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ERCOT Urging For Energy Conservation


Vic Mackey

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2 hours ago, FartingMonk said:

Because heat pumps in Texas would be extremely stupid and not effective at all.

I don’t know much about it but I’ve had probably @ 6-8 people tell me they have been super happy with theirs. 

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2 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

What a thread. bad weather, School closings, reminders to not forget gloves, heat pumps, a bad ass pool pump room (best post).

 

You say "pump" a lot.  /nohomo

To be fair to me, I have now clipped my gloves to the bottom of my jacket along with my home address and food allergies for school tomorrow.  

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Aren’t heat pumps just reversible air conditioners using the refrigeration cycle? Don’t see any reason they would perform differently from traditional one-way AC for cooling…  it’s the same thing.

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1 hour ago, Nightfly said:

Aren’t heat pumps just reversible air conditioners using the refrigeration cycle? Don’t see any reason they would perform differently from traditional one-way AC for cooling…  it’s the same thing.

Correct. 

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48 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

They tell me I need to lower my thermostat and unplug large appliances because the sun isn’t up yet and the wind isn’t blowing. Why don’t they tell people to unplug their cars?

Generally people aren’t charging their cars in the morning when demand is high. They charge overnight. Like a phone. 

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4 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Looks like ercot was over cautious with their predictions for supply and demand. Big gap between the two and looks to be fine. 

Yes.  And they were especially cautious on the Available Seasonal Capacity estimate.  The current committed capacity is about 5,000 MW greater than yesterday’s estimate of the ASC.  

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13 hours ago, FartingMonk said:

Because heat pumps in Texas would be extremely stupid and not effective at all.

There are a lot of heat pumps in Texas, more than other states. From the air conditioning side, they are literally the same thing as a normal air conditioner. Historically their primary weakness has been really cold climates and producing heat. 

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Have heat pump. Farting monk has 0 idea what he’s talking about at all. Pease move on he doesn’t need to admit he’s wrong he wok just continue to look stupid.

Funny enough I was coming in here to talk about mine because we dipped to temps that may get the heat pump to be worthless. I had a suspicion that the installers never installed my 20kW auxiliary heat correctly and I was right. Had to get that all set up and configured in my system - it kicked on during the defrost cycles and definitely made for a more comfortable night. 

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34 minutes ago, immamac said:

Have heat pump. Farting monk has 0 idea what he’s talking about at all. Pease move on he doesn’t need to admit he’s wrong he wok just continue to look stupid.

Funny enough I was coming in here to talk about mine because we dipped to temps that may get the heat pump to be worthless. I had a suspicion that the installers never installed my 20kW auxiliary heat correctly and I was right. Had to get that all set up and configured in my system - it kicked on during the defrost cycles and definitely made for a more comfortable night. 

I have a heat pump as well. So far it's still working. I've never had to switch to the backup so no idea if it works or not. I hear it'll make your bill skyrocket if you have to use it. 

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Team Heat Pump. Aux kicks on occasionally, but having a two story helps during defrost cycle because upstairs is usually 10 degrees warmer than downstairs, so the air going across the coils to defrost the unit is hot enough to not require the aux to kick on. If anything, the aux kicks on for about 10 minutes every other hour. And this is with an 11 year old Goodman compressor and an 8 year old air handler. 

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I have a heat pump as well. So far it's still working. I've never had to switch to the backup so no idea if it works or not. I hear it'll make your bill skyrocket if you have to use it. 

It will.

My husband thought that if it is below freezing outside, you have to use emergency heat on the heat pump.

I hit the fucking roof when I got the bill. Then I started my campaign to demonstrate how a heat pump works.

He still doesn’t believe me. Because reasons.
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7 hours ago, Lat22 said:

They tell me I need to lower my thermostat and unplug large appliances because the sun isn’t up yet and the wind isn’t blowing. Why don’t they tell people to unplug their cars?

Interestingly, this was told to me by a higher-up at Tesla.  Remember the "Volvo Effect" marketing theory in the 1980s/1990s?  Where a consumer would never notice a Volvo, then they'd buy one, and then suddenly notice all the Volvos on the street?  The charging platform is a similar concept.  We think because we see a handful of EVs at charging stations out in public that they are draining the grid during peak heat (3pm on a Saturday near a strip center) or on a cold winter's morning at an office complex.  But they are just a drop in the bucket.  The vast, vast majority of them are being charged at off-peak times in both heat and cold alike, usually after dinner and before sunrise.  They are nowhere near the drain on the grid that people think they are, ask Elon.  

Now, when we get to serious percentages of long-haul, kingpin fleets being charged en route...that's gonna be something of a strain.  We've been working on it for almost 15 years and the solution is almost here, but it's going to require a serious overhaul of how we distribute power during peak times because unlike you or I with an EV passenger car can just spring to work with 10% power or catch an Uber or ride with spouse in an pinch.  Freight trucks have a specific schedule and have no choice but to pull 75,000 pounds no matter what the local electrical provider's shitshow is.  But it's an interesting logistics conversation for another time.  

As for sun and wind, I'm still waiting for somebody to show me where somebody put a gun to ERCOT's head and forced them to deploy the current energy portfolio they do.  If sun and wind are so unreliable, why is ERCOT so dependent on them?  We certainly have other capabilities---O&G, nuclear, coal, even a bit of hydro.  If Sun and Wind are such issues, why not vote to change the way ERCOT does things then?  There's a room full of incompetent administrators who can actually be held to account.  Instead, our state chooses to literally yell at clouds.  

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1 hour ago, tigol said:


It will.

My husband thought that if it is below freezing outside, you have to use emergency heat on the heat pump.

I hit the fucking roof when I got the bill. Then I started my campaign to demonstrate how a heat pump works.

He still doesn’t believe me. Because reasons.

Your husband sounds like my wife.  

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40 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yep. Sunny and cold days give you maximum efficiency for solar. 

Did we have more solar go online since this summer to achieve this record?  Because i wouldn’t think the cold would make up for the loss of 4 hours of sunlight 

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1 minute ago, UT_OB1 said:

Did we have more solar go online since this summer to achieve this record?  Because i wouldn’t think the cold would make up for the loss of 4 hours of sunlight 

The answer is yes. But the record is about instantaneous power rather than total energy generation. 

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On 1/16/2024 at 7:45 AM, Biff Tannen said:

Looks like ercot was over cautious with their predictions for supply and demand. Big gap between the two and looks to be fine. 

Better to be ridiculed for being overly cautious than having the grid go down and don't warn anyone. CYA messaging. We shouldn't have to worry about either one in this state.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since we don't have a bitch about whoring ourselves to Bitcoin miners thread, this is the closest one. 

https://time.com/6590155/bitcoin-mining-noise-texas/

Every night, the nurse anesthetist Cheryl Shadden lies awake in her home in Granbury, Texas, listening to a nonstop roar. “It’s like sitting on the runway of an airport where jets are taking off, one after another,” she says. “You can't even walk out on your back patio and speak to somebody five feet away and have them hear you at all.” 

The noise comes from a nearby bitcoin mining operation, which set up shop at a power plant in Granbury last year. Since then, residents in the surrounding area have complained to public officials about an incessant din that they say keeps them awake, gives them migraines, and seemingly has caused wildlife to flee the region. “My citizens are suffering,” says Hood County Constable John Shirley. 

As complaints swelled, local officials brought their concerns to the site’s operator, US Bitcoin Corp. Over the summer, the company agreed to construct a 24-foot sound barrier wall on one end of the property at the cost of $1 to $2 million. But while the wall reduced sound in some areas, it actually amplified it in others. “To be honest, the complaints have gotten louder for us since the mitigation efforts,” Constable John Shirley says. 

Shirley says that he is monitoring the decibel levels of the facility. Texas state law stipulates that a noise is considered unreasonable if it exceeds 85 decibels. For comparison, vacuum cleaners often run at around 75 decibels—and a cardiologist told TIME in 2018 that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels had the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. Shadden took her own readings at her house near the Bitcoin mining facility that reached 103 decibels. 

Erik Kojola, a senior Climate Research Specialist for Greenpeace USA, says he’s monitored similar complaints from residents near new bitcoin mining centers across the country, in Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, and upstate New York. He also contends that bitcoin mining poses a much larger threat to the environment. “Bitcoin mining is essentially a lifeline for fossil fuels,” he says. “It's ultimately creating a new industrial scale demand for energy at a time where we need to be reducing our energy use.” 

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1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

Since we don't have a bitch about whoring ourselves to Bitcoin miners thread, this is the closest one. 

https://time.com/6590155/bitcoin-mining-noise-texas/

Every night, the nurse anesthetist Cheryl Shadden lies awake in her home in Granbury, Texas, listening to a nonstop roar. “It’s like sitting on the runway of an airport where jets are taking off, one after another,” she says. “You can't even walk out on your back patio and speak to somebody five feet away and have them hear you at all.” 

The noise comes from a nearby bitcoin mining operation, which set up shop at a power plant in Granbury last year. Since then, residents in the surrounding area have complained to public officials about an incessant din that they say keeps them awake, gives them migraines, and seemingly has caused wildlife to flee the region. “My citizens are suffering,” says Hood County Constable John Shirley. 

Looked this up on the map - I guess they just bought the pastureland adjacent to the power plant and put in rows and rows of these CPU stacks and industrial cooling fans.  I would not be surprised to see more municipalities enact laws against this as it becomes more common.  https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3438316,-97.7317921,3a,19.6y,162.31h,91.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZz60ipGL8cw8ZJyPg38cfw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

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2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Since we don't have a bitch about whoring ourselves to Bitcoin miners thread, this is the closest one. 

https://time.com/6590155/bitcoin-mining-noise-texas/

Every night, the nurse anesthetist Cheryl Shadden lies awake in her home in Granbury, Texas, listening to a nonstop roar. “It’s like sitting on the runway of an airport where jets are taking off, one after another,” she says. “You can't even walk out on your back patio and speak to somebody five feet away and have them hear you at all.” 

The noise comes from a nearby bitcoin mining operation, which set up shop at a power plant in Granbury last year. Since then, residents in the surrounding area have complained to public officials about an incessant din that they say keeps them awake, gives them migraines, and seemingly has caused wildlife to flee the region. “My citizens are suffering,” says Hood County Constable John Shirley. 

As complaints swelled, local officials brought their concerns to the site’s operator, US Bitcoin Corp. Over the summer, the company agreed to construct a 24-foot sound barrier wall on one end of the property at the cost of $1 to $2 million. But while the wall reduced sound in some areas, it actually amplified it in others. “To be honest, the complaints have gotten louder for us since the mitigation efforts,” Constable John Shirley says. 

Shirley says that he is monitoring the decibel levels of the facility. Texas state law stipulates that a noise is considered unreasonable if it exceeds 85 decibels. For comparison, vacuum cleaners often run at around 75 decibels—and a cardiologist told TIME in 2018 that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels had the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. Shadden took her own readings at her house near the Bitcoin mining facility that reached 103 decibels. 

Erik Kojola, a senior Climate Research Specialist for Greenpeace USA, says he’s monitored similar complaints from residents near new bitcoin mining centers across the country, in Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, and upstate New York. He also contends that bitcoin mining poses a much larger threat to the environment. “Bitcoin mining is essentially a lifeline for fossil fuels,” he says. “It's ultimately creating a new industrial scale demand for energy at a time where we need to be reducing our energy use.” 

Burning down bitcoin mining operations would be a legitimate public good. 

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43 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Granbury in elections tends to vote 80+ % for one specific party... the party that is allll for bringing these bitcoin miners their way.  Once they find out, they will be so angry they will vote for that same party again.

Haha, I did a loan for a guy who built a house in Granbury around the time of the Cruz-Beto election (he was retiring and lived previously in Georgetown but it had gotten too liberal).  He described Granbury as "Heaven--you won't see one Beto sign in the whole town." 

 

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4 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Since we don't have a bitch about whoring ourselves to Bitcoin miners thread, this is the closest one. 

https://time.com/6590155/bitcoin-mining-noise-texas/

Every night, the nurse anesthetist Cheryl Shadden lies awake in her home in Granbury, Texas, listening to a nonstop roar. “It’s like sitting on the runway of an airport where jets are taking off, one after another,” she says. “You can't even walk out on your back patio and speak to somebody five feet away and have them hear you at all.” 

The noise comes from a nearby bitcoin mining operation, which set up shop at a power plant in Granbury last year. Since then, residents in the surrounding area have complained to public officials about an incessant din that they say keeps them awake, gives them migraines, and seemingly has caused wildlife to flee the region. “My citizens are suffering,” says Hood County Constable John Shirley. 

As complaints swelled, local officials brought their concerns to the site’s operator, US Bitcoin Corp. Over the summer, the company agreed to construct a 24-foot sound barrier wall on one end of the property at the cost of $1 to $2 million. But while the wall reduced sound in some areas, it actually amplified it in others. “To be honest, the complaints have gotten louder for us since the mitigation efforts,” Constable John Shirley says. 

Shirley says that he is monitoring the decibel levels of the facility. Texas state law stipulates that a noise is considered unreasonable if it exceeds 85 decibels. For comparison, vacuum cleaners often run at around 75 decibels—and a cardiologist told TIME in 2018 that chronic exposure to anything over 60 decibels had the potential to do harm to the cardiovascular system. Shadden took her own readings at her house near the Bitcoin mining facility that reached 103 decibels. 

Erik Kojola, a senior Climate Research Specialist for Greenpeace USA, says he’s monitored similar complaints from residents near new bitcoin mining centers across the country, in Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, and upstate New York. He also contends that bitcoin mining poses a much larger threat to the environment. “Bitcoin mining is essentially a lifeline for fossil fuels,” he says. “It's ultimately creating a new industrial scale demand for energy at a time where we need to be reducing our energy use.” 

 

Why does Mrs. Shadden hate freedom?

 

 

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This seems like a good place for this.  I got a phone call yesterday from my natural gas provider (Piedmont) asking if I was interested in their Green Edge program, which essentially boils down to me paying an extra fee to them each month that they "would use to help the environment and reduct my family's carbon footprint."  Based on our usage history they said I could start for as little as $6/month.

I don't think so, scooter.

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