Texas freezes over (while Ted Cruz flies to Cancún)

[garbon]

The Brits do things differently from whom?

Almost the rest of the entire world, basically. 

In closer terms, Brits tend to not do anything the same way as Europeans, for instance. Say, from driving on the left side, not having IDs, having different electrick sockets to leaving the EU as an extreme thing to do.

Some countries do a few things differently (Ireland also drives on the left, the Scandinavians don't use the Euro...), but Brits do all those things differently.

So Brits don't do anything the same as Europeans based on your ragtag collection of things?

[Threviel]

I read about some Swede in Texas. She claimed that they have no insulation in their house and that that is quite common. I'm thinking that insulation in a place like Texas would be at least as important as insulation in Sweden. I get that there is no heating in lots of buildings, but to keep the heat out insulation should at least be around, otherwise you would waste electricity like mad with the ACs.

What's the deal there?

[The Brain]

I read about some Swede in Texas. She claimed that they have no insulation in their house and that that is quite common. I'm thinking that insulation in a place like Texas would be at least as important as insulation in Sweden. I get that there is no heating in lots of buildings, but to keep the heat out insulation should at least be around, otherwise you would waste electricity like mad with the ACs.

What's the deal there?

Wouldn't that help the environment? And wouldn't that make you A LIBERAL?

[Syt]

I read about some Swede in Texas. She claimed that they have no insulation in their house and that that is quite common. I'm thinking that insulation in a place like Texas would be at least as important as insulation in Sweden. I get that there is no heating in lots of buildings, but to keep the heat out insulation should at least be around, otherwise you would waste electricity like mad with the ACs.

What's the deal there?

Why insulate when you have A/C? (Also, what Brain said.)

[Threviel]

Wait a minute... 5% of annual energy expenditure in Alaska goes to cooling down the houses? FFS.

[Josquius]

In Japan houses don't have much insulation despite winters being proper winters as standard. They prioritise the worse discomfort of their hot summers. Insulation in the uk does make houses uncomfortably hot when the weather gets above 20.
I guess it's a hold over from before ac was everywhere when air flow was the way to keep cool?

[Threviel]

We have a well insulated modern house with floor heating (thus very slow to react) and when the sun unexpectedly shines it can get very hot inside. I usually open a window and that's that.

For very hot summer days it can get very hot indeed. Normally we keep everything closed up as well as we can and the house stays coolish until the afternoon and then we open windows. It does not work very well when it's above 30 degrees, but then we only get 5-20 such days every year. If we start getting more hot days I'll install an AC and then the insulation will make damn sure that we won't be ruined by the electricity bill. I don't understand why insulation would be less important in a hot climate.

[Syt]

Saw on John Oliver that Texas ran into similar issue in 2011, and there were calls then to get the power infrastructure winter ready which were subsequently ignored. Is that true?

[Duque de Bragança]

Saw on John Oliver that Texas ran into similar issue in 2011, and there were calls then to get the power infrastructure winter ready which were subsequently ignored. Is that true?

That's the year Texas had to rely on Mexico, at least, as said previously.

[grumbler]

Wait a minute... 5% of annual energy expenditure in Alaska goes to cooling down the houses? FFS.

No, on average 5% of total home energy is spent on cooling in the colder climates (that include about 50% of the US).  There is no separate entry for Alaska.

[Grey Fox]

Saw on John Oliver that Texas ran into similar issue in 2011, and there were calls then to get the power infrastructure winter ready which were subsequently ignored. Is that true?

I've read, I'll try to find it some Texan publication, that the operators are saying they did make some changes. But 1) it hasn't gotten cold enough to test anything until now 2) it was significantly colder than last time.

[Threviel]

Wait a minute... 5% of annual energy expenditure in Alaska goes to cooling down the houses? FFS.

No, on average 5% of total home energy is spent on cooling in the colder climates (that include about 50% of the US).  There is no separate entry for Alaska.

Wait a minute... Are you saying that Alaska is part of a group of states that spend 5% of their annual energy consumption on cooling?

J/k. I can obviously not into graphics.

[celedhring]

Yeah, when I lived in NYC my AC ran like crazy during the summer, and that's part of the "cold" climate in the map.

[Caliga]

not having IDs

There's not a national ID card system in the UK (assuming that's what you meant)?  If so how does NHS work?

[mongers]

not having IDs

There's not a national ID card system in the UK (assuming that's what you meant)?  If so how does NHS work?

Free at the point of delivery, after which hospital trusts then use their own revenue/enforcement staff to chase up people who aren't eligible or from outside the UK or countries we don't have agreements with.