The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

[Kepler]

it's harder to compromise a patchwork than a unified grid

Couldn't we accomplish the same thing with redundancy?

By all means have 4 grids but have them all reach everybody.

[unofan]

Couldn't we accomplish the same thing with redundancy?

By all means have 4 grids but have them all reach everybody.

Yeah, that's a hard no.

Just think about that for a minute, Kepler, and i think you'll get why.

[Kepler]

Yeah, that's a hard no.

Just think about that for a minute, Kepler, and i think you'll get why.

I told you on E&M I have the brains of a conservative.

Why?

[walrus]

There is a huge fight in Maine over a transmission line to connect HydroQuebec to Massachusetts.

I'd say the fight is about CMP more than it is about a transmission line

[unofan]

I told you on E&M I have the brains of a conservative.

Why?

An electric grid is simply all of the wires and power plants connected together.

You're asking why we don't have 4 such grids nationwide as redundancy.

Even assuming you could somehow instantly switch the power plants over to the backup grids so you wouldn't need to build 4x those (realistically, you can't), you're talking 4x the wires, 4x the towers, 4x everything running everywhere, with no extra revenue coming in. Everyone's electric bills just jumped by a minimum of 400% with almost no discernable benefit.

[dxmnkd316]

An electric grid is simply all of the wires and power plants connected together.

You're asking why we don't have 4 such grids nationwide as redundancy.

Even assuming you could somehow instantly switch the power plants over to the backup grids so you wouldn't need to build 4x those (realistically, you can't), you're talking 4x the wires, 4x the towers, 4x everything running everywhere, with no extra revenue coming in. Everyone's electric bills just jumped by a minimum of 400% with almost no discernable benefit.

Yeah, but you wouldn't need 4x. Just merge them. Capex between them, add the necessary switchgears, controls systems, etc. The trunks between the systems don't always need to flow, just when they need to.

[LynahFan]

Yeah, but you wouldn't need 4x. Just merge them. Capex between them, add the necessary switchgears, controls systems, etc. The trunks between the systems don't always need to flow, just when they need to.

Right, but the sources would have to have the capacity to feed your own customers plus at least one more grid's customers - or plus 3 other grids' customers if you want quad "source redundancy." You don't need 4x the lines (they're not the critical failure point in the system anyway), but you would need 4x the generating capacity.

[dxmnkd316]

Right, but the sources would have to have the capacity to feed your own customers plus at least one more grid's customers - or plus 3 other grids' customers if you want quad "source redundancy." You don't need 4x the lines (they're not the critical failure point in the system anyway), but you would need 4x the generating capacity.

I mean, yes and no. You share the load. It doesn't need to be four grids, it could be hundreds. When a small cluster goes out, you patch it into the dozen that surround it balancing it out. We very very roughly do this today within each grid.

I agree full redundancy will never happen. Sorry, I had misread the original question. I assumed Kep was asking why we don't just connect all of them and make it intelligently balance itself.

it's also worth noting that about a quarter of all electricity generated is lost to transmission. So one more stake in the heart of quad redundancy. I can't imagine the transmission losses trying to reach that. I do know 3M makes some pretty advanced transmission lines that do a hell of a lot better than the garbage we've used in our grid. We just haven't decided to spend the money to make buy the efficient and expensive stuff.

[French Rage]

A laundry room with only a 15A circuit is subpar right?

[dxmnkd316]

If you air-dry your clothes, no

[Kepler]

A laundry room with only a 15A circuit is subpar right?

If necessity is the mother of invention the solution to carbon footprints will come out of that laundry room.

[French Rage]

If you air-dry your clothes, no

What if my dryer is 5400W?

[dxmnkd316]

What if my dryer is 5400W?

I'd ask what your yield was last year.

[BassAle]

A laundry room with only a 15A circuit is subpar right?

I'm assuming the dryer has a dedicated 30 amp circuit or is gas...

15A for a laundry room is not up to code.


A laundry room, by code, needs a dedicated 20-amp circuit (which can be shared between a washer and gas drier). If you don't have a gas drier, obviously it will also have a 30A 240V circuit for the dryer.

[French Rage]

I'm assuming the dryer has a dedicated 30 amp circuit or is gas...

15A for a laundry room is not up to code.


A laundry room, by code, needs a dedicated 20-amp circuit (which can be shared between a washer and gas drier). If you don't have a gas drier, obviously it will also have a 30A 240V circuit for the dryer.

Yeah I think that's what it is.

We just bought the house (like, last week). Originally it was going to come without a washer/dryer, but part of our final deal was for the seller to include them. So even though there is a gas hookup he went with electric. That would explain why 30A wasn't needed before (previous seller probably used the gas) but we would need it now. Honestly I'd prefer electric over gas, something about a gas dryer doesn't sit right with me (which I know is probably dumb), so I'll pay to upgrade the wiring for electric.