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S-Kunst t1_j1ik7ve wrote

I keep my thermostat at 62, and use a small ele radiator in my bed room to keep the cats comfy at 66. Are most people keeping their home temp low or are they walking around in T shirts & short. Still it sounds like our electric system has no wiggle room. As we know the surrounding counties are building building building, homes and stores, but no infrastructure. Every new housing development and strip shopping center add additional burden to the electric grid. Not to mention $$ overtime and out of state repair workers when the ele lines go down. We all foot that added cost.

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wbruce098 t1_j1ir7k8 wrote

> As we know the surrounding counties are building building building, homes and stores, but no infrastructure. Every new housing development and strip shopping center add additional burden to the electric grid.

Seems like a good incentive to pass some sort of new construction tax that goes toward building new green power generation. Make exceptions like for affordable housing.

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S-Kunst t1_j1lrb8n wrote

Yes. There is public land laying fallow which could be converted to solar farms. Many possibilities, but the private sector seems uninterested in getting involved unless there is immediate pay off, and the public sector is so insulated from the citizens, and entrenched in what they are doing that no new ideas are being sought.

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wbruce098 t1_j1lu07b wrote

What in proposing is a little different. Since you basically said infrastructure doesn’t scale with construction, in proposing a tax on new construction that will be used to help fund more infrastructure. This could help solve that problem.

I figure there’s a bunch of “but what about xyz” pushbacks to this suggestion, so a carve out for affordable housing (so the same bill could also serve as part of a financial incentive to build more of it), and maybe a very few additional exceptions might be effective, but definitely applies to commercial and industrial spaces, who use the most electricity by far, and maybe anything that fits the all-too-easily thrown around “luxury” housing term.

Make it green because there’s no reason our tax dollars should be used to build coal plants. Solar & wind are the typical responses there, but probably also things like battery capacity, general electrical infrastructure, and charging stations. And creativity about placement can make a big difference from simply finding fallow land: Ranchers often lease their land out for solar farms, with the panels built high enough that cattle/etc can take shelter under them. Seems a nice 2-for-1. My rooftop will never be big enough for whole home power from solar, but could house a couple panels that contribute to a collective run by the city or my neighborhood and/or a solar water heating system, which is much smaller.

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neutronicus t1_j1jn7vb wrote

We keep it at 70 and I am in boxers and tank top and my wife is layered up under a blanket asking for a hot water bottle

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SaveFailsafe t1_j1khxha wrote

Humidity can play a huge role in how cold or warm air feels. If you're still cold at 70 then something ain't right. Running your furnace that much could actually be drying out the air even more than it already is in the winter which will make it feel colder than it really is.

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S-Kunst t1_j1lqdsf wrote

Yes. Humidifying air can be a great help. From what I have seen the HVAC industry has yet to devise fool proof humidifying systems to their forced air systems. Most are simple in design, using a small cup of water built into the plenum of the air handler. Where it breaks down is that they are not easy for the home owner to access for regular maintenance and their design does not have fail-safe mechanisms to prevent flooding when the calcium build up prevents the simple float devise from shutting off water flow.

Another negative aspect of modern heating systems is the near lack of control over how much heat or cool each room will receive. We are trying to heat and cool entire houses uniformly. This is not cost effective, and with always high energy costs a waste of money. My 1835 row house has a door on every room and the two stair cases. When it was heated by 7 fireplaces the people would keep the doors closed to prevent heat from escaping and resulting in a cold first floor and overly hot 3d floor. With the current desire for an open plan house there needs to be additional ducts and fans, in the ducts. to recycle the $$ heated warm or cool air.

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CaptainObvious110 t1_j1qszqn wrote

People are different in what is comfortable for them. With that logic I could comment on people that are hot at 75. 70 is chilly to me and to be honest, I would prefer somewhere in the mid 70s to about 80.

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