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Massive Texas power outage

Dave911 said:
Google is putting up a huge data center about 9 miles south of me. They bought up hundreds of acres of prime farmland. They say about 100 employees total, including building maint and grounds keepers.
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And the locals, like everything in Fort Wayne, are so against it. Just like they're against solar. All my neighbors have those stupid "farm fields not solar fields" signs in their yards.
 
Dave911 said:
Google is putting up a huge data center about 9 miles south of me. They bought up hundreds of acres of prime farmland. They say about 100 employees total, including building maint and grounds keepers.
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That's probably 80 more jobs than the used on the farms. 50 years ago we only needed 3 1/2 people to handle 400 or so acres of rice and beans.

Storms wise: we had another big thunderstorm blow through this afternoon. 94° and really humid in May is really not normal. I can't remember so many storms in the spring so close together with this much wind. Summer is usually our time for afternoon thunderstorms.

Anyway, I was outside this morning, still cleaning up from the last storm, and this afternoon the house was shaking from the wind and rattling from the thunder. Grid power flickered but didn't go out today.
 
time2roll said:
Yes until Google knocks on the door....
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A lot of people were not thrilled about the server farm. But Indiana greased the skids and moved the city boundries, in order to get server farm. They even hid the project from the public, for months. So much for representative government. They disregarded any local objections. Server farm good. Solar panels bad! 🤪.
 
gotbeans said:
... some guy has a big full house generator and runs it 24/7 pretty annoying lol
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I too have a whole house Generac running on propane and it is so nice to be able to go out turn it off and let my Victron run our critical loads. I have saved a lot of propane with solar these past couple weeks with several outages.
 
DFW TX here -- power went out at 530am Tues morning, and as of writing this (Wednesday morning) still isn't back on.

my 6000XP and 2x EG4 Indoor batteries are handling it fine. I work nights, so actually got an alert from my EG4 app saying "no AC in" -- checked home cameras from work and got to saw whole neighborhood lose power live. Trees down, and even 20 hours after the hit, there's still about 375k people without power .

I *just* got most of my system online and will admit to being a bit worried about the ground mount system I built holding up to something this wicked, apparently I did a good job because nothing is out of place, blown away, or damaged. (poor quality pic attached) The reports in the area were of 95mph winds, but luckily my panels were mostly shielded just by the way they are setup.

It was a pretty slick feeling driving home in the AM knowing power is out and pulling into the driveway and just hitting the garage door opener button like normal and everything still working fine. Or resting easy knowing all the groceries I just bought yesterday are zero risk of going bad since it's on backup power. I have most of my home full time on solar/battery transfer switch, the only two big things are central HVAC and a 18kw tankless water heater. The cold shower getting ready for work was.... interesting to say the least, fast way to wake up for sure.

I can setup portable HVAC and run off solar/battery if it ever gets insanely hot (like it will over the next month) but at least the temps were mild/easy today. Surprisingly the sun came out and charged my whole system back up to 80+% during the day as I slept.

Overall I'm incredibly pleased with this sort of trial by fire situation, the past 20+ hours could have sucked but it was mostly a normal day for me thanks to full power backup solar+battery :) Not pictured -- recently installed big red rapid shut down button mounted directly to the conduit box, very solid, had to test it of course, and it works!
 

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dfw_dude said:
DFW TX here -- power went out at 530am Tues morning, and as of writing this (Wednesday morning) still isn't back on.

my 6000XP and 2x EG4 Indoor batteries are handling it fine. I work nights, so actually got an alert from my EG4 app saying "no AC in" -- checked home cameras from work and got to saw whole neighborhood lose power live. Trees down, and even 20 hours after the hit, there's still about 375k people without power .

I *just* got most of my system online and will admit to being a bit worried about the ground mount system I built holding up to something this wicked, apparently I did a good job because nothing is out of place, blown away, or damaged. (poor quality pic attached) The reports in the area were of 95mph winds, but luckily my panels were mostly shielded just by the way they are setup.

It was a pretty slick feeling driving home in the AM knowing power is out and pulling into the driveway and just hitting the garage door opener button like normal and everything still working fine. Or resting easy knowing all the groceries I just bought yesterday are zero risk of going bad since it's on backup power. I have most of my home full time on solar/battery transfer switch, the only two big things are central HVAC and a 18kw tankless water heater. The cold shower getting ready for work was.... interesting to say the least, fast way to wake up for sure.

I can setup portable HVAC and run off solar/battery if it ever gets insanely hot (like it will over the next month) but at least the temps were mild/easy today. Surprisingly the sun came out and charged my whole system back up to 80+% during the day as I slept.

Overall I'm incredibly pleased with this sort of trial by fire situation, the past 20+ hours could have sucked but it was mostly a normal day for me thanks to full power backup solar+battery :) Not pictured -- recently installed big red rapid shut down button mounted directly to the conduit box, very solid, had to test it of course, and it works!
Click to expand...
Good for you that you got things online before the storms. What was the culprit, really high winds and rain? I know there was the bad tornado north of Denton but didn't know about these storms until yesterday. Guess they hit overnight on Monday?

It is nice to know you'll have power when the grid goes down. I saw that a quarter of Dallas county is still without power and will be a while before they're back online. How many panels do you have up, and describe your ground mount, looks interesting.

BTW I lived in the Dallas area for about 30 years, mostly in the Mesquite and Wylie areas and worked the tech industry. Can't say I miss those spring storms and summer heat.
 
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dfw_dude said:
DFW TX here -- power went out at 530am Tues morning, and as of writing this (Wednesday morning) still isn't back on.

my 6000XP and 2x EG4 Indoor batteries are handling it fine. I work nights, so actually got an alert from my EG4 app saying "no AC in" -- checked home cameras from work and got to saw whole neighborhood lose power live. Trees down, and even 20 hours after the hit, there's still about 375k people without power .

I *just* got most of my system online and will admit to being a bit worried about the ground mount system I built holding up to something this wicked, apparently I did a good job because nothing is out of place, blown away, or damaged. (poor quality pic attached) The reports in the area were of 95mph winds, but luckily my panels were mostly shielded just by the way they are setup.

It was a pretty slick feeling driving home in the AM knowing power is out and pulling into the driveway and just hitting the garage door opener button like normal and everything still working fine. Or resting easy knowing all the groceries I just bought yesterday are zero risk of going bad since it's on backup power. I have most of my home full time on solar/battery transfer switch, the only two big things are central HVAC and a 18kw tankless water heater. The cold shower getting ready for work was.... interesting to say the least, fast way to wake up for sure.

I can setup portable HVAC and run off solar/battery if it ever gets insanely hot (like it will over the next month) but at least the temps were mild/easy today. Surprisingly the sun came out and charged my whole system back up to 80+% during the day as I slept.

Overall I'm incredibly pleased with this sort of trial by fire situation, the past 20+ hours could have sucked but it was mostly a normal day for me thanks to full power backup solar+battery :) Not pictured -- recently installed big red rapid shut down button mounted directly to the conduit box, very solid, had to test it of course, and it works!
Click to expand...
It’s great to have this backup capability, I had no idea the EG4 app can send notifications. Had several grid down events and did not receive any notification. Also have an 6000xp. Internet is on critical loads with other items so going figure this out.
 
Dfwdude, very interesting method of mounting your panels to the fence, I can see a few people borrowing that idea. Isn't power Independence an absolutely wonderful thing. I'm sure your story will send people over to signature solar real quick. Maybe they can give a post storm discount to locals haha.
So next on your list is a heat pump water heater and a mini split for the bedroom. 😎
 
Quattrohead said:
Dfwdude, very interesting method of mounting your panels to the fence, I can see a few people borrowing that idea. Isn't power Independence an absolutely wonderful thing. I'm sure your story will send people over to signature solar real quick. Maybe they can give a post storm discount to locals haha.
So next on your list is a heat pump water heater and a mini split for the bedroom. 😎
Click to expand...

Subdood said:
Good for you that you got things online before the storms. What was the culprit, really high winds and rain? I know there was the bad tornado north of Denton but didn't know about these storms until yesterday. Guess they hit overnight on Monday?

It is nice to know you'll have power when the grid goes down. I saw that a quarter of Dallas county is still without power and will be a while before they're back online. How many panels do you have up, and describe your ground mount, looks interesting.

BTW I lived in the Dallas area for about 30 years, mostly in the Mesquite and Wylie areas and worked the tech industry. Can't say I miss those spring storms and summer heat.
Click to expand...
I'm just south of DFW airport - and it's super strut mounted to standard metal pole fence posts concreted in. Mounted on solid aluminum swivel mounts, they weren't the cheapest solution but they are rock solid. 60# concrete footers with superstrut mounting (it was a nice fit) concrete bolted in on 3/4 EMT support mount. I went with this method mainly since i need a new roof and no sense in mounting all the panels (ordered 20) to the house then having to take them off 1 or 2 years later for new roof time.

super strut pieces attached to the near side of the panels with 3/8" galvanized bolts so attachment point can be played with as I fine tune the system for optimum tilt.... right now they are slightly angled "down" to water to drain off (drain clips are super useful and amazingly cheap) for more optimal production I might wind up angling them "up" for drainage in the other direction and better production, I just didn't want a bunch of panels poking over fence line and neighbors getting nosey. I don't want to be known as the only guy in the area with backup power, and have everyone up my ass begging for XYZ lol
 
Quattrohead said:
Dfwdude, very interesting method of mounting your panels to the fence, I can see a few people borrowing that idea. Isn't power Independence an absolutely wonderful thing. I'm sure your story will send people over to signature solar real quick. Maybe they can give a post storm discount to locals haha.
So next on your list is a heat pump water heater and a mini split for the bedroom. 😎
Click to expand...

While mini-split would be more efficient, I do already have a backup "emergency" portable dual hose AC unit I can wheel into my bedroom and keep things chilly. Had a compressor failure last year and it SAVED my ass having it keep one room cool during the 110F+ days.

I plan on using the "emergency" portable AC with the solar I generate this summer to supplement cooling in the house, I mean the juice is free at that point so not too concerned with efficiency of the thing :p I planned things out with my 10 circuit transfer switch and made sure all the things I want to run will be on a covered circuit (it's more like 8 circuits and 1 double pole 20A circuit though)
 
Hope you guys are ok after those storms. We drove through the area this spring looking for an eclipse viewpoint (ended up going to Missouri) and I was shocked at how much wind power Texas has. It makes "green" states like Washington look backwards.
 
One has to start wondering what the cost/benefit ratio is for burying some of those lines. I know this comes up a lot and it is always stated how much it costs to bury lines but then it seems like you always eventually have scenarios like this every so often. I mean what is the FULL cost to society in lost productivity, food, electric company overtime work, discomfort, etc. Has someone actually done a full analysis of that? Even my former electric co-op started burying some lines in some heavily treed hilly areas because of the cost to maintain those lines.
 
There are engineering issues with using underground cables for power distribution
That require a lot of extra equipment to compensate the lines for maximum efficiency
The cable is extremely expensive too!
 
Subdood said:
Wow, lots of storm mayhem there. West KY got hit pretty bad as well.

So do you have your own power going? If so what kind do you have?

We lost power for a couple hours Sunday, but really didn't notice.
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yea I posted in my first post everyone has no power except me lol
I only had my shop running, I have 2x https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-3kw-off-grid-inverter-3000ehv-48/
runs everything fine, luckily it's a nice week only 70-80 degrees, can't run AC in the house or dryer but everything else is good.
Right now I just ran an extension cord into the house so it's just 20 amps but the fridge, freezer, some lights, computer and such only use about 1000 watts when they're on.. fridge/freezer turns off most of the time.
I run servers in my shop to run several company things and they've been up the whole time, including during the tornado lmao (only like 300 watts there)

To cook I just unplug the fridge/freezer and then plug in the air fryer or my griddle which pull about 2000 watts peak and go down to like 1800 probably barely under where it'd trip the 20amp breaker.

been fine though, got water and hot water which is far more important than power imo, but also plenty of power

now everyone has generators and holy shit it's annoying
lowes and home depot had like several states ship all their generators here, probably thousands of them up and down the isles on pallets. The entire lumber isles were filled with them and outside filled with them. Tons of people buying them

power is still out
SteveBrown said:
I too have a whole house Generac running on propane and it is so nice to be able to go out turn it off and let my Victron run our critical loads. I have saved a lot of propane with solar these past couple weeks with several outages.
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yep I bet, it's worth it just to reduce noise alone lol



here's another one.
There's a street of full power poles laying down, about 10 of them in a row. But every street and I mean literally every street has lines down and poles down. They have about 400 boom trucks parked in the big shopping mall / center and have a mile of the road closed for them to park in at night.
1717045242472.png
 
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