Rolling Blackouts! Have you been effected?

With majority of the nation locked under this dome of heat, many big cities have warned of the impending need to use rolling blackouts to take pressure off of the grid. According to forecasters, this heat is not going away anytime soon so, the stresses on our nations power grid will only intensify. I've got a bad feeling about this because the power drain is enormous and many of the typical small town grids are old and ready to pop without much notice.

Are you ready?

Rolling Blackouts Begin in Detroit

ConEd sends a warning

High Temps to Last weeks

Not yet in my area. I hope that any outages are brief...its to damn hot out to not have A/C.

reply to post by jibeho


All of that could easily be dealt with if the public would cooperate. People not working could group together and lessen the impact from residential customers. Family groups could spend their days grouped together at one residence while shutting of the air conditioning at the others and nights when it is cooler at their own homes. But then, people don't seem to be capable of such common sense actions.

My grandmother never had A/C and would barely use electric fans to cool the house in the summer. One of her tricks was to soak bed sheets wring them until damp and then hang them in front of the window catching the most breeze. It was simple and worked enough to take the edge off the heat.

When the power goes out in the Summer your cooling options are very limited compared to other seasons when heating is much easier to do.

Get creative and share your ideas here!!

I've also heard that mint oil or lotion has a bit of tingly effect on the body. Like eating a York Pepperming Patty.

Cheers!

Not been affected, yet.

Bring it on, let it all go down. Whatever it takes to get people moving and thinking about the shape things are in. Uncomfortable people are grumpy, and we need grumpy people to form a lot of grumpy people. This could be the catalyst that gets people to realize we need to work together and realize that the government cannot/will not protect us, it is up to us, and us alone. We just need people to realize this simple fact.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Great idea of pooling resources! I may just sleep in the basement tonight.

Well, I just worked in the 100 degree heat all day. I am turning my air on low... If it blows then it blows......

The damn power bill skyrockets and gets more expensive by the year.

It is not my fault the damn power companies are not proactive. It is all them greedy sob's fault.....Profits are up The power is down.... I think they should get fined into submission, into an upgrade.....

Fn lazy people sitting around all day wasting resources......I say let it blow, like the above poster.....Maybe a few will wake up....and go outside for a change.

Utility companies suck

Not here either. However I am cold natured and keep my AC set on about 78. Just enough to kick the humidity and keep it comfy. I am off today and it has run more than usual and my normally cold natured self is a bit too warm. My daughter and I got up early and did our errands before 10. It was already too icky out there for me.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by Skewed
Not been affected, yet.

Bring it on, let it all go down. Whatever it takes to get people moving and thinking about the shape things are in. Uncomfortable people are grumpy, and we need grumpy people to form a lot of grumpy people. This could be the catalyst that gets people to realize we need to work together and realize that the government cannot/will not protect us, it is up to us, and us alone. We just need people to realize this simple fact.

Just what we need for a third party. The Grumpacrats? Grumplicans? Grumpiest Party?

But you are correct. Nothing much gets done until people are peeved.

reply to post by jibeho


The Cleveland area is going through periodic blackouts as well.

If it happens to me, looks like I'll be sleeping on the deck tonight.

Nothing in my area yet, but Guelph is 3 hours from Detroit and Toronto is 4, so if Detroit is getting rolling blackouts, we might get hit as well, we in my area of the county were out for about 5 minutes yesterday but was kinda expecting a few hours.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
reply to post by jibeho

 

All of that could easily be dealt with if the public would cooperate. People not working could group together and lessen the impact from residential customers. Family groups could spend their days grouped together at one residence while shutting of the air conditioning at the others and nights when it is cooler at their own homes. But then, people don't seem to be capable of such common sense actions.

This isn't a matter of public cooperation or common sense. This is a matter of greed and control.
These utilities companies continually raise rates, but none of that money is going into the infrastructure. So just where is it going?

I can guarantee you none of the people who own or work for these utility companies is A/C pooling. And I can also guarantee you none of the big corporate skyscrapers across this country are A/C pooling. And while you're at it, lets add all of the political infrastructure too.

So I guess it's just us commoners that need to do without.

ETA: Oddly enough, no blackouts here. Yet.

Nothing like that here, but then again, I'm in Ct. That said, we don't have AC in my house and it's been 90 here for the last couple of days. I have a fan going in my room and my mom and bro each have one, but that said our house is pretty hot, getting pretty close to the outside temperature. If we lose power I'm going to be sleeping in the basement.

The city reported record use Thursday (21st) afternoon but nothing as far as rolling blackouts are concerned, but who knows, Guelph Hydro is the local electric carrier here and they might pull the plug one or two days.

Good thing all the retards didn't get all their electric cars, which the power companies were obviously told they had a grid for... It would be a real disaster.

reply to post by jibeho


My brother and I started noticing rolling blackouts a few years ago, and we started noticing a pattern to them. Exactly 60 minutes, randomly spaced out about once per week in different areas of the state and country. We coordinated with friends to ascertain that it wasn't a coincidence, and then we tried to get some buy-in on ATS to help track it, but it never really took off.

Here is his thread from Sept 2009/

and

Here is my thread from June 2009.

I have always lived with AC bcause I have always lived in Oklahoma. Summers can be brutal here, this year's one of those.
A couple of ideas on keeping cool (our AC breaks every couple of years so we always have a few days without it).
Close your blinds/curtains during the day to block the sun. Open the windows late at night after the heat goes down to let in a cool breeze but close them in the morning.
Go to a public building like the mall, movies, library, or other community place during the peak heat.
At home, place a large bowl of ice in front of a fan.
Take a cool bath. Rub ice on pulse points like the back of the neck or wrists. Both will cool you down quickly.
Stay safe and stay cool.

Originally posted by jibeho
Are you ready?

Rolling Blackouts Begin in Detroit

I read about that, but haven't seen or heard they have actually happened here.
There's maybe enough off the grid already for unnamed reasons
Here's a DTE Energy outage map
dteenergy.com...

As a practical matter, people should close their drapes and blinds during the heat of the day and up their thermostat to 80.
We have several fans running also, and although the thermostat is set at 81 (when it 96 outdoors), it's actually quite pleasant in the house.
We also close off rooms not in use.
Keep cooking and laundry to a minimum...or cook in the "cooler" morning hours. (I say that because it was about 85 this morning. )


ETA
Expert opinion on weather around Detroit for the next few day
www.crh.noaa.gov...

El Paso, Texas got hit with that nasty cold snap this winter, and it took out most of the city's water when it did. Lack of prior planning & most of the back up generators being broke or in maintenance... made a total hash of things.

The rolling blackouts then only compounded the problem, as more houses etc. lost pipes due to freezing.

While broken pipes from freezing won't be a problem, the lack of water could be a real problem in the urban sprawl, if the city governments are not prepared for it. (Loss of back-up pumps/generators at the pumps... add in sewer issues from lack of water pressure and you could have another disaster.)

Personally, I'd stash some water now, just in case; if you are not prepped for it already.

M.