Texas Heat!

[Kyle_in_Tex]

It's hotta than
Sophia Vergara!

If you say it with a spanish accent, it rhymes.


Sofia Vergara Official Website

 

[chad22]

Here in Kansas were finally getting some much needed rain. Someone recently set the grass on fire trying to steal an old car out in my dads salvage yard.

They were apparently trying to start it and something ignited the grass underneath it. It spread to the sides and back of the car. I got it put out with the garden hose. Though it was getting so bad that I thought I was gonna need to call the fire department.

Luckily it didn't get to that point. The grass is so dry it would of took the whole yard, the wood fence and about 20 other vehicles in there.

After that, I've stretched a hose over the fence and have been running the sprinkler in the yard to help keep it moist.

I figured my water bill was gonna shoot up to at least $100.00 from the normal $50.00 it has been. But it only went up $7.00 And I've had the sprinklers going constantly.

I dunno what the rates are here for water but they must be really cheap. And I pay a flat rate for sewage which is $7.00 no matter how much water I use.

Hope everyone that needs rain gets it soon. And I sure hope these heat waves goes away. It's been miserable.

Chad

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Bird, I just can't imagine what people's electric and water bills are going to be for the next month.:shocked: My daughter has a 2400 sq ft 2-story house in Hurst with a pool. Her electric bill last month was $695 and the water/sewer/garbage bill was $200. No telling what it will be for Jul-Aug when she gets her bill. She only has a postage stamp yard in front and a tiny yard around the pool in back, so watering the grass should not be that much.

With an electric bill like that, I'd be investing heavily in insulation, and looking for a leak in a hot water line. I upgraded all my windows to U.36 low-e, and installed closed cell honeycomb blinds

3/8" Double Cell Light Filtering

that really help insulate the windows, which are the second worst energy hogs in any house. The worst energy hogs are patio doors, so I replaced the south facing slider with insulated French doors with mini-blinds between the panes, which blocks sun in the summer and gives me the equivalent of triple glazing in the winter. My wife thought I was nuts spending all that money on energy efficiency, but after living in an energy efficient house she is a convert. Bare feet on the floor all winter, no cold spots, and the AC doesn't come on until late afternoon, even when it is over 100 outside.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Well hitting 106 today was no fun followed buy a MAJOR lighting storm with four drops of rain then GONE.

 

[Alan L.]

I have foam insulation mostly and an upstairs and downstairs separate units. I'm happy with the configuration. We usually set upstairs at 76 when nobody is visiting and downstairs stays on 70 24 hours a day. We have a minisplit in the bedroom and we set that on 64 at night only (off during the day), the lowest it will go. It cycles all night, mostly off. We have about 1800 square feet downstairs and 450 upstairs. I find that the upstairs unit almost never runs with it set on 76, one of the return air ducts for downstairs is on a high ceiling of the loft which is upstairs, so the downstairs unit cools the upstairs some, I think. We have return air ducts in every room.

With the foam and energy efficient Marvin windows (which we leave uncovered so we can see out) our house will hold at 70 in the excessive heat and just hit $300 this past bill. I expect it has to be higher next time with this severe heat wave we are experiencing. The electric does not include hot water which is a propane tankless unit. Nor does it include the well pump which is on a separate meter for the metal shop building / living quarters. That bill usually runs $60 a month or so with nobody staying there.

Our units are Trane 16 SEER, two stage units.

 

[NativeSon]

Well it was 111* yesterday and 80* in the house, but not too bad with the ceiling fans going and all the blinds closed. I don't think I've ever remember seeing 111* out here in East Texas. Kept the dogs in the house most of the day and hosed down the horses a little after noon. It's 88* at 4am and I don't think we'll get below 80* for the low this morning.

Praying for rain,

Charlie

 

[Western]

Well, we broke a record yesterday and they say we should break them again today and tomorrow. The electricity draw is so huge combined with the heat, the power company's in North Dallas are over heating. Like 7,000 homes lost power, but only for a while.

 

[Bird]

The newspapers this morning have stories asking people to conserve electricity, especially between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wonder how many wives will be happy to hear they shouldn't cook supper on the electric range?:laughing:

 

[pacerron]

The newspapers this morning have stories asking people to conserve electricity, especially between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wonder how many wives will be happy to hear they shouldn't cook supper on the electric range?:laughing:

Bird,
Conservation might be better than a brownout that doesn't do any of your
electrical devices any good. Might be an excuse to invite the wife out to dinner. The resturants and other commercial establishments will use about the same amount of power whether they have any business or not.
We have the high bills you guys are having in the winter time up here. The power companies have radio controls on the water heaters so they can turn them off if the grid gets low on power.
Where is that perfect climate year around?
Ron

 

[Bird]

Ron, it's too hot for me to want to get out around supper time.:laughing: However, we have plenty of brats and other fully cooked sausages on hand that can be heated one minute in the microwave, and we have plenty of makings for tuna sandwiches, and other such stuff. So, yep, won't be much cookin' done around here today.

And I just finished roling up the garden hoses; think I'll just let the grass go, as many of my neighbors have already done. When the October rains come (at least we hope they will), I'll fertilize and hope the grass comes back.

 

[jinman]

I was home by myself most of the day yesterday. I turned the thermostat up to 79 and was plenty cool with the ceiling fans going. When my wife got home, she was uncomfortably warm for a couple of hours, but we kept the thermostat at 79.

My outside thermometer is on the north side of my house. It should give consistent temperature readings, but yesterday it was a bit strange. At 3 PM, the temp went from 109 to 110. It got as high as 110.6 by 4 PM and then dropped to 108.5 for 1-1/2 hours. Then at 6 PM, the temperature spiked up to 111.2. I figure it has to have something to do with the shading from trees and sun angle, because those temperatures make no sense except that it is too darn hot to be doing anything outside.

Ron, our energy regulation company is the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). They have business suppliers who have agreed to reduce consumption by shutting down some operations as the maximum loads are approached. They also control the rolling blackouts that occur when the load is more than the grid can supply. In most instances, brownouts no longer occur. Power drops and stays off for a predetermined length and then comes back on. As you noted, brownouts are killer for equipment, but we don't see many of those. Power surges caused by lightening are common, but HEY, we don't have any of that to worry about recently.

 

[pacerron]

Bird,
Sounds like good eaten' to me.
Do any of the homes have underground basements in your area?
Before the days of central A/C and/or HVAC a basement was a good place to be cooler in the summer. Lot's of folks even had "summer kitchens" down there.
Ron

 

[Bird]

Ron, nearly everything around here is built on a slab foundation; no basement. I know some of the very old mansions in East Dallas have basements, but there are very few.

 

[Western]

I finally got that Armadillo this morning,YEAH!! Was home for about 1 hr when the dogs started barking at about 5:45am. Hopefully it is the one that has been "plowing" the yard and my wife's flower beds.

Last night , it was a scorcher working on a parking lot. The built up heat that radiates from concrete and especially asphalt is amazing, didn't take time to take a temp reading, but it was HOT. Nothing worse than working, soaked with sweet to your knees.

 

[xtn]

I finally got that Armadillo this morning,YEAH!! Was home for about 1 hr when the dogs started barking at about 5:45am. Hopefully it is the one that has been "plowing" the yard and my wife's flower beds.

Last night , it was a scorcher working on a parking lot. The built up heat that radiates from concrete and especially asphalt is amazing, didn't take time to take a temp reading, but it was HOT. Nothing worse than working, soaked with sweet to your knees.

I took the temp of the asphalt at Eagle Canyon Raceway last year in like conditions. Mid afternoon. 187F.

xtn

 

[NativeSon]

Bird,
Sounds like good eaten' to me.
Do any of the homes have underground basements in your area?
Before the days of central A/C and/or HVAC a basement was a good place to be cooler in the summer. Lot's of folks even had "summer kitchens" down there.
Ron

We've got a basement here in East Texas and it's at least 15* cooler in the summer. Pretty cozy in the winter as we have a wood burning stove down there. It was a big selling point with the wife whose from the Northeast, she grew up with basements.

Charlie

 

[Bird]

finally got that Armadillo this morning

Dennis, that Armadillo is what you get for watering the yard.:laughing: I've seen them tear up pretty lawns, but the folks who get the most upset are when they tear up the greens on golf courses.

We've got a basement here in East Texas and it's at least 15* cooler in the summer. Pretty cozy in the winter as we have a wood burning stove down there. It was a big selling point with the wife whose from the Northeast, she grew up with basements.

Charlie, is it a very old house? My grandparents bought a house in 1943 that was built in 1921-22. It had some basement, but then my granddad dug out more, poured concrete himself, etc. so they had electric lights, the washer/dryer, and even a gas cookstove down there.

 

[Western]

Bird, You got that right!! I have cut back on watering, just enough to keep it green. I pay a little more attention to the St Aug. though.

I'm not sure doing it to thwart the fire danger is practical unless you have a BIG yard, it is so dry now that I think it would take little effort for flames to "tree jump".

What is surprising to me is how few fires we have had in the past couple of weeks.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Dennis, I do think we could expect more fires. Yesterday morning my wife told he she thought the left rear tire on the car was low, and she was right. So I drove it down to Discount Tire on I-35E just north of Swisher Rd and got it fixed. When I started back north, I could see a big column of black smoke up north, so I went on up the service road to see what it was and it was a big grass fire that had gotten into the trees just south of Mayhill Road and east of I-35E. There was a utility truck nearby along the new A-Train tracks, but I don't know whether he had anything to do with the fire. I began to wonder if no one had reported it to the fire department when I heard, then saw, the first fire truck arriving. So I went on to be sure I wasn't in their way. I didn't see anything about it in the newspaper this morning, so I guess nothing too major burned.

 

[jinman]

Yeah, Dennis, I do think we could expect more fires.

I think low wind/no wind has a lot to do with keeping wildfires down. Once things get started, they are quickly put out. If the wind was blowing 30 mph, the fire would spread in a hurry. In this weather it seems like lots of fires start along roadways and some railroads, but they get put out before getting out of hand.