Record Freeze

[dsgrey]

Daughter's apartment complex in Plano has been down since 9:30am Monday morning. She finally go through to Oncor and they said to stop calling, they have no idea when they'll get power.

 

[karlac]

With my $$$ whole house generator installed for such things, no way in hell the power grid here is ever going off again, despite ice, snow and -4 F temps.

My neighbors are actually calling and thanking me ....

 

[toddnjoyce]

...FP has gas built in with the fake wood logs. I know they can give off heat, but do I have to keep the gas turned on at the FP? ...

Only when you want the heat from it. The option I would suggest researching would be to retrofit a stove into the existing fireplace.

Quadra-Fire Pellet Fireplace Inserts | Forge & Flame

Explore Quadra-Fire's range of pellet fireplace inserts for efficient and eco-friendly heating solutions. Experience warmth and comfort like never before.

www.quadrafire.com

Still can require electricity though, which is why I recommended the natural gas fired whole home generator. 20KW starts around $5k plus install but it’s going to work unless the NG supply freezes. Diesel and propane are options to power the genset as well, but again you may need winter diesel for cold spells like this. One option would be doing your own anti-ice additive such as Prist, but you’re experimenting there.

 

[cycleguy2300]

The wording made me laugh

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[Southpaw]

The wording made me laugh

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What's it say?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

What's it say?

Yeah, We can't read it.

 

[Texas45]

Looks like
Sorry we ars close do to weather?


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[40Arpent]

Houston Midtown, no electricity whatsoever since 2am Monday (30+ hours now). Meanwhile, damn near every office building in downtown, 2 miles from here, was lit up well into the night. Oh the irony...

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Damn!
Go figure...

 

[baboon]

Houston Midtown, no electricity whatsoever since 2am Monday (30+ hours now). Meanwhile, damn near every office building in downtown, 2 miles from here, was lit up well into the night. Oh the irony...

Mayor Ike Turner is housing the homeless inside empty ho-tels and asking for the Free Shit Army to join in! Now get your white privlaged arse to work to pay for it.

 

[IXLR8]

Houston has 1.3 million without power. The outage map is back up and working.

CenterPoint Energy Outage Tracker

Outage Tracker

gis.centerpointenergy.com

 

[gll]

The wording made me laugh

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Dat's phoney!

I lost my toilet first, Sunday late night, line insulated coming into the house, but insulation only works until the cold gets through... Then, though I had house faucets running a stream, either because of the first black out or just because I had the heater in the well house set too low, I lost water to the whole house. I think the pressure switch froze first and that shut off all water flow, so everything else could freeze.

Yesterday, I got the well house warmed up, and found no major damage, one union from the submersible pump busted and no spare, and outside portion of the line from the storage tank (though insulated) to the pressure pump is frozen, but I may get that flowing today. None of this will get water to the house, cause all lines from the well house to the house are frozen by now, no telling how many leaks I'll have when they thaw, but I should be able to get water at the well house today.

The rolling blackouts made me decide to run on my Miller Bobcat 250 generator overnight, so as not to repeat freezing, but I'm going to go back on grid this morning.

Heat's not been a problem, I've been heating with wood for 20 years, and got in enough for this... and, even in this, I could go out and find plenty of dead fall to cut, if I had to.

Frankly, I only thought I was ready for something like this, I was wrong and will try to correct the flaws in my preps going forward. Few people in Texas were prepared for this... imagine if something REALLY bad happened! We should all take lessons!

 

[CyberWolf]

I am only asking because I don't know, does that cause a risk of Carbon Monoxide poisoning?

I know people burn NG on their stoves, so I guess this is no different, but I have read that even NG ranges produce CO, and should not be used to heat homes.

A secondary question is the use of propane or kerosene heaters for power outages. Don't they have a high risk of CO too? If not, how do they prevent it?

I am looking for options for emergency heat.

Just seeing this now...

These work great (not sure what availability is currently) - can be used indoors and supports both 1lb and 20lb tanks:

Big Buddy Portable Heater

Mr. Heater Portable Buddy Propane Heaters are the Most Popular Portable Heaters in America. *Due to recent governmental changes to import tariffs, Mr. Heater has removed the fan on some models of the Mr. Heater Big Buddy (MH18B). We apologize for the inconvenience and confusion this has caused...

www.mrheater.com

12ft Big Buddy Hose with Regulator

Big Buddy 12ft Hose with Regulator and Quick Connect is most commonly used to hook a 20 lb. Propane Tank to the Big Buddy heater.

www.mrheater.com

 

[BRD@66]

1.2° for a low but with the current warming trend, we are already into the double digits.

 

[Leadeye]

Never ceases to amaze me the pull drugs have on people. My county road is unplowed gravel rolling through hills and along ridge sides. I'm not even thinking of going out, but looking down it after checking the mail on an ATV this morning I can see that the drug dealer who lives at the end of it has done a brisk business through the night.

 

[Texas45]

Just seeing this now...

These work great (not sure what availability is currently) - can be used indoors and supports both 1lb and 20lb tanks:

Big Buddy Portable Heater

Mr. Heater Portable Buddy Propane Heaters are the Most Popular Portable Heaters in America. *Due to recent governmental changes to import tariffs, Mr. Heater has removed the fan on some models of the Mr. Heater Big Buddy (MH18B). We apologize for the inconvenience and confusion this has caused...

www.mrheater.com

12ft Big Buddy Hose with Regulator

Big Buddy 12ft Hose with Regulator and Quick Connect is most commonly used to hook a 20 lb. Propane Tank to the Big Buddy heater.

www.mrheater.com

Have a single burner unit I use on my land. 400 sf bldg and its OK when its normal TX winter temps like upper 30s. It would be better than nada in a room for sure.

So far in my hood in SA no loss of power. Hope it holds.

Stay safe all.


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[ZX9RCAM]

Both my stepdaughters have been without power since yesterday.
One went to her in laws house, the other is headed over here with boyfriend and dog, as their water is now out.

 

[mongoose]

Never ceases to amaze me the pull drugs have on people. My county road is unplowed gravel rolling through hills and along ridge sides. I'm not even thinking of going out, but looking down it after checking the mail on an ATV this morning I can see that the drug dealer who lives at the end of it has done a brisk business through the night.

Knew an Indian up in NM who was an alcoholic and had both his legs amputated below the knee due to frostbite he got when a POW in Korea. We caught him walking thru 2’ snow on his stumps to go buy beer.

 

[TreyG-20]

Got a busted water pipe underground. Fun.

 

[Renegade]

Knew an Indian up in NM who was an alcoholic and had both his legs amputated below the knee due to frostbite he got when a POW in Korea. We caught him walking thru 2’ snow on his stumps to go buy beer.

Hope you gave him a lift or free beer or both. He earned it.