West Coast power cuts

[flushcut]

Virtually all northern Wisco is underground and they are doing more and more new construction underground.

 

[BlackSmith]

Every state should follow California’s lead...

CA urged to not charge electric cars just weeks after ban on gas cars

They are also being advised to set their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher, avoid using large appliances, and turn off unnecessary lights.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[flushcut]

I wonder if they built houses with better insulation would it help with their power usage? Insulation goes both ways keeping cold in as well as out and the same thing can be said about heat.

 

[Tree09]

I think that's more of a population density and growth vs the grid infrastructure that's in place issue, even here they often ask for energy saving measures during extraordinary weather. 12 percent of the population of the entire country lives there, so there's a ton of power being used and distributed. Asking customers to help in small ways when the grid is going to be overloaded so the power companies don't have to resort to rolling blackouts seems kinda a no brainer to me.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Neglected grid infrastructure FIFY

 

[Tree09]

Of course that's a huge part of it everywhere, not just Cali. I'm also in no way saying sorry power companies, but I'm just saying that's a very common and effective mitigation technique to help control a very serious problem.

 

[Nutball]

Maybe thermal runaway can occur with powerlines when the outside temp isn't sufficient to cool them for the kind of load running through them.

Like how a light bulb works: much power is required to get the filament hot, but beyond a certain point very little power is needed to make it hotter and keep it hot.

 

[Altissimus]

Metaphor for me is my roof , 1962 construct (fine in it's day) thing was shot and needed a new one. Had a choice ... remove and replace the same exact roof and have all the same problems (wasn't a Cold Roof) or spend about twice the cost and build a modern roof without the old problems ...

 

[pigwot]

For the addition on the house and the wood shop I built non-ventilated, super-insulated, cathedral ceiling style roof assemblies, insulated with an effective R-58 to R-62 (depends on seasonality and outside to inside delta, as insulation loses its capacity at very high and very low temperatures) which keeps it warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Passive House building with insulated footers and slab, super-insulated walls and ceilings go a long way to reducing energy needs in a home.

Passive House

 

[Fiddler]

Pat, did you use Sto panels or build your own?

 

[pigwot]

Sort of built my own, - one layer of sheathing, two layers of R-Max, with offset seams, all taped with some serious 30-year-minimum tape, then foamed all edges and interfaces, and vent pipe incursions, then another layer of sheathing, more sealing, and then EPDM over all of it, sealed on all edges.
Also used BIB (Blown-in-Batt) inside the rafters.