EVs and Their Drawbacks

[Schpark]

4 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

Yes sir. While most of the state was originally prairie that was eventually converted to cropland and grazing, there are woodlands along river valleys, urban forests in cities like Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, etc., and the Turtle Mountain pleateau region in the north central part of the state which has aspen forest. The famous International Peace Garden is located in the Turtle Mountain region.

 

 

I have been through ND many times it was a joke.

[FordBuyer]

5 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

Yes sir FordBuyer. The photo below shows the aftermath of an ice storm affecting North and South Dakota in November 2005. Wow! ?

 

 

 

 

When I lived in Plymouth, MI, we would lose our power 3-4 times/week, mostly because of dead Mountain Ash Trees. Then DTE finally did a comprehensive tree trimming program and power failures dropped significantly. 

 

The moved to a lakefront home outside of Chelsea, MI and lost power 2-3 times/year due to falling tree limbs. One winter we had a really bad freezing rain event with fallen tree limbs everywhere. Took days just to clean up and no power for 3 days. Again, DTE finally did a massive tree trimming program in Chelsea area and power failures became rare thereafter. 

 

Moved to Central FL in 2017 and first year here Hurricane Irma came right overhead with 90mph winds and rain. Never lost power as our power lines are underground. SECO and TECO are the utilities here. Have only lost power once for 10 minutes in 4 years. The infrastructure here is first class. Hurricanes and sinkholes are scary, but MI is scarier. 

[FordBuyer]

13 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

Yes sir. While most of the state was originally prairie that was eventually converted to cropland and grazing, there are woodlands along river valleys, urban forests in cities like Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck, etc., and the Turtle Mountain pleateau region in the north central part of the state which has aspen forest. The famous International Peace Garden is located in the Turtle Mountain region.

 

 

Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota are certainly beautiful states that have garnered big time interest from film makers in recent years. I get the reason.....make for great storylines as developers with big money come in and try to gentrify the land of gritty individualism. My neighbor has a second home in Montana and spends a few months there every year. 

[SoonerLS]

54 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

I wonder if a higher % of homes "Up North" prepare for situations like this, and provide themselves an alternate form of power generation, than our "Southern" counterparts?

We have lots of home generators around this part of the country. I couldn't give you a percentage, but it goes up every time a tornado goes through and knocks down a transmission line.

[mackinaw]

26 minutes ago, FordBuyer said:

When I lived in Plymouth, MI, we would lose our power 3-4 times/week, mostly because of dead Mountain Ash Trees.......

 

Probably not Mountain Ash, but White Ash or Green Ash, because of the invasive insect, the Emerald Ash Borer which made it's way to SE Michigan in 2002.  It's pretty much eliminated Ash trees in Michigan.

 

BTW, Mountain Ash trees (Genus: Sorbus) aren't really part of the Ash family (Genus: Fraxinus).  

 

Excuse the dendrology lesson, I did this stuff for 34 years.

[HotRunrGuy]

19 minutes ago, SoonerLS said:

We have lots of home generators around this part of the country. I couldn't give you a percentage, but it goes up every time a tornado goes through and knocks down a transmission line.

 

Yeap.  HRG

[rperez817]

45 minutes ago, Schpark said:

I have been through ND many times it was a joke.

 

I hope your trips were the good type of joke and not the bad one, as North Dakota has natural beauty and friendly people. I have fond memories of a family vacation about 30 years ago to International Peace Garden.

[Schpark]

4 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

I hope your trips were the good type of joke and not the bad one, as North Dakota has natural beauty and friendly people. I have fond memories of a family vacation about 30 years ago to International Peace Garden.

 

Great Plains, areas with little to no trees was the joke, not the trips.  I always enjoy road trips through less populated areas.

[akirby]

1 hour ago, SoonerLS said:

We have lots of home generators around this part of the country. I couldn't give you a percentage, but it goes up every time a tornado goes through and knocks down a transmission line.

 

I was about to say - hurricanes and tornados are the most likely to knock out power around here followed by ice storms.  We contemplated adding a generator to the new house but a lot of the power here is underground so less susceptible to tree damage.

 

We also have a lot of pine trees here and those are the most susceptible to ice storms and those are the ones likely to take out power lines.  And we have no snow removal equipment - just a few salt and sand trucks.    The real issue is we get a lot of days where it goes from above freezing in the day to below freezing at night and that's when the snow melts and turns into black ice.  Very dangerous.

[rmc523]

2 hours ago, FordBuyer said:

 

So you don't think places like Michigan get freezing rain? I can remember more than a few times in MI when we were without power for days without power because of freezing rain storms. The big difference though was because of fallen power lines, not power generation failure. DTE and CP were able to repair most of the power lines within 48 hours, not weeks.

here in south Florida they’ve been burying a lot of the lines for some time now.  Obviously helps with hurricanes but also looks better.   

[FordBuyer]

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

here in south Florida they’ve been burying a lot of the lines for some time now.  Obviously helps with hurricanes but also looks better.   

 

And Palm trees are not bothered by high wind other than some fallen tree fronds. Only problem with cold weather in SFL is falling iguanas. We have lots of lizards and alligators and palmetto bugs here in CFL, but no falling iguanas. 

[SoonerLS]

3 hours ago, akirby said:

 

I was about to say - hurricanes and tornados are the most likely to knock out power around here followed by ice storms.  We contemplated adding a generator to the new house but a lot of the power here is underground so less susceptible to tree damage.

I know a lot of folks who have generators, some with NG-plumbed whole-house units and some with little gas-powered units that'll just run the fridge/freezer and maybe the furnace. In town, power lines are normally buried, but in the rural areas, they're normally only buried from the power pole to the house or barn. Even with that, it's usually the bigger transmission lines that get got; our electric coop is diligent about keeping up with maintenance and ruthless about keeping trees away from the overhead lines, but there's not much you can do about ice buildup on lines during a storm or the high winds that frequently accompany them, and we've had no luck at all in getting the tornados broken of the habit of going wherever they dang well please.

[rmc523]

1 hour ago, FordBuyer said:

 

And Palm trees are not bothered by high wind other than some fallen tree fronds. Only problem with cold weather in SFL is falling iguanas. We have lots of lizards and alligators and palmetto bugs here in CFL, but no falling iguanas. 

 

Lol, there are more than just palm trees here.

[snooter]

As of now in texas it cost $900 to charge your tesla....reality is a real downer man

[slemke]

9 hours ago, Schpark said:

 

There are trees in ND?

Yes.  Surprised me when I went to there and saw them for myself.  Big cottonwoods.  Growing up in MN, I was taught the ND state tree was a telephone pole. ?

[slemke]

10 hours ago, FordBuyer said:

 

I've read multiple articles that NG, coal, and nuclear systems failure caused more problems than alternative energy. So much for the political bullshit being spread around. Latest article on this came from the Detroit News, a conservative newspaper.

A conservative newspaper?  I thought those were as imaginary as unicorns.

[slemke]

11 hours ago, akirby said:

 

I don't know how many times we Southerners can explain this to our Northern friends.  It's not the cold or the snow.  It's the freezing rain and sleet and snow that melts and refreezes as ice.  You can't drive on ice (at least not without studded tires) and ice will down trees and power lines and apparently stop wind turbines.

I’m one of those escapees from MN/ND.  You can drive on ice, been there done that.  Needed my dad to chisel the ice off my door so I could get out of my car.  I wouldn’t advise it, though.  Need to maintain the correct speed...too fast and you don’t make the turn at all...too slow and you slide down the banking.  Stopping?  Who needs to stop...just look for something soft to slide into.  Much more difficult than driving on snow.

 

You are correct about the trees and power lines and now wind turbines.  For some reason, there seems to be more widespread damage in the south from ice, though.  Probably a combination of greater ice accumulation, different tree species that aren’t as tough, maintenance of power line right of ways, etc.
 

 

[slemke]

2 hours ago, snooter said:

As of now in texas it cost $900 to charge your tesla....reality is a real downer man

But, if your tesla is charged can it power your house or neighbors to sell them electricity at an exorbitant rate?
I will bet that Ford dealers are sold out of powerboost f150s just like Home Depot and Lowe’s are sold out of generators.  Haven’t looked to see if Mike Levine posted anything about a powerboost with pro power saving the day.

[paintguy]

If your Tesla is out of charge you are SOL in Texas. Of course if your F-150 is on E and the gas station has no power, same result.

[HotRunrGuy]

1 hour ago, paintguy said:

If your Tesla is out of charge you are SOL in Texas. Of course if your F-150 is on E and the gas station has no power, same result.

 

My sister lives in a suburb of Ft Worth.  Since this has started, she lost power for ONE 25-minute period.  It's not the entire freakin' state.

 

HRG

[rperez817]

25 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

My sister lives in a suburb of Ft Worth.  Since this has started, she lost power for ONE 25-minute period.  It's not the entire freakin' state.

 

HRG

 

Yes sir HotRunrGuy, DFW Metroplex has been affected much less than the Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Lubbock, and Midland/Odessa areas.

[akirby]

34 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

My sister lives in a suburb of Ft Worth.  Since this has started, she lost power for ONE 25-minute period.  It's not the entire freakin' state.

 

HRG

 

Some grids are not affected - specifically those serving hospitals or other vital services.  My co-worker hasn't lost power at all but he's near the hospital.

[akirby]

Just now, akirby said:

 

Some grids are not affected - specifically those serving hospitals or other vital services.  My co-worker hasn't lost power at all but he's near the hospital.

 

I also have many co-workers in DFW that are affected.

[paintguy]

I'm sure like many places, outlying areas have less connections and more prone to outages. Also large sections of Texas are not connected to interstate grids. When NG supply is short, backup generators don't help much. On East Coast have seen backup generators with diesel power. These are more expensive and higher maintenance.

[FordBuyer]

13 hours ago, slemke said:

But, if your tesla is charged can it power your house or neighbors to sell them electricity at an exorbitant rate?
I will bet that Ford dealers are sold out of powerboost f150s just like Home Depot and Lowe’s are sold out of generators.  Haven’t looked to see if Mike Levine posted anything about a powerboost with pro power saving the day.

 

There is a story in the Freep today about a new F150 Powerboost owner in Texas powering his whole house during the TX blackout.