Here comes da' HEAT

[Wht95Lightning]

:eek: Weather.com says Ft Worth will hit 97 today.

Looks like it's time to bust out the cooler and go to the lake.

[StormShadow]

Yep I can verify the heat! I've been climbing telephone poles all day over in South Oak Cliff. Oh and the heat must be irritating to yellowjackets too because one got me on the neck. :flaming:

[PoorSvtman]

Yep I can verify the heat! I've been climbing telephone poles all day over in South Oak Cliff. Oh and the heat must be irritating to yellowjackets too because one got me on the neck. :flaming:


I can vouch for the heat as well.. I was doing a surface mount for a sign and had to drill 8 holes in concrete my sweat started to form a little pool on the inside my oakleys

[my2002lightning]

CNN says 98 currently for Dallas.:eek: I'll be curious to see if it goes higher.

http://weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp?locCode=DFW

[PoorSvtman]

supposed to be in the 70s by wednesday supposedly.... either way it felt alot hotter than it was....

I was dragging arse by noon.. then went to lunch and then took it easy till 300 and went into the yard and came home:beer:

[dboat]

High today in Erie was in the low 50's.. supposed to get to low 60's later in the week..
Dana

[Wht95Lightning]

Did anyone lose power?

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/14363574.htm



Heat causes spike in power demand, rolling blackouts

By DAN PILLER and ALEX BRANCH

Star-Telegram Staff Writers


The 100-degree heat that hit Texas Monday caught the state’s electricity grid watchdogs off guard, forcing providers to adopt rolling blackouts in metropolitan areas beginning in late afternoon.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas(ERCOT), which operates the state's electricity grid, moved the system to its "highest emergency level" and declared an emergency across much of the state.
Texas residents were asked to keep their thermostats no lower than 78 degrees and not to use any more lighting and appliances than necessary.
TXU Electric Delivery said it was reducing its load by 380 megawatts — one megawatt can power about 210 homes — with rotating outtages every 15 minutes. At 4:30 p.m. about 28,000 homes in Dallas and in East Texas were the first to be without power.
"We are urging everyone experiencing an emergency at this time to please call 911," said Rob Trimble, president and chief operating officer of TXU Electric Delivery. "Temperatures are close to 100 degrees and ERCOT has asked for our help."
A Fort Worth police dispatcher said at 6 p.m. that outages were being reported "everywhere." By 6:20, ERCOT said things were better and operations were back to normal, ending about two hours of rolling blackouts that affected much of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Lt. Dean Sullivan, a Fort Worth police spokesman, said he was notified of a flurry of 911 calls reporting darkened stoplights about 4:52 p.m. — right around rush hour.
"We sent traffic controllers out to some of the busier intersections," Sullivan said. "I’m sure it slowed things down for some people. But I’m not aware, at this point, of any major problems or accidents."
Because many of the blackouts were of a fairly short duration, "by the time officers arrived, the problems had corrected" themselves, he said.
Lt. Kent Worley, a Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman, said that fire units were reporting outages as they found them, but had reported no major problems.
"We’ve had some alarms going off because they get tripped by the power shutting down," he said. "We’ve gone out to those calls, but the first units can determine pretty quick that that’s all they are. It’s a small inconvenience."
Willis Calder said he was visiting his cousin at the John T. West Hospice Home at Lancaster and Summit when the power shut down about 5 p.m.
The house’s backup electrical system snapped on almost immediately and the staff went on high alert, he said.
"They’re watching the patients real closely and making sure everyone can make it up and down the stairs," Calder said. "Everyone is very professional and calm."
Grand Prairie and Arlington police and residents reported power outages in several areas Monday afternoon, including the areas of West Park Row Drive and South Cooper Street in central Arlington and the areas of Ballpark Way and Lamar Boulevard in north Arlington.
In Austin, residents were greeted with a message of little consolation when they called their utility company to complain about the outages. “Austin Energy began rotating blackouts in Austin about 4:20 p.m. to comply with our share of load-shedding requirements,” said a recording on the utility company’s hotline. “The goal is that no area of customers is off more than about 10 minutes at a time,” the recording said, adding: “All citizens are asked to reduce electrical use ...”

Austin Energy’s Web site says it is the 10th-largest community-owned electric utility, serving 800,000 residents throughout Travis and parts of neighboring Williamson County. Unusually high temperatures this spring have pushed demand for electricity, creating a shortage, Public Utility Commission spokesman Terry Hadley told The Associated Press.

Peak power usage normally happens in late afternoon through early evening as people return home and turn on appliances and crank up the A/C. Another peak usage period happens in the morning as people get ready for work and school.
In late afternoon the ERCOT grid showed electricity usage of 51,186 megawatts, heavy for this time of year but about 10,000 megawatts below the record levels set during the annual August heat wave.
TXU and most other utilities and generating companies had taken several of their generating plants off-line for routine spring maintenance this week in what is normally a light demand period for electricity between the heavy winter and summer months. As much as 15 percent of the state's power supply was thought to be off-line. TXU normally provides about 18,000 megawatts of electricity to the 60,000 megawatt capacity Texas electricity grid. The rollouts were limited to the ERCOT grid, which provides electricity to about 80 percent of Texas.

[Mark #2]

Yes, in Richardson, got home and power was out.

Some of the neighbors standing in my driveway wondering why their garage door openers wouldn't work, I guess they thought I should have the answer.
Came back on in about 15 min, good to actually talk to the neighbors for a few.;)

[StormShadow]

The news just said we hit a record high of 101 today.

[Moonshine]

No power loss, but according to my home weather station it got to 103.5 at my house. :(

[dboat]

No power loss, but according to my home weather station it got to 103.5 at my house. :(

The truck thermometer said 62 on my way home today.. :D

[PoorSvtman]

The truck thermometer said 62 on my way home today.. :D

Go to he!! lol

It didnt feel as hot today as it did yesterday but standing on the side of the highway just makes it worse.. you can feel the heat from the road through my boots:throw:

[dboat]

Go to he!! lol

It didnt feel as hot today as it did yesterday but standing on the side of the highway just makes it worse.. you can feel the heat from the road through my boots:throw:


Well its a trade off for the snow I get in the winter.. the ave temp in summer is 78 degrees... not too bad for runnning the L in either.

Dana

[my2002lightning]

I'll bet Uncle Rocks is loving this time of year. :evil

No power loss at home so far.

[03LightningRocks]

I'll bet Uncle Rocks is loving this time of year. :evil

No power loss at home so far.


Yep....:evil :evil :evil . We are getting buried in calls and sales. I need more service techs and installers:eek: . One more sales person would also be nice.... we are averaging 5-7 call-in sales leads per day and we are booked out through next thursday with installs.

Ahhhhh....you just have to love the summer:D . The only problem is that this is messing with my screw off time. I haven't been able to catch Opra since last week.

[Mark #2]

Rocks,
Would we use less energy if we blocked off the two rooms that we do not use and not cool them. There are return vents in those rooms also(block them too)?

Thanks,
Mark

[Wht95Lightning]

I haven't been able to catch Opra since last week

Just sit some food out in the open. She'll come to you. :d

[03LightningRocks]

Rocks,
Would we use less energy if we blocked off the two rooms that we do not use and not cool them. There are return vents in those rooms also(block them too)?

Thanks,
Mark

Nope....won't save you any electric usage. I don't remember what size unit you have but let's just say it's a 4 ton. It is still going to be a 4 ton and use the same amount of electricity no matter what you do. It could even create a situation where your blower uses more electricity due to having to work harder to suck air through a smaller return system after you have blocked off the returns.

You can also cause damage by running a 4 ton outdoor unit with three tons of air. The refrigerant turns into a gas as it leaves the indoor coil. It does this because it has absorbed heat from the air flowing over it. Remember that a substance will absorb heat when it boils. If it doesn't go through the complete change of state from a liquid to a vapor to a gas, liquid or vapor refrigerant can be sent back to the compressor causing higher amp draws and possibly a damaged compressor. The compressor is designed to pump gas...not liquid. It would be comparable to having a dirty filter...restrict air and up goes the amp draw of the outdoor unit and so goes the electric bill.

The best method for saving on electric usage is to move the stat up a couple degrees and make darned sure you have good insulation. Check the fire place damper too. We find alot of them still hanging open from the last time a customer built a fire. People forget to close the darned things all the time. Keep curtains and mini blinds closed during the day to keep radiant heat gain to a minimum. Make sure that there are no leaves or grass clogging the outdoor coil.


:cool:

[Mark #2]

Okay, thanks
The problem is the single pane windows.

[tiffo60]

Okay, thanks
The problem is the single pane windows.

single pane windows suck, i had the ones in my other house replaced with double hung, argon gas filled, low eq windows that were awsome, saved a ton of money in eletricity when compared to the sheet of glass i had in there before

[dboat]

Yep....:evil :evil :evil . We are getting buried in calls and sales. I need more service techs and installers:eek: . One more sales person would also be nice.... we are averaging 5-7 call-in sales leads per day and we are booked out through next thursday with installs.

Ahhhhh....you just have to love the summer:D . The only problem is that this is messing with my screw off time. I haven't been able to catch Opra since last week.

Dang, I am still waiting on that great job offer to move back to Big D:flaming: ... doing sales in an L... :twitch:

Dana

[03LightningRocks]

Dang, I am still waiting on that great job offer to move back to Big D:flaming: ... doing sales in an L... :twitch:

Dana

If I thought you where serious, I would take you up on that offer. A good salesman in my business can do better than 100K a year. My last two years in sales, before I started my company, I knocked down 125K each year, and that was 7 years ago with average sales in the 5500 area. Now average sales are in the 8000 range.

[Tex Arcana]

Okay, thanks
The problem is the single pane windows.

Yeah, replacing those would help a boatload, especiall if you put in low-e windows with reflective film on/in them.

[dboat]

If I thought you where serious, I would take you up on that offer. A good salesman in my business can do better than 100K a year. My last two years in sales, before I started my company, I knocked down 125K each year, and that was 7 years ago with average sales in the 5500 area. Now average sales are in the 8000 range.

Maybe we should chat..

[dboat]

Mark, b4 you give up on them. Get some window tint, made a huge difference on the home I had in Dallas.. Also, consider just buying some storm windows, might be a cheaper option and get you closer to where you need to be..
Dana

[StormShadow]

Maybe we should chat..

Thats what I'm talking about!