Its started.

[Guest]

On 12/22/2022 at 7:15 PM, Erik88 said:

I'm sure it's happened before but I can't remember temps this cold in a long time. 

If I'm on a slab, do I still need to let sinks run a little? 

We're in Crossville, on a slab. We let several of our sinks drip overnight, that was enough for Friday. Saturday, wife gets up around four-ish and says we have no hot water in our master bath sinks. We had it everywhere else, including the cold water taps 3" away! Spent 3-4 hours with hair dryers, one on a ladder downstairs, one under the cabinet. We got it, and (knock wood) no apparent damage. NOW, when it threatens to get that cold again, one of our dual sinks will drip hot, one cold.

At least in our case, we had problems regardless of the slab. We also lost power Friday, I was already suited up to go to the garage and grab gas for the generator when power came back on.

The wood stove was our big friend these last couple days!

Edited December 25, 2022 by OMCHamlin

[gregintenn]

4 hours ago, Alleycat72 said:

We a still on the generator 

You’re kidding!??!!

[Alleycat72]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

You’re kidding!??!!

No. It's running now. 

[Jeb48]

8 hours ago, gregintenn said:

I find this whole fiasco suspect. A good percentage of Tennesseans heat with natural gas or propane, while a smaller percentage burn wood. EVERYBODY uses electric air conditioning in the summer! Why have we not had problems in August?

I agree on the suspect, it does sound fishy. But... Many people I know are using heat pumps with electric backup. With the newer heat pumps they are good for the teens and even some split units down close to 0. Even the older ones only need back up heat a few days a year because they are good into the 20s, so I can see where these temperatures would cause more demand but seems like it should be with in range of availability. I have LP backup for my heat pump and it even will run on a backup generator when needed.

I did hear some where, that two fossils fuel power stations were down for some reason. If true I can see where they would fall behind.

[crc4]

My 2006 heat pump hasn't faltered. Here it's been down to 3 and my house has remained at 72 degrees. At night I turn it down to 69 for sleeping. In the morning back to 72 and only twice did my auxiliary heat turn on for about 11-15 minutes each time. Once it reaches 72 the extra heat doesn't come on.

 

So much for wind power and solar. We need more nuclear plants unless you like rolling blackouts, cold water baths, and cooking over dried cow dung.

As all this press for electric cars - wait until the grid melts down and the electric cars are pulled by oxen and donkeys.

 

[Grayfox54]

I guess I just got lucky. No outages or rolling blackouts here. Although I have heard of them in the surrounding areas. No idea why my neighborhood has been spared. But I ain't complaining.  

[gregintenn]

2 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

I guess I just got lucky. No outages or rolling blackouts here. Although I have heard of them in the surrounding areas. No idea why my neighborhood has been spared. But I ain't complaining.  

Mine hasn’t flickered, although folks nearby have experienced outages of varying lengths.

[Alleycat72]

The generator ran out uf fuel at 10:30 last night. LOL 

It only had 2000 gal in it when this started. They thought it was full. Back on the NES power grid. 

[gregintenn]

6 minutes ago, Alleycat72 said:

The generator ran out uf fuel at 10:30 last night. LOL 

It only had 2000 gal in it when this started. They thought it was full. Back on the NES power grid. 

Oh! I thought you meant you still didn’t have electricity.

[RED333]

10 hours ago, Alleycat72 said:

It only had 2000 gal in it when this started.

I know that is not correct, is it?

[Grayfox54]

54 minutes ago, RED333 said:

I know that is not correct, is it?

Depends on the size of the generator. Some of these things run huge engines designed for heavy trucks and earth moving equipment. 

When I was working for the city, one of my responsibilities was taking care of the many emergency generators located at various places around the city. The larger ones that could run something like a water treatment plant had fuel tanks that held 5000 gallons or more. 

Also bear in mind that unlike vehicles, generators have a fixed throttle setting. From the time it starts until it shuts down, that engine is running at about 98% full throttle. And they run 24/7 as long as they are needed. Big sets can burn a lot of fuel in a hurry.  

Edited December 27, 2022 by Grayfox54

[RED333]

1 hour ago, Grayfox54 said:

Depends on the size of the generator.

I was thinking it was at the house, now I think it is at work, so 2000 gallons would make sense.

[Alleycat72]

25 minutes ago, RED333 said:

I was thinking it was at the house, now I think it is at work, so 2000 gallons would make sense.

It runs a rather large complex. If power goes out for any reason. 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Alleycat72

[Erik88]

Knox News published a very detailed article today explaining what went wrong with TVA during the cold snap. The article is for members only but I'll include the link anyways. It was a combination of problems that caused this but here is what stands out. 

-Beginning on the 23rd, TVA underestimated the amount of electricity it needed to generate by 655 megawatt hours. This mistake continued the next few days. 

-One of the two units at the Cumberland Fossil Plant goes offline at 0300. "Critical instrumentation" at the top of the boiler froze over. 

-By 0455, the 2nd unit goes down, essentially shutting that plant down. 

-While this is happening, the Bull Run Fossil Plant is unable to come online. It's old and often unreliable according to TVA. Scheduled to retire December of this year. 

-By 0600 TVA is struggling to get the John Sevier Gas Plant to run properly. This is one of their bigger plants. 

-By 0900 the sun is up and TVA's solar plants come online but they aren't able to generate a lot of electricity. 

-By 1030 TVA requests rolling blackouts for the first time ever. 

Throughout the course of this, the coal and gas plants struggled while the nuclear plants never had any hiccups. 

TLDR- we need more nuclear plants!

 

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2023/01/19/tva-blackouts-winter-storm-cold-aging-power-plants/69777671007/

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by Erik88

[Chucktshoes]

17 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

. 

TLDR- we need more nuclear plants!

 

This right here is the key point. 

[crc4]

28 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

TLDR- we need more nuclear plants!

Absolutely. I'm for those who have gone ape-#### over wind and solar and eliminating nuclear and coal energy, to have all they want of wind and solar energy.

But when wind and solar aren't producing, let them go cold and dark. Isn't that what they want?

[peejman]

1 hour ago, Erik88 said:

Knox News published a very detailed article today explaining what went wrong with TVA during the cold snap. The article is for members only but I'll include the link anyways. It was a combination of problems that caused this but here is what stands out. 

-Beginning on the 23rd, TVA underestimated the amount of electricity it needed to generate by 655 megawatt hours. This mistake continued the next few days. 

-One of the two units at the Cumberland Fossil Plant goes offline at 0300. "Critical instrumentation" at the top of the boiler froze over. 

-By 0455, the 2nd unit goes down, essentially shutting that plant down. 

-While this is happening, the Bull Run Fossil Plant is unable to come online. It's old and often unreliable according to TVA. Scheduled to retire December of this year. 

-By 0600 TVA is struggling to get the John Sevier Gas Plant to run properly. This is one of their bigger plants. 

-By 0900 the sun is up and TVA's solar plants come online but they aren't able to generate a lot of electricity. 

-By 1030 TVA requests rolling blackouts for the first time ever. 

Throughout the course of this, the coal and gas plants struggled while the nuclear plants never had any hiccups. 

TLDR- we need more nuclear plants!

 

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2023/01/19/tva-blackouts-winter-storm-cold-aging-power-plants/69777671007/

 

 

 

I agree, Just perhaps not enormous and outdated pressurized water reactor plants.