U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing

ghrit · Sep 30, 2010

bnmb said: ↑

Yup...you're right...it's bull...unless they have hidden cams in the meters...
Click to expand...

Bull, it ain't. With a meter that communicates with the distribution points, they can plot any particular household's use. And, they know within a very small error, what any given appliance uses. By a simple set of math equations, they can reduce the data to indicate what appliances are in use at any given time. Additionally, knowing the number of wash and dry cycle that show up on the meter, they can pretty readily know the number of occupants.

Worth noting, maybe, is that there have been a number of interior hydroponic pot gardens found by seeing a sudden and long term use of electricity (for lighting.) (And yes, they can rather easily tell the difference between lighting and motor loads.)

Seawolf1090 · Sep 30, 2010

Our own homes and usage habits ratting us out..... dang, that's cold.

A very good reason to go 'off grid'.

Nadja · Sep 30, 2010

Falcon15 said: ↑

I am investing in a solar set and deep cycle batteries. Just in case. That and my gas Gennie (Oh how I want a 1930's Lister Diesel engine rig, le-sigh, le-double-sigh).

Damn. Only 4 days post hurricane without power? Lucky devils. I personally was 3 months no power after Hurricane Andrew. One person went fifteen years. This lady was in the same area I am from (Cutler Bay. . . Used to be called Cutler Ridge). Anyhow, When Hurricane Ike came and stomped around in H-Town, my family and I were without grid power for a week and a half. We had one room with A/C and we cooked on the grill and a propane stove. We took some cold showers. All part and parcel of a hurricane outage. However, the aging infrastructure, the utility companies, and the Government will only be able to maintain the grid so long. Hence, Big Brother in your thermostat stealing your A/C, in a vain, futile attempt to maintain the aging grid, meet a demand they cannot meet, and keep electric utility costs down (if you buy that). I myself do not. We are moving further into an "off grid" lifestyle. One step at a time.

If we were forced to be off grid tomorrow, we would survive. Maybe not in the lap of luxury, however survival is survival.
Click to expand...

Lister ? I bought one about 15 years ago for construction sites as we always need power for our saws etc. Problem with the da.. English things as they are designed to run in a cold foggy climate. Well, out here in Az. we are not exactly cold or foggy. We spent more time just trying to start the piece of s...t then it was worth. Buy something made to work here.

fireplaceguy · Sep 30, 2010

There are two kinds of Lister diesel engines. I'm not partial to the Lister-Petter air cooled engine, but the slow-speed Lister CS water cooled engine is arguably the best off-grid or grid-down internal combustion on earth.

Which one are you two talking about?

Log in or Sign up

U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing

ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

Nadja RIP 3-11-2013 Forum Leader

fireplaceguy Monkey+

Log in or Sign up

U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing

ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

Nadja RIP 3-11-2013 Forum Leader

fireplaceguy Monkey+

Useful Searches