reciprocity

"For cohesiveness and unity, one state agrees to legally and equally recognize the other's granting of such ....agggghhh the word escapes me... decrees, I guess."

 

[kenmore1978]

The de-regulation of power has also caused a problem. If it's not done just right, it can cause a problem, as it did in California, where the power companies were forced to sell off their generating stations and became nothing but the carriers of the power from the companies that owned the power stations to the consumers. De-regulation is good for some industires, but bad for others. If not watched, companies will sink to the lwoest common denominator when it comes to making $. Some essential things, like power, telephone, airlines, cable, should be heavily regulated. Other things do better in the free market. The telephone industry reminds me of the scene in "Terminator 2" where the broken pieces of the "bad" terminator flow back together and re-form, just as the 1984 of AT&T break-up is being undone bit by bit.

 

[MrX]

European

Toggleswitch,

I think many people outside the US don't actually realise that from inside the US the federal government's not really very different to a slightly more heavily armed version of the European Union and that the individual states are very independent and operate pretty much like individual countries with often seriously different legal systems etc.

In Europe, we've a similar scenario albeit a little looser. European legislation covers areas that need to be harmonised across the entire EU. Eg technical standards (which would be barriers to trade if they were different in each country), fiscial and economic policy (that would impact on the Euro currency's stability), consumer protection, transportation policies, telecommunication standards, environmental policies, compeition law, etc..

EU law also covers areas of social policy and fundemental rights and the European courts now have supreme juristiction and can overrule any national court should someone wish to appeal. They can also overturn / invalidate national legislation that is in conflict with European law. i.e. you can take a state to court.

We're also starting to more areas of cooperation e.g. policing. We now have a european police agency Europol, which operates on pan-european crime, a bit like the role the FBI has in the USA. However, national police can now cross boarders if they're in hot persuit, arrest and hold a suspect until their counterparts on the otherside of the state line arrive to process the suspect under national law there!

So, in many ways things aren't THAT different at this side of the pond !

As for power generation / distribution systems in Europe. We've open markets for electricity but these markets are fundementally far more highly regulated than in the USA. In many states the grid and distribution infrastructure is still publically owned (varies from country to country).
The major cascade / domino failure in the Northeastern USA has also prompted major concerns in Europe. Systems were heavily reviewed and regulation (particularly concerning extra capacity / redundency) were tightened up quite a lot.

Also, the national grids are mostly interconnected (Ireland's actually one of the last places to tie into the "european grid". Until recently, due to the distances to the UK our grid was totally seperate, however big ultra high voltage DC interconnectors are being layed to the UK at the moment)

Sorry for the length of the post, but just thought that I'd explain a few of the strong similarities between the EU and USA

 

[toggleswitch]

Sorry, I myself get a bit preachy and wordy at times. but I'm trying to keep to the thread.

I don't want to start a political (red-state- vs. blue-state) Being "pro" or "against" Bush... but Damn.. those "I HATE BUSH T-shirts are HILARIOUS especially when seen in gay community/areas. LOL

Back to the thread .... I was personally offended when our CEO publically blamed Canada for the last big-blackout on 14-Aug- 03 (You can see Canada's response by clicking on the link.) Bush promised to do something about the electrical infrastructue. I guess ignorng the problem, technically, is doing something.. SIGH.

May I be so bold as to speak for all my county-men? LOL
We the people love you Canada and apologize for our "leadership."



http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/power.outage/index.html

 

[MrX]

Well, the lower the voltage, the warmer the wires, the more heat produced, the more oil used

He is an oil-rich texan after all!

 

[yaktx]

"Well, the lower the voltage, the warmer the wires, the more heat produced, the more oil used "

Actually, very little of US electric power is generated in oil-fired plants. But Bush does answer to the coal, gas, and nuclear interests. And yes, they do want us to go on wasting energy.

 

[kenmore1978]

talky/preachy

Don't worry about that, I've found this thread to be very interesting. Nice to learn how things are done in other places and compare.

 

[jetcone]

The whole thread was interesting!

Thanks for the info on the EU situation MrX! Those big DC links will have whopping magnetic fields around them! I can see cars being sucked up against them and ships getting stuck in the channel!

Jet