Texas Rolling Blackouts

[DADoES]

There's an electric shortage today across Texas. Weather is hotter than usual, and this is time of year when generating stations are rotated out of service for maintenance due to the weather *expected* to be mild. Coordinated rolling blackouts are happening, supposedly about 15 mins at a time.

 

[westtexman]

No Rolling Blackouts Yet . . .

Glenn -

Have you had any down there yet? Things are fine so far here in West Texas. It is about 96 degrees here and HOT! Hope my A/C doesn't go out. I'm stuck at home with Bronchitis.

Bryan

 

[toggleswitch]

Becoming a third-world nation more and more each day

Ugh. I thought for sure the south did not get those based on heat.

That happens here frequently with early heat-waves, as well.

 

[DADoES]

None at the office, but I've heard some circuits in town have been affected. And in nearby towns.

 

[jaxsunst]

92 in Memphis today. No problems.

 

[sudsmaster]

Welcome to California

 

[westytoploader]

I'm a little concerned about the energy situation as well. We've been changing our A/C usage and other habits but the price doesn't seem to be dropping...

90° in Bellville today, felt MUCH hotter. The A/C in a section of the HS has been perpetually nonfunctional (heard it was a valve of some sort) so I was sweating during the entire Physics period. Being a hot-natured person I couldn't STAND that.

Rheem A/C unit in the back room is out AGAIN (on its second compressor since '03 and we're just going to replace the unit this time); thermostat read a whopping 84°. The hassock fan is coming in very handy back there for air circulation. Even though we've been keeping the other thermostat at 78-80° it feels much cooler and the ceiling fans have been going for a while. As plasticky and crappy as it is, the little 5000-BTU Haier window unit down in the Studio has been doing an awesome job keeping the place comfortable.

Even though the humidity is perfect for POR-15 usage, I'm beginning to hate Texas weather even more and more...time to go back to ARIZONA!

--Austin

 

[jmirawm]

93 here

at 6:53. I am hoping this is not an indication of how the summer is going to go......

 

[neptunebob]

See, that's what Texas gets for being separated from eve

I understant that the Texas electrical system is separated from the rest of the country - wonder why, is their electricity supposed to be better? Perhaps Texas should get one of the new nuclear power stations GW wants to have built. Of course, PA is a nuclear power leader, and we still have local outages (like almost every time we have a bad storm).

Austin, on your central AC, is the outside condensing unit far away from the coil on the inside of the house? I understand a far distance can be hard on the compressor. Nep

 

[appnut]

Austin, I'm not sure you realize, but if you weren't changing your A/C usage and other habits, the bill would be increasing. I already adjusted my A/C habbits last year to about where I'm on the verge of I can't stand it, so I don't have any more room to wiggle with. And my monthly bills have been much higher than comparable time last year, continuing to increase with minimal KWH increase. I'm dreading this year. He$$$, previous generation or two, as one got to my age, one was able to afford the great luxuries of keeping very comfortable year round. Not me :-( I do have a secret weapon, not publishable here, as does someone else I know.

I am not sure about rolling black-out, but when I got home, the power had been off at some point during the day, but not sure when and how long. Co-worker has a good section of her street without power today because squirrels have eat through power lines. It's 95 or 95 here. Hope no more outage, cuz I got brownies to bake for work luncheon tomorrow. (yes, Bobby Crocker at work)

I am not sure AZ would be a good option. It begins to get miserably hot later on this month and starting into May and only gets worse. That is why the guys chose the time period they did, just before it become unbearable.

 

[appnut]

Tom, predicted high of 98 tomorrow, had been 100 by earlier forecast. Supposed cool front will bring temps back down to more "normal" levels for this time of year.

 

[toggleswitch]

Tastes just like chicken

....... has a good section of her street without power today because squirrels have eat through power lines.

Well at least they are partially already pre-cooked.

Squirrel Recipes

 

[petek]

Send some this way pleeeeeeze Not a lot just a little, heat that is, not the voltage-fried squirrel.

 

[sudsmaster]

Re: air conditioning. What I found has helped a lot in my place is to heavily insulate the attic - to R50, even though I'm in a relatively very mild warm-winter climate (relative to Nebraska, that is). It not only has cut down on heating bills in the winter, but in the summer the entire house stays much cooler, as not as much heat from the roof/attic gets into the living space. My next project is to fully insulate under the flooring - might not help so much in the summer (the crawl space always seems pretty cool) but probably will help a lot in the winter. Parts of it are insulated now, just have to get around to doing the rest (Insulation is already rolled up and ready to go down there).

 

[appnut]

Gladly Pete

 

[may63]

Y'all should come up here, it's been perfectly perfect the last seven days or so with highs around 70 - 77.

 

[scott55405]

Ptooey--that bad already on April 17?! I do hope this is not going to be an awful summer for you folks...

 

[Cybrvanr]

POR 15

Hey! glad you mentioned that stuff! I've got some questions about it! I've noticed some minor surface rust on the underside of my old Chevy van..it's just around some of the spot welds and joints in the metal. I want to nip it in the bud before I end up with anything more serious. My thought is to sand the rust spots down, and then coat the entire floorpan with POR 15, and then follow it with a coat of that rubberized bedliner material...not only to minimize corossion, but also to reduce noise transmitted through the floor. I figure POR 15 ought to be a good way to stop the rust underneath from getting through and turing my van into a flintstones mobile.

 

[westytoploader]

Steven,

POR-15 is a GREAT rust-cover paint and I've had excellent results. I believe coating the entire thing will be OK, though I wouldn't be surprised (and don't be alarmed) if the paint on the non-rust areas started coming off. It's meant to stick to rust and not already painted metal with no corrosion.

I'm not sure if the bedliner spray will stick to it; that would be interesting to find out. I do know that standard aerosol paint won't stick to POR-15; there's either a special paint you have to use or a special coating you have to apply before you can do that. It's on the website I believe.