It was one of those situations where there just wasn't enough time to orchestrate better shots, between the cold and lack of appropriate gear. I just had to wing it. The temperature when they were playing was 7, and the winds were howling out of the North at 25G35, the very definition of shooting from the hip. Apparently the nonsense went on for a while longer but my pass had expired and I wanted to navigate the 51 miles of country roads before dark.
Now that is interesting and compares well with some other sources..
Sadly a link to some thing that has Patriot in the title suggests, that a point of view is more important than fact.
The earlier link to the business site is more likely to be unbiased, as its only bias is money. Money people rarely.allow patriotism or any other consideration get in the way of business.
"The power crisis has revealed deep-rooted problems with electricity infrastructure and, specific to Texas, a statewide market that puts revenue ahead of a robust distribution network."
Quote from the article
It also has to be said that that problems like these are not unique to the US
Its been a while Glad to see that everyone is OK? Especially our Texas folks. We are fine and continue to marvel at our good fortune. Here in the central south coast of the UK is just about the only part that has had no snow or ice! Just like most of us I assume we are totally reliant on our utility services with no practical backup options.
Found this on the "BBC". The whole problem these days that so many topics are so suffused with both left and right ideology, that even when presented with facts that are provable, they are not accepted and no one is man enough to admit they were wrong.
As someone said, "anyone who says that they never made a mistake, never made anything"
Hope you and Thea are safe and well! I think today is the day we begin to turn the corner weatherwise. We got down to 13F last night but we slowly warm from this point and the power seems to be on fairly steadily, at least for us. JR with his three little ones has lucked out this week, they live a few blocks from us and very close to a major hospital and other medical facilities so they have never lost power. I'm thinking that it will be Friday or Saturday before I can free up the pool pumps and see what has or hasn't been damaged in that system.
Believe whatever you want to about our energy situation, political bent aside one has to conclude it's outdated and mismanaged on top of that. What in the hell are we paying this country's leadership for......oh yeah, to launch investigations and go around in circles........
I'm sure that I'll be in a loooong list, but we will have a Generac whole house back up generator up and running long before anything like this ever happens again. Natural gas powered 24,000 watt generators with wifi aren't inexpensive, but then neither is having your pipes freeze and your ceiling fall in like several of our neighbors that I am hauling buckets of water to.
Hello
Thanks for your reply.
I imagine that you do admit in a roundabout way that your initial diatribe against green power being the main culprit of power failure was not true. It was the failure of what you now say you are planning to install that was the main problem.
It seems a strange decision for someone who in so many respects is imaginative and forward looking, to still hark back to outdated tech. Thermal storage is the future, using the huge amount of energy that Texas can harness from wind and solar and ground. I suggest that you put aside your prejudice and as they say 'embrace the dark side'. It will be huge, you won't know what to do with the excess energy. I would love to add thermal storage from ground source in London, but our plots are too small. We would have to get our neighbours to join, but ....
It is not matter of belief, but thought, there is a difference
I got the Westcott 400 strobe and have it charging up in my office. First impressions are really good, excellent build quality and features. Once it's topped off I'll get familiar with the interface, but for now it looks like a great tool to use for untethered strobe light.
Thanks for your kind thoughts Jim. Hopefully things will warm up for you per the forecast. Weve had a rare sunshiny afternoon over here. Dare I say almost spring like? Well anyway, the birds think so nice to hear them again. Ditto, for the garden plants and bulbs slowly coming back to life. Most welcome.
Re the whole house generator your on your own OK? I quit playing with that stuff in 1977 and I miss it not at all! My last posting during my service was the UK Army Central Engineer Park. A massive stores depot for all the equipment that was never used and that no one could quite bring themselves to get rid of. My second favourite toy was the stock of 300 KVA generator sets. They where a huge size even by the standards of those days. They came in two equal size parts both the size of a tank. The service module had all the fluids, switch gear, donkey engine to charge the air start for the main engine, and a radiator plus fan. The power module had the engine plus alternator both of which where also used for railways. Starting was fun charge the air cylinder with the donkey engine, hand pump the oil pressure, hit the air start button, pull the fuel rack leaver to START and .. Kaboooom!
Mother Nature is indeed a "mother"! One can try and prepare for such or all of these meteorological events but I am not sure it would help the masses. It was a "Perfect Storm".
The remnants are hitting Maryland now. Snow, then rain, then sleet back to snow..and at 27F. Not as bad as the SW but a nuisance nonetheless.
Dan
I'm sure that I'll be in a loooong list, but we will have a Generac whole house back up generator up and running long before anything like this ever happens again.(deleted)
Jim,
Since you are interested in a generator because of weather related power failures, Generac has optional cold weather kits for some/maybe all of theirbackup generators. The kit includes heaters for the oil filter, and battery. I don't know if anything else is included, but the heaters will kick in when the temps drop below a set level, that way if you should lose power, the battery and oil filter won't be frozen when the generator starts up.
There is also a cold weather issue with the Generac (and possibly other brands) generators. Basically condensation freezes in the bottom of the air filter housing, and blocks the crankcase vent into the air box. When this happens the generator builds up pressure in the crankcase, and blows the dipstick, and a lot of the oil out of the dipstick tube. If you are interested in a generator for use during freezing events, you might want to fix this before it happens.
Here is a You Tube video showing/discussing the issue. Note that when he says it blocks the exhaust, he is really referring to the crankcase vent.
