DocAndersen
Over the last two weeks, we have had two significant (more than 2 hours) power outages. One of the issues that many companies, including the power company, face in the summer is overload. In the summer, the drain on the power grid is huge. Add to that, the risk in the summer as lightning strikes and transformers don’t well do. The disruption for above ground cabling systems is huge. The cost of pushing those cables under the ground is huge. The single near miss by a lightning strike can take one, two or more transformers. Then you have a power outage. Now in the spring or fall, that isn’t bad, you can open the windows, and the house won’t be uncomfortable.
In the summer and the dead of winter, it doesn’t take long for a house to become uncomfortable. Stuffy is the phrase you often hear. You can’t let the outside air in, and you don’t have power for fans. Solar power offsets some of that risk. But during a bad thunderstorm (when lightning strikes occur) Solars systems are not operating at their peak efficiency. That is when a backup system is useful. There are a number, some of the battery systems for Solar and Wind turbines. That allows you to store two days or so of power. The other option is a natural gas operated Home Generator. Each of the two power backup systems allows you to create a Micro-Grid.
A Micro-Grid is a system, just like the power company has, but you are only supplying power to your house. It isolates you from the grid outage caused by the lightning strike. It takes between 4-8 hours to cool a 2000 square foot house. That means if the power is out for more than 2 hours. Your house will have a temperature increase that will take your air conditioning system or heating system 2-4 hours of running to return to your comfort level temperature. The reality of power today is we forget, it has to be generated, transmitted and consumed. All three of those require different systems. Each of the systems can fail. Being without power isn’t a lot of fun.
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Has your power gone out recently?
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Yes
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No
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Q: Has your power gone out recently?
Yes (10 votes) – 71%
No (4 votes) – 29%
Power outage is a normal thing where I live, unfortunately ?. The house has a backup genset but as there are appliances and bakery equipment that need to run, that means no A/C during outage. Worse when it happens at night because the heat absorbed by the concrete can turn the bedroom into a mini oven. Not a lot of fun. Staying outside in the open means mosquito bites. Either way is no fun.
Sorry to hear that – Pixies tend to need their sleep!!!!
Hahahahaha! Yeah. Sleep is far more important than food. I need a minimum of 6 hours and maximum of 8. A two-hour sleep would make me feel like floating the next day.
floating pixies are very disruptive. You never know when they wis\ll start sprinkling their dust on everything!
Floating pixies and pixies who missed their meditation for days ???
Pixie that do not mediate are ticking bombs.
🙂
We’ve had a lot of power outages a couple of years ago. Now we have cables in the ground and it’s much better.
That is critical sadly, power is important. in many countries they cannot bury the cables, the cost is massive.
Despite the heat in the Lake Charles region, there have not been any blackouts. Blackouts occur when there a lot of heavy storms in the region.
we didn’t have a single one all of last year, this year two already of more than 5 hour each.
Actually our power did go out for an hour a man left his hand brake off on our street and the car knocked the power line half way down but the electricity co fixed it up quickly…….
Our problem is denssity, the area where we live is one of the fastest growing areas in the Washington DC “city.” New homes, new rush, lots and lots of people make it harder to fix power problems fast.
That is so very true Doc, the problems that go with expanding population
True 🙂
The other issue is the reality of power production and power transportation.
We have hydro electric power and recently, wind power, plus thermal energy and also some have solar panels on their roof tops. I think it will have to be that people draw energy for solar panels and also wind power on roof tops to make up the power….
I completely AGREE!!!!! We need to get more homes operating with Solar or Wind!
Just the impact on the environment (reduced CO2) is worth the effort!!!!!!
Too right, we need to take care of the earth
A co-worker asked me why I ride the Metro (DC area trains) all the time instead of driving.
I always say “reducing my carbon footprint.”
he doesn’t get it.
We have to use cars in Auckland, we would never to be able to get out because our public transport is not effective, but I am hoping people will change to electric cars soon
There are several new electric car companies releasing products. I almost bought one, just couldn’t quite yet.
There are some rich people that have brought electric cars in NZ but only the very wealthy
That makes me sad. In Amsterdam, they are supporting electric cars at a very high level.
I wish the US, and other nations would as well.
Sad.
We have had power outages lately due to severe thunderstorms.
sorry to hear that, it is really frustrating!
In our country, the power failure happens very rarely … most often in winter, if a lot of snow falls or there is a frost that scratches electrical wires … it is very unpleasant
I suspect the same is true overall in our area. But two in the last two weeks brought them front of mind.
It must be unpleasant if that happens. I experienced a power outages three weeks ago, fortunately it didn’t last long, only about half an hour. Either day or night, blackouts in the summer are indeed very disturbing.
Yes they are – very frustrating. Our poor neighbors lost power for more than 4 hours.
Very troublesome and definitely difficult to do anything in the situation.
It makes for difficult sleeping when you are used to AC.
That’s it! In the dry season the tropical climate, without air conditioning is really hot and feels more stuffy when you sleep at night.
I remember that far too well
In this part of the world I am in, Kenya, power outages don’t happen frequently. It’s rare to experience electricity blackout. However, here in Tanzania in a region I’m residing the power outages are a common phenomenon. In such case we are left to use either candles or mobile phones as a source of light. The backups are not friendly to our pockets.
I remember, living in an old house in Ohio, we ended up having blackouts every week. It was bad for a while. We got used to relaxing and reading by flashlight.
Yes we have had power outages lately due to severe thunderstorms.
It is an overloaded grid and thunderstorm issue. Sad!
Power outages are common here in summer and rainy season. We just depend on our inverters to help us through .
we had them often when we first moved to our house. We bought a generator, and haven’t noticed them since, other than the last couple of days, because all the neighbors are at our house~
I am uncomfortable not having some kind of backup. I really need to have some way to make coffee at least. There is no natural gas where I live so I think there is a generator in my future.
Tesla has released their solar wall (2 to 5 day battery backup).
I was recently looking into Aquion Energy’s saltwater batteries but found they were in chapter 11 protection. (strange) I have heard that someone purchased them. Sometimes this means we won’t see this technology for a long time. They don’t have the fire danger and are eco-friendly. There are some operational advantages as well but size is not in their favor. http://aquionenergy.com
I looked at those a while ago. Not quite sure they are ready for prime time.
I am wondering myself. I think a similar company in Europe is doing well. It has been a while since I looked also. I didn’t get any clues to what was happening with them. Not many reviews. I have installed in my basement a motion activated floodlight made for outside and I put the little solar panel in a window. I haven’t hit a light switch down there ever since. I have to wave my arms around once in a while.
That is a good setup!
I automated the lights in the basement so I can turn them on from my cell phone.
You know what SDG & E did? Our only electric provider… If you use power from 4 pm – 9 pm the charges are double.
I think Raven has the power company paid off. He said it was time for a walk!
Raven she would never.
ok she said only because no power means no AC
How about a dog pond in the backyard?
you have to stop email Raven with ideas!
OUch, they do that here as well its called peak time!
Yup, same here. Peak time hours.. at least we have this marine layer this time of year. NO ac needed,,,yet. Next month we will boil.
peak time for Pepco is peak time for Solar production so it only impacts us for about an hour a day!
That is not too bad at all. Yay for Solar!
The problem is when there are dark clouds, solar systems don’t produce as much.
True, I have been off the grid completely before. But we had a lot of batteries. Never went without.
The concept of battery backup is really cool!
There must be some technical up gradation , In my no area no outage.
You are very lucky! Most of the world has some outages.
In which part of US you live ?
Eastern US, Washington DC area.
While I was in Bulgaria there were thunderstorms. That stopped for about half an hour. In Spain I’m 14 years old I do not remember having such problems. Not for such a long period.
I did some work with the spanish electrical company – they are very good
It happens in India on regular basis but not in Australia. We faced an outage for 15 minutes once in 2016 but were notified in advance.
The US grid is stretched thin now