Brucey
Velcro Man
My propane dryer takes about 550W and ramps up to 800W or so when igniting. 32 minutes on the perm press setting and good to go.
My power bill is jumping in Oct…
- Thread starter J.H.
- Start date
Propane!? Is that still legal in NY?
SHhhhh don't say anything or the evil witch will come steal it from him. And then use it herself.
Brucey
Velcro Man
Now that I've outed myself the goons in black will be along shortly to "rectify" this situation. That's why the 7kW of Rosie will be sufficient for my place, all the big loads are propane.
In seriousness though there's a huge push by the NY nanny state government to stop natural gas hookups in new construction. Now keep in mind we could have a severe ice storm and be out of power for weeks. A house heated via heat pumps is going to be in big trouble, versus a house with propane furnace where it's trivial to connect the 120V circuit to a generator and carry on. Back in the really bad Buffalo snowstorm a few years back the only thing that kept many people alive was their gas stovetop which gave them emergency heat while trapped in their homes. In the glorious new gas free NY of the future those that cannot afford generator backup (which is the only permitted reason for new hookups in some areas) will just freeze to death.
Saw on the news yesterday where a house in MO blew to bits killing its occupants. The suspected cause was a propane leak. Been a few other house explosions in the News due to gas leaks recently. I think I will stay with electrical things. Fires are not fun but most times you have an opportunity to get out.
I’ll take being blown to smithereens over burning to death.
Yeah a house in my hometown years ago blew up (no one was home at the time), and the shockwave was hard enough it blew out the windows of the neighbors' houses too. Thing is, while that CAN happen, most of the time a leak bad enough to do that sort of thing can be easily detected by smell. Too often people smell something, can't figure it out, and just shrug it off. You're not going to get enough gas concentration to obliterate a house without someone smelling something well in advance.
Also, given the millions of homes in the US that have gas hookups, the occurrence rate of that happening is very low.
I'd rather run the 0.00001% chance of blowing up than risking freezing to death every time a winter storm comes through if I lived in New England.
My parents' old house was all electric, but we had a wood burner which kept us warm when an ice storm took out the power for several days when I was a kid.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
Don't run the dryer during peak hours. There won't be a charge of 5 x $13 then ($65).
I've been through the ice storm of 98 and 2009. I added 20KWH of battery to my solar system in anticipation of the next one. I have a 17KW standby generator, but fuel on hand may only last 2 to 5 days. Likely would be a week before I could get a propane delivery. The last 2 ice storms were followed by a bright sunny day and left me without power for a week. I think the solar panels would start producing and burn off the ice rather quickly.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
People will either be fast learners or "pay the price".
You could Not have expressed that idea more accurately….Roger that.
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A large percentage of the gas explosions in the UK have subsequently been traced to DIY bypass piping around the gas meter
+1 for that. No going back to resistive heating dryers for me.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizesA large percentage of the gas explosions in the UK have subsequently been traced to DIY bypass piping around the gas meter
wpns
Solar Joules are catch and release
Brucey
Velcro Man
Worst I've seen is the Merrimack Valley gas disaster, during pipeline maintenance the gas company negligently pushed distribution level 75 psi into residential distribution lines expecting 0.5 psi
en.m.wikipedia.org
Merrimack Valley gas explosions - Wikipedia
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
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- Mar 28, 2020
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If you draw 3kW for one hour vs. 1 kW for 3 hours, you will get a large demand charge.
But the two are equivalent for the utility, because across thousands of customers drawing 3kW at different random times, it shows up as uniform demand.
No reason to impose demand charges on consumers, just TOU rates.
Except for Brits with their stupid miss-named "Football" games. At a certain time based on the game action, all 69,200,261 Brits simultaneously plug in their 3kW kettles to make tea, drawing 208GW from the grid.
But the two are equivalent for the utility, because across thousands of customers drawing 3kW at different random times, it shows up as uniform demand.
No reason to impose demand charges on consumers, just TOU rates.
Except for Brits with their stupid miss-named "Football" games. At a certain time based on the game action, all 69,200,261 Brits simultaneously plug in their 3kW kettles to make tea, drawing 208GW from the grid.
When I have been to the UK, I’ve never witnessed any TEA-totalers during a
teal95
Solar Wizard
In reality it's 2 or 3 each.We do like our tea, but I can assure you that we don't have a kettle each
Correct , but the real increase in this scenario is somewhat hidden in that the peak hour that they get to charge you is that hour within the 3 hour window… so if you screw up , and don’t know or don’t r remember to adjust your habits , you are charged 100x what the normal kWh fee would be… for that hour…
E.g. . 13.5 cents per kWh VS $13.50 per kWh..that’s the same as adding an extra 100 kWh to the bill if you were still paying the old rate….
Resulting in paying the old fee all month …..and then getting hit for the highest hour demand use point for a 100 fold the normal cost…
On a freezing cold winter morn , between getting the kids a cooked breakfast and ready for school , perhaps showers and cooking for the parents, hair dryers , tvs, toasters, computers, running heat to warm the place up , it will be easy to rack up a a pretty good usage between 6 to 9 am.
So the big “Eye in the sky “ watching all this says, Hmm …”look at this place guys….. they are already up to 5.5 kWh between 7-8 using all those devices..”.
He he , let’s see , 5.5 x 13.50 ….well that just cost him an extra 75 bucks this month…
What if ya used 10.5 kw during peak hour…135 bucks extra..??
What if ya had the family up for Christmas or new years…or a Super Bowl party.
What about in summer when the peak heat of the day is when you’re getting home 3 - 6 pm , trying to cook supper Take showers , do the stuff after work you have to do…get the place cooled down a bit..
Yes there will be work arounds ….and ways to mitigate some of this …
I dont think this is very transparent way of doing business with the average person
Solar Guppy
Red Cobra Guppy
I agree, its very poorly explained but in an age where the cost of peak demand is real, this is what is happening eventually to all bills country wide.
This is a Co-op, the middleman so to speak and they are just passing on the fee's from whom generates the actual energy and skim just enough to keep the lines and poles functional, well at least that was in original intent when the area didn't have enough customers to be profitable for an actual energy generation owner.
Doesn't help with wind, rain, ice, snow, fires and floods causing record levels of damage country wide and unreal costs to build new generation, just look at what the latest low cost nuclear plant cost in Gorgia as an example.
Again, nobody is moving to the desert and willing to pay high prices for food, electricity and water just to smoke pot, gamble, eat a $75 buffet that has no lobster or king crab and take a trip to Pahrump to spend more money.
I have used an outback Radian setup with a Mate 3S, an 18K PV Luxpower and a Sol-Ark 15K.
IMO, the Outback system and the Sol-Ark have the best software for manipulating TOU rates. They simply are set, tweak and forget. I could never get the 18k to be like that.
The disadvantage of the Radian is that it is not yet closed loop with any lithium batteries, while the Sol-Ark in closed loop function is great. Also, you need 2 Radians in parallel to equal the Sol-Ark. So there's that.
IMO, the Outback system and the Sol-Ark have the best software for manipulating TOU rates. They simply are set, tweak and forget. I could never get the 18k to be like that.
The disadvantage of the Radian is that it is not yet closed loop with any lithium batteries, while the Sol-Ark in closed loop function is great. Also, you need 2 Radians in parallel to equal the Sol-Ark. So there's that.
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