It is 17f/-8C outside. The all time record low is 16f. We have some gross looking white stuff on the ground that isn't snow; frozen rain. We haven't had electricity for the past 6 hours and it's getting pretty cold inside. About 50f/10c inside. Might have to go sit in the car after a while.

Hope you get power back soon. Six hours in the cold sucks and when it continues and pipes start to burst it really sucks. The older I get the more I hate cold and this extended cold snap really sucks. My neighbor burns wood and his cribs are looking pretty empty which leaves him only some electric heat. The US power grid is part of our falling apart infrastructure. I am happy with a generator and even a backup generator.

Ron

 

I lost power down here for about an hour or so. And I've just been told that the outage has affected at least three more states.
Here's a thought, and maybe people in this forum will more easily help me answer it (it's too bad that @#12 is not a regular anymore).

A few years ago, I was told that reversible air conditioners (the ones with the capabiity of not just cooling, but also heating) would not work at temps below 5°C because they work as heat exchangers. Yet here we are at -5°C and my inverter units are heating just fine... why's that?

 

A few years ago, I was told that reversible air conditioners (the ones with the capabiity of not just cooling, but also heating) would not work at temps below 5°C because they work as heat exchangers. Yet here we are at -5°C and my inverter units are heating just fine... why's that?

The Geo-thermal versions used here that use ground water supply work well below that, it gets to -40c here on the odd winter day.
Max.

 

A lovely, sunny-5F this morning. Snow everywhere but a little too cold to play in it. One day soon it’ll probably shoot up to 50F and we’ll have a huge mess.

Nice today.

 

We are expecting snow next week, we got a skid last week couple inches and quickly went away. Now they said it’s going to be all week, I’m ok with it.

Yeah, they keep promising us "Storms". I have to laugh. This morning we got half a skiff of snow. A layer almost as thick as small snow flakes. The other day the snow was completely melted off the grass. I have yet to use a full tank of gas in my big snow blower. It's my fault. If I didn't buy that monster machine we would be having BIG snow falls.

Blame the polar vortex, Generally the winds are from the west to east around the globe & the poles, but with the present vortex, all the weather is descending downwards from the poles.
Down as far as Mississippi!

Was in Houston Texas in 92 to 94. In 92, just two months there and had our first tornado. Not a big one, but scary enough. In winter of 94, January, one day we had 90 degrees. Next day we had snow. Day after that it was 88˚. Then the next day we had ice. Yeah, once that "Alberta Clipper" starts rolling across the flat-lands there's nothing to stop it.

After Texas I went back to Connecticut. The forecast was for dangerous lightning. "Don't go outside if you don't have to." Well, you know I just had to go see what all the excitement was. Started laughing. Back in Houston they called that 20% chance of rain. Holy Schmitz, those thunder storms were no joke. Could see and hear thunder 35 miles away. And the ground still shook.

 

I lost power down here for about an hour or so. And I've just been told that the outage has affected at least three more states.
Here's a thought, and maybe people in this forum will more easily help me answer it (it's too bad that @#12 is not a regular anymore).

A few years ago, I was told that reversible air conditioners (the ones with the capabiity of not just cooling, but also heating) would not work at temps below 5°C because they work as heat exchangers. Yet here we are at -5°C and my inverter units are heating just fine... why's that?

They work, but may not have the capacity to keep up with the heat loss rate of your house. You won't find one anywhere up here because, as nice as they are, you'd need a furnace anyway to stay warm when it's -20F. Once you're paying for the furnace, there's not as good case for also adding the heat pump.

 

Currently something like 2.5 Million people without power in Texas.

Ron

 

Currently something like 2.5 Million people without power in Texas.

Ron

Northeast Mexico has been badly affected as well.

 

With all that going on, why am I complaining about not getting snow?

 

I lost power down here for about an hour or so. And I've just been told that the outage has affected at least three more states.
Here's a thought, and maybe people in this forum will more easily help me answer it (it's too bad that @#12 is not a regular anymore).

A few years ago, I was told that reversible air conditioners (the ones with the capabiity of not just cooling, but also heating) would not work at temps below 5°C because they work as heat exchangers. Yet here we are at -5°C and my inverter units are heating just fine... why's that?

One of my Customers told me her area of Texas is experiencing rolling black outs, others completely down. All I know.

kv

 

Currently something like 2.5 Million people without power in Texas.

Ron

Just called my Mom in Dallas (near Desoto). So far they still have power and don't have rolling blackouts, yet.

Here we just lost the local grocery store.

https://www.kptv.com/news/roof-coll...cle_bbe81ba8-6fcc-11eb-9883-efd2225b0fda.html

 

Some years ago, a few of us went on a barefoot cruise in the Bahamas, we had a two or three day lay over in Miami. on the radio it was announced the coldest day in Miami for April in the history of records.
We were in the pool, went down town in shorts and got alot of stares.
The taxi driver had a coat resembling a parka! .

 

Northeast Mexico has been badly affected as well.

I saw that. The entire Southwest extending down into Mexico is just a mess with the weather. Snowing here as predicted. Nice thing about being retired is I am no longer out there driving a snow corridor to and from work.

Ron

 

I saw that. The entire Southwest extending down into Mexico is just a mess with the weather. Snowing here as predicted. Nice thing about being retired is I am no longer out there driving a snow corridor to and from work.

Ron

yeah... I just new we should've withdrawn from NAFTA... this darn imported weather!

 

 

yeah... I just new we should've withdrawn from NAFTA... this darn imported weather!

I blame the Canadians. Every weather map I look at shows me another "Arctic Blast" coming down from where? Where's Max Headroom?

Winter was not all that bad till late December. Around here we have seen very little sunlight, everything is shades of grey. My neighbor just plowed our drive. His motorcycle is beside mine in my garage so he always plows for us. Last year I wired his house and we brought in new service.

Ron

 

LOL I've wanted to clear-cut the equatorial jungles in Africa for years. They are what spawn the Hurricanes in the Atlantic. Maybe you should send a nastygram to St. Nick and his Elves. I suspect they had something to do with it.

 

LOL I've wanted to clear-cut the equatorial jungles in Africa for years. They are what spawn the Hurricanes in the Atlantic. Maybe you should send a nastygram to St. Nick and his Elves. I suspect they had something to do with it.

My suggestion was to drain Lake Erie every winter. That will eliminate most of the lake effect crap, This year it is finally about done freezing over. The western (shallow) basin is always first freeze then it gets to us, This year it was open water most of Jan. Most cold years it's frozen in November and guys drag out their little ice houses. Mskes for some fine pearch.

Ron

 

A lot of people are without power and natural gas is being rationed. I thought this is a good time to remind everyone to have a carbon monoxide detector on and working.

My furnace heat exchanger opened up over Christmas and my single, 20+ year old CO detector saved my life. My daughter and I were starting a movie when it went off. I didn’t believe it at first and thankfully had another one still in the package to fire up for verification. We saw numbers around 200ppm, which are very serious and might have killed us overnight! Had to shut off the furnace and sleep elsewhere that night, and then tough out a couple cold days before the repair could be made.

Make sure your detector is working and don’t do something stupid to warm your house.

 

Around here it's the folks living in trailers whose LPG tanks go empty and they can't afford to refill them. So they go to the Dollar Store and buy cheap electric heaters that overload their faulty circuits and burn the trailer down. Not as bad as it was when they still allowed aluminum wiring in them.