Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 462 posts

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#11

Post by wannacboatmovie »

gigatexal wrote: post #3

Not angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed to make it more robust to such things. I mean how can they when reps like Ted Cruz fly off to Cancun when the weather gets really bad.

> Not angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed

Do you have the magic solution that makes them resilient to natural disasters short of burying every single power line underground? Which is not only impractical but insanely expensive. The infrastructure has been physically damaged or destroyed. You fired off a politically charged comment and offered no specifics.

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#12

Post by sojournerc »

epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

AC isn't a problem if the energy feeding it is carbon neutral. With a strong mix of renewables and nuclear this is achievable, but instead we continue to burn coal and natural gas to provide base load.

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#13

Post by baggy_trough »

epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

How humid is it in Rome during the summer compared to Houston?

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#14

Post by alephnerd »

epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

> we survive without AC just fine

There were 5,600 deaths across Spain, Italy, and Germany in the 2023 heatwave that could be attributed to a lack of AC [0][1]

Just because you and your family have been fine doesn't mean others can.

AC is a critical need in increasingly hot environments.

[0] - https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/hotter-summers-kill-thousan...

[1] - https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/339462/978928905...

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#15

Post by blantonl »

RheingoldRiver wrote: post #9

I was there last weekend & for the day of the hurricane. This was just a cat 1 hurricane at the time it passed through Houston, and there was SO much damage. I can't imagine the city is remotely prepared for (god forbid, and idk how likely it is that far inland anyway) a cat 4 or 5. We were staying in a hotel that had a backup generator, but every single other building that was visible from our hotel had lost power d…

This wasn't a "grid issue." It is a last-mile issue.

It's specifically an issue with the sheer amount of above ground power lines and population density. There is no easy fix, preparation, or practically anything else that can be done to prevent something like this. Plus, what causes the same amount of power outages (wind damage) isn't going to be different between 90mph winds and 150 mph winds. The effects are going to be the same on the power infrastructure.

The hurricane, while even a Cat 1, still brought what would effectively be a localized extremely severe thunderstorm over vast swaths of, and a direct hit upon, major population areas over the 4rd largest city in the country.

New Orleans was in the same boat with Ida in 2021. There were areas of the city that didn't get power back for over a month. Everyone was furious with Entergy there, but there's just a simple reality with this stuff.

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#17

Post by soared »

epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

Homes/buildings in your area are built with not having AC in mind - window locations, shade, insulation, etc is all purpose driven. Homes in Texas and generally the US are built with AC in mind, so we can’t not use it - it would get 104 inside.

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#18

Post by FireBeyond »

39896880 wrote: post #6
Mindless2112 wrote: post #4

TL;DR: > “The grid is a whole different issue which we’re addressing, have been addressing, and will continue to address,” Patrick said. “The power is down because the lines are down, and the transmission lines are down primarily because trees fell on them.”

Is the grid not composed of power lines?

Texas famously wanted to be "independent" from the energy market and has steadfastly refused attempts from the federal government to have it join regional grids for the purposes of redundancy and resiliency, saying it can handle its own needs just fine.

Until every power grid failure, when they ask the Feds for relief money (this is notwithstanding that in cases like this, they are not just asking for money for the grid failures but the general aftermath of Beryl, but it is a component).

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#19

Post by blantonl »

baggy_trough wrote: post #13
epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

How humid is it in Rome during the summer compared to Houston?

No even in the same ballpark. Houston is literally built on top of a swamp. The humidity is oppressive.

Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

#20

Post by genocidicbunny »

epolanski wrote: post #8

To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…

In places like Houston, which is effectively built on reclaimed swamplands, it's not the just the temperature, the humidity plays a huge part too. When it's 40C and humidity is at 100% and wet bulb temperatures are approaching 30+C, lack of AC becomes a life threatening problem. It becomes practically impossible to cool off and maintain a safe body temperature, especially for the very young, chronically ill, or elderly people.
Post reply on HN