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Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

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Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#381

Post by criddell »

adrianmonk wrote: post #210
supernova87a wrote: post #83

Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…

The problem is it's the coldest night in about 30 years. Here in Austin, it's just past midnight, and it's already down to 13°F (-10.5°C). It hasn't been that cold here since December 23, 1989. Also, a lot of Texas homes have electric heat (except in the northern part of the state). Winters are relatively short and mild. Many homes use electric heat pumps as the heating source. They're energy-efficient and easy to in…

Just about every Texas building has air conditioning which is blasting for those 100 days of summer where it's often above 100 degrees. I'm surprised that a few days of cold is a bigger load than the crazy heat of summer.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#382

Post by criddell »

ashkankiani wrote: post #219
rayiner wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical LED bulbs have shit spectrum coverage, and have terrible flicker when used with dimmers. I’ve been stockpiling incandescents.

Stockpiling incadescent bulbs instead of spending time doing research to find LED bulbs with a better light spectrum?

I bought a bunch of 25w bulbs for my lava lamp :)

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#383

Post by unpolloloco »

criddell wrote: post #381
adrianmonk wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is it's the coldest night in about 30 years. Here in Austin, it's just past midnight, and it's already down to 13°F (-10.5°C). It hasn't been that cold here since December 23, 1989. Also, a lot of Texas homes have electric heat (except in the northern part of the state). Winters are relatively short and mild. Many homes use electric heat pumps as the heating source. They're energy-efficient and easy to in…

Just about every Texas building has air conditioning which is blasting for those 100 days of summer where it's often above 100 degrees. I'm surprised that a few days of cold is a bigger load than the crazy heat of summer.

I'd think it's the difference between cooling 30F (100->70) vs heating 60F (10->70)

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#384

Post by Denvercoder9 »

makomk wrote: post #357
jay_kyburz wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still have incandescent bulbs in the US? Its really hard to find them here in Australia. I thought they were banned but I just read that they are not, but have been phased out.

There are loopholes that allow incandescent bulbs to be sold in the US still. However, replacing incandescent bulbs would do basically nothing to help with this kind of power shortage caused by a cold spell - all their waste energy is heat, and they're as efficient at producing it as any other resistive heater. Switching to LED lighting saves people money during more normal times but makes the long-termp peak to aver…

> However, replacing incandescent bulbs would do basically nothing to help with this kind of power shortage caused by a cold spell

It depends on what you replace it with. If you switch to a resistive heater, yeah, that's pointless, but if you switch to a heat pump or natural gas-based heating it'd help.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#385

Post by xyzzyz »

criddell wrote: post #381
adrianmonk wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is it's the coldest night in about 30 years. Here in Austin, it's just past midnight, and it's already down to 13°F (-10.5°C). It hasn't been that cold here since December 23, 1989. Also, a lot of Texas homes have electric heat (except in the northern part of the state). Winters are relatively short and mild. Many homes use electric heat pumps as the heating source. They're energy-efficient and easy to in…

Just about every Texas building has air conditioning which is blasting for those 100 days of summer where it's often above 100 degrees. I'm surprised that a few days of cold is a bigger load than the crazy heat of summer.

Cooling from 100 degrees to 70 uses much less energy than heating from 10 to 70.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#387

Post by tolien »

kgermino wrote: post #376
tolien wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per capita doesn't seem like the most useful measure here unless you're expecting people to spin the turbines by hand. Texas has (by GP's numbers) 16 times the land area and 2.5x the annual sunshine hours [1,2] (given Texas's proximity to the equator relative to Denmark, I'd be shocked if those hours didn't confer significantly more power too) but "only" 5x the generation? Edit: Of course, it's 5x the wind power. For…

> Per capita doesn't seem like the most useful measure here unless you're expecting people to spin the turbines by hand.p “Percentage of energy generated” is probably better, but per-capita is better than per-acre. Broadly speaking, people use power, not cornfields.

Not when acres directly correlate with the amount of energy being generated. The Sahara has very few people but would be ripe energy-generation space.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#388

Post by [deleted] »

supernova87a wrote: post #83

Problem is that: 1) People's use of energy is relatively insensitive to price, or they don't know the price, or few people care about the price when it comes time to need it 2) When you need the energy, it's too late to make the equipment/house more efficient, and when you don't need it, people don't think it's important to make it more efficient 3) Mandating that people upgrade their equipment is unpopular, they vot…

[deleted]

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#389

Post by foxhop »

I love my incandescent bulbs. It is a threat to remove them. The heat they produce is amazing in the winter. I use a 100 watt bulb to keep me warm at my desk. Heat bodies not buildings.

I've been practicing this since a child and I'm 36 now.

To heat yourself, check out: https://youtu.be/3gjvOOlHmsU

For actual good LED lamps (not the crap they push in USA) check out: https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4

TLDR most LED lamp are running over spec which cause them to fail and become a commodity rather than infra.

I had a rear projection DLP LED TV which ran its red LED over spec and it burned out at least 3 times as fast as the green and blue.

https://www.foxhop.net/samsung/HL-T5087SA/red-LED-failure

The heat is not always just a byproduct, sometimes you need or want the heat.

Compare this 100 watt bulb to a tiny space heater and you will see the difference in your electricity bill. Buy a "kill a watt" meter to start testing you appliances rather assuming incandescent is evil.

Re: Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

#390

Post by throwaway9870 »

What I don't understand is that it sounds like the utilities were unprepared for the cold because the windmills and gas lines froze up. But the same tech is used in Canada fine because it sounds like they plan for the cold and have equipment options designed to deal with ice, etc. So, you might immediately think - ah, climate change strikes again! But then I hear this is only a low temp in the last 30-40yrs. Who doesn't design a system to work at low temps that have occurred in the last 30-40 years?

So, the question is - is this system poorly designed? Were corners cut that should not have been?

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