A power grid failure in New York state, which was was sparked by a blistering heatwave has left 20,000 Americans without power. Brooklyn was hit the hardest as scorching heat slammed the city’s power grid Sunday evening, putting more than 50,000 Con Ed customers in the dark, the company said.
As heat stressed the grid, Con Ed tried to keep the blackout from spreading by deliberately cutting power to 33,000 customers in Brooklyn, mostly in Canarsie, Flatlands, Mill Basin and Bergen Beach. “The reason we did that was to prevent any further outages and also to protect the integrity of the energy system in that area,” said Con Ed spokesman Sidney Alvarez, according to The New York Daily News.
These Off-Grid Summer Strategies Could Save Your Food Supply and Keep You Safe
Power was still out to 40,674 customers at 1:09 a.m. Monday, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. Exactly how many people were affected was unclear. One Con Ed customer might be a single-family home or a large apartment building. Mayor de Blasio monitored the situation from Gracie Mansion, said a spokeswoman. We suspect De Blasio didn’t lose power to his air-conditioned mansion, however…
Latest from Con Ed for the 30K customers without power in Flatlands, Canarsie, Mill Basin and Bergen Beach: Con Ed will start bringing customers back 500 at a time around midnight.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) July 22, 2019
According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), 31 percent of the 2,000 U.S. residents who died from weather-related incidents were due to excessive heat, heatstroke, sunstroke, or all. This is why it’s important to keep yourself and your family cool if you lose power on a hot day.
Another suggestion is to build your own cooler. This is a great DIY project to do BEFORE a heatwave knocks out the power grid and it can be set up to run on solar power.
The current blackouts come eight days after Broadway and Times Square went eerily dark along with a long swath of the West Side. Hopefully, power will return to overheated Americans soon!
In our local newspaper there was an article about the top worries of people in the readership area of SW Florida. Terrorism, crime and economy were listed but the number one fear was the loss of air conditioning.
Well I had no power for 2 weeks when I moved my solar array to a higher raised solar stand. I prepped for months getting all the right gear and wiring to do a few day power down, but in the end I had to wait for an extra week to get the right breaker box for the disconnects. My biggest problem with no power, was no fans, and 95 deg + full heat here in FL. If I had a skylight which I could open to extract the trapped heat in my ceiling I would have been OK. So I considered this a learning experience, and now call my 2 weeks without electricity my 2 week Indian Summer Sweat Lodge Training. Ha.. Yes It was a sweaty spiritual experience. lol My Solar is kicking butt now, and going into night my system is mostly fully charged. Sleeping and sweating is no fun.
TSB, that reminds me of when I was young I had a waterbed and in summer I just unplugged the heater and it was nice and cool! That would be a good thing for you to have, you would stay cool and have extra water storage.
In other interesting news: I just read that 22 of 23 states in Venezuela have lost power. Happened about an hour ago. Invasion?
Sad to hear, and its all planes destruction of a country, its economy to weaken the county so it is ripe for pillage by Big Oil. Disgusting foreign policy the West has.
If I had a water bed here in FL, the water in the mattress would heat up to 95 degs and be like sleeping on a pot of boiling water. May work up where you are at though. What I remember living up in the winter climate and waterbeds is the sets of drawers under the bed that I put all my socks and underwear in and in the AM getting out of bed in the winter and putting on a warm set of sox and undies.
I also remember all hot chicks lost earrings caught between the water bed and frame and poking holes in the mattress as we rocked the night away. ohh the memories. ha.
Wish there was a separate forum on this site to discuss Solar info. Boy did I learn a lot and finished the job and works great.
PS. On my few acres I have 2 does and a set of twin fawns about a month old. The critters are bouncing all around the place and getting some fun photos of them. In the early AM at first light the Momma doe stands out the door and waits for me to get up and come out and throw a few hands of corn out for her. Se lets me come within about 8 to 10 yards. And we have a wave tail and my hand wave back hand signals that its OK. After I wave my hand like a tail they go about their business at ease. Its the same doe in here last year that raised 2 fawns.. Become one with nature, as nature will never let you down and provide everything you need in life. Most Humans Suck bigtime.
Yes they do! I love me some wildlife, I don’t hunt cause I’d rather watch them than kill them. Plenty of meat at the store and fish in the lakes. Went shopping this morning and the shelves were FULL of food. I mean FULL! No shortage whatsoever if you don’t shop walmart like an idiot.
If we didn’t have 20 or 30 million illegals in America, the power grid would have been able to handle the higher demand. Think of all those extra drains on our Nations electrical systems… Time to get those illegals out of our best country.
“Terrorism, crime and economy were listed but the number one fear was the loss of air conditioning.”
knowyourmeme.com/memes/ackchyually
True story —
You would not want those people to lose their air conditioning.
Since no such thing as a powerful, cost-efficient air conditioner has ever been sold, be fit and acclimatized to where you live. This is it. Center yourself. Find your happy place.
I can walk to wild cacti. When the wind blows, the gutters and everything else (use your imagination) fills with sand. We don’t even use this convenience in the desert.
Thats why cavemen dragged their women around by the hair. If they dragged them by the feet they filled up with dirt! 😛
Yep once in a while a cave man is smart like Genius. Was that draggin tactic info passed down your family tree? lol Those who dragged their women by the feet never got pregnant, and they soon their tribe became extinct.
I lol’d at the bucket guy. Sorry. If his dream of lowering his house temperature 20*, from 84* to 64*, with his bucket comes true he will be a rich man. No one will ever buy an air conditioner again. They will buy orange buckets and fish tank pumps. Carrier will go bankrupt.
Then he props his feet on the bucket and turns his grid powered fan on. Now THAT’S funny.
I once made an evap cooler similar to that one that ran on 12v. The problem with evap cooling is in a humid climate it doesn’t do much at all. A basement can be a blessing. I made a climate controlled back room in a shipping container by burying pvc pipe 4 feet in the ground and at one end where it comes to the surface I attached 2 12 volt computer fans. It runs on a self contained solar power outfit on the roof. It works very well also. When you go in the container it is hot as hell but go behind the (well insulated) door and it is nice. I insulated the room with reflective bubble wrap and 1 inch styrofoam sheeting with a relflective side. I drilled 3/8 holes at the outer top edge where the ribs are under the edge. This allows hot air to escape as the cool air coming in from the pipe forces it out the top. I also painted the container with solar reflective elastic paint. You could do the same thing with a well insulated shed no grid needed.
To add… I used 4 inch pvc solid drain pipe and the horizontal length in the ground is 30 feet. You can run 12 volt fans etc. without a charge controller and battery by wiring the solar panel to a voltage regulator (buck converter) that takes 24 volts down to 12. I have a solar heated mini pool that I run the circulation pump that way. It is 1- 130 watt 12 volt panel and a 20 amp regulator that runs an on demand rv water pump (6 amps). Sun comes up. pump starts working… sun goes down, pump stops. Don’t buy the cheap shitty converters, get the epoxy sealed ones. Be sure the converter and panel are big enough to power your load. Theres yer tip for the day 🙂
One more thing lol… To prevent mold in the pipe I swabbed the insides with a mix of portland cement and homemade colloidial silver. This works great for cellars too. I had a hell of a time with mold in my cellar and I tried this and had 0 mold after that!
Much like your pool, I have a thermal solar panel tied to my domestic hot water tank. It uses a 25w 12v variable speed computer circulating water pump. It is controlled by a snap switch in the panel and one on the water tank. It currently runs on a 12v wall wort transformer but can easily be switched to the pv solar panel system in a grid down.
Why didn’t you just run the underground pipe in a loop. No need for drill holes then. Or do you need the fresh air input?
JRS, A loop would be a pain in the ass and require a lot of digging. I dug the trench with a backhoe when my buddy brought it over to do a septic system. I have plenty of room for a long straight trench. I just used 45 degree elbows to bring it up. Like this…
\______________/ . If you have an electric water heater you can convert it to solar very easy with no BS plumbing. Just wire the bottom element (with external thermostat) straight to a couple of 24 volt solar pv panels. Keep the top element on grid for backup. Other than my pool I would NEVER use a liquid circulation heating system for my water. Using direct PV is way more efficient and way way cheaper and easier and no plumbing or special tanks to buy.
Genius
” The problem with evap cooling is in a humid climate it doesn’t do much at all.”
Yep, the problem is evaporative cooling requires evaporation.
Yup lol. We live in a semi arid climate and use a swamp cooler. It works great and less power than an AC unit. Back on the subject of solar water heating… I used to work for a solar company in Reno and we did the glycol heating systems. My God what a nightmare that shit was! Had to be all copper pipe and insulated and a million fittings and special tanks etc. Very expensive and a ton of labor. I could do it my way for 500 bucks instead of 5000 bucks for their pos system, You wouldn’t believe some of the shit I’ve seen lol.
Did all my own work…about ten years ago. Even made the panel by using directions from the web. Didn’t use glycol because the panel is only for summer and it simply unscrews from the exterior wall fittings and gravity drains it. Figured a 25 watt pump would be cheaper than buying panels to run an element over the long run. Heating seems to be a very inefficient use of electricity. Used Pex plumbing and it is only about ten foot from the panel to the water heater. Also tied in a loop to the same pump and that goes into my coal/wood furnace for winter. There is some copper in that loop, but soldering is easy and the furnace is within 10 feet of the HW tank. Valves open and close this loop for winter use. It actually works very good. I fine tuned it and ran it for a couple years when I thought teotwawki was imminent, but I currently don’t use it. It is ready for SHTF if that should ever happen. Probably have less than $200 in material for both loops. The most expensive item was the computer pump at about $90 online. The copper tubing I already had from when I was in construction, and I doubt there is more than 20 feet in that loop.
Also, I installed a water heater timer that was set to turn the elements on/off twice a day in case the water was not up to temperature.
I really want the grid to stay up. I don’t look forward to being without power. But I think I’m as ready as I will ever be if it goes down. Cheers.
JRS, Thats the difference between you and most people, YOU can make things like that yourself. Good job my man! Did I mention I also have an old woodstove next to the pool with a copper coil in it to heat it in cloudy weather. I like playing around with stuff like that. They make load diversion charge controllers for PV power systems that when the batteries are full it diverts power to other things like a water heater or well pump. I should have known you were smart enough to not buy a commercial heating system! CHEERS!
Kevin2… go figure also the Sunshine State government bought off by big electric, big oil and big pharma. No legal cannabis, no solar power to speak of and one of the highest food costs in America.
aljamo
But it doesn’t snow and when the inhabitants largely immigrated (damn few native born) from the highly regulated, taxed and expensive north and even worse north east NJ / NY its paradise by comparison. When I weigh everything, having lived in NJ, Del and Florida my continual geographic move down has been a move up.
I have 30 345 watt panels and it is all off grid here in Tennessee. You can buy these same solar panels from a company called santansolar for next to cheap. I have over 18000 watts of power I can provide for free from the sun. It is easy to do and if you take just a little effort you can learn how to do it. Just make sure you don’t do it with a 12 volt system. Start with 24 volts and avoid a major pitfall. Don’t buy the big name brand charge controllers because there are blue colored ones made in China sold on Amazon that are by far cheaper and better, Get your batteries from Sam’s club as AGM 6 volt gold cart batteries and when the grid goes down you won’t “sweat it” I can run my 2 fridges, 2 freezers all TV;s and my AC 110 volt mini splits for over 3 days on a single charge from strictly nothing but the solar panels. We are set and I am beyond ready for this happen here in TN. Noisy and fuel consuming generators here. Just silent and free power.
One has to wonder how people survived in the heat two hundred years ago. Granted, today’s cities are “heat islands” due to asphalt, concrete, mortar, interruption of wind patterns, and air conditioning( pumping heat from the inside to the outside). Solution is to get out of the cities!
I have spend most my adult life living withing 50 miles of a large body of water in very rural areas. The only way to go!
relik, I know one thing they did. They would open the windows and hang wet burlap over them. Kind of like a primitive evap cooler. You could also wear a wet towel.
Or go swimming OR hang out at the library all day (might learn something) OR go to the mall and hang out OR go to the movie theatre OR take a cold shower OR go sit at the dmv lol OR sit home and whine like a little beech.
I think the entire building code industry is a scam to make people purchase more electricity to cool their homes. In the old days people had 18 ft high ceilings and tall double hung widows that opened both top and bottom and created a natural air flow cycle and hot air was naturally exhausted out, and cooler air in.
Today building codes say 8 ft ceilings and that traps the hot air in the house and you are force to cool hot air and have to buy ore electricity to cool it. and the windows only crack half way open high, trapping more hot air in the house. Its a scam how todays housing is built forcing you to buy more electricity. Any thoughts on that building code scam?
Sounds about right. I never got permits or asked permission for anything at my cabin. I made a loft and a 17 foot high ceiling with windows at each end. Makes it seem a lot more spacious and helps cool it. They send me a questionaire every 5 years wanting me to volunteer info for tax purposes, I just throw them in the trash. Maybe you can install some attic fans?
I don’t care let them liberal commie socialist New Yourkers do without air cond. Hope they die of heat stroke. We need a nation wide grid down to enact a culling.
Ya that too.
Of course there will be a massive die off as many will die and just give up because they have no coping skills to deal with conflict. The pill poppers will be freaking our because no more illegal meds out there, and I suggest all preppers, be well protected and plenty of guns and ammo at your disposal. Food stashed in various places, and all the hand tools you will need to survive will be a massive asset to your prolonged survival. Knowledge and skills will be the winners in the great culling a coming. Prepare now to survive later. And stop wasting your money of stupid sh!t like cable TV.
see i like the cold and snow the shit skins dont like it so they dont live here in large numbers. florida is a shit hole hot as hell and full of bugs and germs. the wife wanted to move there i said its way too crowded too many tourists and criminals. it gets crowded here in mass especially on the cape the southerners come up here but as soon as it gets cold again they run back south. i wish it was cold all the time people would stay away. im seriously thinking of moving to maine even less people there. i love it when people say they are moving south to florida. they act like its so much better and i say wish i had the $ to move there. this makes them feel all happy like they one upped me but im glad to see them go. almost all of them come back and say they couldnt survive in florida cus pay is too low. taxes are high here but pay is too compared to the south.
the grid is taken offline to remind new yorkers global warming is real and impacts them.
re- the evaporative cooling bucket: wont work in high humidity. As an alternative, I keep two foam ice chests with two holes cut in the lids (inflow and exhaust) and usb fans (can run off small usb battery packs for days). dont fill them with water, instead put frozen 1L bottles of water from your chest freezer in them (you do use the free space in your freezers for water, right?) . will get you through a 24-48 hour outage in reasonable comfort if you keep the blinds drawn.
Rule # 1
Don’t live in cities or suburbs.
Rule # 2
See rule # 1.
Lol, I live in Florida and use no ac, just fans. I don’t want to feel chilled anyway.