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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on


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Georgetown sounds like a clusterfuck right now.   A bunch of folks without power, that has nothing to do with the rolling blackouts.  And more people are talking about the water.
Still can't confirm tower - have friends near there, waiting to hear back.

Saw reports that an overflow valve broke, and the flow has been stopped. Millions of gallons and possible flooding is quite the exaggeration.
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How many of y'all are going to get off the grid?

I have a neighbor that has solar with Tesla walls or whatever they are called. His place lost power for 3 days but between solar and batteries he kept power on. However, his heat was limited to electric space heaters.

My dad, who survived Harvey when the eye sat on his ranch for a crazy amount of time. Between power generators, propane and well water he was able to endure the hurricane aftermath in relative comfort. Having kept in contact with him during the freeze he did pretty well again by not being dependent on the grid.

I have a well, so did fine with water, have propane but am on the grid for electricity. Fortunately I didn't lose power. Now I am strongly considering solar with batteries.

 

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, F250 said:

How many of y'all are going to get off the grid?

I have a neighbor that has solar with Tesla walls or whatever they are called. His place lost power for 3 days but between solar and batteries he kept power on. However, his heat was limited to electric space heaters.

My dad, who survived Harvey when the eye sat on his ranch for a crazy amount of time. Between power generators, propane and well water he was able to endure the hurricane aftermath in relative comfort. Having kept in contact with him during the freeze he did pretty well again by not being dependent on the grid.

I have a well, so did fine with water, have propane but am on the grid for electricity. Fortunately I didn't lose power. Now I am strongly considering solar with batteries.

 

 

 

 

I have Tesla solar with 2 powerwalls.  6.12 kW PV system with 27kWh of storage.  With some minimal conservation, I could go off grid for probably a week.  With serious conservation and running only essentials, I could probably go off grid indefinitely.  When the sun is shining, I could probably even get 30-40 miles of range on the model 3 each day in addition to running the house.   Not to mention that the latest federal spending extended the 26% tax credit for solar and solar generation storage through the end of 2022.

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Maybe Texas govt’s olive branch will be a state tax incentive to folks who buy solar and/or generators to take less pressure off the grid?

My neighbor put some Tesla panels and one power wall in and said she got 33% federal tax credit on it, and I don’t think her house is more than 2 years old. 

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Weather Update:

Really?  Not that much after the shitcircus this week.  Just a heads up to say that within these warmer, mostly sunny days, two cool fronts will be sweeping in.  But the worst should still be above freezing in the area tonight.  Tonight will be cooler than last night (a balmy 50° here at the Bee Cave Complex), temps will actually get to about 38° or so in the outer parts, a few degrees more in the city, then tomorrow a little warmer overnight for the cooler parts, again a bit more in the city.

You don't have to wrap anything; if anyone freezes, it'll be well to the NW of Austin (maybe Mason or San Angelo, etc.) but any freeze in TX will be light and not needing prep.

Days will be warm all week... and after Tuesday, nights back in the 40's at the coolest.

No sweat. 

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13 hours ago, Hate said:

You forgot C....you can use your bidet instead of wiping your ass like a savage.

12 hours ago, rage-a-holic said:

exactly...the worst part of this whole clusterfuck has been having to wipe/smear shit around with tree products like a goddamn animal

Holy shit, how much coconut water have you all been storing?  All the stores near us have been out for days, and it's not exactly easy to get large deliveries of coconut water when things are normal as it is.   If I can just get one or two more cases, I can fill up the tank for the bidet, and get the pump running.

 

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I wouldn't call it a hobby of mine, but I'll take big limbs from around the neighborhood during the city's large brush pickup and bringing it home for future firewood.

This habit of grabbing some good logs over the past year served me well this past week.

There is a ton of downed branches out there right now if you feel like prepping for next fall.

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14 minutes ago, smoky said:

I wouldn't call it a hobby of mine, but I'll take big limbs from around the neighborhood during the city's large brush pickup and bringing it home for future firewood.

This habit of grabbing some good logs over the past year served me well this past week.

There is a ton of downed branches out there right now if you feel like prepping for next fall.

We've seen a shitload of fallen trees/etc. hauled to the curb in our neighborhood, and if we had a fireplace, I'd be bringing that stuff home and splitting it for firewood.

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20 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Georgetown sounds like a clusterfuck right now.   A bunch of folks without power, that has nothing to do with the rolling blackouts.  And more people are talking about the water.

Still can't confirm tower - have friends near there, waiting to hear back.

Oncor was doing maintenance on a line not associated with Georgetown and killed a very substantial LCRA transmission line that knocked out 3 Georgetown substations which affected about 2/3 of the city. All Georgetown systems were operating as normal, they just lost their feed from the LCRA. As soon as the LCRA line was repaired, the Georgetown system was fine. Outage ended up being about 3 hours.
 

The city was also working around the clock to replenish all of the water storage tanks, including the one that overflowed. It was almost full when the power went out and the power outage affected the overflow sensor which led to the running water reported at 29/DB Wood.

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Tons to think about if I am ever lucky enough to build my own home. Would definitely love to have one of those Japanese TOTO toilets. It self cleans and deodorizes. Has heated seat and remote. Bidet. Super badass—pun intended. Those gutter things that keep debris out. Solar stuff. Smart heating/air conditioning. Rain barrel stuff. Pex pipes. I’d rather build the home right even with the costs. Try to be as self sufficient and not as reliant on the grid.

as a silver lining to any of this it was wonderful to see so many people help others. Divided politically as our country is...just seeing all my neighbors conserving water and electricity to start from people helping others in so many ways. It is heartwarming. 

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20 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Weather Update:

Really?  Not that much after the shitcircus this week.  Just a heads up to say that within these warmer, mostly sunny days, two cool fronts will be sweeping in.  But the worst should still be above freezing in the area tonight.  Tonight will be cooler than last night (a balmy 50° here at the Bee Cave Complex), temps will actually get to about 38° or so in the outer parts, a few degrees more in the city, then tomorrow a little warmer overnight for the cooler parts, again a bit more in the city.

You don't have to wrap anything; if anyone freezes, it'll be well to the NW of Austin (maybe Mason or San Angelo, etc.) but any freeze in TX will be light and not needing prep.

Days will be warm all week... and after Tuesday, nights back in the 40's at the coolest.

No sweat. 

 

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Oncor was doing maintenance on a line not associated with Georgetown and killed a very substantial LCRA transmission line that knocked out 3 Georgetown substations which affected about 2/3 of the city. All Georgetown systems were operating as normal, they just lost their feed from the LCRA. As soon as the LCRA line was repaired, the Georgetown system was fine. Outage ended up being about 3 hours.
 
The city was also working around the clock to replenish all of the water storage tanks, including the one that overflowed. It was almost full when the power went out and the power outage affected the overflow sensor which led to the running water reported at 29/DB Wood.

I just wanted to say that the guy who designed the overflow switch to fail in a non-tripped position on a loss of power is a fucking idiot. You always design for your safeties to fail in the safest/most protective manner possible. A loss of power to the overflow should have isolated the tank from anything else being added just like a true overflow condition would. Not allow the fucking idiots in the control room to continue to pour the water to it oblivious as usual with their feet up on the fucking desk.
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26 minutes ago, EE2B said:


I just wanted to say that the guy who designed the overflow switch to fail in a non-tripped position on a loss of power is a fucking idiot. You always design for your safeties to fail in the safest/most protective manner possible. A loss of power to the overflow should have isolated the tank from anything else being added just like a true overflow condition would. Not allow the fucking idiots in the control room to continue to pour the water to it oblivious as usual with their feet up on the fucking desk.

While I agree with all of that, I do not have any means to make it happen. I was simply reporting what I read.

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

It's all a matter of perspective.  We're hitting around 40 today and tomorrow and it feels tropical.

40 degrees for a high in October and I'd be bundled up like it was January.  

From my perspective cold weather fucking sucks.

I once made the mistake of doing a 7 day ski trip in Brekenridge thinking more would be better. Wrong!!! Like Vegas, anything more than 3 days is a beating. Fuck cold weather.

Did two weeks in Omaha during February once for work, I am pretty sure if I lived up north I would develop a bad drinking habit.

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3 minutes ago, F250 said:

From my perspective cold weather fucking sucks.

I once made the mistake of doing a 7 day ski trip in Brekenridge thinking more would be better. Wrong!!! Like Vegas, anything more than 3 days is a beating. Fuck cold weather.

Did two weeks in Omaha during February once for work, I am pretty sure if I lived up north I would develop a bad drinking habit.

Breck isn't even that cold.

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14 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Breck isn't even that cold.

so true.  that is vacation cold. 

last week sucked especially if you were out of power for 100 and water for 48.  It made it ten times worse.  Cold sucks but I can handle the cold if I'm not concerned about my house exploding like a water balloon, have power, or having to lug buckets of water everywhere to flush toilets.  The car thing sucks because my cars are outside all the time. 

No wonder "choppin wood" is a phrase used to describe keep working.  I imagine back in the day if you weren't doing anything as a kid, dad would say "get your ass to choppin some wood" no matter what time of year it was.

 

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5 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Some of ya'll have water? That must be cool and I can't wait to once again join the early 20th century someday. Hell at this point I'd take it at work OR at home. This driving down to the truck stop to take a piss is a beating.

WTF.  did you have a pipe bust?  why no water?

that sounds terrible.  need anything?  I mean besides water.

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3 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

WTF.  did you have a pipe bust?  why no water?

that sounds terrible.  need anything?  I mean besides water.

Yep busted pipes at home and at work (both were dripping, but both buildings lost power for days). We're staying with family until the apartment complex can get water turned back on (they keep saying it's days away) so we can bathe and what not there. It's worse at work where we had a huge burst and now 4 dehumidifiers and 16 fans going non stop to give you a constant noise pollution headache on top of being forced to drive to pee/wash hands/etc.

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29 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Yep busted pipes at home and at work (both were dripping, but both buildings lost power for days). We're staying with family until the apartment complex can get water turned back on (they keep saying it's days away) so we can bathe and what not there. It's worse at work where we had a huge burst and now 4 dehumidifiers and 16 fans going non stop to give you a constant noise pollution headache on top of being forced to drive to pee/wash hands/etc.

that sounds terrible.   

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54 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Some of ya'll have water? That must be cool and I can't wait to once again join the early 20th century someday. Hell at this point I'd take it at work OR at home. This driving down to the truck stop to take a piss is a beating.

don't you have a yard?

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9 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

Hey, whoopee, yesterday (2/22) annual average last freeze day.  A little later in the calendar on the outskirts (generally mid-March).

Anyway, no freezing night or day expected for the next 10 days.  One day at a time, bitches.

What's this rain shit I see forecast for like the next straight week?

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39 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

What's this rain shit I see forecast for like the next straight week?

1) Not all that much - the lazy, drizzly kind of day, maybe a shower/two where you are over 2 days, but not much.
2) Not freezing


That's really all I care about.  Might be good to wash the mud/dirt off of some things.

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From my perspective cold weather fucking sucks.
I once made the mistake of doing a 7 day ski trip in Brekenridge thinking more would be better. Wrong!!! Like Vegas, anything more than 3 days is a beating. Fuck cold weather.
Did two weeks in Omaha during February once for work, I am pretty sure if I lived up north I would develop a bad drinking habit.

It’s the worst. can’t count on anything to run smooth. Garage doors, Diesel vehicles, gas pumps, watermain breaks...anything. And it always breaks on the coldest days.

Fortunately the foreseeable future doesn’t forecast any arctic blasts for us. Outside of snow events it looks like we’re in the home stretch once February expires. Besides last week event ...this winters been pretty chill. I have grass showing in my yard. That may change today but whatever. Can’t wait for summer
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22 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:


It’s the worst. can’t count on anything to run smooth. Garage doors, Diesel vehicles, gas pumps, watermain breaks...anything. And it always breaks on the coldest days.

Fortunately the foreseeable future doesn’t forecast any arctic blasts for us. Outside of snow events it looks like we’re in the home stretch once February expires. Besides last week event ...this winters been pretty chill. I have grass showing in my yard. That may change today but whatever. Can’t wait for summer

Hey you-- that summer talk belongs in the hell-scape fire-dome thread.

Maybe a week ago, I thought I read someone who said it looked like we were going to get another polar blast a couple weeks from now.  Was that just a feverish dream brought on by sleeping in a freezing house for 3 nights?

 

 

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13 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Hey you-- that summer talk belongs in the hell-scape fire-dome thread.

Maybe a week ago, I thought I read someone who said it looked like we were going to get another polar blast a couple weeks from now.  Was that just a feverish dream brought on by sleeping in a freezing house for 3 nights?

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if we did to be honest.   Once a major polar blast hits like it did last week, another one will hit a bit later on.  May not be as major, but it's definitely a possibility. 

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