Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[childers.paula AT epamail.epa.gov]

SO, I've been thinking - how to TRULY prevent this sort of thing?
Answer: SOLAR PV panels. Installed in an open area of your yard or roof
(i.e. not in way of falling branches), or get your neighborhood
association to install a big bank of 'em in the neighborhood park. Wires
can run underground to your power junction box.  Inverter allows you to
use std house wiring, and safely send clean power back into the local
grid.  Hey, the sun always shines, and new PV panels can pick up some
energy even on cloudy days. With a little effort (or some nicely-rigged
automation!), you can switch power around to those appliances that
really need it (blower for Gaspak? fridge? laptop charger? coffee pot?).

Generators require you to leave your house and purchase gas. They are
noisy, smelly, can blow up, freeze up, and require maintenance to keep
operational between uses. They are mostly useless except in emergencies.
Unless you are the sort of "camper" who drags one of these into the
woods so you can "rough it"  in comfort (and offend all the real campers
within a five-mile radius).

Solar is quiet, clean, safe, morally responsible, requires little
maintenance when installed correctly, and can be wired to reduce (or
even eliminate!) your power bills continuously while adding green power
into the grid for others to use, as well.

Expensive? Well, not cheap - but add up all the costs to you for your
current sources of power, both hidden and not (power bills, CO2 and
worse emissions from power plants, mountaintop removal coal mining, air
pollution, global warming, how much you spend on kerosene or gasoline in
outages, or how much you spent on eating out cos you had an electric
stove & no power, or how much you spent on motels, having to keep a CO2
detector in your house, etc etc) and then think about the moral
implications of either side (electricity produced by coal buring power
plants vs electricity produced by PV panels - or wind- or etc).

Anyone want to investigate a quantity discount for Triangle area
homeowners?

Paula



                                                                              
                                   
                      burnett AT pobox.com                                       
                                   
                      Sent by:                            To:                 
                                   
                      internetworkers-admin@lists.        cc:       
internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org            
                      ibiblio.org                         Subject:  Re: 
[internetworkers] still no power from    
                                                           CP&L....           
                                   
                                                                              
                                   
                      12/10/02 06:57 PM                                       
                                   
                      Please respond to                                       
                                   
                      internetworkers                                         
                                   
                                                                              
                                   
                                                                              
                                   




On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Michael D. Thomas wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 13:08:46 -0800 (PST) David Wagoner
<dbwagoner AT yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > They have been stressing on the radio the last
> > couple of days that some types of damage (e.g.,
> > electrical connections to the house, etc.) are
> > the homeowner's responsibility
>
> A Progress Energy linesman was nice enough
> to inspect the aerial drop and check our
> breaker. No damage and the breaker was on.
>
> The latest promises have been, in the order
> that we've received them:
>
> 1) A crew is in front of your house right
> now;
> 2) By 10:00 p.m. tonight;
> 3) By midnight tonight;
> 4) Oh wait, I meant by 10:00 p.m. tonight;
> 5) By Thursday.
>
> Oh well, since we plan to stay in the house
> a while, and CP&L will be our power company
> for a while, who can recommend a good
> generator?

We lost power at 1am Wednesday night. The rest of the neighborhood
(1/2mile from Crabtree Mall) had power Sunday night, but the three
houses
at the end of my street (including mine) were still dark. Mike, when you

posted earlier about being a cluster of three houses in Raleigh in a
neighborhood with restored power, I had to look and check you hadn't
moved
in across the street without me noticing :).

My next door neighbor had a city inspection required on Monday before
they'd consent to turn his power back on when the lines are
repaired.They
just fixed the lines a half-hour ago, so now I can quit camping in my
friend's basement.

We're already figuring where the generator needs to go in the house for
the next winter storm.

CP&L's automated system kept calling me back every day asking if I had
had
power restored and I kept choosing "no", but I never got through to a
human being the entire time.

 --
Steve Burnett    burnett AT pobox.com   http://www.pobox.com/~burnett/
System Administration Technical Documentation Information Retrieval





---
Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!
http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
To unsubscribe visit
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers