Live data from Hacker News

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

cnn.com

101–110 of 462 posts

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

#101

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…

Here's a comparison of Houston and Rome climates: https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/9247~71779/Comparison-of-...

Note the temperature and especially the humidity sections.

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

#102
post #48

I‘m curious, Texas seems to get a lot of sun - how common are private solar installations on the roofs? Combined with a battery you could lower your electricity bill and would be safe from this kind of problem. In my neighbourhood in northern germany about 5% of the houses have them. They pay for themself in about 5-10 years. edit: spelling

Are you suggesting that the vast ghettoes and low-income areas in Houston all install solar panels and Tesla Powerwalls? Many people in hardest-hit areas struggle paycheck to paycheck- if they're working at all.

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

#103
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What's wrong with below-ground power distribution for metropolitan areas?

Moles, mice, things walking/driving over the top. There is a long list of things that make underground not nearly as reliable as it sounds.

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

#104

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…

Hurricane Ike was a category 4 that traveled nearly directly over Houston in 2008. (It wasn't a category four when it passed over, since, like all major storms, they weaken as they move inland.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike

Burying lines, especially in historic areas, is incredibly expensive and not necessarily a panacea either, although it helps. Is it worth it?

Realistically, for the millions upon millions of people that live in the greater Houston MSA (and of course except for those who rely on power for healthcare equipment, who really need to invest in a small generator or get to a shelter), it's far more cost effective to simply deal with power outages every decade or two.

During Ike, large parts of Houston, especially to the northeast, were literally underwater, so power wouldn't have helped anyway. The number of utility crews lined up along highways from other states, even from thousands of miles away, in the immediate aftermath of Ike is both inspiring and enlightening, especially when you recognize that they were going into a disaster zone, likely without a nice hotel to go back to or even running water after working a 12 hour shift.

So, no, it's just part of living near the coast in a hurricane-prone area. If you don't like it, move somewhere else.

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

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know that it would help in this specific instance, but connecting Texas to the rest of the power grid would likely make the system overall more resilient. Irrelevant wishful thinking. The outages are caused by localized physical damage. There is no shortage of grid power. Inter-ties to every grid in the world wouldn't help when the wires on the last mile have been physically destroyed.

Note that I said "I don't know that it would help in this specific instance" Previous outages have been caused by issues with the grid rather than lines. Apparently CenterPoint is predicting that this summer power usage will near the grid's capacity and supposedly CenterPoint is known for underestimating.

Okay, but none of that has anything to do with the power lines being physically mangled or toppled by wind.

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

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Visited NYC several times. Metro was unbearable in summer because trains heated up outside and blasted the warm air into tunnels and stations through AC.

AC doesn't really create heat though, aside from minor amounts from the compressor/fan motors, it merely moves it from inside to outside, or into the metro stations as you mention.

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

#108
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with below-ground power distribution for metropolitan areas?

Nothing, but migrating to it is very expensive. Centerpoint, the physical electricity provider in Houston, has said it would cost $2.5M per square mile. Houston is 640 square miles. Regulations allow them to claw back costs on the bills. (For example, repairs from past storms are often paid for over the course of several years in the form of a bond that is applied to customers as surcharges) https://www.houstonchroni…

Funny to think about these costs and the health of the national commons from a point of view of the Federal budget.

For example, you point out it would cost 2 billion to migrate Houston's above-ground to storm proof below ground.

If we could lop off 1/4 of the DoD and intelligence budget of $1T/yr and dedicate it to infrastructure, we could pay for 125 Huston-scale improvement projects per year. And still have the most expensive DoD in the world! But that would be misguided for "national security".

Plus the Federal budget is essentially free money, constructed as needed, where such value is incarnated via the wealth of the commons, where such wealth is most truly incarnated by infrastructure.

But for unknown reasons, such pragmatism is politically untenable.

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

#109
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with below-ground power distribution for metropolitan areas?

Moles, mice, things walking/driving over the top. There is a long list of things that make underground not nearly as reliable as it sounds.

Underground electric distribution is considerably more reliable than overhead lines. Animals digging up the wire is much more rare than an outage created by an animal crawling up a pole and grabbing the line/transformer.

Underground electric is quite widely used in the Midwest and is cost effective vs. overhead lines even in sparsely populated rural areas.

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

#110

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…

Many homes in the US are not build with stone but thin wood. Houses in Europe with stone take some time to heat up. We lived in a 100 year old house in Berlin and it took 2 months until the walls were warm. Also took some months in winter until walls are cold again. [Edit] This is not about insulation but heat capacity.

such houses are great in mild climates, but the us is generally not mild.

thin wood as an engineer has many advantages over stone. Stone seens stronger but often it isn't where strength matters while being stronger where it doesn't-

Post reply on HN