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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on


Parliament

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2 minutes ago, Catpfish said:

Are you a heat pump? If so, it's the unit trying to defrost. It will run the "AC" for about 10 to 15 minutes to heat the outside unit up and melt the frost from the fins and the unit. Hopefully, it will allow the heat to work again

 

1 minute ago, NorthLoop said:

It is a heat pump so I hope you're right. 

And right as I type that the warm air starts flowing. 

 

Sorry I'm on edge. As a grown man I should've known this. 

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It is a heat pump so I hope you're right. 
Mine had been cycling like that for over a day. It freaked me out at first. Worst comes to worst, you probably have the option to switch to emergency heat which will bypass the outside unit in favor of heat strips that the inside blowers will move the air over. Very inefficient and power consuming but should work to minimize the temp drop
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1 minute ago, Catpfish said:
4 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:
It is a heat pump so I hope you're right. 

Mine had been cycling like that for over a day. It freaked me out at first. Worst comes to worst, you probably have the option to switch to emergency heat which will bypass the outside unit in favor of heat strips that the inside blowers will move the air over. Very inefficient and power consuming but should work to minimize the temp drop

The unit will do that on its own.

Power came back on and for 10 min and then gone again. I might join team heavy flow. It is just one of those days.

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1 minute ago, Catpfish said:
3 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:
And right as I type that the warm air starts flowing. 
 
Sorry I'm on edge. As a grown man I should've known this. 

No worries from me. I already learned this by being a little bitch and calling my cousin yesterday. He's the installer of the systems.

Actually makes me glad that the system works like this. Like whoever designed it considered the fact that we might have a Westerosi winter every now and then. 

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1 hour ago, Trey3216 said:

Wife and the 4 month old are tucked in and asleep in our bedroom since we’re attempting to divert heat to the living room and master and away from the other bedrooms.   I’ve had a fire going for a while just in case.   Power has flickered off and back on about 6 times.  I don’t know how I’m gonna get a good night’s sleep.  Last thing I want is to wake up at 3am to a 51 degree house and the baby getting too cold then having to jumpstart a fire.  Uggh 

Same.  There are less than 10 houses without power in my neighborhood.  Everyone but me is asleep in the living room around the fire.  I'm too anxious. Plus someone has gotta be responsible since my wife said she was taking a benadryl. I'm on my own.  

I am enjoying the peace and quiet tho.

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1 minute ago, Post Oak said:

Same.  There are less than 10 houses without power in my neighborhood.  Everyone but me is asleep in the living room around the fire.  I'm too anxious. Plus someone has gotta be responsible since my wife said she was taking a benadryl. I'm on my own.  

I am enjoying the peace and quiet tho.

Wife and toddler are asleep in our bed. Daughter in her room. If the power goes out I'm gonna drunkenly but silently build a fort over my bed and then drag the girl in there. 

Should work out fine. 

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32 minutes ago, HOOKEM4 said:

. We might survive this.

Granted, we haven't quite threaded the needle, because we are having to thaw it out or something, but I just took a tour of our place - team cover seems to be working fine.  There is a clear line of melted snow around the edges between the porch and wall, and around the walls, so yeah, still giving off some of our heat, but Texas construction and all,  and I don't mind that at all.  I expect snow against the walls in the morning as the house can't keep it up forever, but at least I  got that going for me and can sleep for a few hours.

Anyways, called a friend a block away who has been texting me, when I was going outside, in case something stupid happened and I needed help, since the wife and kids are not worried about this shit, and he asked if I would check their place out since I was already outside and dressed.  They are in a little condo complex.  Team Stream has quite a few members there, and they all seem to be running fine for now, but their sidewalks are 2-3 inches of snow covering a shit-ton of ice.  Team Serious Coverup seemed okay from the outside.  Maybe.  Two people had foam faucet covers over their faucets and nothing over those foam covers, so we'll see how that goes in the morning.  They could very well have those faucets going straight back into the house and not running along the wall, and the area around them as a result, could be warm, so they may be fine.

I am thinking about joining Team Stream in the morning if I continue seeing good results when I get up.

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4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Granted, we haven't quite threaded the needle, because we are having to thaw it out or something, but I just took a tour of our place - team cover seems to be working fine.  There is a clear line of melted snow around the edges between the porch and wall, and around the walls, so yeah, still giving off some of our heat, but Texas construction and all,  and I don't mind that at all.  I expect snow against the walls in the morning as the house can't keep it up forever, but at least I  got that going for me and can sleep for a few hours.

Anyways, called a friend a block away who has been texting me, when I was going outside, in case something stupid happened and I needed help, since the wife and kids are not worried about this shit, and he asked if I would check their place out since I was already outside and dressed.  They are in a little condo complex.  Team Stream has quite a few members there, and they all seem to be running fine for now, but their sidewalks are 2-3 inches of snow covering a shit-ton of ice.  Team Serious Coverup seemed okay from the outside.  Maybe.  Two people had foam faucet covers over their faucets and nothing over those foam covers, so we'll see how that goes in the morning.  They could very well have those faucets going straight back into the house and not running along the wall, and the area around them as a result, could be warm, so they may be fine.

I am thinking about joining Team Stream in the morning if I continue seeing good results when I get up.

I'm staying team cover but I'm adding Christmas lights to it.

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29 minutes ago, vicerous said:

Now no cold water from one sink in the master... every other faucet in the house is good. time to hit the main cutoff in the garage? 

Does your sink back up to an outside wall?

If I had a main cutoff inside, and could easily do it, I would have done it earlier this afternoon and drained the lines.  

 

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27 minutes ago, Somnio said:

As an anecdote, you wouldn't believe how many people around here seem to only own "no-show"  athletic socks.  Freezing temps, but their ankles are showing when they sit down.  And they have a hoodie on with a tee shirt under.  This is their cold weather gear.

You'd think with all of the people who go hiking/etc. in Austin, more of them would have actual decent hiking socks and boots, but nope.

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21 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

Sorry I'm on edge. As a grown man I should've known this. 

It sucks because it's out of our control somewhat.

Tom Herman taking the team nowhere?  We can pitch in and fly a banner or bitch on twitter or Facebook, and kind of pretend to be doing something.

Worst winter storm in 40 years?  Only thing a banner is good for is wrapping our faucets outside.  Our computers and tablets and phones don't put out enough heat while we are bitching on forums or FB or whatever.

So yeah, this sucks.

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2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Does your sink back up to an outside wall?

If I had a main cutoff inside, and could easily do it, I would have done it earlier this afternoon and drained the lines.  

 

Yeah - bathtub & other sink are good in the same bathroom. I'll just kill it and be done with the worry. 

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1 minute ago, Constant said:

Next level is rolling blackouts. 

Thanks. 

EEA Level 1
When operating reserves drop below 2,300 MW and are not expected to recover within 30 minutes, grid
operators can call on all available power supplies, including power from other grids, if available.

EEA Level 2
When operating reserves are less than 1,750 MW and are not expected to recover within 30 minutes, ERCOT
can reduce demand on the system by interrupting power from large industrial customers who have
contractually agreed to have their electricity turned off during an emergency. ERCOT can also use demand
response resources that have been procured to address tight operating conditions.

Spoiler
  • Winter During winter, load typically peaks each day in the early morning and then again in the early evening.
  • Winter peak demand records generally occur after consecutive days of cold build up in the ERCOT region and are driven largely by a combination of low temperatures across the region’s largest urban load centers.
  • Based on historical weather data, the following combinations are indicative of normal, above-normal and extreme winter peak demand weather conditions in the ERCOT region:
  •  Normal: temperatures are 20 degrees in Dallas, 26 degrees in Austin/San Antonio and 30 degrees in Houston
  •  Below-normal: temperatures are 15 degrees in Dallas, 21 degrees in Austin/San Antonio and 25 degrees in Houston
  •  Extreme: temperatures are nearly 10 degrees in Dallas, below 20 degrees in Austin/San Antonio and nearing 20 degrees in Houston
  • During the winter months, tight grid conditions may also result from reduced generator availability due to weather-related factors.
    • Extreme cold temperatures,
    • restrictions by natural gas suppliers,
    • windy conditions and
    • precipitation that causes icing on wind turbine blades may force generators to become unavailable or operate at reduced levels.

EEA Level 3
An EEA3 is declared if operating reserves cannot be maintained above 1,375 MW. If conditions do not
improve, continue to deteriorate or operating reserves drop below 1,000 MW and are not expected to recover
within 30 minutes, ERCOT will order transmission companies to reduce demand on the system.

 

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I just went out to knock off the big-ass icicles that have formed on the pool spillover features and which are threatening to plug them up.  I admit am not built for the cold, but I fail to see how 1/2" of styrofoam is going to keep my hose bibs from freezing through all of this.  
I am beginning to give in to despair. 

But as [mention=210]mchookem[/mention] noted, it does look kind of pretty, like a DMT surge before death's sweet release.
923168980_PXL_20210215_060954729.NIGHT(1).thumb.jpg.c4289c0805c23b89cb93acd16b0a9886.jpg

At least [mention=298]C-Man[/mention] hooked me up with some sweet-ass insurance.

Looks cool though. Enjoy it while it lasts
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17 minutes ago, Somnio said:

Fuck!  Turn your thermostats to 60, and bundle up mofos!

Logical people:  Turn your thermostats down, stop doing shit with your laundry/stove/whatever in the hopes that it also helps keep your place warm.

Austinites:  FUCK WE BETTER CRANK THE HEAT WAY UP IN CASE WE LOSE POWER, SO IT'LL BUY US SOME TIME WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE POWER TO COME BACK!

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5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

This really is some "what fresh hell is this" shit. 

Goddamn. At least tornado suspense is over in an hour or so. 

At least with tornados, we have some idea, not the best, but a decent idea of where they are headed, and as soon as they pass, we can fucking breath.

This is like going around the house checking everything and going out every hour or so and looking for new tornadoes, because all you know is that there are tornadoes in the area, but not sure if they are going to hit you or not and whether they will hit you inside or outside.

 

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