Bad gas

I agree....I wouldn't want anything other than a gas stove. Better to cook with in my opinion. And will still work in the event of a power outage.

a reply to: ketsuko

The best way to use solar is not to sell the power but to use the power yourself and cut your electric bills.

There are a lot of 12 and 24 volt DC lighting out there that can be run from batteries charged by solar.

Inverters can also be run from solar and cut your electric bills IF you only run your inverters just when needed.
And size the inverters for the power need.

Running a home with just a 10,000 watt inverter is going to use a lot of power just to run a refrigerator and tv.

Running a refrigerator on just enough wattage to run the refrigerator as the refrigerator does not need a pure sine wave inverter and put the inverter on a timer at night when the refrigerator is not opened.
And TV and other electronics need pure sine wave inverters. But most electronics need low amounts of power and do not need large expensive pure sine inverters.

Every solar company i have talked to on adding solar to my motor home has tried to sell me an overpriced and system.
Some even tried to get me to convert the motor home lighting system to 120 volt AC.

Batteries are another problem with these solar companies for there off grid type systems.
All they want to sell is deep cycle lead acid batteries that only last 3 to4 years.

The newer LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Batteries while they cost a lot more have a life of 10 to 15 years.

a reply to: ketsuko

Just bought a gas top convection oven

nothing beats cooking with gas.

originally posted by: panoz77
a reply to: robsmith

They are doing the same thing in California. Idiots.

California already has brownouts every summer due to demand on the electrical grib from AC, so what do they do? They increase the mandates for electric cars and electric appliances which will drastically increase demand on the already overwhelmed grid, recipe for disaster. This is what you get when you live in clown world.

Isn't one of the biggest dangers in places like California that gas mains will rupture and catch fire after earthquakes or land slippages?

In the olden days fire from ruptures gas pipes used to cause more damage than the quakes themselves. At least in the suburbs.

originally posted by: panoz77
a reply to: robsmith

They are doing the same thing in California. Idiots.

California already has brownouts every summer due to demand on the electrical grib from AC, so what do they do?

More free gribs, that is the solution.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

How many of the recent forced blackouts are due to fear of fire started by the electric lines in Cali?

originally posted by: panoz77
a reply to: robsmith

They are doing the same thing in California. Idiots.

California already has brownouts every summer due to demand on the electrical grib from AC, so what do they do? They increase the mandates for electric cars and electric appliances which will drastically increase demand on the already overwhelmed grid, recipe for disaster. This is what you get when you live in clown world.

As a native born Californian home owner who's lived in Northern California about 95% of my life, I must say that you seem to have strong opinions unconnected to reality about what actually happened in California.

There have actually only been two episodes in California where demand exceeded supply for some significant period of time. The first was in 2000-2001. That one was caused by the deregulation of the three main electricity suppliers in the state--PG&E, SOCAL Edison, and SanDiego Power. The deregulation was signed into law in 1996 by Republican governor Pete Wilson because, you know, the private sector can always do everything better than the government. It took effect in 1998. One of the unintended consequences of deregulation was that it allowed large energy companies to manipulate the market to cause artificial shortages. Which is exactly what the company Enron did. From June of 2000 to May 2001, they created artificial shortages which allowed them to jack up the spot price of wholesale energy by as much as 800%. Basically, they figured out they could make more money by selling less energy at much higher prices if they created shortages. During the period of the shortages, the state had 45 GW of generating capacity and the peak demand during the blackouts was only 28 GW. Free enterprise at its finest.

As a side note, Texas followed California down the deregulation route about 10 years later, with similar results which played out earlier this year.

The second time we had blackouts due to demand exceeding supply was last summer. Again, there was adequate power available regionally, but the planners simply failed to ask for producers to deliver enough capacity on the hottest days. California typically imports about 1/4 of its power from neighboring states, but didn't request it on the days in question because the planners just didn't think it was going to get as hot as it actually did. (Kind of like Texas not believing it was going to get as cold as it did. In both cases, it was climate change that caused them to not be prepared.). Last summer, the solar power component of the state's grid performed exactly as modeled, but the gas-fired component (which supplies twice as much as wind and solar combined) didn't.

However, we have had numerous power outages throughout the state in recent years due to extreme fire danger. These are called Public Service Power Shutoffs (PSPS). Out-of-staters tend to conflate these PSPS events with "power shortages", but that's not even remotely true. The PSPS policy was enacted basically as a result of the 2018 wildfire season, which is the one that wiped out the town of Paradise, in the Sierra foothills. That fire was ultimately traced to faulty PG&E equipment allowing power lines to fall off the tower and spark a grass fire. That event and other large fires in California in that year that were traced to PG&E ultimately drove PG&E to declare bankruptcy because of the huge insurance settlements they had to pay. It is well known that PG&E's installed equipment is in crappy shape and they don't want to spend the money to fix it. As a result, they have found it is cheaper (from an insurance point of view) to simply not produce power during high fire risk times thereby avoiding the insurance liability. Once, again, this has absolutely noting to do with generating capacity, solar or otherwise.

And finally, while it is true that California will have to come up with more generating capacity in order to accommodate the increased use of electricity in homes and electric cars, we happen to have a large fraction of the Mojave Desert in the state, which is probably the best location on the planet for solar power plants. Solar power is already the cheapest alternative for new installed generating capacity and solar generation plants typically only take a few years to install, so there is clearly an answer to this problem.

Having all electric everything isnt a problem if we just build newer and more Nuclear power plants.

All of our Nuclear plants are SUPER old. The tech we have now is 1000x better, WAY safer and more efficient.

Andrew Yang is all about Nuclear moving forward and I agree.

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: ketsuko

Just bought a gas top convection oven

nothing beats cooking with gas.

Actually induction cooktops are pretty amazing. No mess on the cooktop ever. Boils water ULTRA fast, ans temperature control is precise.

Induction is super cheap now too.

a reply to: Lucidparadox

used them, not impressed.

originally posted by: Lucidparadox
Actually induction cooktops are pretty amazing. No mess on the cooktop ever. Boils water ULTRA fast, ans temperature control is precise.

Induction is super cheap now too.

If I could get a combo induction French top with a built in gas grill, griddle and a gas oven I'd be very happy.

originally posted by: ATruGod

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: robsmith

Anyone buying solar panels for their home got duped to begin with, the recoup costs are still way too high.

If being duped is saving a couple grand a year...I'll look for the next person to "dupe" Me.

I pay a lot less because of My solar than without it. It will pay itself off after 15 years and it will still be guaranteed for 10 more (especially if rates keep rising) and it adds value to My home.

I don't think that word means what You think it means.

How do you figure you pay a lot less if it still isn't paid for? You have to wait 15 years for a roi for your system? Glad you aren't giving me stock advice......

Just wait until you have to upgrade/replace your battery bank....

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: ATruGod

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: robsmith

Anyone buying solar panels for their home got duped to begin with, the recoup costs are still way too high.

If being duped is saving a couple grand a year...I'll look for the next person to "dupe" Me.

I pay a lot less because of My solar than without it. It will pay itself off after 15 years and it will still be guaranteed for 10 more (especially if rates keep rising) and it adds value to My home.

I don't think that word means what You think it means.

How do you figure you pay a lot less if it still isn't paid for? You have to wait 15 years for a roi for your system? Glad you aren't giving me stock advice......

Just wait until you have to upgrade/replace your battery bank....

What batteries? I feed electricity back to the grid and My meter runs backwards. There were months, presolar, I paid upto $450 a month for a few months in a row during the summer. There was probably never a month I paid under $200. Now I pay $10 a month with a "True up" at the EOY that was $600 last year. When I refi'd and roled it in I got a lower interest rate which basically kept My house payment the same and currently it adds more value to the house then it cost. Kinda feels like I have $1500 minimum, extra a year thats not going to PG&E. *shrugs* I don't give anyone stock advice

originally posted by: robsmith
Agreed a reply to: AugustusMasonicus
Agreed, people got duped! The feed in tariffs are crap, at 12 cents a kilowatt hour the re sell rates by the cabals are 25 cent an hour.

Nuclear is the only option if people want cheaper electricity. Screw solar, screw Tesla 12 thousand dollar batteries.

Bring on nuclear!

Eyes my slightly glowing shed out back

Lol classic, did David Hahn inspire you. What a true creative legend.a reply to: AutomateThis1

a reply to: robsmith

Haha, ah yes. The "radioactive boy scout."

Maybe, but I was more inspired by reading accounts from people who call themselves "fusioneers."

They work at trying to make small nuclear reactors. Some do it as a hobby, and some do it in the hopes that one day it'll lead to something like a reactor for every home.

One of the more notable guys is Richard Hull. He runs his own forum now, but there are quite a few of them.

www.washingtonpost.com...

List of fusioneers and related forum.

fusor.net...

a reply to: ketsuko

I would love to have a gas stove but I have an electric
cooktop.I do have a propane gas stove in my camper
I have set up at my son's place.I have solar panels for
it as well,they're not hooked up though.

a reply to: HarryJoy

That is one of the main reasons why I don't like having
an electric cooktop.After a blackout years ago,I got
into my wedding supplies and used chafing dish fuel to
cook on.I took the racks out of the oven,placed them
on blocks of wood and put the chafing dish fuel cans
under the racks.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Auggie,I would be thrilled to have a stove,I have a cooktop
with a double oven on the side.
My dream stove would be gas,with 5 burners, a griddle,and
a big oven.