I thought I was done for with the 1hr 45 min blackout, but it prevailed. Had 30 minutes on afterwards, then off for 35. The battle continues.
It's stabilized at the bottom of the tile, so I think we're okay. :/ It's a little downhill from the pool, so I think that's what happened.It might be. Where is the equipment in regards to the water line ? If you equipment is below the waterline you will siphon water from the pool until the two are equal.
Yeah, we ended up being off for 5.5 hours. Pretty sure we would have been bursting at the seams by the end of that if I hadn't bitten the bullet. I hope your outages continue to be rolling vs. the dead stop we seem to have had.I thought I was done for with the 1hr 45 min blackout, but it prevailed. Had 30 minutes on afterwards, then off for 35. The battle continues.
We have a 17kW Generac natural gas generator, but I have actually never used it beyond firing it up every other month to make sure it starts. I am not even sure it will run pool pumps if I am also drawing power into house for refrigerator, lights, etc. I'd also be hesitant to run it all night, just because I worry about things going bump in the night and causing disasters.
My Honda is only 7k and runs the whole house and the pool, with the exception of the 4-ton HVAC unit. Maximum wattage draw I saw over the 3 days I used it was around 3500 watts.
That is encouraging but then leaves me in position of running a natural gas generator all night. Not a cost issue, as I am sure it would be minimal compared to potential pool damage, but I just don't think those things are meant to be operated unattended? Maybe I am just being paranoid.
Ugh, they just said that all of the wind farms except for 1 on the SE coast of the state are shut down due to being frozen over. Wind generated power makes up 25% of the Texas grid. This is not going to be good.
We had points last night where the power would come on for 20 minutes, then back off for 45min to an hour. That is just enough for the heater to tease you with some warmth, then it goes out again.
Equally frustrating is the inequality in which they are picking and choosing who gets hit. Our neighborhood is nice, but there is a really nice section with a lot of athletes, doctors, etc. They havent been impacted at all.
Unless Lowes, Taco Bueno, and a couple of other small retail shops are considered essential, they are not near anything essential.Sometimes luck of the draw. If they are on a circuit with essential services (i.e. hospitals) those will always be last to cut in rolling outages.
My Pool is about 80-90% covered by ice - except where my returns are hitting the surfaces. So far I am surviving, pump equipment tarped and space heater running 24/7. Water temp is 33, Air Temp is 1. Every hour or two i dump a bucket of hot water in the skimmer to make sure no ice accum in there. I have a plaster pool so I am breaking up the ice where I can. I need to make it about 24 hours before we get some sunshine relief.
Absolutely, there is lots of blame to go around. There is lots of finger pointing going on right now, but in my mind here are the issues:I've been watching the news about what has been happening in Texas. Understanding that this is a very rare weather event, is there anything that can be done in the future to prevent such a calamity? I have seen lots of examples of people without power for almost 3 days straight, no natural gas, no running water, and broken pipes flooding many businesses and residences. Fuel and food shortages, dangerous travel with icy roads, people and animals freezing to death. Surely, we have the ability to prevent or reduce such damage and suffering? Are the pipelines and power generators not winterized or otherwise prepared for the rare possibility of very cold weather? Was this the result of corporate greed and cost cutting or was it just a fluke? Has the population growth resulted in demand outstripping supply? So much suffering. We, as an advanced society, should be better than this.
They will start with $250M in reform. First off we have to spend $75M on and environmental study on how all this affects the spotted salamanders. Then the CEO needs $30M to oversee all the reform. The executive board needs $10M each because we absolutely need their talent to stay for the duration. And the Directors !!!! We simply NEED the directors to implement all these changes. They can have $1M bonuses for their hard work. Letsee here.... we need new trucks and tools to help the workers work.... some more employees to do the work (as if) and we have $6.32 left. What can we buy for $6.32 ? A 5 pack of light bulbs ???! SWEET !!! Well done all !!but that's my 2 cents on where we need to start after all of this
I haven't heard that about the batteries. My understanding is that with the electric grid, it is use it or lose it.I also read somewhere that there is common use in the power grid in TX for battery storage of electricity from off-peak times. The temps are so cold that the batteries cannot operate at such low temps.
Is it common in TX for people to be set up with heat pumps to heat their homes since the winters are normally mild? Its that contributing to the surge in electricity demand?