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Very few words....but they are all true.
Long Term Collapse
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Growing up in 1970's / 80's Puerto Rico I had plenty of exposure to extended outages for power and water. Mainly from hurricanes, but also from power company union "negotiating tactics." Also lack of oil to run the boilers, happened a lot in '79.
So, since then, I keep a collection of oil / kero lamps / lanterns, gallons of oil (real oil, not para) entirely too much beeswax candle for my own good, and a fair bit of dried goods, rice, beans, etc etc. Propane stove 2x, plenty of propane on hand too.
And if that runs out and there's no groceries, well, we got gator, cayote and rabbit around these parts, yes, even in the urban parts. Cayote sightings dominate the pearl-clutching contingent in Nexdoor and Neighbors.
Plenty of squirrel around here too. I have plenty of .22 to eat with. For the bigger things like cayote either of my .30s will do.
I'm sure the blue-leaning Browardites have zero clue that food really comes from growing it, killing it, or catching it. They'd probably faint at the idea of taking squirrel with a .22 to have for dinner.
We don't get "cold" here, but I lived in North Dakota, Grand Forks AFB for the 1997 blizzards and the flood/fire that followed. No power in NoDak April for 2 weeks. Gas furnace....with electric blower. x.x We survived.
I'm considering a kero heater. Just to have. A nice US-made vintage Coleman or something. No chinesium.
So, since then, I keep a collection of oil / kero lamps / lanterns, gallons of oil (real oil, not para) entirely too much beeswax candle for my own good, and a fair bit of dried goods, rice, beans, etc etc. Propane stove 2x, plenty of propane on hand too.
And if that runs out and there's no groceries, well, we got gator, cayote and rabbit around these parts, yes, even in the urban parts. Cayote sightings dominate the pearl-clutching contingent in Nexdoor and Neighbors.
Plenty of squirrel around here too. I have plenty of .22 to eat with. For the bigger things like cayote either of my .30s will do.
I'm sure the blue-leaning Browardites have zero clue that food really comes from growing it, killing it, or catching it. They'd probably faint at the idea of taking squirrel with a .22 to have for dinner.
We don't get "cold" here, but I lived in North Dakota, Grand Forks AFB for the 1997 blizzards and the flood/fire that followed. No power in NoDak April for 2 weeks. Gas furnace....with electric blower. x.x We survived.
I'm considering a kero heater. Just to have. A nice US-made vintage Coleman or something. No chinesium.
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Just to clarify, I was not ragging on Texans specifically, nor one-upping anyone. If anyone took it that way, that is their own issue. I was describing the general human condition; hence the Aesop reference. I am pretty sure you will get the same proportion of prepared to non-prepared people pretty much anywhere, Alaska excepted. What is a catastrophe in Missouri would be just another day in Paradise up north, so being prepared is baked into the culture there.
We did not get any power outages this time, thankfully, but I have had them here in the past for like a week in below-freezing temps. Got through it just fine both times, though not pleasant of course.
What drives me up the wall is easily-preventable tragedies.
We did not get any power outages this time, thankfully, but I have had them here in the past for like a week in below-freezing temps. Got through it just fine both times, though not pleasant of course.
What drives me up the wall is easily-preventable tragedies.
Good timing on this thread. Just had an ice storm here in the Blue ridge mountains. The grid is down. Currently running on PTO generator hooked up to the Kubota. I can run the whole house for a little more than a gallon of Diesel per hour. Here I am up on the net while my artesian well continues to pump out +/- 700 more gallons per day that I actually use.
I have to get down to the sawmill later on though. They just called me to let me know that They have another big pile of shorts that they want to move for cheap. Just the ticket for the Vermont castings stove in the house or the Jotul in the shop. Probably check on the neighbors on the way out.
The steam shower should be getting good and hot about now. We will check back later.
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I have to get down to the sawmill later on though. They just called me to let me know that They have another big pile of shorts that they want to move for cheap. Just the ticket for the Vermont castings stove in the house or the Jotul in the shop. Probably check on the neighbors on the way out.
The steam shower should be getting good and hot about now. We will check back later.
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What most folks don't seem to realize is that some of the folks on this forum (like any other) are so smart they don't need any advise from anyone. They know EVERYTHING. And the folks that do appriciate the advice are deemed to stupid to bother about......Brings to mind the old saying about being the first to throw stones...........JMHO.
TR
TR
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Hang in there buddy. I hope you get electricity back soon. Nice example of being prepared.
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I love out in the county. Have 50+ gallons of gas on hand for the generator.
Have another 100 gallons on hand, in the motor home that can power that generator.
Have another 100 gallons on hand, in the motor home that can power that generator.
How do you like having a PTO generator? I thought about getting one, but then thought I would prefer to be able to use the generator and the tractor, at the same time. I have a whole home generator, hooked up to the house, thus haven’t bought a secondary, yet. Have you run into the problem of needing both?
I have a small Kubota and it’s been great! Hope your standard power comes on soon!
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13,364 Posts
If not frozen, you can unscrew a sprinkler head then drink from the pipes with a straw. Your toilet tanks have a few gallons too. Water heater, even more.
No offense to my Texas friends, but here's my experience with the DFW area of Texas. My house in Plano suffered from roof-and-skylight-shattering hail, hurricanes (including a back yard & garage flood) , frozen / broken pipes, a cracked slab from months of sun-baked soil, plus a tornado sucked the trees from the yard & tossed them onto the house.
That ONE house accounted for over 80% of my total maintenance budget for SIX rental homes!!!
Screw it. We sold that sucker last year. Meanwhile, my one in Austin has been just fine. At least up until this latest mess. No idea, I can't reach my prop mgr.
No offense to my Texas friends, but here's my experience with the DFW area of Texas. My house in Plano suffered from roof-and-skylight-shattering hail, hurricanes (including a back yard & garage flood) , frozen / broken pipes, a cracked slab from months of sun-baked soil, plus a tornado sucked the trees from the yard & tossed them onto the house.
That ONE house accounted for over 80% of my total maintenance budget for SIX rental homes!!!
Screw it. We sold that sucker last year. Meanwhile, my one in Austin has been just fine. At least up until this latest mess. No idea, I can't reach my prop mgr.
Understood, Tom.
But how much of your resources do you dedicate to events that have miniscule chances of happening?
That was the umbrage that I took from what you said.
How well prepared do you think Alaska would be to a week or two of 110 degree heat?
That's OUR culture here in Texas.
Air conditioning and iced tea.
Part of the problem we had last week is due to the installation of wind generators.
Up nawth they are heated to prevent icing,
Ours have oil coolers to prevent overheating.
A lot of the natural gas generators, likewise, were not prepared for arctic conditions.
Heads will roll over this mess, of course, because hind-sight is so crystal clear.
And a lot of people are pissed off about it.
But it was NOT an easily preventable tragedy by any means.
I work for an electric utility in Kentucky. We purchase our power from TVA, a federal entity that has lots of hydro dams, 3 nuclear plants, a growing number of gas turbines, and fewer and fewer coal plants. In the past few years, they've been given a federal mandate to go "greener". TVA pointed out that with their hydro and nuclear, they were actually very green. The federal government said, "You don't get to count those. Only new wind and solar." A perfect example of politics and the current "renewable" agenda being more important that the actual end result they seek. Drives me crazy!
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When you get ahold of the Austin guy, you're probably not going to like the news.
I have a sister near there and there's lots of "Issues". Fortunately, like me, she prepares for the worst, and has lived there long enough to know the local issues, while having lived in Kansas long enough to know to always prepare for cold weather. So far, she's better off then most, but has two families of displaced friends bunking with her.
No real beefs with the PTO setup that I have. Certainly it ties up the tractor when in use. But I have not really had any issues with working around that. The unit that I got was from Northern tool. A13.5 KW unit that requires a minimum of a 24 horsepower tractor to run it has been trouble free from day one. We have had it for several years and used it quite a few times. I thought that it was reasonably priced, and I would certainly recommend the optional trailer setup to go along with it for a number of reasons. Additionally there is some additional expense to get the house wired properly as well as legally to use it. We are pretty happy with it. We looked at Generac products but they are really inefficient as far as fuel consumption is concerned. This unit is very efficient. At just slightly over one gallon per hour to run the whole house on off road Diesel. It is hard to beat.
If I was not happy with it. I would likely go with a Kohler Diesel backup system. They now have them available down to a 15 KW unit. Not really cheap to install but very reliable and very efficient. Do not even think about a Generac Gas unit.
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Most of the preps I mentioned are for any type of disaster scenario, i.e. food, water, guns, LED battery lights. (I would also add a battery-powered radio.) Of course there will be other preps for local specific threats, such as weather-related, earthquakes, floods, etc.
Texans do still need warm clothes, even if it's just layering to achieve warmth instead of a thick winter coat. I don't really follow TX weather, but I gather that cold winters are not what you could call rare; so I would expect people to have winter clothes. Being as warmly dressed as possible and wearing a wool blanket and/or space blanket will easily and cheaply save people from freezing. A no-brainer prep. For hot summers, you can strip down to the least clothing socially acceptable. Uncomfortable but survivable.
Having a basement is a life-saver too. Even when it was 0 degrees F outside this week, it only got down to 40F in my basement. When it's over 100 outside, it's in the 50s in the basement. Also an alternate heat source such as a fireplace or wood stove is a great option.
I'm focused on extreme cold here, but people have to think and act for themselves as to what preps they need to make where they are. But the basics are pretty much the same everywhere. Water, food, body-temp regulation, shelter, protection, communication (radios, battery-powered cell phone chargers).
Anyone can do these things. The insanity is that many don't. They watch natural disasters happen to other people on TV but don't make the leap to "Gee, maybe I should do something, you never know".
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This article and others that will come out will let people know what is really going on. Abbott tried to ramp up power for the coming storm and the Feds wouldn't let him! Green energy policy trumps lives. They forced him to buy insanely expensive outside power. Abbott should have done a press conference calling them out, and then just overridden their dictates, flipped 'em off, and gone ahead under a declaration of emergency.
The Demsheviks are sealing their own doom in the '22 elections (if they can't steal it again).
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I should add that the most valuable long-term prep is mental toughening.
Just to see what would happen, last winter for weeks I slept in my drafty garage in below-freezing temps, with a piece of carpet and a thin foam pad on the ice-cold concrete floor, a cheap three-season sleeping bag with a space blanket, and fully dressed except shoes. Slept like a baby. It became the new normal. Felt like a wimp the first night I went back to sleeping inside.
We have been training martial arts outside this winter, as long as it's above 20F or so. Exercise keeps us toasty warm, and we often have to take off a layer to keep from sweating.
Just to see what would happen, last winter for weeks I slept in my drafty garage in below-freezing temps, with a piece of carpet and a thin foam pad on the ice-cold concrete floor, a cheap three-season sleeping bag with a space blanket, and fully dressed except shoes. Slept like a baby. It became the new normal. Felt like a wimp the first night I went back to sleeping inside.
We have been training martial arts outside this winter, as long as it's above 20F or so. Exercise keeps us toasty warm, and we often have to take off a layer to keep from sweating.
My whole home is a 13kw Generac Guardian running on natural gas....
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When it comes to being prepared, I've lived through Typhoons, Earthquakes, Torrential Flooding Rain, Floods, Ice Storms, Blizzards, Tornados, and.... being an Eagle Boy Scout, I firmly believe in "Be Prepared". That 99.9%/.10% split is kinda funny. Just look around folks. It's a lot more than a .10% failure rate when things go wrong. Some go a little wrong, and some just plain go WRONG.
So in addition to keeping the 6 B's fully Stocked with a year in reserve, (Beans, Bullets, Booze, Bullion, Benjamins and Buttwipe) there are a number of other things I've accumulated over the years.
First off, liking to hike, camp, hunt and fish, I have a lot of gear, including proper weather gear, camping gear, camp stoves, lanterns with multiple fuel sources.
Fishing and hunting gear out the wazoo with plenty of repair parts, line etc. You'd be surprised how tasty catfish is when you've used bluegills for bait, and we get bluegills around here big enough to filet and eat on their own.
Camping gear can easily be used in house to keep warm. Pitch a small tent and put zipped together sleeping bags in it for a warm sleeping place inside a house without power. Portable Outhouse and Luggable Loo takes care of an outdoor bathroom if needed and the luggable loo works pretty good with a lack of power because you can use a 13 gallon kitchen bag as a liner and twist it shut a turn after each use. Basements passively stay warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Just keep a hand operated pump available to keep the sump pump emptied if needed. I have one that's used to pump water for the Solar Shower, which can be used in the Portable Outhouse (pop up tent you can stand in) If our house was rendered ineffective, then the conex storage containers will be opened up for the camping gear, including tents and sleeping bags.
I have a propane powered shop heater and two 100lb bottles that are kept filled. A Propane Grill and a number of bottles for it. A Camp Stove with multiple small bottles for it and an adapter that I can use to hook it to regular bottles or fill the small ones. Stabilized White Gas, Gas, and oil for oil mix and chainsaw bars. Extra Chains for the chainsaw as well as chain and parts to make more chains for the chainsaw. I also have hand tree saws, an axe, hatchets, bolo's, machete's a splitting maul, sledge and wedge. I've kept ahold of hand tools that don't require juice even as I've accumulated tools that do.
I have a Generator with a proper generator switch on the house and enough fuel kept on hand to run it for two weeks without tapping into the vehicles or other sources. This is a "Short Term" fix only, so depending upon your version of Long Term Breakdown, a lot of the other stuff comes into play.
For water, I can run my irrigation well off my generator, but I can also hand pump water from the well. Our little town has a backup well that can be operated off a PTO, so as long as there's fuel, then there's potable water locally. I have Life Straws, but also know how to rig a still, as well as knowing how to create one from readily available materials. As mentioned rainwater can be collected as well. Everyone should know how to turn off the valve into the house to avoid large water leaks. In Texas at my sisters, their water heater is in the attic crawlspace. That would make for easy draining, but in frigid weather without heat, turning off the water and draining down the water heater was a great idea so that was their water source to fill lots of containers when they lost power. They got power back and had avoided frozen water lines by having drained them down. They don't bury lines as deep there, hence their problems with mains freezing, bursting and then leaking/gushing water everywhere. At least their house was spared some of the damage seen by overhead water pipes bursting and flooding the house.
I know how to "Can", but there's a ton of Mennonites here locally that are better gardeners and canners than I am, so I've felt a few out about providing "Security" in exchange for groceries.
We, and they know how to eat simple. They also have tailoring skills, so clothing replenishment can be done long term as well.
Around here, most houses have basements and plumbing and sewer lines are buried beneath the frost line. My house was built by a Mennonite, so all plumbing is centrally located and can be kept freeze free very easily. It can also be kept cool with triple pane windows opened up, they're screened and I keep screen repair tools and screen on hand for repairs. So our home would be livable without power.
I know locals with horses, cows, pigs, goats, llamas, chickens, turkey's and sheep so meat, leather and wool are available long term. We also have cotton farmers and gins.
That doesn't count the ability to hunt and fish. One guy I know used to raise rabbits off the leavings from a hydroponic farm. They water for the hydroponics was fed from his commercial catfish waters while the heat from the rabbits kept the place warm. It was an interesting mix and while it's no longer in operation, he did it commercially for decades and it could easily be replicated, thus turning out fruits and veggies year round along with rabbit meat, fur and catfish. Also, don't forget birds. Sparrows, Starlings and Grackles are abundant. When I was a kid, the Negrito kids would use a blow gun to shoot sparrows and other small birds out of the trees, grill them over a bamboo fire and eat them. If you're hungry, you'd be surprised at what you'll eat. "Squab" ain't nothin but Pigeons and Rats are just a skinny tailed cousin to squirrels, so.......
All in all, the "Lone Survivor" idea has little appeal, and Jeremiah Johnson was a lot younger than me when he started out, but there's a lot that can be used, reused, and then repurposed as was done "in the old days".
There's a lot of "Common Sense" that isn't common sense anymore, so there's going to be a steep learning curve for people who are in the mooch class of society and who sit back all the time waiting for others to provide for the mooches at the expense of the saviors.
Even in large cities, rooftop gardens and Storage Container farming has sprung up because some city dwellers look around and realize that they're not very self sufficient and that if the trucks and/or boats stop, they're screwed. Can you imagine the problems that are going to occur when people in large cities don't get water and can't flush toilets or sewers? Another huge issue is going to be trash disposal. The rats and cock roaches abound in NYC. Can you imagine the disease/pest outbreak with no water, sewer or trash disposal? Shoot, even the nomadic plains indians knew to move the camp every now and then to leave the pests and trash behind. They were also smart enough to live upstream from their horse herd(introduced by the spaniards) or from the bison moving through.
So in addition to keeping the 6 B's fully Stocked with a year in reserve, (Beans, Bullets, Booze, Bullion, Benjamins and Buttwipe) there are a number of other things I've accumulated over the years.
First off, liking to hike, camp, hunt and fish, I have a lot of gear, including proper weather gear, camping gear, camp stoves, lanterns with multiple fuel sources.
Fishing and hunting gear out the wazoo with plenty of repair parts, line etc. You'd be surprised how tasty catfish is when you've used bluegills for bait, and we get bluegills around here big enough to filet and eat on their own.
Camping gear can easily be used in house to keep warm. Pitch a small tent and put zipped together sleeping bags in it for a warm sleeping place inside a house without power. Portable Outhouse and Luggable Loo takes care of an outdoor bathroom if needed and the luggable loo works pretty good with a lack of power because you can use a 13 gallon kitchen bag as a liner and twist it shut a turn after each use. Basements passively stay warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Just keep a hand operated pump available to keep the sump pump emptied if needed. I have one that's used to pump water for the Solar Shower, which can be used in the Portable Outhouse (pop up tent you can stand in) If our house was rendered ineffective, then the conex storage containers will be opened up for the camping gear, including tents and sleeping bags.
I have a propane powered shop heater and two 100lb bottles that are kept filled. A Propane Grill and a number of bottles for it. A Camp Stove with multiple small bottles for it and an adapter that I can use to hook it to regular bottles or fill the small ones. Stabilized White Gas, Gas, and oil for oil mix and chainsaw bars. Extra Chains for the chainsaw as well as chain and parts to make more chains for the chainsaw. I also have hand tree saws, an axe, hatchets, bolo's, machete's a splitting maul, sledge and wedge. I've kept ahold of hand tools that don't require juice even as I've accumulated tools that do.
I have a Generator with a proper generator switch on the house and enough fuel kept on hand to run it for two weeks without tapping into the vehicles or other sources. This is a "Short Term" fix only, so depending upon your version of Long Term Breakdown, a lot of the other stuff comes into play.
For water, I can run my irrigation well off my generator, but I can also hand pump water from the well. Our little town has a backup well that can be operated off a PTO, so as long as there's fuel, then there's potable water locally. I have Life Straws, but also know how to rig a still, as well as knowing how to create one from readily available materials. As mentioned rainwater can be collected as well. Everyone should know how to turn off the valve into the house to avoid large water leaks. In Texas at my sisters, their water heater is in the attic crawlspace. That would make for easy draining, but in frigid weather without heat, turning off the water and draining down the water heater was a great idea so that was their water source to fill lots of containers when they lost power. They got power back and had avoided frozen water lines by having drained them down. They don't bury lines as deep there, hence their problems with mains freezing, bursting and then leaking/gushing water everywhere. At least their house was spared some of the damage seen by overhead water pipes bursting and flooding the house.
I know how to "Can", but there's a ton of Mennonites here locally that are better gardeners and canners than I am, so I've felt a few out about providing "Security" in exchange for groceries.
We, and they know how to eat simple. They also have tailoring skills, so clothing replenishment can be done long term as well.
Around here, most houses have basements and plumbing and sewer lines are buried beneath the frost line. My house was built by a Mennonite, so all plumbing is centrally located and can be kept freeze free very easily. It can also be kept cool with triple pane windows opened up, they're screened and I keep screen repair tools and screen on hand for repairs. So our home would be livable without power.
I know locals with horses, cows, pigs, goats, llamas, chickens, turkey's and sheep so meat, leather and wool are available long term. We also have cotton farmers and gins.
That doesn't count the ability to hunt and fish. One guy I know used to raise rabbits off the leavings from a hydroponic farm. They water for the hydroponics was fed from his commercial catfish waters while the heat from the rabbits kept the place warm. It was an interesting mix and while it's no longer in operation, he did it commercially for decades and it could easily be replicated, thus turning out fruits and veggies year round along with rabbit meat, fur and catfish. Also, don't forget birds. Sparrows, Starlings and Grackles are abundant. When I was a kid, the Negrito kids would use a blow gun to shoot sparrows and other small birds out of the trees, grill them over a bamboo fire and eat them. If you're hungry, you'd be surprised at what you'll eat. "Squab" ain't nothin but Pigeons and Rats are just a skinny tailed cousin to squirrels, so.......
All in all, the "Lone Survivor" idea has little appeal, and Jeremiah Johnson was a lot younger than me when he started out, but there's a lot that can be used, reused, and then repurposed as was done "in the old days".
There's a lot of "Common Sense" that isn't common sense anymore, so there's going to be a steep learning curve for people who are in the mooch class of society and who sit back all the time waiting for others to provide for the mooches at the expense of the saviors.
Even in large cities, rooftop gardens and Storage Container farming has sprung up because some city dwellers look around and realize that they're not very self sufficient and that if the trucks and/or boats stop, they're screwed. Can you imagine the problems that are going to occur when people in large cities don't get water and can't flush toilets or sewers? Another huge issue is going to be trash disposal. The rats and cock roaches abound in NYC. Can you imagine the disease/pest outbreak with no water, sewer or trash disposal? Shoot, even the nomadic plains indians knew to move the camp every now and then to leave the pests and trash behind. They were also smart enough to live upstream from their horse herd(introduced by the spaniards) or from the bison moving through.
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Oh, and in regards to Power Outages, I submit the following from a Local Guy I know.
It's interesting reading and an experienced opinion.........
“”””””My thoughts on what is actually causing our current energy crisis.......
21 years ago when I started my current career which in the most basic terms is selling monitoring equipment to these energy companies things were a little different.
Power plants in our area had a combination of production means.
Some plants were coal fired but nothing real close to us here.
The plants in our area had boilers that could run off of natural gas or #6 fuel oil.
These boilers drove steam turbines to produce electricity.
These same plants would have a few natural gas fired turbines basically a jet engine directly coupled to a generator.
A few of these had the ability to fire on #6 fuel oil as well.
The reason for the #6 fuel oil was in the winter when the demand on the natural gas system was highest the plants could switch over to #6 and lessen the load on the natural gas system that was being taxed heating peoples homes.
Around 10-15 years ago the Federal government made mandates for these plants to get rid of their #6 options.
#6 was not considered environmentally friendly and the winters were getting milder so it seemed less of a necessity.
Then we started experiencing the wind energy boom, with wind turbines showing up all over Kansas. (Currently about 1/3 of Kansas Electrical Power Production)
Although a great solution on the surface underneath a completely different story.
Still required petroleum products to build and maintain but could essentially run off of wind which is FREE right?
The entry costs were so high in this market government subsidies were required to spur energy companies to start installing these.
Over time the production rates of a single wind turbine have became quite impressive even for someone like myself that has a basic understanding of the concept. ( I went to the state science fair my freshman year of high school with wind produced electricity as my project and that was a day or two ago...)
As wind became more viable and technology progressed to the point where these wind "fields" could start producing as much if not more than some of the less efficient gas fired steam plants decisions were made to remove these plants.
Most of these plants had made it well past their intended life spans and were just not considered as efficient and the gas fired turbines.
Many of you that drive down to K-96 may have noticed all the work at the Gordan Evans Evergy facility straight south of K-96 off of 151st going on last year.
They were removing the gas fired steam turbine parts of the plant. A
ll that remains are the gas fired turbines.
Here we are kicking along enjoying our mild winters and all is fine.
Kansas begins several initiatives to try out solar and there are a few impressive solar fields now in Kansas.
A small one on the outskirts of Hutchinson and a big one east of Pratt that I know of.
Fast forward to last Friday, the temps drop to unseen levels for years in Kansas as well as everywhere else through the central corridor of the United States.
The natural gas system suppling our home heat is taxed to the max.
Wind turbines freeze up, solar panels are covered in snow pushing us to utilize conventional power productions methods which now have been reduced to mainly gas fired turbines with no ability to switch over to #6 fuel oil to lessen the load on the gas system.
Everybody keeps saying the grid is taxed........BS... we put way more load on that grid every summer when we all have our air conditioners running.
Some houses rely on electricity for heat but the majority of us use natural gas.
So here's the problem, now our only source of electricity is being produced from natural gas coming from lines that are already taxed due to our home furnaces.
So the gas companies are telling these power plants they can only take so much gas.
Well that means they can only produce so much electricity and that is why they are selectively shutting areas down.
We are currently experiencing an unprecedented cold snap that nobody could have predicted but I believe our current energy crisis was created by jumping both feet first on the "green" train and abandoning methods that were tried and true.
I believe we do need to continue to look for alternative more environmental friendly sources of energy but we shouldn't tear out what we know works until these new methods are fail safe and weather proof.
Just my opinion based on a little knowledge.”””~~~DT
This tracks with what I've observed, and what little I actually know about Power Generating, but also tracks with the opinion of a Nuclear Generation Engineer I've known for decades.
So it'll be interesting to see if anyone will learn valuable lessons from this.
Me?
I'll continue to keep in place all of the measures I have that will help me weather disruptions in power or in natural gas. This latest stint has resulted in some Kansans being told they'll have Gas Bills for their homes that are up to 400 times higher than usual.
If needed, due to the Preparedness Measures I have in place, have weathered this latest cold snap while completely disconnected from the power grid and gas pipeline.
Oh, and for all those Control Left Dumb Masses that are Anti-Pipeline, I submit that the pic tells it pretty accurately for electric, water, sewer and gas.
![605143]()
It's interesting reading and an experienced opinion.........
“”””””My thoughts on what is actually causing our current energy crisis.......
21 years ago when I started my current career which in the most basic terms is selling monitoring equipment to these energy companies things were a little different.
Power plants in our area had a combination of production means.
Some plants were coal fired but nothing real close to us here.
The plants in our area had boilers that could run off of natural gas or #6 fuel oil.
These boilers drove steam turbines to produce electricity.
These same plants would have a few natural gas fired turbines basically a jet engine directly coupled to a generator.
A few of these had the ability to fire on #6 fuel oil as well.
The reason for the #6 fuel oil was in the winter when the demand on the natural gas system was highest the plants could switch over to #6 and lessen the load on the natural gas system that was being taxed heating peoples homes.
Around 10-15 years ago the Federal government made mandates for these plants to get rid of their #6 options.
#6 was not considered environmentally friendly and the winters were getting milder so it seemed less of a necessity.
Then we started experiencing the wind energy boom, with wind turbines showing up all over Kansas. (Currently about 1/3 of Kansas Electrical Power Production)
Although a great solution on the surface underneath a completely different story.
Still required petroleum products to build and maintain but could essentially run off of wind which is FREE right?
The entry costs were so high in this market government subsidies were required to spur energy companies to start installing these.
Over time the production rates of a single wind turbine have became quite impressive even for someone like myself that has a basic understanding of the concept. ( I went to the state science fair my freshman year of high school with wind produced electricity as my project and that was a day or two ago...)
As wind became more viable and technology progressed to the point where these wind "fields" could start producing as much if not more than some of the less efficient gas fired steam plants decisions were made to remove these plants.
Most of these plants had made it well past their intended life spans and were just not considered as efficient and the gas fired turbines.
Many of you that drive down to K-96 may have noticed all the work at the Gordan Evans Evergy facility straight south of K-96 off of 151st going on last year.
They were removing the gas fired steam turbine parts of the plant. A
ll that remains are the gas fired turbines.
Here we are kicking along enjoying our mild winters and all is fine.
Kansas begins several initiatives to try out solar and there are a few impressive solar fields now in Kansas.
A small one on the outskirts of Hutchinson and a big one east of Pratt that I know of.
Fast forward to last Friday, the temps drop to unseen levels for years in Kansas as well as everywhere else through the central corridor of the United States.
The natural gas system suppling our home heat is taxed to the max.
Wind turbines freeze up, solar panels are covered in snow pushing us to utilize conventional power productions methods which now have been reduced to mainly gas fired turbines with no ability to switch over to #6 fuel oil to lessen the load on the gas system.
Everybody keeps saying the grid is taxed........BS... we put way more load on that grid every summer when we all have our air conditioners running.
Some houses rely on electricity for heat but the majority of us use natural gas.
So here's the problem, now our only source of electricity is being produced from natural gas coming from lines that are already taxed due to our home furnaces.
So the gas companies are telling these power plants they can only take so much gas.
Well that means they can only produce so much electricity and that is why they are selectively shutting areas down.
We are currently experiencing an unprecedented cold snap that nobody could have predicted but I believe our current energy crisis was created by jumping both feet first on the "green" train and abandoning methods that were tried and true.
I believe we do need to continue to look for alternative more environmental friendly sources of energy but we shouldn't tear out what we know works until these new methods are fail safe and weather proof.
Just my opinion based on a little knowledge.”””~~~DT
This tracks with what I've observed, and what little I actually know about Power Generating, but also tracks with the opinion of a Nuclear Generation Engineer I've known for decades.
So it'll be interesting to see if anyone will learn valuable lessons from this.
Me?
I'll continue to keep in place all of the measures I have that will help me weather disruptions in power or in natural gas. This latest stint has resulted in some Kansans being told they'll have Gas Bills for their homes that are up to 400 times higher than usual.
If needed, due to the Preparedness Measures I have in place, have weathered this latest cold snap while completely disconnected from the power grid and gas pipeline.
Oh, and for all those Control Left Dumb Masses that are Anti-Pipeline, I submit that the pic tells it pretty accurately for electric, water, sewer and gas.
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