Big Cold

[NADman 576]

20 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

Its the equivalent of you enduring a hurricane. 

That's right. No prep here for hurricanes or 'Quakes. We get tornado's once in while.

[Thaddeus Smith 4539]

Took me a couple days to isolate all the leaks and patch them, but we've got running water now. we lucked out, and the damage was nearly non-existent compared to many up here. i just need my repairs to last about 18 months and then i don't care.

[Seadog 1258]

It's Sunday afternoon, sunny and 73F here now.

[CECAA850 29331]

15 hours ago, Seadog said:

It's Sunday afternoon, sunny and 73F here now.

How is your pool piping?

 

Boil ban lifted here.  We're pretty much back to normal with no future freeze in sight.

[DizRotus 9251]

40 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Boil ban lifted here.  We're pretty much back to normal with no future freeze in sight.

 

Great news.  

[Seadog 1258]

50 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

How is your pool piping?

 

Boil ban lifted here.  We're pretty much back to normal with no future freeze in sight.

Good to hear your water is safe to drink.

 

To my astonishment, my pool equipment survived.  My neighbors on both sides were not so fortunate (photos below).

 

When the power went off and the temp was 2F,  I placed a Mr. Heater propane camping heater under the tarp covering my equipment, and then placed a 60 lb steel plate in front of the heater to absorb an reradiate the heat.  When the plate was hot, I reduced the heater to just running the pilot flame.  I really didn't think that would be enough considering the duration of the low temp, but I got lucky.

 

Neighbor's equipment:

[CECAA850 29331]

Awesome on your end.  Those pictures were about what I thought mine would look like if I wasn't able to run the pump.  That'll be a pricey repair.

[CECAA850 29331]

[Seadog 1258]

 

I haven't seen an electric bill yet, but I received this somewhat reassuring email notice from my electricity provider:

 

As Texas recovers from the recent winter weather emergency, here’s how you can count on us.

Insulating your Rate
You may have heard about sky-high variable rates in the news, but rest assured that as a TXU Energy customer, you won’t see any near-term impact to your rate due to this winter weather event. Whether you’re on a fixed or variable pricing plan, our customers are always insulated from extreme variable wholesale power price swings like the recent ones.

 

[CECAA850 29331]

Great news @Seadog

[Seadog 1258]

28 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

Great news @Seadog

Yes it is.  My wife gets the credit because she has kept us on TXU instead of switching to one of the "cut-rate" providers linked to the wholesale price of natural gas.

[dwilawyer 4183]

On 2/22/2021 at 8:39 AM, Seadog said:

When the power went off and the temp was 2F,  I placed a Mr. Heater propane camping heater under the tarp covering my equipment, and then placed a 60 lb steel plate in front of the heater to absorb an reradiate the heat.

That's a great tip for in the future. 

[CECAA850 29331]

During the cold snap I ran my central heat a lot more than I did the previous month (naturally).  It's a natural gas fired heat system.  My generator ran a bunch as well which is also powered by natural gas.  I received my gas bill yesterday and compared it to the previous months bill.  Both were for 34 days.  The daily average temperature this month compared to the previous month was 14 degrees colder.  That wasn't really a surprise considering the crazy cold snap we had.  Obviously I ran the heater a lot more.  Combine that with the fact that the generator ran so much I was prepared for a sizeable jump in the bill.  It went up $14.00.  I was pretty surprised.

 

@dwilawyer  thought this might be of interest to you as you're considering getting one.

[dwilawyer 4183]

1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

During the cold snap I ran my central heat a lot more than I did the previous month (naturally).  It's a natural gas fired heat system.  My generator ran a bunch as well which is also powered by natural gas.  I received my gas bill yesterday and compared it to the previous months bill.  Both were for 34 days.  The daily average temperature this month compared to the previous month was 14 degrees colder.  That wasn't really a surprise considering the crazy cold snap we had.  Obviously I ran the heater a lot more.  Combine that with the fact that the generator ran so much I was prepared for a sizeable jump in the bill.  It went up $14.00.  I was pretty surprised.

 

@dwilawyer  thought this might be of interest to you as you're considering getting one.

Yep it's on the list, going to have my Uncle figure out the appropriate size (Aggie EE, he ran the coal mine and railroad for Texas Utilities at Martin Lake), get in ordered and installed at the end of summer.

[Jeeper 38]

Glad to hear things are getting back to normal, good luck.

[CECAA850 29331]

43 minutes ago, dwilawyer said:

Yep it's on the list, going to have my Uncle figure out the appropriate size (Aggie EE, he ran the coal mine and railroad for Texas Utilities at Martin Lake), get in ordered and installed at the end of summer.

The largest residential ones are 22kw  If you want to run your whole house then that's what you want.  To go bigger it'll be a commercial water cooled unit and the price jumps up like crazy.