Weather WTF

[Grey Fox]

@valmy How you faring in the snow? Did you get a rolling blackout too?

[Valmy]

The snow is crazy deep and the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

And yes we had rolling blackouts all day.

So...this is new.

[Valmy]

It is not really going to thaw much until Friday also.

[viper37]

The snow is crazy deep and the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

And yes we had rolling blackouts all day.

So...this is new.

I thought about you and the way your house was built, not much protection from this kind of weather (as you would expect from a house built in Austin)

Well, hang in there.  Unlike sand storms, the snow eventually melts

Ok, not helping, sorry.  I'm guessing Austin is not equipped to deal with snow&ice in the streets either?
And even if it wasn't too late to buy supplemental heaters, without electricity, they won't be of much use to you.

[Grey Fox]

The snow is crazy deep and the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

And yes we had rolling blackouts all day.

So...this is new.

Hang it there. This is what we actually do when we get big storms. We wait them out.

[Maladict]

the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

How big is your house? 

[PDH]

Friend of mine from University lives in Austin, as of last night his power had been out for 18 hours, his condo was about 50f/10c degrees inside, and he was wrapped in blankets with his cat.

Some idiot had blocked the entrance to the parking area by crashing their pickup, so he couldn't flee to someplace warm if he wanted to.  At least he has Laramie Wyoming training, but it sounded brutal (and incidentally, it is colder in Austin than in Laramie...)

[viper37]

Friend of mine from University lives in Austin, as of last night his power had been out for 18 hours, his condo was about 50f/10c degrees inside, and he was wrapped in blankets with his cat.

That's awful

[viper37]

the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

How big is your house? 

About standard for American houses.  He posted pictures in another thread, you can see the garage behind:

[viper37]

The snow is crazy deep and the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

And yes we had rolling blackouts all day.

So...this is new.

Hang it there. This is what we actually do when we get big storms. We wait them out.

But we have heating, insulation and snow plowers.  Austin has brooms.

[Valmy]

the northern part of my house froze so we only get hot water in the southern part right now.

How big is your house? 

About 300 sq meters. But six people live here.

However I have two tankless water heaters. Without power the circuit that kept the northern one from freezing up stopped working so it froze.

[Grey Fox]

Wow. Now that's some luxury. Instant water heating.

[crazy canuck]

Wow. Now that's some luxury. Instant water heating.

I had a similar set up installed so that my custom bathtub could actually be filled with hot water. It has the added advantage that when we have a full house, there is no risk of running out of hot water.

[Grey Fox]

On the Texas weather craziness.

ERCOT reported that at 1 am on Monday 30 gigawatts of generating capacity went offline. That's quite catastrophic.

Hydro Quebec Production (the division that generates power with water) generates 39.7 gigawatts of power. If that went offline, even Boston would feel it.

[Syt]

It seems conservative media are blaming renewable energies for the power failures.