More power woes for California
 

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Okay, so it is just me, or is it ridiculous that citizens of an industrialized nation, a world leader, in fact, should be worrying about things like blackouts and not having enough power?

I've got a novel idea: MORE POWER PLANTS.

One word*: NIMBYs!


*okay, acronym

True 'dat. But seriously, can't we pop a couple solar plants out in the desert?

Alternative energy sources!

Our office is always at 73. There is no reason for that other than the owner (who isn't in the office for 2 weeks out of every month) wants the office at 73. So we freeze.

There is also no reason to keep your AC running super low at home if no one (and no pets) are home.

As a country we waste so much energy. True, we shouldn't have to worry about energy but we waste so much of it. Energy conservation should be part of our daily lives - not just when it is 110 outside.

Agreed. Saving energy is easier than making it.

Oh we could, but then ya get the tree (cactus?) huggers whining about how we're destroying the fragile desert ecosystem. NIMBY 2.0.

Rolling blackout... isn't that what they call it when Lindsay Lohan passes out climbing a set of stairs?

Max Power for governor!

I just bought some of the long life, low use light bulbs at lunch. Awesome price, 4 100watt for $1.99 a pack. Not much, but it is a start.

I can't remember a time when I did not turn off lights when I left a room, etc. But I will do my best to conserve. Reading by flashlight is not an option though.

Nuclear power. I find it embarrassing that we produce so little of our electricity from it.

There are some exceptionally cool designs for energy production using solar power in a completely different way, meaning no photovoltaic (sp?) cells. I just can't seem to find any links to them at present.

Yup, spelled correctly. I just did a patent application for such a device. Like supertwistedbirefringent, a word that will live in my memory banks forever.

I am about to go suck electricity by drying my hair. But it's after 9pm.

And I'll turn off a bunch of lights on the way to the bathroom too.

I noticed just about every house I saw in Hawaii had solar panels- I thought it was kind of cool. Of course, electricity must be outta sight costwise.

We have been under a "Flex Alert" all week. This is nothing new here. I hate the rolling blackouts, but at least there is some warning that you are going to be without power. They keep saying not to have your a/c below 78. Durin the day I keep it at 80 for the Girls, but it doesn't click on until 82. At night it is at 79. I have yet to have a bill over $200 this summer.

The funny thing about the Flex Alert is that I don't do laundry before 7pm normally, just because it is too hot to be in the garage. I did have a thought last night. So, if we are to wait until after 7 to use major appliances, doesn't that mean at 7 everyone turns on their stuff and could cause the same sort of power drain that they would cause earlier in the day?

During the last serious heat wave, when it hit 117, we lost power for a few hours. It was right at 5:30, when everyone was getting home from work and turning on their a/c. Boy and I bailed and went to the movies. There were outages all over town that day, affecting 6 different zip codes.

Before dragons, our electric bills were no more than $50/month. With all the dragons we have, it is now up in the $100-$150/month range.

An interesting new problem with nukes and global warming is that lately plants in France and even our own in the TVA have had to shut down because the river water they use to cool the reactors was too warm. Bit of a catch 22 there - though more cooling towers might be a fix.

while buster was at the base, bob paid a visit. does that count?

Considering the temperatures involved in the things that need to be cooled, I'm surprised to learn that a different of a few degrees (how much warmer are the rivers than normal?) makes that much of a difference.

Interesting problem.

I believe the problem is also in how much above the ambient temperature water can be released into the rivers. I know in the TVA situation the river water was at 90 and was a first for them.

I'm trying to be a responsible energy user. But what makes it better to do laundry at 8pm when it is 90 degrees out and everyone is using their A/C then it is to do at 3pm when it is 90 degrees out and everyone is using their A/C.

Because not everybody is using their A/C at 9p.m. Most office towers turn off their AC in overnight (or turn it down dramatically). Businesses are increasingly closed and using less power. The manufacturing plants that are working one shift have shut down for the day, and so on.

Home AC is just a small part of the equation, industrial AC is the bull in the China shop and its use decreases dramatically outside of normal business hours so shifting electrical needs outside of that window can help.

Thanks Alex. That makes sense.

Now to get our office to make the place a tiny bit warmer. There is no need to keep the building at 70.

Myth busters recently debunked the "bull in a china shop" saying. Not that it matters. Just reminded me. They set up shelves with china in an enclosed pen and let bulls run around. Very minimal damange, not one shelf knocked over.

Yes, but it was in a familiar location (their own pen) and they were completely not agitated. Had they been in an actual china shop where they'd be sure to be far less comfortable, I'm sure it would have been a different story (not to dismiss the fact that they were far more graceful in that situation that one might have imagined.

I saw that!! Well, even though they were familiar with their pen, I am still surprised, at their size, they were so careful. We have a big dog and no matter how familiar he is with a location, he can destroy with his body or even just his tail wagging!

Bye bye power! Lost it about 20 minutes ago. Not sure if it is due to a rolling blackouts or an accident.

Roommate plugged the router and modem into his UBS but my laptop battery is going to die soon :(

Certainly. There are often situations on Mythbusters in which I disagree with the methodology. I was more just bringing up something I was reminded of.

However, I always thought the phrase referred to someone who was clumsy and apt to break things. In which case, I would say that it certainly was debunked that bulls were clumsy. As you said, they were much more graceful than most would have suspected.

Haven't seen that episode so I'd be interesting to see the setup (and I very frequently have procedural issues with their setups though the results are usually at least suggestive).

But in my head, whenever I heard the phrase and tried to imagine it, it was in some small store where the aisles were physcially smaller than the bull trying to get out (some combination of a china store and a China(town) store). In other words, not that something is inherently clumsy, just too big for the environment it is in, which is the way I was using the phrase above.