What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

The Home Improvement Thread. Successes and Failures

Status
Not open for further replies.
Kepler said:
Couldn't we accomplish the same thing with redundancy?

By all means have 4 grids but have them all reach everybody.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a hard no.

Just think about that for a minute, Kepler, and i think you'll get why.
 
Last edited:
Kepler said:
I told you on E&M I have the brains of a conservative.

Why?
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
unofan said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
LynahFan said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
French Rage said:
A laundry room with only a 15A circuit is subpar right?
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
BassAle said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
BassAle said:
I only know one person that has one. They do dry faster, and they are cheaper to operate though.
Click to expand...

That's what I hear. We'll keep the electric one and upgrade the line. That should pretty much equal out the difference in cost, and my preference is for electric too.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
I've actually never seen a gas dryer. I know they exist but they seem to be fairly rare. At least around here.
Click to expand...

I grew up in a house with a gas drier, and my current house has one, too.

When I was in high school - early 90s - I worked at Best Buy. We sold a lot of gas driers, and I remember that because they were lighter to load into vehicles than the electric ones.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top