We need a lot more electricians • Hacker News Board

Re: We need a lot more electricians

#531

Post by flavius29663 » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 5:22 PM UTC

treeman79 wrote: post #415

flavius29663 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"rolling blackout" is a very specific term used when grids are overloaded (usually when not enough generation is happening), which means that the operator is intentionally cutting power to some areas to save on energy. The areas keep changing (such that each area is out of power for just a few hours at a time), hence the name "rolling". The OP said that the eastern storm is proof the grid is not resilient enough beca…

I don’t think you would accept any proof. As your own definition is good reasoning on why grid is over whelmed.

I am not sure why you're attacking me, instead of what I'm saying, but you can't use "rolling blackout" as a description for "some power lines were downed by the wind". Rolling blackouts are bad, but they are initiated by the power companies when the grid is under stress from an imbalance between production and consumption. Lines affected by trees and other natural elements have nothing to do with that, and these natural occurrences won't change if we switch to 100% electric or not.

Re: We need a lot more electricians

#532

Post by shard » Fri, Jan 13, 2023, 11:30 PM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #491

efitz wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Structure collapses are extremely rare, which is why they are always news. I am not unhappy with the state of regulation when it comes to building structures that have the potential to kill hundreds or thousands of people at a time. However I think many locations in the US way overdo regulation when it comes to residential building codes. When you buy a house, you get a professional inspection. If it comes up dangero…

Presumably you pull out a report and do a rundown of all the not to spec electrical work before any guests enter the house? Or are you making the safety call for them too?

And vice versa, do you ask any hosts whose house you are about to enter whether they have any out-of-spec electrical work before entering the house?

Re: We need a lot more electricians

#533

Post by kurthr » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:20 PM UTC

boringg wrote: post #514

kurthr wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I can refute those. Those rolling brownouts happen in the summer when AC demand is high and the grid is barely capable of meeting peak demand. Vehicles do not need to charge at that time (when most people are at work or staying home) and could even provide some power to homes during that time. Most electric vehicles are charged at night (when rates are lower). Of course utilities would love to have people pay mo…

I think the difference is since you do this at scale it puts a lot more pressure on the grid. EV adoption is still quite low relative to the fleet. Yes heat load and AC are drivers for california grid and similar climate grids. I would wager that if the north east went electric heating and EV they would have significant problems in the winter. Grid reliability would be even more important given that transportation an…

Average CA car drives ~12kmi/year (above average). That's less than 40miles/day and at ~250Wh/mi about 10kWh per electric vehicle day or 1kW for 10 hours for $1.50 at nighttime rates. Typical air conditioning load is 30-50kWh per day residential customer during the summer. There are ~2.5 registered vehicles per household (including commercial). Charge at night and you'll use less than AC in the day.

Sure the north east will need more power and efficiency improvements while solar is less effective, but I expect them to have slower adoption as well. Residential solar added 5GW of typical spring day capacity while utilities added 7GW over the last 10 years. In another 10 years that will swamp daytime usage (except for winter) and utilities will be begging people to charge during the day.