(02-15-2021 06:08 PM)shere khan Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 05:55 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 05:43 PM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 05:35 PM)U_of_Elvis Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 05:31 PM)Todor Wrote:  What the heck is a heat pump???

Your AC uses refrigerant to move heat from inside to outside your house, a heat pump is an AC that can be reversed and move heat from outside in.

The only difference between a normal AC and a heat pump is a reversing valve and the TXV may be different.

They don’t work well below 40, so most switch over to resistance strips as it gets colder, which is very inefficient

Edit - just in case I wasn’t clear it can heat or cool. The thermostat activates the reversing valve when it calls for heat

We have one here in Maryland. It only really drops below 40 a few months a year, so it's not too bad and usually my electric bills aren't that high. That said, it's been consistently below freezing for the past month so my electric bill tripled.

Most heat pumps have 2 heating elements. For 90% or more in the South only one heat element is necessary. However if you have a heavy rain, particularly with wind where some leaves swirl around the debris can block some of the coils inside the fan area and ice forms when the temperature drops below freezing. When this happens the second element (usually designated emergency heat) kicks in and melts the ice on the coils. When that happens it does double the energy requirements. The less often it freezes the more efficient it is. And with heat pumps you don't want to put them in the shade. Most freezes in the South occur at night and the sunlight thaws out the coils without having to use the second element, unless those who installed the heat pump put in in the shade. Then the ice sticks around requiring emergency heat to kick in. As to Elvis's remarks they are spot on. The better insulated the home the more efficient the heat pump.

The relay on the emergency heat coil in a unit of a friend failed this summer. His ac ran all the time and he couldnt figure out why it never got cool. Lol. It was heating while the ac ran.



Man he was pissed.

That’s how you get a $700 power bill.

(02-15-2021 06:21 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Going on 10 hours here without power. I do have a built in genset that runs on natural gas that allows me to heat part of my house among other things. Thank goodness for that. It’s 12 degrees outside and headed for a low of 3.

Centerpoint just dumped my part of grid. So, no power for the coldest night in decades. The pool system is probably a goner. We’ll be fine. We’ll just camp out by the fireplace in the family room. Everyone I know in all different parts of Houston are out. The only person I’ve talked to tonight who has power right now lives right next to a hospital. Hard to figure out what the hell ERCOT is doing. Not much of a survey, but my sense is more people don’t have power than do in Houston right now.

(02-15-2021 09:31 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 06:21 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Going on 10 hours here without power. I do have a built in genset that runs on natural gas that allows me to heat part of my house among other things. Thank goodness for that. It’s 12 degrees outside and headed for a low of 3.

Centerpoint just dumped my part of grid. So, no power for the coldest night in decades. The pool system is probably a goner. We’ll be fine. We’ll just camp out by the fireplace in the family room.

Pull all your drain plugs (two on every pump, big one in filter, etc) and open the air relief valve at the top of the filter. That should let the water drain down to ground level if your equipment pad is above the level of the pool as most are. If you have a heater it will have a drain as well.

If you drain turn off the breakers to the pool equipment so it doesn’t come back on.

What everyone in Texas feels like

(02-15-2021 09:36 PM)U_of_Elvis Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 09:31 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 06:21 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Going on 10 hours here without power. I do have a built in genset that runs on natural gas that allows me to heat part of my house among other things. Thank goodness for that. It’s 12 degrees outside and headed for a low of 3.

Centerpoint just dumped my part of grid. So, no power for the coldest night in decades. The pool system is probably a goner. We’ll be fine. We’ll just camp out by the fireplace in the family room.

Pull all your drain plugs (two on every pump, big one in filter, etc) and open the air relief valve at the top of the filter. That should let the water drain down to ground level if your equipment pad is above the level of the pool as most are. If you have a heater it will have a drain as well.

If you drain turn off the breakers to the pool equipment so it doesn’t come back on.

I already pulled the top off the filter basket and pulled the screw stops off the mechanical timer so it wouldn’t kick back on. I covered it with a tarp so I’ll just hope for the best.

Too late for us. Had the pumps running while we were sleeping and then bam. I’m sure it’s all frozen up. And the whole pumps and piping are at a lower elevation than the pool. Lots of water would have to drain before it would stop. That would be a nice frozen pond on the side of my house.

(02-15-2021 10:08 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Too late for us. Had the pumps running while we were sleeping and then bam. I’m sure it’s all frozen up. And the whole pumps and piping are at a lower elevation than the pool. Lots of water would have to drain before it would stop. That would be a nice frozen pond on the side of my house.

The lower elevation makes it really hard to winterize quickly compared to having the higher pad. Hopefully your pump lives, and if there is any damage it is just PC which is really easy to work with.

I wonder how many BTUs the average solar panel would produce if you lit it on fire to keep warm.

It sounds like there is a lot more than just wind offline, the severe cold is impacting a lot of generation facilities.

Quote:ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness in a statement on Sunday morning noted the region was already grappling with higher-than-normal generation outages due to “frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units.”

But after the Feb. 14, 7 p.m. peak, beginning around 11 p.m., “multiple generating units began tripping offline in somewhat rapid progression due to the severe cold weather,” ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin told reporters on Monday morning. “As a result of this decreasing supply and continued high demand, we began to see diminishing reserves.”

Woodfin did not precisely break out the generation capacity that ERCOT lost leading up to its 1:25 a.m. decision to shed load, but he noted: “Most of those generators that went offline during the night, last night, were either—there a few additional wind generators that went offline during the night—but the majority of them were thermal generators, like generation fueled by gas, coal, or nuclear, And so most of the plants that went offline during the evening and morning today were fueled by one of those sources.”

As of 10:30 a.m. CST on Feb. 15, the aggregate of capacity that was unavailable was 34 GW. At the end of 2020, ERCOT had 77.2 GW of installed resources. That suggests the grid operator has lost more than 40% of its operable capacity.

https://www.powermag.com/ercot-sheds-loa...onditions/

(02-15-2021 09:31 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 06:21 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Going on 10 hours here without power. I do have a built in genset that runs on natural gas that allows me to heat part of my house among other things. Thank goodness for that. It’s 12 degrees outside and headed for a low of 3.

Centerpoint just dumped my part of grid. So, no power for the coldest night in decades. The pool system is probably a goner. We’ll be fine. We’ll just camp out by the fireplace in the family room. Everyone I know in all different parts of Houston are out. The only person I’ve talked to tonight who has power right now lives right next to a hospital. Hard to figure out what the hell ERCOT is doing. Not much of a survey, but my sense is more people don’t have power than do in Houston right now.

Yeesh

Good luck man

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

also...every one of those wind turbines uses oil and oil filters...oops! Not so enviro friendly after all!

(02-15-2021 10:17 PM)shere khan Wrote:  I wonder how many BTUs the average solar panel would produce if you lit it on fire to keep warm.

Bwahahaha

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People Who Moved To Texas From California Finally Feeling At Home Now That Power Is Out

https://babylonbee.com/news/people-who-m...wer-is-out

(02-15-2021 09:31 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 06:21 PM)DFWMINER Wrote:  Going on 10 hours here without power. I do have a built in genset that runs on natural gas that allows me to heat part of my house among other things. Thank goodness for that. It’s 12 degrees outside and headed for a low of 3.

Centerpoint just dumped my part of grid. So, no power for the coldest night in decades. The pool system is probably a goner. We’ll be fine. We’ll just camp out by the fireplace in the family room. Everyone I know in all different parts of Houston are out. The only person I’ve talked to tonight who has power right now lives right next to a hospital. Hard to figure out what the hell ERCOT is doing. Not much of a survey, but my sense is more people don’t have power than do in Houston right now.

Hope you've got it back. Haven't heard from family in the Houston area since yesterday. It was on and off all day. Everyone was adequately warm yesterday afternoon. My parent's assisted living place had a generator, but only for essentials. Heat was not one of the essentials.

We're on Entergy, not ERCOT. We were out for about 29 hours, now supposed to be having 3 hour rolling blackouts.

(02-15-2021 04:42 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 02:49 PM)bullet Wrote:  The official word is that its just too cold and the grid can't handle the demand.

If I recall correctly the Texas power grid is independent of the rest of the US. I'm actually surprised they don't have more fossil fueled plants.

They wouldn't need more if they were combined with the Eastern and/or Western Interconnects instead of going it alone. Maybe Texans will rethink it after this.

(02-16-2021 01:49 PM)Ohio Poly Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 04:42 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 02:49 PM)bullet Wrote:  The official word is that its just too cold and the grid can't handle the demand.

If I recall correctly the Texas power grid is independent of the rest of the US. I'm actually surprised they don't have more fossil fueled plants.

They wouldn't need more if they were combined with the Eastern and/or Western Interconnects instead of going it alone. Maybe Texans will rethink it after this.

yea, thats worked out so well for california.

maybe you'll rethink that sentence.

(02-15-2021 04:42 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  

(02-15-2021 02:49 PM)bullet Wrote:  The official word is that its just too cold and the grid can't handle the demand.

If I recall correctly the Texas power grid is independent of the rest of the US. I'm actually surprised they don't have more fossil fueled plants.

They are about 78% fossil fuel / Nuke.