Sidebar Sidebar
  • You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Damn storms

Eastside said:
I do not know why they do not put all power lines in conduits in the ground....that would end power outages.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't end the outages, just require different circumstances for it to happen.
Tim


Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2
 
Buried electrical lines are very expensive to install as they require special HV insulated cables as well as special work to be done to bury them or run them in underground conduits. While it may work in urban areas and sub-divisions it certainly is not even conceivable to do it in rural areas due to the extreme cost versus payback.
 
Captain Kilowatt said:
Buried electrical lines are very expensive to install as they require special HV insulated cables as well as special work to be done to bury them or run them in underground conduits. While it may work in urban areas and sub-divisions it certainly is not even conceivable to do it in rural areas due to the extreme cost versus payback.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree....they could do it......if they can finance a war with iraq for 10yrs they can put the power lines underground.....the power grid is antiquated....has not changed much since its conception. :)
 
Eastside said:
I respectfully disagree....they could do it......if they can finance a war with iraq for 10yrs they can put the power lines underground.....the power grid is antiquated....has not changed much since its conception. :)
Click to expand...

You are confusing federal money with corporate funding. The federal government does not build and maintain the power grid and all the distribution systems. Individual power utilities do that with a portion of their profits. To do the entire country would be ridiculously cost prohibitive. I stand by what I said.
 
Captain Kilowatt said:
You are confusing federal money with corporate funding. The federal government does not build and maintain the power grid and all the distribution systems. Individual power utilities do that with a portion of their profits. To do the entire country would be ridiculously cost prohibitive. I stand by what I said.
Click to expand...

However they get it done it needs to be done.....if the power grid failed in winter because of massive storms....millions would die.....the welfare of this nations citizens is in the hands of the government....not the greedy corporations....when it comes to something this serious...making a buck should take a back seat.....just like back in the 30s when roosevelt started the CCC's......you get it done for the good of the people and the country.
 
Eastside said:
However they get it done it needs to be done.....if the power grid failed in winter because of massive storms....millions would die.....the welfare of this nations citizens is in the hands of the government....not the greedy corporations....when it comes to something this serious...making a buck should take a back seat.....just like back in the 30s when roosevelt started the CCC's......you get it done for the good of the people and the country.
Click to expand...

Nope. It is a private enterprise. The cost of such an improvement would be passed directly to the users of that utility and be reflected in your monthly statement. Stockholders wouldn't be too pleased either!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
There is a difference between needing something and liking to have something. Try running interstate transmission lines underground. When one of those babies goes down millions are affected for up to weeks at a time. the big ice storm in Quebec in 1998 showed that. Millions of people that had underground utilities still had no power because the main transmission lines were down for miles and miles and miles. Again, it is NOT feasible to bury all the transmission lines. Repairing underground power lines is also more costly and takes longer. North Carolina did a study that found that while the incident rate of power failures was 50% less than overhead lines, the duration of outages was 58% longer. They also last about half as long as overhead lines with a cost of 8-10 times as much to install in the first place. If you want your power rates to more than double then it could be done but not in entirety.

http://www.sceg.com/NR/rdonlyres/465E6534-2FFB-4069-BF84-81465AEEF887/0/ Undergroundvs.pdf,
 
Captain Kilowatt said:
There is a difference between needing something and liking to have something. Try running interstate transmission lines underground. When one of those babies goes down millions are affected for up to weeks at a time. the big ice storm in Quebec in 1998 showed that. Millions of people that had underground utilities still had no power because the main transmission lines were down for miles and miles and miles. Again, it is NOT feasible to bury all the transmission lines. Repairing underground power lines is also more costly and takes longer. North Carolina did a study that found that while the incident rate of power failures was 50% less than overhead lines, the duration of outages was 58% longer. They also last about half as long as overhead lines with a cost of 8-10 times as much to install in the first place. If you want your power rates to more than double then it could be done but not in entirety.

http://www.sceg.com/NR/rdonlyres/465E6534-2FFB-4069-BF84-81465AEEF887/0/ Undergroundvs.pdf,
Click to expand...

Those problems could be overcome....they just want to collect the money and not advance power transmission technology....if the weather gets more erratic....they will get caught with their pants down...and people will pay with their lives.
 
Eastside said:
Those problems could be overcome....they just want to collect the money and not advance power transmission technology....if the weather gets more erratic....they will get caught with their pants down...and people will pay with their lives.
Click to expand...


Whatever man, whatever. It's pretty easy to be critical when you are not the one in the business dealing with profits and losses. Trust me, power utilities are not making more money than it would cost to do what you want to have done.Storms are not new. People have survived during them from back before nearly everyone had commercial power and they will continue to do so.In fact when my father was a kid the winter storms were far worse than today, often lasting two or three days and dumping 3-4 feet of snow. he grew up without electricity to begin with. The real problem is that individuals have come to rely on everything being done for them and fail to take the responsibility of their own safety into their own hands. I find that owning a back up generator for the extreme rare times I need it is far cheaper than paying twice the going rate or more for power every month just to have expensive to maintain underground utilities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
Generators are so cheap now days there is no excuse not to own one.
Takes me about 10 minutes to get mine tied in via an external twist-lock receptacle.
I have 2 100A panels and have all of my "critical" circuits fed out of one panel that I have the twist-lock set up to back feed after 2 main breakers are opened.

We had plenty of power for the 6 day outage last April in N. Alabama after the tornado outbreak.

(Also helps to have a 300 gallon saddle tank out from under and 18 wheeler):laugh:
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.


      Top Bottom
      Back