US Elections (& Politics) :)

David L

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You beat me on that. Only 31 hours. Pool pump and plumbing froze. Power went out at 2:30am and it was frozen by 6:30am. Never thought it would freeze that quickly. Don't see any splits, but can't see in the heater. Once it thaws I can better evaluate. It got down to 48 inside for a while. I figured out how to get the gas fireplaces to run on batteries, so that gave us some heat. Filled sinks with hot water that also gave up some heat.

Lost water for about a day. Broke through the pool ice to haul water for toilets. Neighbors did the same from my pool.

Daughter has a broken pipe in her house she rents, so no water. Management company says probably a week before they can get to her as they can't get PVC to fix it. She lives 60 miles south of me.
So this is what I did for our pool, on the filter we hung an old heating blanket on the North side towards the top, then put a old confronter/blanket and a black bag over it, one year our gauge froze so the water inside the top froze, so for any long freezes 2 or more days we do this. I have our pool pump running 24/7 at low speed already year round, it's variable speed pump, only uses 150 watts at low speed, but when power went off at 2:30am I had to suit up :), go out and I opened the pump cover (debris basket) and drain the pump/filter, this emptied all our 2 inch pipes too, then I covered the pump and pipes with another blanket and threw a tarp over it all. Oh so if you were outside at that time you were getting snowed on too which quickly turned to water due to my body heat so I was pretty wet when I went back inside :) I am hoping the small amount of water left in the pump and or filter did not do any damage because I know it had to freeze at 11 degrees. I too am waiting till tomorrow when we get to 70 degrees to check it. :) Oh yeah, I did make sure to turn off the breaker to the pump/pool equip. so when the power came back on the pump did not fire up/burn up being frozen. I think the filter casing should be able to handle frozen water, it is very thick plastic, the pump is a different story.

Our M.U.D. faired pretty good, we got low on pressure but no water loss. It did scare me when pressure got low the first time, thought our main was trying to freeze up, but it did not happen. We also thought of using pool water to flush in case we lost water service.

With several cell towers down, I did figure out how to get cell service, I jumped on the 3G towers, no one was on those LOL, it was slow but worked.

So here is my assessment to what happened in Texas. We know several power plants went down due to frozen generators/equip./pipes/lines, etc. I am sure there will be an increase in our bills for more winterizing of these plants in the future, glad I am on a 5 year Fix plan (Reliant/NRG) (6 cents kWh), (9 cents total with Centerpoint, which I am assuming will increase their rates after this storm)...Anyway, so the fact that Texas is not winterized and our Grid is more designed for our Summer months I still am glad we do not share or get power from other grids, in my opinion, it keeps our energy prices down, also deregulation. Texas uses much, much less power during Winter months. Our house averages 500 kWh a month during the Winter and as high as 3000 kWh a month during the Summer (1900 sq. ft. house with pool). If Texas were to get power from other states can you imagine how much more we would be paying for electricity. I vote NO!!!, Texas is fine, we have a few adjustments to make but leave it alone. We presently do not pay over $200 a month during the summer with our thermostat set in the mid 70s (no higher than 76).
In my opinion, our idiot (Want-a-be President) is much more destructive to the future of our energy than what this little storm did down here.

For those of us with Natural Gas (furnaces), all you need is power to your blower, this takes very little electricity, a small generator will work, plus add a few lights, even a refrig. The issue is wiring, I have an Electrician family member working out a way we can partially plug into our Electrical Panel, I think he was going to hang an outlet off the breakers we need. OR we could just go buy a portable heater, but what is the fun in that, LOL. Of course summer is a different story, compressors take a lot of starting power, we can't afford a Generac, nor do we lose much power during the summer to justify one for us, even with the Hurricanes/Storms. We have a pool incase we get hot and all we need a generator for is to save a couple hundred dollars of food in our frig.

Sorry all for being :offtopic:, blame Cruz LOL
 
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I really thought it was just one of the publicized rolling blackouts that would be over in an hour. If I thought it was going to be more than that, I would have gone out to drain the pool plumbing. Even that, I never thought it would freeze solid by 6:30am, but it was. Solid.

I too turned the breaker off to the pump before the power came back on. Our filter canister is cast aluminum and seems to be 'OK'.

I agree on your assessment.
 

sebastiantombs

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What the problems in Texas show me is that we, as a society, are too dependent on technology for our own good (and I say that typing on the keyboard of a WiFi connected laptop that connects by fiber to the Internet). What would happen if it were more widespread? Let's say Yellowstone erupts, or that comet/meteor hits? Can you imagine what it would be like for the millennial crowd? We're not true preppers and can survive fairly easily for a month or two, but after that we too would be have nots. Scary thought.
 

David L

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What the problems in Texas show me is that we, as a society, are too dependent on technology for our own good (and I say that typing on the keyboard of a WiFi connected laptop that connects by fiber to the Internet). What would happen if it were more widespread? Let's say Yellowstone erupts, or that comet/meteor hits? Can you imagine what it would be like for the millennial crowd? We're not true preppers and can survive fairly easily for a month or two, but after that we too would be have nots. Scary thought.
Funny you said this, during our cold quiet time this week :), my wife could not work from home since no power right, well before this so called Pandemic, she would of been in her office at work in a building with backup power with No Down time. How stupid have we all become...
 

David L

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Oh yeah one more off topic post :(, so I guess we are old school, we even pulled in our glass outside table, thinking it could crack with ice on it, yes that is a nativity scene in the background :)
A few more pics, pool equip. cover, 51 degrees when power came back on.
I know you guys up North are laughing at our few inches of snow but I think it was pretty COOL :)

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Ssayer

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I know you guys up North are laughing at our few inches of snow but I think it was pretty COOL :)

View attachment 83081
After having spent half the day yesterday cleaning about a foot and a half off of my back roof and then the other half breaking up the ice dam (which is the reason I had to clean the snow off)... your statement makes me feel like Crocodile Dundee...

 

David L

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Oh yeah one more off topic post :(, so I guess we are old school, we even pulled in our glass outside table, thinking it could crack with ice on it, yes that is a nativity scene in the background :)
A few more pics, pool equip. cover, 51 degrees when power came back on.
I know you guys up North are laughing at our few inches of snow but I think it was pretty COOL :)

View attachment 83077View attachment 83078View attachment 83079View attachment 83081
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So Good News, our pool pump/filter survived, I could not wait till tomorrow to power it back on :), got to thinking in case I need to order one they may become in high demand down here.

Hey I have to share this, those who are saved will understand, so my wife was on her second day of the outage and said I am going to run a hot bath, so she did, while in she was singing the below song and she heard a click, turned and Yep our Power was back on:
I told her next time don't wait two days to sing the song :)


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This is an interesting read about the TX power grid.

The Texas Power Outage Started With Bad Policy (thecannononline.com)

So Good News, our pool pump/filter survived,
Yeah, I drained the plumbing and began checking things out. Strainer basket and chlorinator had an ice ball in each. Popped the filter canister top off and found the huge chunk of ice. It is on the East side of the house and does not get much sun. Heat exchanger drain actually had a lot of water come out so maybe it survived? Will see once all of the ice is gone and I bring it back online.

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David L

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This is an interesting read about the TX power grid.

The Texas Power Outage Started With Bad Policy (thecannononline.com)


Yeah, I drained the plumbing and began checking things out. Strainer basket and chlorinator had an ice ball in each. Popped the filter canister top off and found the huge chunk of ice. It is on the East side of the house and does not get much sun. Heat exchanger drain actually had a lot of water come out so maybe it survived? Will see once all of the ice is gone and I bring it back online.

View attachment 83094
Wow, so that is what a frozen filter looks like. I did have some ice in the pump basket, looked like it was trying to form or it did form and melted, not sure, but it was small and had some water under it. I think next time I am going to sponge the water out, it was way too cold at 2am in the morning when I drained it.
I think you will be ok, just make sure it is all completely melted before firing it up. Oh, guess what side of the house our equip. is on :), Eastside too...and very little if any sun on that side for us too...
 

srvfan

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Sounds like ole Linda Sue knows the existing “leadership” of the weak kneed party is in trouble. He knows, as well as the others, that President Trump (nope, not going to say former President, and not going to apologize for it), may begin working on restructuring the party, and primarying out the losers with no backbones.
Lindsey Graham on Peace Mission to Mar-a-Lago
 
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bigredfish

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This is an interesting read.

While many former employees say working at the hotel was one of the best-paying jobs they'd ever had, it also sometimes came at the cost of loved ones. "A lot of people that worked there, their friends wouldn't talk to them anymore," former executive chef Shawn Matijevich told Washingtonian, especially when it came to the largely Hispanic kitchen staff.

Former executive chef Bill Williamson described how, when he joined the restaurant in 2018, "food purveyors with whom he'd had great relationships were suddenly sending him rotten produce and subpar cuts of meat and fish," Washingtonian writes. "I guarantee someone in that warehouse picking this product saw where it was going and was like, 'Oh, f— it, give 'em this stuff,'" Williamson said.
 

tigerwillow1

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This is an interesting read.
Just remember the context that The Week is a certified liberal Trump-hating rag.
 

gwminor48

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