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What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

houstonchronicle.com

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Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#821

Post by tinco »

trianglem wrote: post #641
Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Houston right now, haven't had power, nor water since yesterday. My room is sitting at 20ish degrees and has been all day. I've quite literally been snug under a load of blankets with my wife all day just to stay warm. My office back in Dallas which is not normally open offered to let people stay the night since they happen to be on the same grid as a hospital and I seriously considered trying to make it there today

What? That’s way below freezing and totally unsafe. Why don’t you sleep in your car? (WARNING: Make sure your exhaust is uncovered and you’re not in your shed)

Why would it be unsafe to sleep? They are inside the house so they are protected against the elements.

I'm pretty sure sleeping in your car would be more dangerous just because of the discomfort leading to worse quality sleep and fatigue.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#822

Post by throwaway189262 »

gregw2 wrote: post #213
gregw2 wrote: post #117

What went wrong is that the Texas legislature which owns Texas-specific grid process to avoid interference from the Feds didn't figure out how to also ensure Texas generator companies got compensated for weatherizing (and ensuring it was done). How many of the 24+6 recommendations from the NERC/FERC review of last time this happened in Texas (hint:2011) were taken up by the legislature or those at ERCOT they delegate…

Anecdote: All 7 developers in my Houston team (semi-geographically scattered in the city) lost power; half for >24 hrs (it's 10-25 degrees F here for the last 2-3 days). Most lost water for some stretch of time and some still don't have it. I don't think any completely lost heat (most have gas) but at least one person found their gas fireplace they were hoping would heat them up when out of power didn't really work t…

I've been out of power since Sunday night. Water out since yesterday. I'm on the seventh floor too. Most of my friends are in even worse situation. I'm a paranoid near doomsday prepped and my batteries are still low.

Walking out of my apartment is indistinguishable from an apocalypse. The emergency system batteries died days ago. Police don't come. The roads are pure ice. Nothing is open. All essential supplies are sold out. Fire systems are all disabled because pipes have burst. Elevators have been gone for a long time. Without a flashlight you might as well be in a cave.

Pray for us. People are going to die

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#823

Post by KMag »

yellowait44 wrote: post #566
tharkun__ wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cold climate here (Quebec) and we heat with electricity usually. Many people have an electric furnace (forced air) or even baseboard (what I have for example). We also have a heat pump (heats the upstairs very well until about -15C and provides awesome AC for the entire house in summer). For Power outages and also coz its just awesomely warm: propane fireplace. All the benefits of a wood fireplace with none of the do…

LPG or Propane is awesome down until -42 celsius. Then it’s basically useless as it won’t vaporize. Live in Quebec too and my backup is a dual fuel generator. Propane and then regular fuel if it’s too cold or I’m out of propane. Never too careful!

Is "regular fuel" fuel oil? At what point does the fuel oil sold in your area start to gel?

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#824

Post by baq »

bdamm wrote: post #583
throwanem wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a good place to learn the art, do you know? I'm not in Texas, but I have two woodstoves now, and my one experiment with them thus far has taught me only that I have a lot to learn.

The trick is to start it up hot and then reduce down the airflow to near zero. The knowledge was passed down in the tribe, so I don't know where one learns the art.

my fireplace has this in its manual.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#825

Post by lmilcin »

evgen wrote: post #819
lmilcin wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen some fireplaces in US (I am from Poland) and outside of northern states they are all decorative pieces not designed to heat the home. A good fireplace is completely closed (yes! no fire visible!) and is built to recover and store as much heat as possible. * the fireplace must be enclosed completely so that it is possible to regulate amount of air going inside and especially to close it completely and SAFE…

There is a difference between a fireplace and a wood-fueled heater. You have described the latter. No one would ever call what you have shown in those images a 'fireplace' in English. There are wood-fueled heaters but they have mostly been replaced by ones that use composite wood pellets, these are popular for off-grid heating in the US.

That's exactly the point. Here this is the fireplace.

You will find western style "fireplaces" in some new homes which are nothing more than show pieces to have cosy atmosphere but are utterly impractical for the task of heating the home.

Now, what what we would call "heater" is usually placed in the basement for practical purposes. The ones I showed above are placed directly in living area and are way more efficient.

Traditionally, you did not heat entire home, only the area where you live which contracts during winter. There might be other rooms which you only heat in the evening before you go to bed and then it gets extremely cold (but that's fine, you just put good enough featherbed to keep warm). This is practical aspect because heating entire home requires huge amount of resources.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#826

Post by adingus »

xornor wrote: post #758
kevinmchugh wrote: post #702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interior or central chimneys make more sense to me than ones against an exterior wall, and they seem common enough in houses of a certain vintage at least. If your chimney is on an outer wall, doesn't it radiate heat to the outdoors?

Here where I live (northern Europe), chimneys are always internal. Nobody would even think external chimneys. Heat loss is massive that way.

Old houses in New England were built with internal chimneys for the same reason (less heat loss).

Houses in southern states were built with external chimneys which made sense for a couple reasons. Back in the day people would keep a fire 24/7 for cooking and that fire + southern heat is uncomfortable. Because of the shorter cold season the chimney was on the outside of the house. Also, in the case of chimney fires you could tie a chain around an external chimney and rip it down with a horse, hopefully saving your home.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#829

Post by mmaurizi »

bstar77 wrote: post #409
worker767424 wrote: post #94

The Texas-only grid was definitely part of it, and should be a lesson to people who thought the lesson from Covid is "do more locally." No, having stronger, longer distance connections is what makes you more resilient, at least when there are local problems.

No, having a distributed grid is what makes you more resilient. If every house had solar panels this would likely be a non-issue.

Solar panels don't generate that much power during the day, and even less when they are covered in snow.

Re: What went wrong with the Texas power grid?

#830

Post by KMag »

anonfornoreason wrote: post #706
throwanem wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a good place to learn the art, do you know? I'm not in Texas, but I have two woodstoves now, and my one experiment with them thus far has taught me only that I have a lot to learn.

Other poster covered it well, but one thing to add. There are the kinds of wood burning stove. Old simple, pre EPA mandated high efficiency stove, efficient stoves with a catalyst to provide the clean burn, and efficient stoves that use secondary air injection to provide a clean burn. The new efficient stoves are a bit more forgiving for throttling them down for long burns without producing too much creosote they can…

Are you aware of any high-efficiency wood burners that don't require electrical power for the secondary air injection? If they do all require electrical power for secondary air injection, if power is lost, do they quickly foul the burners with soot, or do they just gracefully degrade to running at a lower efficiency?
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