4 ms·

I wish it wasn't so expensive to have a switch next to your circuit-breaker that was labelled 'electric lines/natural gas/water' and depending on which selectio

by smush 7y ago

I wish it wasn't so expensive to have a switch next to your circuit-breaker that was labelled 'electric lines/natural gas/water' and depending on which selection would cut-off the home electricity from the others and enable the electricity to come from, respectively, the central grid, a small natural-gas-fed generator (with auto-start battery?), a pico/micro hydro generator in the basement/crawlspace. Having the ability to convert your electricity bill to a more expensive water/natural gas bill and still have power during an outage would be quite nice.

pinkythepig 7y ago
The natural gas genny portion exists, the water one does not. The water one doesn't exist for two reasons: 1. There is only energy in the water system because your city has pumps/water towers to give it pressure. So in a disaster, you running your hydro setup is just placing more strain on the water infra who are likely running on generators. 2. Hydro plants need huge amounts of water to provide power. To even power a single outlet, you are talking in the range of tens of thousands of gallons of water per hour. Your water bill would quickly eclipse the cost of just buying a generator. --- Going back to natural gas, you are looking for an automatic transfer switch. When the power cuts, it disconnects you from the grid, turns on the generator automatically, and you then have power again. When the power is back, it switches you back to grid and turns generator off. Only downside is that there will be a several second power cut while generator turns on. You generally can only get this feature on midrange cost and up generators. For cost savings measures, you can also buy a manual transfer switch, with the obvious downside of you having to flip the switch and go start the genny.
MrRadar 7y ago
XKCD did a "What If" on hydro power from your municipal water[1]. tl;dr: "In either case, for a bathtub faucet, this works out to almost 200 watts, or $25 per month." (And that's in addition to all the other issues he pointed out.) [1] https://what-if.xkcd.com/91/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/91/

by smush 7y ago

pinkythepig 7y ago

The natural gas genny portion exists, the water one does not. The water one doesn't exist for two reasons: 1. There is only energy in the water system because your city has pumps/water towers to give it pressure. So in a disaster, you running your hydro setup is just placing more strain on the water infra who are likely running on generators. 2. Hydro plants need huge amounts of water to provide power. To even power a single outlet, you are talking in the range of tens of thousands of gallons of water per hour. Your water bill would quickly eclipse the cost of just buying a generator. --- Going back to natural gas, you are looking for an automatic transfer switch. When the power cuts, it disconnects you from the grid, turns on the generator automatically, and you then have power again. When the power is back, it switches you back to grid and turns generator off. Only downside is that there will be a several second power cut while generator turns on. You generally can only get this feature on midrange cost and up generators. For cost savings measures, you can also buy a manual transfer switch, with the obvious downside of you having to flip the switch and go start the genny.

MrRadar 7y ago

XKCD did a "What If" on hydro power from your municipal water[1]. tl;dr: "In either case, for a bathtub faucet, this works out to almost 200 watts, or $25 per month." (And that's in addition to all the other issues he pointed out.) [1] https://what-if.xkcd.com/91/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/91/