Climate in the 21st Century

cannabineer said:

45 here; we started a week of rather warm forecast conditions.
The lows are around 25, but the shape of the curve is odd. 37 at sundown, still 33 at 1am (but opening the windows pays off at last), below thirty for a narrow downspike between 4 and 7 am.

I am avoiding using the AC. It sucks down four kilowatts, and afternoon rates here are $.55/kWh. The hot side is on the south of the house and gets full sun. This has an effect on heat transfer rate even with full power draw.

I make it by using redneck AC (a damp T-shirt)
and using a pair of fans to draw air through the house whenever outside < inside.

What’s killing me is that the two refrigerators are almost always running. They’re designed for indoor use with at worst a 25-degree difference. When it hits and exceeds 35, they run and run. I operate the stove only at night.

Sometimes a night wind comes up, and that cancels the cooling trend. Last year I had a day where the low at sunrise was 33.

The trifecta:

hot days and nights,
a central AC not built to dump heat efficiently when it’s 40+ out,
extraordinary energy prices.

Add that our weather service lies. I have seen days where the forecast was for 38. The instantaneous on their site topped at 43. My high on a good shaded thermometer, 46. Record temp for the calendar day, 46.
Next day, “yesterday’s high” 39. I think the weather bosses are Republicans or something.

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Dr.Amber Trichome said:

Tomorrow is a Power Saver Reward Day for me.
The more energy i save between 4 pm and 9 pm the higher my reward will be. We like to keep the apartment as dark as possible with the blinds closed and light off all day long. It’s the beginning of a six day long, if not longer, heat wave. there are some cool zones I saw posted as well, places where one can find air conditioning safe zones. I might go check one out.

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EKG Cal Canna said:

The sad thing is that theyve almost got us begging for something the WE Pay For. Most people are happy to take the bits theyre given. Had they not decommissioned nuclear & geothermal power generation systems in California we wouldnt be where were at. Create a shortage & raise profits ! they do it on Everything, most just take the story theyre told as The Gospel. Soon enough there wont be power to charge All the electric cars because if theres not enough power for people to run their households that are already loaded with led & energy star appliances, then e cars will have to go! They once again have got the people to pay more for less which equals More Profits for the corporations! 15 years ago instead of power purveyors reinvesting Their profits into upgrading their grids,which they Knew was coming, They got people to pay for solar which took the load off of Their grid.Since solar, ceos boards & shareholders have seen Record profits & Bigger Bonuses than Ever ! Its a business & they call it a not for profit.At the end of their fiscal year they have to spend whats left on the business or hand it over in taxes. If they claim they have no major expenses, all that money/profits are distributed amongst the shareholders & the ceo & board in bonuses. At the next years budgetary board meeting, they set the budget higher Every Consecutive Year. Wheres it gonna come from? Theyre not gonna take any less,its gonna come from trimming an you & me. They trim costs & raise prices, then you pay More for Less ! Eventually after years of trimming it gets to a point of No meat Left On The Bone,They grabbed the lions share & left the people fighting over the scraps! most dont question anything just believe them. The laws & structure of The Corporation & unregulated capitalism Are The Problem. It creates No Meat Left On The Bone Economics. My Tin Foil Hat is So Old, its Rusty !

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Dr.Amber Trichome said:

I was thinking about how all the e cars would get charged with the overload. I read Gov Gav is going to give billion to get the nuclear to keep going because of the issue. I hope things get worked out . I don’t hate on Cali like a lot of people. I do think the intentions are in the right place. But shorter term solution planning rather than long term isn’t working. The problem I see is that technology is moving so rapidly it’s hard to keep up and predict anything. Electric cars seemed great at the time but now to me they seem almost like a fading fad. They are only suited for a certain upper financially well to do cluster of people and don’t work for the majority of working class people who don’t have a house to plug into or the money to buy one. It’s just a matter of time before another technology powers cars and one cheaper and more affordable. That is the only way. I’m sure nuclear will be making a come back very soon. It’s the obvious choice.

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

that's the same way ice cars were, until Ford came along and made a good cheap vehicle, which finance companies were happy to give out loans for. the industry has to sell vehicles, if it wants to remain an industry. that means they have to make cheaper models for the poor folk to buy, or they'll elite themselves out of a job

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

that's the same way ice cars were, until Ford came along and made a good cheap vehicle, which finance companies were happy to give out loans for. the industry has to sell vehicles, if it wants to remain an industry. that means they have to make cheaper models for the poor folk to buy, or they'll elite themselves out of a job

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Ozumoz66 said:

In the 80s, while picking tobacco, we could expect a killer frost by mid September. Our hands were so cold early in the morning that we'd place them near the engine's manifold at the end of each row to warm up. During the last several days of harvest, a mickey of whisky was used to help warm us internally. At 15, it cost me $5, for a mickey only worth $3.50, but I was making $42/day. I got to keep anything over $200/week, so please baby Jesus let's hope the tobacco is ripe enough so I have to work Sunday and skip church.

Forty years later our killer frost doesn't happen till November 20th, a full two plus months later. It's a longer growing season now and there seem to be more invasive species, insect outbreaks and new diseases, as well as unpredictable rainfall and crop yields.

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cannabineer said:

They fail at very high outdoor temps, which is when I’d be relying on one. And with my evolving desert ethics, I hesitate to quadruple my water demand.

I find 95F at 15% easier to bear than 85 at 70%.

Even with just the damp shirt, my room gets up to 35%. Walking from dry to less dry at 95 degrees makes an almost physical impact.

Sometimes I fantasize about a house built for the conditions, with outstanding insulation and thick foam shutters for the glazing. And enough solar to drive climate control off grid.

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injinji said:

I was just watching a video about wind catchers. It has to be built into the house from the start, but they are a way to cool without AC. You have a catcher set way up high. The wind comes in and goes down through channels built into the house, then works it's way back to an outlet also on the roof, but not as tall as the inlet. It works better with a basement.

I've sworn off AC at the riverhouse.I ran them both (and the water heater) like normal for a while. The bill was over $250, more than the sandhill house. In the summertime I don't ever go inside until sundown. Then I open all the doors with screens, run the attic fan for a couple three hours, run the ceiling and room fans wherever I'm at and take cold showers as needed. I got the bill down to 100 bucks counting both the house and the pump. Not too bad. But the co-op has raised the base fee from 25 to 35, so that's 20 more bucks a month with the same usage.

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Synchronicity said:

Polar caps continue to melt, California continues to burn and seaside communities continue to flood. Major rivers of the planet (Yangtze, Danube, Ganges, Nile and the Amazon) are drying up. The Himalayas are losing their glaciers. Glacier Natl park right here in the U.S. is low on glaciers and may have none left soon.

Simply put, there is no mystery here- Politicians deal with it like some childs' game. It is not! -
As a firm grasp of the obvious becomes abundantly clear............

And most of us just bury our heads in the hot sand.................

and the tipping point approaches.......... No, it does not look good and all I see as a positive note is the younger generation, that can at least acknowledge it, rise to vote. We need a fundamental change of attitude toward paying for our oil dependency........... not more politics

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injinji said:

I've been saying for 20 years that I wanted to see 5 dollar gas. But from taxes, not high prices. Treat it like tobacco and tax it like our life depended on our stopping using it.

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cannabineer said:

I half-remember a National Geographic from decades ago showing traditional dwellings in North Africa somewhere. The roofs had these tall saillike structures that were open to leeward. They looked like the segments of the Sydney Opera House. In the evening, opening a door or windows at ground level and the trapdoor to the reverse sail made even light breezes take care of cooling. The buildings were adobelike and took time to gain or shed heat.

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Windcatcher - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

cannabineer said:

Petroleum has much more value as a feedstock for the chemical industry than as go juice. Plastics and other synthetics are one of the pillars of first-world prosperity.

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injinji said:

And if it is going to get more valuable as time goes by, why the fuck are we selling ours now? Use other folks oil until it really get short, then start using ours.

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