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Massive Texas power outage

DPC said:
This is a real nice old Kohler RV unit
Hes wrong about the model number thats a 4RM21 made sometime in the 70s.
all electro mechanical controller ( this is not the EL-8, the one I prefer thats fully automated a make to run set. Video unit has a hold to start and stop style control )
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The Pennsylvania State Police barracks all used to have old Onan CCK 4 pole generators that were built like tanks. Only good for around 3800 watts continuous but they could run for weeks if needed. Because they only ran at 1800 rpm, they were relatively quiet and easy on propane.
 
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Texas-Mark said:
Huh? They are mostly unmanned and run remotely.
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Run remote, but maintained locally. Data center managers, facilities management, server technicians, storage technicians, network technicians, cyber security specialists, disaster recovery specialists, data backup, cloud specialists, electricians, cable maintenance, and facility security jobs. The software and database folks would be remote, along with most management.

Then there are all the manufacturing jobs for the folks who make the chips, servers, storage, cooling equipment, network equipment, and the sales jobs for those who sell it all, and software engineers who write and maintain the code.

Just ask any data center manager how many components need service or replacement every month.
 
Sanwizard said:
Run remote, but maintained locally. Data center managers, facilities management, server technicians, storage technicians, network technicians, cyber security specialists, disaster recovery specialists, data backup, cloud specialists, electricians, cable maintenance, and facility security jobs. The software and database folks would be remote, along with most management.
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The Microsoft ones will have less than 100 employees on site, including security. Took hundreds of acres and resources, with little going back into the local community. That is why people are not happy.

Sanwizard said:
Just ask any data center manager how many components need service or replacement every month.
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As a former IT manager, I know what is needed. And these days a monkey could swap out a RAID drive.

Sure, there may be a few good paying jobs, but as I said, those will be brought in from elsewhere, or be remote. I live rural (where these server farms are going) and most people are farmers, etc. Oh wait, maybe you agree with Biden that we can just retrain them to be coders. :rolleyes:
 
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Texas-Mark said:
The Microsoft ones will have less than 100 employees on site, including security. Took hundreds of acres and resources, with little going back into the local community. That is why people are not happy.



As a former IT manager, I know what is needed. And these days a monkey could swap out a RAID drive.

Sure, there may be a few good paying jobs, but as I said, those will be brought in from elsewhere, or be remote. I live rural (where these server farms are going) and most people are farmers, etc. Oh wait, maybe you agree with Biden that we can just retrain them to be coders. :rolleyes:
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Farming and data centers can co-exist. In fact, there are many data centers in places you would never imagine, surrounded by farmland, and you would not know they were there unless you knew what you were looking at.

lets say the DC is on 20 acres. How many farm jobs would that represent vs Data Center jobs? Which would pay more?
I do agree that we need farmers more than we do coders though.

On a positive note, reliable cheap power is essential for any data center, so the local areas power grid would most likely be fortified before building any data centers. It would also most likely have a couple turbines installed for backup power just in case, which could possibly be shared with the locals in a disaster.
 
Texas-Mark said:
Huh? They are mostly unmanned and run remotely.
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If you are into data centers checkout The Westland Bunker, especially its history. Originally constructed in 1982 as a nuclear bunker by Louis Kung (Nephew of Madam Chang Kai Shek). The decorative Pagoda with lower openings were gun ports.

I believe there are few people working there. :) Only a few miles from my house.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076509931423
 
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OffGridForGood said:
How are the sales of portable solar generators doing lately...and fuel generators!
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Part of the challenge that we face is that usually there are just a couple of critical loads that matter during an outage.

- refrigerator power
- USB charging
- Power to run the furnace fan ( if on natural gas )
- Light cooking / microwave

This is enough to survive for quite a while, not be happy, but survive.

So this takes it down to 1 - 2 kW inverter and 2 - 4 kW-hr battery pack, and 1 - 2 kW of panels.

_______________

if this can be easily installed to run those couple of items routinely and also be there for when the grid goes down, it makes a lot of sense. ( mentally, not necessarily ROI )

The big problem is that fire / electrical code makes the associated installation of this expensive vs what really is needed to be viable.

We are still stuck in the past with concepts related to having a back up / secondary power feed into a home vs full integration into the main breaker.
 
Brett V said:
The Pennsylvania State Police barracks all used to have old Onan CCK 4 pole generators that were built like tanks. Only good for around 3800 watts continuous but they could run for weeks if needed. Because they only ran at 1800 rpm, they were relatively quiet and easy on propane.
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If your only getting 3800 watts out of it then there is something wrong with it.
A CCK-5 is exactly the same as the 4 or 3 just a slightly different generator head and some tuning.

the MCCk-6 is the same rolling assembly as the CCK-B tractor, just water cooled ( higher compression heads as well ).
Above 5000 watts cooling becomes an issue in the air cooled units.

Also never let a cop touch a generator ( or care for it unsupervised in any way ), just saying you will be sorry

If you look close there are two different heads on the CCK.
Most use the 5:1 head so it will burn 80 octane and its tuned to the generator its bolted too.
This is to prevent you from over loading it.

if you put the CCK-B head on an LK you turn a 2500 watt unit into a 3000 watt unit but its hell on the generator to pull that much extra power.
Not a factory authorize modification...
( LK is one half of a CCK )

For proper operation on LPG the timing needs to be adjusted and the governor tuned.
The set needs a competent technician to set it up.
People monkey with the vacuum booster because they don't understand it.
A properly tuned CCK will pull 4000 watts on propane.
Its factory spec as a true tri fuel engine

Kohlers are not. ( higher compression more general purpose engine the K series )
They require de-rating.
The 4000 watt Kohlers I posted video of are 34 cubic inch singles at 1800 rpm.
The CCK-4 is 50 cubic inches at 1800 rpm ( thats a lot of reserve power they are de-tuned a little for this application to make them reliable and still have reserve power for heavy lloads like AC units or motor loads )
 
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Texas-Mark said:
maybe you agree with Biden that we can just retrain them to be coders
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Or, Bloomberg's comment, when he was running for President, about how easy is to be a farmer :

"Dig a little hole, put seed in it, cover with dirt and water, and up comes corn."

Just like solar, throw up some panels, buy some cheap Chinese battery, and a cheap charge controller and go off grid ... no skill necessary, cheap and easy.
 
HA HA
Coders

When I was in school we had micro processors.
I was trained on the Z80 and the 6800 and those required you to understand what was going on inside the black box..
Every generation of processor since has done the same thing as the one it replaced and it has done it with ever simpler programming and instructions.

So a coders jobs is becoming about as hard to learn as other basic skills one might pick up in grade school ( as apposed to college level training to learn how to build a diode matrix to boot strap an Z80 )

1716155519741.jpeg

This should scare you.
Its scared me a decade ago when I first saw an Arduino could be a guidance system built by high school students.

 
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All those 1's and 0's that is now the benefit of AI. So sad that one day the demand for coders will be 0? Well maybe!
 
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BarracudaBob said:
There is probably a lot of grid tie net metering solar systems that aren't doing anything right now. It could be cool if someone could come up with an idea to simulate the grid enough to get them to produce power for the homeowner safely
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“Simulate the grid” would result in feeding power to the grid, and the failure of scattered solar installs to hold up under that demand would immediately take it down again.

The way to generate locally for yourself is to have some battery in your system.
 
Texas-Mark said:
Huh? They are mostly unmanned and run remotely.
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Ever worked in a Data Center?

You have Break fix, IMAC, Corporate property groups, Data center management who coordinates all the ins and outs.
A Data center isn’t a static thing.

They just don’t plunk down computers and say run forever don’t break.

It’s all dependent on life cycle management, Line of business needs, etc, etc..
 
Sanwizard said:
Run remote, but maintained locally. Data center managers, facilities management, server technicians, storage technicians, network technicians, cyber security specialists, disaster recovery specialists, data backup, cloud specialists, electricians, cable maintenance, and facility security jobs. The software and database folks would be remote, along with most management.

Then there are all the manufacturing jobs for the folks who make the chips, servers, storage, cooling equipment, network equipment, and the sales jobs for those who sell it all, and software engineers who write and maintain the code.

Just ask any data center manager how many components need service or replacement every month.
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You did a much better job explaining that than me.
 
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