So. That storm. It dropped around 7" of snow on us. When I got up, our weather station receiver (the station itself is out on a fence post) said it was -18 degrees Fahrenheit--a record for cold in the area. Yesterday and the day before didn't climb out of single-digit high temperatures. Today's supposed to get up to the mid to upper teens. We're having a real time of it, keeping the water lines from freezing, and only having mixed success in the fight.*
We'll be getting more late tonight/early tomorrow. The meteorologist that knows his ass from his elbow is predicting a little more than 3" for the city where I live--farther north will get a bit less, farther south a bit more.
Thankfully, though, that's the last of it. We're supposed to be back closer to normal temperatures for the region and time of year by the weekend.
Texas and Missouri have had...issues...with power. Thanks to the utter stupidity of the vapid, virtue-signalling twatwaffles running the boards of the power companies, a significant percentage of power generation has been moved from standard, fossil fuels to windmills and solar panels.
Except...
Windmills...freeze. They ice up and quit turning, quit generating power.
Solar panels...well, I don't know how much snow Texas got, but we have around seven inches of snow, and a quarter inch of ice covering ours. And it won't clear off until the weekend.
This leaves the power companies in a self-inflicted bind: they don't have sufficient power for the individuals paying for said power...because the weather is interfering with renewable-resource-based generation. As it does. Especially in this part of the country.
It would be less of a problem if the mouth-breathing douche-clots hadn't shut down the fossil fuel plants--however, it seems that keeping them in reserve for situations like this is beyond the intellectual capacity of said fucktards.
Instead, the dumbfucks running the electrical companies chose to impose rolling blackouts on their customers. We were out of power for an hour and a half. The temperature in the house dropped ten degrees in that period of time, even with the propane fireplace still burning. Because we couldn't circulate the heat.
Much longer, and the pressure tank in the garage might have frozen. Which...would have necessitated getting the insurance company in on it. Because while the plumbing repairs for frozen pipes might be less than the insurance deductible, the pressure tank would not have been. And we would have filed a claim, and we would have pointed out to the insurance company that it was the complete and entire fault of the electrical company, and their idiotic virtue signalling fucking over their business model.
I hope that enough people can point their home insurance companies at the electrical companies as the source of the new claims that the insurance companies sue the absolute fuck out of the electrical companies.
And I honestly can't wait until tornado season. Here's hoping God hates windmills as much as he hates trailer parks, and the idiots in charge of the electrical company go back to what actually works for this region.
*As I've already mentioned, the cold water line to the washer has frozen up. Last night, the hot water line to the kitchen started to freeze up, and this morning, the cold water line to the kitchen has frozen. And the plumber won't get to us today. Maybe not tomorrow, either.
I'm a bit worried about frozen pipes too, but nothing I can do for a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not on a well, leave the faucets on a trickle in most of the sinks. Especially in fixtures on exterior walls.
DeleteIf, like me, you ARE on a well and the power goes out, then...like me, you're fucked.
DeleteNot fucked if you manage to drain the lines from the wellhead to the house before they freeze, or even just to reduce the pressure before they fully freeze enough to crack. Depending on your system, there should be a drain valve somewhere near the well and probably another one somewhere near the waterline's entry to the house. Even if some water remains in the pipes it's less likely to crack them if you can drain enough to provide sufficient expansion space.
DeleteIn really cold climates some folks put air pressure fittings on the pipes just for this purpose, to hook up the compressor to a generator and blow the water out of the lines when the power goes out.
Remember to fill some pots and buckets before you try this since you won't have water until the power comes back on.
My power wasn't out for long--an hour and a half, only half an hour longer than promised by the power company when they instituted the policy of rolling blackouts to deal with too much load and not enough power generation. But I was concerned, with temperatures like they were, that the pressure tank would freeze before they got it turned back on. This is NOT normal for this part of the country. At ALL.
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