First reply tweet I saw:

>Just reduced our thermostats. To be clear, it seems the main issue is reduced gen capacity. Per your app, demand is now 20% under summer peak which was handled w/o issue.

Big thing is how harsh cold weather is on natural gas.

How do we get ready for planned rolling outages? I have a generator, blankets, warm clothes. I have two neighbor families at my house now because their electricity is out, they also have blankets and warm clothes. What else can we do to be prepared. It’s a little concerning he said to be prepared for planned outages but didn’t share tips.

why are all the replies people shilling coal? i prefer not having black lung. plenty of wind and sun outside still lol. if anything i think coal plants struggle at low temps.

Google tells me to close the doors of unused rooms, put towels under the doors, blankets on the windows, dress warm and watch for signs of hypothermia. All common sense I guess.

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Know how to winterize your pipes in case the outage is extended.

PJM generation is about 1/3 nuclear, 1/3 coal and 1/3 gas

https://www.pjm.com/markets-and-operations

UGH I already keep my thermostat at 60, lights off during the day when I'm home, minimal light usage at night, etc.

You’re probably not the target of the message, the issue is the people who want to be able to wear shorts inside in the dead of winter

You want more natural gas? Pull my finger.

Me and you both. I walk around in multiple layers and spend any time not toileting, eating, or walking under a blanket. There is nothing else I can do.

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.

Exactly.

My sister came to visit me recently and said she keeps her thermostat at 77. I was shocked. She lives in Georgia.

> 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.

Good idea, thank you.

I Keep mine between 66-70 in the winter

Do you know how to hook up a generator to your gas heating system?

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

Mother in laws house was 74 today. I was fucking dying. We keep ours at 64 (62 at night)

100% support!

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.

I am working my way back to 64. In the last years of my dog's life he just could not tolerate anything under 67 in our small apartment: poor thing would shiver at 66. Now I am in a house with way more space and having trouble staying at 65. Currently 66.

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.

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.

Literally nothing else. It's ridiculous.

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.

My heating system is oil, my son connected a switch the main electric box to control the heat, kitchen outlets, and the porch light by the generator. Good idea, thank you.

You basically shut the water off to the house, open all faucets and flush all toilets. The water in the pipes will flow to the lowest draine in the house and prevent pipes bursting if the water freezes.

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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.

And this in an environment where we are all supposed to be in electric cars by 2030... That's seven years away. Where's all this electricity coming from? How is it to be transported? I have turned down what I can. The kitchen, heated only by the cooking of food. The den, unnocupied, unheated. The basement, unheated (seems to self maintain at around 40). The living room, moved temperature sensitive critters in with us, and it's staying warm. Bedroom, still heated, but turned low. It's amazing what two or three blankets and a nice thicc wife can do!