Yet Again

[Zema Bus]

The power company here has been doing long maintenance shutdowns every few months now. They're taking the power down this Sunday night until Monday mid-afternoon. So once again I'll have to shutdown everything I can to be sure I don't run out of power before the sun comes up. The A/C guy is planning to replace the units on Saturday if they come in on time, but with this outage even with working A/C I will be without it Sunday night since the A/C circuits aren't on the batteries. I hope this is the last of their outages before I'm out of here.

[Grogan]

I'm glad you checked in, I was starting to be concerned that some catastrophe befell. I was hoping you were getting your air conditioners installed this week, but I guess there's light at the end of the tunnel for Saturday. If you get it working you can at least get the house cooled down before the outage. I would think that would indeed be too much for the battery circuit. We could run ours on our generator, but not with the fridges and freezers and all so we don't have that connected. Rare to have long power outages, but the worst can be summer storms that leave rubble and high humidity in their wake.

That's a very long maintenance shutdown, there would be Hell to pay if anybody did that, especially carrying on into a Monday afternoon. That's pretty serious shit, not all grocery stores are going to have generators, even. I've seen 5 hours for major equipment upgrades, but that would be the extent of it.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Gro. Yeah the heat has been brutal, especially during the workweek and I'm drained by the end of the day everyday. With all these endless power shutoffs often during the workweek it feels like malicious compliance. They got in trouble for not doing their job the last 30 years and causing massive fires, which resulted in lawsuits and the state mandating them to maintain their equipment, therefore they're going to make sure their customers suffer. And when they complain they'll just blame the government.

[Grogan]

Yep, I remember... PG&E.

Hopefully things will be better in bumfuck Arizona

[Zema Bus]

Couldn't be much worse I don't think, but one of the first things I'll do is get solar and batteries installed after I move in

I got confirmation - the A/C units are in so the installation will happen tomorrow starting at 8 AM (will take about 8 hours) so I'll have to get to bed early.

[Grogan]

You're going to be a nervous wreck tonight

I'm glad it's finally happening though.

[Grogan]

I'd think the solar situation would be even better in Arizona. You'll learn to like that nice, low maintenance, yellow lawn grass too. Hell it even turns a nice brownish shade after a while!

People like us likely wouldn't care about a dry climate, we aren't the outdoorsy types that dehydrate in the desert. I don't like heat, but I always prefer a dry environment though it's worse for ESD. It's a dry refrigerator down here right now.

It's easy to humidify a home a bit too... a tiny bit of electricity and a bit of water. A typical vapourizer would do in a room... like one of those sonic mist ones rather than the old kind that simply spew droplets into the air.

[Michael_horatio]

The power company here has been doing long maintenance shutdowns every few months now. They're taking the power down this Sunday night until Monday mid-afternoon. So once again I'll have to shutdown everything I can to be sure I don't run out of power before the sun comes up. The A/C guy is planning to replace the units on Saturday if they come in on time, but with this outage even with working A/C I will be without it Sunday night since the A/C circuits aren't on the batteries. I hope this is the last of their outages before I'm out of here.

Man, you are really getting shat on these days Zema. Hope things improve after the move. I'm guessing you have natural gas power plants down there? Seems like a horrendous amount of maintenance. We are really spoiled up here compared to what you people go through. My teenage grandson has never experienced a power outage in his life that he can remember. When I asked him a while ago, the idea was so strange to him that he thought I was talking about the internet going off. I said no, the lights, the electricity. He couldn't imagine it happening. I've never experienced one that lasted more than an hour or two, and not for many years now. But then I live on the outskirts of a large city, People who live out in the interior of the province are subject to a lot of outages usually from storms, high winds, and trees coming down. You would think that they would build enough redundancy into their system to keep some power going during maintenance in a brutal climate like that. Anyway, tomorrow night is sounding a lot better.

like one of those sonic mist ones rather than the old kind that simply spew droplets into the air.

I think that's what I have. It works fine but if I leave it on in the bedroom these days, the portable air conditioner will generate a half a bucket of water in 4 or 5 hours.

[Grogan]

Yes, when I lived in Brampton and Toronto (both are in the "Toronto Area") I can remember exactly twice, in the 4 years or so I lived in that area that the power even blinked out briefly during thunderstorms. I was pissed off even then lol. I all but mocked people that crowed about their UPS units for their home computers. That was unheard of, businesses might have one for an important computer or something but you shouldn't need that. That was until I moved back here. Most of the time I wouldn't need it, but I don't like getting shut down out from under foot, ever, so I wouldn't operate without one now.

[Zema Bus]

All the houses I'm considering don't even have lawns, just dirt, or in some cases a lot of little rocks, maybe a few scattered desert plants. That's more my style. I won't miss being forced by local ordinances to spend endless money on water and gardeners to maintain a green weed-free lawn in a dry climate

I'll probably be sleep deprived tomorrow since I never sleep well when I have to be up early. I am indeed looking forward to tomorrow night though.

Yeah there are natural gas power plants down here, though there are also nuclear, hydroelectric, windmill farms and solar panel farms. I don't think the power went out nearly as often when I was a kid, I don't remember it happening very often then. But when it did it did go out it was always an exciting time as a kid lol!

[Grogan]

Ehh... lawns. Pave it and paint the asphalt green

My dear departed friend Wyn always used to say, "If you can't eat it or smoke it, fuck it" (he grew fabulous vegetables and... other commodities, but wasn't keen on pointless ornamental plants and landscaping etc

If I have something important in the morning, I barely sleep at all. Firstly I'm nocturnal, but knowing I absolutely have to be somewhere at a time that my biology is so thoroughly insulted by, I probably won't sleep. Sometimes getting an hour and waking up in the wrong phase is worse than none, too. I can get by on a few hours nap after the ordeal though.

[Zema Bus]

It's done! New units installed and the temps are coming down. They look much better than the old rusty units too. I don't think I got more than 3 hours sleep last night, I wouldn't mind taking a little nap in a cool room

[Michael_horatio]

That's good news Zema..

If I have something important in the morning, I barely sleep at all. Firstly I'm nocturnal, but knowing I absolutely have to be somewhere at a time that my biology is so thoroughly insulted by, I probably won't sleep. Sometimes getting an hour and waking up in the wrong phase is worse than none, too. I can get by on a few hours nap after the ordeal though.

My problem exactly. Anything early (ie. before noon) just puts me right off the rails.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Michael.

Yep, we must be cut from the same cloth lol!

[Grogan]

Awesome, bring on that arctic chill. Frostbite on the arse and everything

I'm glad you got them installed, that was misery.