Preparing for Sandy

[Rob-D]

Humour me please with this one.
I know I'm just a stupid Limey but why buy water from Walmart when you can fill containers from the tap?

Is it me ??

"Two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity.... I'm not sure about the universe!"

Albert Einstein

 

[Rob-D]

I'd say, the forecasters have been pretty accurate, so far. Here in NE PA the wind has gotten to be a pretty constant "low howl", with occasional gusts, which rattle things pretty good. There is kind of a fog moving near the ground, with intermittent heavy rain. All of which, seems to be intensifying. The lights have flickered a couple of times. I'll have a much better feel for the outcome of things tomorrow. :laughing:

I've been monitoring weather for years. I've yet to see NOAA's wind predictions actually reach NOAA's wind predictions.
Rob

 

[Bird]

Humour me please with this one.
I know I'm just a stupid Limey but why buy water from Walmart when you can fill containers from the tap?

Is it me ??

There are a few, very few in my opinion, places in this country where some, not many, people don't like the taste of the water, but I guess I'm stupid like you. I would never have thought people would be goofy enough to pay soda pop prices for water. But they do. And I still find it incredible. I think it's primarily to show that they have more money than they need.

 

[newbury]

<SNIP> I think it's primarily to show that they have more money than they need.

That's more money than brains. I like to put up a couple of jugs of water also.

 

[Rob-D]

That's more money than brains. I like to put up a couple of jugs of water also.

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I love the people walking around with plastic water bottles, it cracks me up, half the water in those bottles is plain tap water with bleach added. How do you think they keep that water from growing bacteria? I have a filtration system here, my well to a 5 micron to a 1 micron filter to UV to my mouth. I don't trust the water coming from the ground anymore.
When we go out we take thermos bottles with cool water from our filtered tap. We know what we're getting.
I wonder what goes on in people's brains? Maybe we're just getting old but it seems to us that fewer and fewer people actually think for themselves.

 

[riptides]

I've been monitoring weather for years. I've yet to see NOAA's wind predictions actually reach NOAA's wind predictions.
Rob

Well, welcome to the first time. We have hit 60mph already, they are saying 70-80mph in a few hours.

 

[Rob-D]

Well, welcome to the first time. We have hit 60mph already, they are saying 70-80mph in a few hours.

Did you monitor it yourself? I'm doing actual mointoring here for years. They said 55 mph gusts here this afternoon and the highest it ever got was 41.

 

[Radar52]

Wind in Southeast MI is now gusting to 45-55 mph thanks to Sandy, all you folks in the east hang in there and stay safe. Looks like this could be a long couple of days before this is over.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Why cant the intertie be auto switched off line -- just by a solenoid de energizing, and leave panel output to be used on site??

You could but the problem is load management. Let's say you're running just on panels into the inverter and you turn on a washing machine that draws more than the panels put out. The system would drop below the required power needed. Batteries are buffers, they can supply large amounts of power and by charging the batteries with the panels you create a reserve.
Rob

Understood, but you have batteries that could be autoconnected to buffer the panels. It wouldnt take all that much capacity to smooth power demand spikes. Just waste the excess --or use it frivolously. Seems a small price to pay to keep all panels on line while grid is down.
larry

That would be fine if the sun was a constant and the panel output was also a relative constant from sunrise to sunset. Batteries give you power at night and maximize the panel power by storing it so the panels action is more than buffering.
You could have minimal batteries, just enough to keep surges from dropping the power but you would have zero reserve, the batteries run the house, fridges, etc. all night.

Let's say it's noon and the panels are putting out max power but the house is only calling for a fraction of that. All that extra power is stored in the batteries and at 8 pm, when that power is needed it's there. So while buffering for surges is important so is the reserve.
Rob

These things are intuitively obvious. Those to whom they are not will thank you.
larry

 

[vtsnowedin]

I've been monitoring weather for years. I've yet to see NOAA's wind predictions actually reach NOAA's wind predictions.
Rob

That could be because the bureaucracy never wants to be wrong in either direction. As long as some place in the forecast area has the terrain to funnel the wind to a higher velocity, think a "Sheba's breast " situation where two hills force all the air moving past them through the cleavage between, they will predict the high end of wind speed to be what might happen in that narrow pass. The fact that you in more ordinary terrain experience much lower wind speeds does not bother them as you are inside the range of high and low they predicted.