4 ms·

Purchased by who, though? The cost of living is already so high that only the wealthy will be buying them.

lazide 7y ago
You can buy a decent 'emergency' generator (aka high air pollution and noise) for ~ $500 sufficient to run most homes. Compared to cost of living in California, that is dirt cheap (a week or less of living expenses). One problem with these emergency portable generators of course, is they lack safety components to stop them from catching fire. So we might end up with notable fires caused by generators used because PG&E shut off power to 'stop fires'. It shifts the liability to the consumer though, so PG&E is off the hook. Few people really believed PG&E was going to do this, so a lot of people haven't purchased equipment yet. We'll see how it shapes up long term.
- Fjolsvith 7y ago
  As people turn to home power generation, PG&E will lose revenue. So, PG&E will suffer in the longer term as they lose customers. Not very good business planning.
  - kylehotchkiss 7y ago
    Keeping a gas or diesel generator fueled and running for days at a time is not super cheap. Plus if your whole city's power is cut and everybody else is running their generators, there's a risk of fuel price increases or even fuel shortages. Solar & batteries are a solution but people won't adopt as a solution with this sort of timeline and current solar/battery prices. There'd need to be a slow but certain rise in PG&E prices and a some sort of tax rebate to really get people to convert over.
    - Fjolsvith 7y ago
      Reliability is what sells me on electric supply. Take that away, I will find something more reliable, and I will make the investment in local, personal generation if there isn't a source.
      - lazide 7y ago
        Local, personal generation is usually incredibly inefficient due to loading factors (you need to buy a generator that can handle most of your peak load, but they are only efficient at roughly half that - so your idle load is a huge waste, and when near peak you will be horribly inefficient). Maintenance is also a huge pain - I've got an off grid cabin, and I can assure you, you will quickly tire of dealing with it if you are using it as your day to day power source. Backup (propane or natural gas) generators that auto kick in aren't a bad option, but are much more expensive (about an order of magnitude higher).
- kylehotchkiss 7y ago
  And if that's still too much, you can walk away for a $350 one at harbor freight (whether it starts again the second time you need it to run is certainly questionable)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

You can buy a decent 'emergency' generator (aka high air pollution and noise) for ~ $500 sufficient to run most homes. Compared to cost of living in California, that is dirt cheap (a week or less of living expenses). One problem with these emergency portable generators of course, is they lack safety components to stop them from catching fire. So we might end up with notable fires caused by generators used because PG&E shut off power to 'stop fires'. It shifts the liability to the consumer though, so PG&E is off the hook. Few people really believed PG&E was going to do this, so a lot of people haven't purchased equipment yet. We'll see how it shapes up long term.

Fjolsvith 7y ago
As people turn to home power generation, PG&E will lose revenue. So, PG&E will suffer in the longer term as they lose customers. Not very good business planning.
- kylehotchkiss 7y ago
  Keeping a gas or diesel generator fueled and running for days at a time is not super cheap. Plus if your whole city's power is cut and everybody else is running their generators, there's a risk of fuel price increases or even fuel shortages. Solar & batteries are a solution but people won't adopt as a solution with this sort of timeline and current solar/battery prices. There'd need to be a slow but certain rise in PG&E prices and a some sort of tax rebate to really get people to convert over.
  - Fjolsvith 7y ago
    Reliability is what sells me on electric supply. Take that away, I will find something more reliable, and I will make the investment in local, personal generation if there isn't a source.
    - lazide 7y ago
      Local, personal generation is usually incredibly inefficient due to loading factors (you need to buy a generator that can handle most of your peak load, but they are only efficient at roughly half that - so your idle load is a huge waste, and when near peak you will be horribly inefficient). Maintenance is also a huge pain - I've got an off grid cabin, and I can assure you, you will quickly tire of dealing with it if you are using it as your day to day power source. Backup (propane or natural gas) generators that auto kick in aren't a bad option, but are much more expensive (about an order of magnitude higher).
kylehotchkiss 7y ago
And if that's still too much, you can walk away for a $350 one at harbor freight (whether it starts again the second time you need it to run is certainly questionable)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]