TEXANS Please share your experiences with TECH, during your difficult times.

[rekees4300]

I am of the opinion that a lot of stupid people got a real education in the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for the clarification of how those huge electric bills occurred. "Experience is the best teacher" and those folks have learned to beware of deals that sound to good to be true. Governor Abbott has stepped up to the plate to help those in need. Gov. Abbott says PUC has issued moratorium on utility disconnections for nonpayment

 

[MossRoad]

While I agree that variable rates can bite you, in a mortgage, for example, variable rate mortgages usually have fixed high and low rates. You know the min and the max you're going to pay. We had a variable rate home equity loan. The most it could go up was 2 percentage points. And the most it could go down was 2 percentage points.

From what I've read, there's no cap on some of these variable electric rates. I saw one that was paying an average winter rate of 12 cents per kilowatt hour, and that jumped to 9 dollars per kilowatt hour! That's a 7500% increase.

That kind of hit can bankrupt folks.

Also, from what I've read, the reason most of Texas is on it's own grid is to avoid federal regulation. If their power lines cross state lines, they are subject to that federal regulation. Since they aren't, they are free to run things the way they do.

Good luck to anyone still suffering down there.

 

[k0ua]

Around here, I've never seen a house that couldn't be drained. Everyone has a main shutoff either at their meter, or unplug/turn off the well pump. Then you find the lowest water fixture in your house. For most folks, that's the water heater. Turn off your electric water heater and shut off the gas if it has that (don't want it running if empty), open the drain valve, and open all your faucets in the house, and everything drains down to that low point.

Same here. Even though I live in "pineapple land" compared to you snow belt bunnies up there. We still have some pretty cold weather sometimes. Although this last round of -8 was as cold as I have seen it for maybe a couple of decades I have seen colder in my lifetime. At least we remember how to winterize houses, and still have sense enough to bury our water lines deep. Of course we all have heat pumps down here because the Natural gas only came to town a few years ago. I have an all electric house, but I had sense enough to put in myself a backup propane heat sources and even a propane cook stove downstairs. So we would have a way to keep going for a few weeks on propane for minimal heat and cooking. Of course I have a backup gasoline fueled generator too for minimal electric. Things can go bad here, we have ice storms once every few years and it can be a couple of weeks before services are restored. You have to learn to look after yourself sometimes.

 

[Diggin It]

Variable rates need to have ceiling and/or stop limits. They also should not be instant and should require advance notice of changes. My tractor loan is variable, but it's tied to a Fed rate + a flat amount. It's now at 2.49% or something close, but had been up around 4.75% at one time.

 

[3Ts]

I am no expert on this, but from what I understand the super high electric bills is because many STUPID people signed up with electrical providers that offered a variable rate of electricity. They did this because they chose these variable plans to SAVE money over the fixed rate plans. They obviously have choices among plans and providers there unlike where I live where you have no choices. There is one electrical provider and it is a fixed rate. The variable rates plans are kind of like variable rate mortgages that STUPID people sign up for to SAVE money.

So the SHTF and now all of a sudden there is not enough electricity to meet demands, so the price goes sky high. Just like IDIOTIC variable rate mortgages. Or variable rate anything. It is like going to Las Vegas for services. It is a gamble that you cannot count on. If you don't have a fixed rate fixed in a contract, you are at the mercy of market forces. And sooner or later it can bite you in the rear. These STUPID people saved money when electricity was plentiful and laughed all the way to the bank. Then along comes a 100 year cold snap and now they are suffering. Never sign up for variable rate ANYTHING when the market forces are beyond your control. I am of the opinion that a lot of stupid people got a real education in the last couple of weeks.

How about we modify this rant a little. First of all, there seem to be variable rate billing that is open ended and I will agree that the people who sign up for that are stupid. The other is the variable rate that has a cap on both the high end and low end. The people who sign up for those are gambling just like in Las Vegas. IF however, they spend the time to figure out worse case and can still afford the bill, that is like going to Vegas with a pre-determined amount of money and you go home when it's all gone. So they stand a chance of coming out ahead.

In my case, i'm in an electric coop so I don't have a choice on electric suppliers and utilities are not something I would gamble with anyway. However, my mortgage was a variable rate with a +/- 6% cap, I built when mortgage rates were high fully expecting them to come down, so yes I'm gambling here. They came down about two years later and I refinanced and went from a 16% fixed to a variable rate 9%. So even if the rate went up to the max I could still make the payments and stood to gain a considerable amount when it was lower. I did spend a fair amount of time analyzing the mortgage and reading the fine print. It did bottom out at the minimum at one point although it spent most the time around the mid point. The point I want to make is that when you make choices, be sure of what you're getting into and that you can afford them. The folks that signed up for the open ended fees should expect to pay them, after all they agreed to them.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Same here. Even though I live in "pineapple land" compared to you snow belt bunnies up there. We still have some pretty cold weather sometimes. Although this last round of -8 was as cold as I have seen it for maybe a couple of decades I have seen colder in my lifetime. At least we remember how to winterize houses, and still have sense enough to bury our water lines deep. Of course we all have heat pumps down here because the Natural gas only came to town a few years ago. I have an all electric house, but I had sense enough to put in myself a backup propane heat sources and even a propane cook stove downstairs. So we would have a way to keep going for a few weeks on propane for minimal heat and cooking. Of course I have a backup gasoline fueled generator too for minimal electric. Things can go bad here, we have ice storms once every few years and it can be a couple of weeks before services are restored. You have to learn to look after yourself sometimes.

A lot of truth and common sense here... This is the same knowledge that converted me to an educated gun owner; do I want to be responsible for my and my families safety, or do I want to rely on someone else for that? In the end, people need to be self reliant; this is where we become free.

 

[k0ua]

Just a comment on why Texas gas plants, booster stations, power plants couldn't handle the cold.
Years ago I worked in many of the West Texas Gas cleanup and booster stations,
at that time most of the transmitters and controllers where pneumatic and almost all of the valves where pneumatic operated.
The transmitters and controllers where in the process of converting to analog electronic.
There where attempts to use electric hydraulic and electrical control valves but they didn't work well.
The point being at that time all the instrument air systems had dryers with selectable dew points for the air.
Many where straight regenerative desiccant dryers some had a refrigerant pre dryer prior to the desiccant dryer.
The desiccant dryers worked well but required maintenance and periodic replenishment of the desiccant after a couple of years of regeneration.
Every single company has always cut cost especially in the maintenance area, maintenance is completely an expense to management,
it doesn't have a definitive payback period. Dry air isn't an absolute necessity till the temperature gets close to freezing.
When management gets told that so many thousands of dollars are needed to maintain a system that they have no knowledge of
and really don't care about they will cut those expenses as unnecessary and the bad thing about it is that so much mid level and almost no upper level
management has any knowledge of the maintenance and operational requirements of any plant or facility they manage much maintenance is cut,
because it does not have an immediate effect on the bottom line.
Instrument air has always been one of the early casualties of maintenance cuts. Once a pneumatic system becomes contaminated with water and or oils
it becomes very costly to clean up and dry out it can not be done over night.
It is not just Texas plants that are guilty of this, I have seen many Northern facilities do the same things and start fighting frozen pneumatic components
because some bean counter said we don't need -30F instrument air it only gets to -5 here and the system is allowed to deteriorate then when absolutely needed it fails.
But it's never managements fault.

Yes, this was one of my major aggravations when I was working and getting called out at 2 in the morning because a valve or controller wasn't working
because the plant wouldn't maintain the air system as it needed to be.
This was going on over 40 years ago and I doubt that it has improved much.

Thanks for that informative post.

 

[k0ua]

A lot of truth and common sense here... This is the same knowledge that converted me to an educated gun owner; do I want to be responsible for my and my families safety, or do I want to rely on someone else for that? In the end, people need to be self reliant; this is where we become free.

Well, again, we are in total agreement. "cats and dogs living together"..

 

[Oaktree]

How about we modify this rant a little. First of all, there seem to be variable rate billing that is open ended and I will agree that the people who sign up for that are stupid. The other is the variable rate that has a cap on both the high end and low end. The people who sign up for those are gambling just like in Las Vegas.

I think it's a bit strong language to call people who go for variable rate billing (never knew there was such a thing) "stupid". Yes, it's a gamble but how often does an event like this happen, and what savings did they realize by going with a plan like this?
I do wonder if anyone REALLY got billed $1000/day for electricity, or if this was some reporter taking a bunch of half-truths and blowing it out of proportion. Not like we've ever seen this before.

 

[k0ua]

I think it's a bit strong language to call people who go for variable rate billing (never knew there was such a thing) "stupid". Yes, it's a gamble but how often does an event like this happen, and what savings did they realize by going with a plan like this?
I do wonder if anyone REALLY got billed $1000/day for electricity, or if this was some reporter taking a bunch of half-truths and blowing it out of proportion. Not like we've ever seen this before.

Oh, no, it is for real. Some people now have bills of several thousands of dollars for their homes. They signed up for variable rate plans with NO caps. And they did it to save money. And they DID save money, right up until the variable rate went to the moon.