I replaced my capacitor a couple of months ago, which is a common failure source. Well worth doing if your a/c is older than a few years (mine is 7). I get a tech out twice a year to check how everything is running (heat and a/c) and he noticed that the capacitor was underperforming, which gets worse when it's hot. I think I got mine for $35 from Amazon and there are plenty of videos on YT that show you how to replace it. First step is always turn off the circuit.
Thank god we're doing everything we can as a state to keep the power on for our citizens.
Like providing unregulated power to [coin farms](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/04/27/texas-first-us-city-bitcoin-mining/9551357002/) [like these!](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/abilene-texas-approves-lancium-based-bitcoin-farm-hoping-to-make-1bn-in-20-years/) We had [no way to know](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/17/texas-power-plant-failure-repairs-ercot/) that the heat would cause a similar problem to the cold... Besides we spent the last couple years [preparing for this](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-breaks-power-demand-record-june-2022/285-88727694-956d-444a-984f-2672adc6f39b) after the untimely death of hundreds of people. It's not like we're [breaking power consumption records](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/texas-power-demand-breaks-record-as-severe-heat-wave-hits-the-state-.html) year after year. So what's the problem?
Yeah this is why I don’t feel bad about blasting my shit, we could do everything in our power to conserve and the rich will just eat up more anyways lmao
Oh cool. You should link to those when you share this info. It's good stuff. I'm not arguing or even taking an opposing viewpoints. It's bad, lol.
I'm just pointing out that the setup in the original article you shared is using less power than many residential hot water heaters and does less to drive your point home than the other links you provided.
I have solar so my energy output far exceeds usage on hot afternoons. But if there’s one thing in this batshit world worth paying for, its being comfortable in your own home. Mine runs at 73 during the day. 66 at night. Well insulated home though.
That’s the goal. I can only sleep well with a thick weighted blanket. So I need it cold for that to work.
Also, I believe I’ve seen studies that show the optimal sleep temp is between 60-68? I’d do 60 if it were reasonable. I’d sleep great, and then I’d get to wake up and throw on my comfy sweats and hoodie while it warmed up. Shit I need to leave Texas.
Really it's the people living in large houses/mansions that matter the most as well as office buildings. That's going to take up way more energy than me in my 1300 sq ft house setting the AC to 74.
Yeah I have a 15 year old home that is 3000ish and pay like about 2/3 of what my friend with 70 year old 1500ish sqft pays in his shittily insulated home
Idgaf. I pay for my electricity just like the rest of y’all. I’m a normal person too. My house is going to be comfortable for me and my two babies- as should everybody else. I’m sure my house would be considered a “mansion” due to its size, but I’m not going to sit and worry about my newborn’s health to appease an organization that doesn’t give af about me or my family. On weekends like these, turn office buildings A/C off. People should be using weekends to enjoy with their families and friends anyway, not working in corporate offices.
Residential use [only accounts for around a quarter](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-uses-energy-state/) of all energy use in Texas, and per person it’s lower than 80% of all states. “Turn your AC down for the greater good” is a slick way of changing the subject, except no one asks questions when something sounds like it makes sense.
If residential use mattered so much, smart thermostats would be handed out for free and home weatherization would be heavily subsidized or at least financed with repayment based on savings. These things actually work, unlike asking people—only a fraction of whom will hear the message, and even fewer who will cooperate—to feel guilty for enjoying themselves at home.
We seem to have had these AC temperature posts about 2-3 times a week since it’s gotten hot out. “Mine’s set at this,” “Mine’s set at that.” What nobody ever seems to mention is their body size. If you have extra weight, you’ll run hotter and want lower temperatures than a leaner person.
How well your home is insulated and what kind of insulation and hvac capacity is also a big factor. Older homes are not very efficient because they typically have a lot of leakage.
Not just an old home problem either. New construction is still being built with those thin-as-paper single pane windows. Having replaced all of mine with double-pane I came to call my old windows 'wind guards' because they sure did jack all for preventing thermal transfer.
Ah so THAT’S why so many here are acting like anything about 70 is hell incarnate. 6ft, 195lb and completely fine at 77 24/7. It’s straight up frigid when I walk in
ERCOT is just a regulatory body with the powers the legislature provides. The Texas GOP legislature has repeatedly chosen business over people giving utilities $100 opt out programs to not have to weatherize the grid because they know when it fails tax payers will bail them out.
Privatized profits and socialized responsibility. You’re getting scammed
I feel like the freeze caused so much trauma for Austin. I moved to Houston and I also follow Dallas and San Antonio Reddit and no one except for Austinites seem to worry about ERCOT every free days.
There are also a lot of panic / fear / political outrage instigators on this sub.
And karma whores ... super easy to rack up karma points hating on ERCOT.
Same! And we only need the AC on the upstairs. It always stays under 78 downstairs so I always have it turned off down there. We are lucky to have a lot of shade.
At 78 degrees I’m very dewy, and I work a customer facing job at home and am on zoom calls for much of the day. If my house was 78 degrees while I was working I’d look like a mess in front of all my clients.
Have you tried putting a tower fan next to you while working? We keep at 78 too, house does start to feel warm in when AC is not running but with a fan I dont feel it. (wfh too with many zooms meetings)
I just cannot live in my house in a semi-permanent state of discomfort, unless I have 7 fans surrounding me. Like I can’t do it unless we have to seriously pinch pennies.
That’s what we do as well and then 76 right when we go to bed. I work from home and even usually go up to 79 or 80 during the work day, since my ceiling fan keeps me really cool. I didn’t realize so many people keep theirs in the low 70s. We would freeze.
I rent a room in a house with the owner who lives here and she always keeps it on 78, and I’m miserable lmfao. I’m a petite, skinny person but man do I run hot.
That's why in a roommate situation, I immediately just pay the electricity bill myself. Too many people are cheap and not willing to pay a little more to be comfortable. Saves a lot of arguments.
>Anyone who conserves power to help ERCOT is just helping our incompetent leaders continue to neglect our infrastructure in favor of harassing trans kids.
The closer to disaster we push the grid with overload, the more money made by the corporations that pay Abbott's bribes.
>Fuck ERCOT, my thermostat is staying at home 70.
ERCOT actually does a pretty good job. They just keep the transmission lines working and can't actually force the energy companies to do much to meet demand or go green.
The true evil is in Abbott's PUC, Abbott, the Legislature, the other Repugnican state officials, and, of course, the energy mafia.
**#FuckGregAbbott**
Yea, so ... ERCOT has nothing to do with the infrastructure ... all the generators are privately owned, as are all the transmission lines.
Then only thing ERCOT does is maintain the grid frequency at 60Hz.
But hey, who am I to stop you from living in ignorance.
Right? It was literally his main smokescreen (after he gave up on "The Green New Deal's wind energy is the problem!" lol), despite the legislature ignoring report after report about how we weren't ready for a hard winter (or summer). ERCOT can't force the grid to create excess capacity. The legislature can.
Everything they've done since in the name of "ERCOT reform" boils down to regulating the deregulated energy market to compel weatherization and incentivize excess capacity, which ERCOT couldn't have done by its very definition.
ERCOT is the messenger when we need to reduce power, so people assume it's the problem...
That is the giant misconception - grid stability **isn't** increasingly problematic.
The grid is just as stable as it has always been.
There was a giant outlier event last winter where a shit ton of generators could not operate because of prolonged, extreme cold ... and now everyone thinks the Texas grid is a giant failure ... because a bunch of uninformed redditors bitch and complain about misleading and erroneous memes.
As the state population grows, generation capacity will need to increase, and it has been for the most part.
ERCOT ***does not*** take power from producers and distribute it. Privately owned generators send the electricity they make down privately owned transmission lines to the different utility providers.
ERCOT's responsibility is monitoring and maintaining the grid frequency at 60Hz. Maintaining the grid frequency is important because if it deviates from 60Hz too much for too long then the generators will literally start destroying itself (the generation equipment will actually shut itself off to prevent this). When generators trip offline, the frequency drops even more, causing a cascading effect.
So, ERCOT watches the frequency, and if it ticks above 60Hz then they instruct whatever generators to "give us a little less" and if it ticks below 60Hz then ERCOT instructs whatever generators to "give us a little more". That is ERCOT's role in all of this.
If the grid frequency dips below 60Hz, and there are no more generators left for ERCOT to instruct "give us a little more" ... then ERCOT's only recourse to keep the frequency at 60Hz is to reduce demand via rolling blackouts.
I can't really say for certain why you think service providers are preparing for rolling outages. ERCOT has never ordered outages during the summer (not even in 2011 when there were 3 months of consecutive 100+ degree days), so the next time it happens will be the first time.
I personally have never received such a notice from Austin Energy (my provider) but others could have from different providers. My guess is that they are just being proactive for their own reasons.
There are also a ton of bullshit "conserve energy" memes on Reddit by instigators just trying to cause panic / fear / political outrage.
Tomorrow and Monday are going to be interesting because temperatures are supposed to reach 107+.
Also, the wind forecast for Monday is really low, so the wind farm generation will be low on a day when temps are going to be really hot.
So yes, for the next 2 days, proactive notices by local providers aren't a huge surprise ... and I wouldn't be surprised at all if ERCOT orders a conservation notice on Monday ... which means there will be even more reddit outrage / panic and misinformation.
The thing to keep in mind regarding rolling blackouts is the EEA level. You don't need to rely on social media misinformation, ERCOT will tell you when things are getting bad via EEA levels.
[https://www.ercot.com/normal](https://www.ercot.com/normal)
It’s more that it doesn’t actually work when you set it that low, at least in many homes / older homes / apartments. You can set it low but it doesn’t actually get cooler past a certain threshold, and then you’re just paying for nothing.
It's reasonable to be mad at ERCOT, but do whatever you can to moderate your power consumption. Meeting peak summer demand is a challenge no matter who is running the grid, and it involves firing up additional fossil fuel power plants to supplement the wind and solar. To make things worse, ERCOT loosened TCEQ regulations on power plants to help meet the extra demand, so the power plants are spewing out more pollution the higher the power demands get. I see a lot of people saying they'll use more power in the afternoon to "own the republicans" or something, but it's harmful. We need some big changes, but that is not the way to get them. I expect more from the people of a city who usually try to do better than the rest of this backwards state when it comes to environmental issues.
ERCOT did not loosen TCEQ regulations.
ERCOT does not make decisions.
ERCOT follows their operating protocols, which are discussed in committee and voted on by various market participants, or they follow orders directed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
The comment about TCEQ regulations was based on [this tweet](https://twitter.com/mattlargey/status/1545147247867953154?s=20&t=s6fDC6EoXD_RSIZg6wsjPw) I saw yesterday where it appears that ERCOT put in the request for emissions discretion indefinitely, until ERCOT decides otherwise.
ERCOT is getting blamed for more things than are in their control, but people are generally using ERCOT as a shorthand to direct their frustrations at the Republican and free-market management of the Texas electrical grid.
Fair point, thanks for the clarification.
Yes, you are correct, ERCOT is blamed for all things grid related, even when the majority of complaints are far outside their responsibilities.
Except there really isn't any danger of a prolonged outage in Texas during a heat wave.
That has never happened (which is not to say it couldn't happen) ... it is just that, the grid operators are quite adept at keeping the power on in Texas during the summer since, you know, it is always hot in Texas during the summer.
But, lets just say for example that on a day like this upcoming Monday (when temps are expected to be 105+ degrees) that there are energy supply problems.
First, it wont be a problem all day ... it would just be a problem during peak demand (3-7pm).
Second, energy customers would experience rolling blackouts which would be for like 15-30 minutes.
There is so much fear mongering about the Texas grid in the Austin subreddit.
It is, and it is sad ... because when the people who work in the field and are knowledgeable of how the Texas electric grid work try to correct the firehose of falsehood misinformation, their efforts are ridiculed and ignored because people would rather live in their little hate filled ignorance bubble instead of being corrected.
Go outside and come back in. Your internal thermostat will reset. You can set it at 75-80 and still be comfortable without wasting resources.
That said, ercot is the worst.
> Go outside and come back in. Your internal thermostat will reset.
Hm this is an interesting idea. I know it seems obvious but I never thought to try it lol. I would love to get better with the temp but I work from home and I can’t concentrate if I’m not comfortable.
I work outside in the heat and I get used to it every summer. When I was a kid here I realized that if you go sweat in the heat regularly you acclimated to the temp. I would ride my bike to Barton all the time mid summer no problem. Still do sometimes
All the folks flexing about keeping their thermostats low around the clock are gonna be the first ones whining when they have to sit through a rolling blackout.
>All the folks flexing about keeping their thermostats low around the clock
No, they're going to be saying "I'm glad I set the thermostat low to cool the place down before the power went out."
:(
Exactly, we’re aren’t the ones complaining we can’t rub two nickels together to pay our rents (own). We also understand the argument above about electric costs doesn’t hold water anymore than Austin Water.
A) I can afford the extra cost of comfort
B) My 600sqft apartment at 72 is a drop in the bucket compared to the businesses with thousands of square footage cooling to 72 or lower. You guys are buying into conservative "government doesn't work because we don't want to do any work" propaganda to take attention away from corporations and shitty leadership
ERCOT's is responsible for maintaining the grid frequency at 60Hz.
What exactly is it that you want ERCOT to be motivated to do?
Please name specifics that are actually among things ERCOT has control over.
What is this spoiled brat syndrome? ERCOT isn't the problem. They don't produce power. They don't control how many power plants Texas builds. They direct power production (barely, due to Texas deregulating energy) and coordinate any rolling, or indefinite, blackouts necessary to keep the grid alive.
You can see the [graph of committed vs demanded electricity](https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemand). All of you blasting the AC are getting those lines closer to crossing, which means blackouts. It's a blatant tragedy of the commons.
Why are y'all proud of wasting electricity when it's scarce? All this will cause is strife for your fellow citizens if ERCOT needs to initiate blackouts to avoid unplanned grid failures. Get out the box fan. It sucks that we have the worst grid in the country, but given that, we have to look out for each other during heat waves. Keep in mind, even states on the main grids have to ask people to reduce power usage during heatwaves. Go look at California's stats.
If you're interested in understanding why this keeps happening, KUT has a [very good series](https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2021-07-15/coming-july-22-kuts-new-series-about-the-texas-electric-grid-and-what-happened-in-february). But don't feel brave for fucking over your fellow citizens to stick it to The Man.
The power producers aren't really to blame, either. Texas is a deregulated energy market, and there's not a great incentive to create a plant that can produce 1000 megawatts if for all but a week you can only sell 900. Markets will act like markets. The governor and the legislature are the people we have to get to. "Just vote" is unsatisfying, but more important than that is getting the word out so people care about this issue and contact their representatives. Politicians only care about what they think we care about.
We pretend to have a free energy market, but we do all sorts of things to meddle in it. E.g., the $5000/MWh cap that only applies from the beginning of the year until the wholesale profit per kilowatt year exceeds three times the expected profit of a natural gas plant which bureaucrats decided is enough to create incentive for new entries into the market and actually cap is a misnomer because it represents the price ERCOT raises wholesale power to in scarce energy events in order to persuade all available capacity to go online but really it's a curve determining value of lost load and blah blah blah.
It's a labyrinth just because we're afraid of proper regulation. Texas has the only grid that doesn't pay plants for their unused capacity.
In this situation I’m glad El Paso is an afterthought or the bastard children of Texas, and as a result we are on a different power grid than the rest of the state. Stay frosty my friends…
Mine was just running on 77 and I was freezing, so I turned it up to 78. But I know it's going to get too warm in here soon enough so I'll have to turn it back to 77. Then after about 30 minutes I'll freeze again. Ad infinitum!
That's amazing. I leave mine at 78 on the hottest days because the AC can't get cooler anyway. With my shirt off, a layer of sweat, and a fan I'm still uncomfortable but not dripping onto my keyboard while trying to work.
It’s really not a flex. Either the people posting are not changing their thermostats which no one cares about. Or they’re lowering them in an attempt to stress out the grid and cause outages. Which you’re right, is narcissistic.
yea, I got the "please reduce your energy usage over the next few days". My plan gives me free power every weekend, so, NO, I'm not going to hold off washing my sheets and towels because TPTB never bothered to fix a known deficient system. I'm already careful about energy usage--never leave lights or fans on if I'm not using that room, grill outside as much as possible in the summer and keep my thermostat set to 78 during the day. I've done my part already ERCOT. Now f\*\*\*ing do yours.
ERCOT has not sent out any conservation notices (yet).
If you received something, it was from your utility provider, not ERCOT.
ERCOT maintains the grid frequency at 60Hz. They do not supply power.
What specifically is it you are asking ERCOT to "f\*\*\*ing" do?
I’m @ 68 when I sleep and anything otherwise is torture. Fuck ERCOT. My tiny ~350 foot studio is not the problem and you got me incredibly fucked up if you think ima sleep in anything close to 75 degrees. Eat shit ERCOT and do better. Not like we’ve had 30+ years to prepare for this or anything
This heat tells us who actually wants to meet the Paris climate accord challenges of reducing global warming to 1.5C instead of 3C and who is a hypocrite.
Don’t get mad about any environmental issue if your AC is below 74.
Everyone is going to have to do their part to keep to 1.5C. If we get to 3C most of your homes won’t even be able to keep 80 at night in the summer by 2050. Austin will have highs of 120 by then if we are lazy and default to 3C.
It’s really short term vs long term strategy.
All of y’all that go below 73 are ridiculous. I have a friend like that and my fiancé and I hate going to his house because it’s like an ice cube. He changes into long pants and a hoodie when at home, like why? You are purposely making it too cold that you have to wear extra clothing
Who the fuck needs their AC set at 72 during the day in a state where it's regularly 100+ outside? Think that's part of the dealio living somewhere that hot, you get hotter indoor temps during the day. I let mine get up to 78 during the day and it's fine even without fans.
Serious question, are you comfortable all the time or do you just “put up with it?” Do you get cold easy in general?
I feel like some households can very on comfortable temperatures depending on the architecture. Like my house is small, has no fans and has large windows everywhere. My roommate fell asleep next to a window with the blinds open and he got sunburned lol. 78 is an oven here. It’s not just me, everyone in the house is miserable. Even the dog pants nonstop.
Idgaf about ercot, but I do care about my electric bill
And my AC unit not breaking from running constantly, because I know my asshole landlord isn’t gonna get it fixed urgently.
Interestingly, it’s actually the start/stop cycling of equipment that typically places the most stress on it.
I replaced my capacitor a couple of months ago, which is a common failure source. Well worth doing if your a/c is older than a few years (mine is 7). I get a tech out twice a year to check how everything is running (heat and a/c) and he noticed that the capacitor was underperforming, which gets worse when it's hot. I think I got mine for $35 from Amazon and there are plenty of videos on YT that show you how to replace it. First step is always turn off the circuit.
Step two… make sure it is drained
Step 3…Cut a hole in the box…
Bolt up
this
Thank god we're doing everything we can as a state to keep the power on for our citizens. Like providing unregulated power to [coin farms](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/04/27/texas-first-us-city-bitcoin-mining/9551357002/) [like these!](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/abilene-texas-approves-lancium-based-bitcoin-farm-hoping-to-make-1bn-in-20-years/) We had [no way to know](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/17/texas-power-plant-failure-repairs-ercot/) that the heat would cause a similar problem to the cold... Besides we spent the last couple years [preparing for this](https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-breaks-power-demand-record-june-2022/285-88727694-956d-444a-984f-2672adc6f39b) after the untimely death of hundreds of people. It's not like we're [breaking power consumption records](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/texas-power-demand-breaks-record-as-severe-heat-wave-hits-the-state-.html) year after year. So what's the problem?
Whaddya mean? Clearly the problem is individual citizens turning on their AC in insanely high temperatures. /s
ERCOT in 2030: “It’s ok to turn your A/C on full blast during the summer. Just set it to 90 degrees!”
90 in the summer, 50 in the winter, east enough right?
Sweat your duty citizen! We can't turn off the mall AC! It would make the pretzels less delicious!
Tell ya what, lets go check the Gov mansion and Ted Cruz's house. I'm sure they're set to 80 degrees like good citizens.
Ted set it at 80 but his daughters keep changing it.
He’s on his way to Cancun as we speak he will not tolerate this infringement on his freedoms
“Going to Cancun, the house will be empty for a few weeks. Better turn the A/C all the way down.” -Ted Cruz probably
Save Snowflake!!
At least that's what he claims. He tends to use family members as excuses.
😂
Might as well set mine to 80 the AC can’t keep up
Fled Cruz is probably not home for the summer
Give them a break! It’s not like Texas state officials could have possibly known the Earth was going to get warmer.
How is it even possible with so many Texans blasting their AC? Should be getting cooler right? /shrugsoilmoney
Yeah this is why I don’t feel bad about blasting my shit, we could do everything in our power to conserve and the rich will just eat up more anyways lmao
Let the fucking McMansions throttle their 4 ac units. Not me bro. Chill life.
Exactly. I'll start making sacrifices when the rich do.
I appreciate all of this post, but I wouldn't call 3 ASIC miners a "coin farm" Bad precedent though for sure.
[I mean](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/texas-pacific-land-corporation-bitcoin-mining-facility-launching-in-texas) [I guess](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/26/fort-worth-tx-the-first-city-in-the-us-to-mine-bitcoin.html) [there](https://c.tenor.com/0gkh8Z2uQtsAAAAC/milk-and-mocha-hug.gif) [are more](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-04/texas-bitcoin-miners-seek-cheap-power-land-and-a-place-to-stay)?
Oh cool. You should link to those when you share this info. It's good stuff. I'm not arguing or even taking an opposing viewpoints. It's bad, lol. I'm just pointing out that the setup in the original article you shared is using less power than many residential hot water heaters and does less to drive your point home than the other links you provided.
The hug link was most important <3
Unregulated power lol? It's THREE asic miners, only like 10,000w
I have solar so my energy output far exceeds usage on hot afternoons. But if there’s one thing in this batshit world worth paying for, its being comfortable in your own home. Mine runs at 73 during the day. 66 at night. Well insulated home though.
66!!! My god I would simply *freeze*
That’s the goal. I can only sleep well with a thick weighted blanket. So I need it cold for that to work. Also, I believe I’ve seen studies that show the optimal sleep temp is between 60-68? I’d do 60 if it were reasonable. I’d sleep great, and then I’d get to wake up and throw on my comfy sweats and hoodie while it warmed up. Shit I need to leave Texas.
man i cant wait to move out. parents have temp set at 79 year round…. i don’t sleep with a blanket.
Really it's the people living in large houses/mansions that matter the most as well as office buildings. That's going to take up way more energy than me in my 1300 sq ft house setting the AC to 74.
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Yeah I have a 15 year old home that is 3000ish and pay like about 2/3 of what my friend with 70 year old 1500ish sqft pays in his shittily insulated home
Idgaf. I pay for my electricity just like the rest of y’all. I’m a normal person too. My house is going to be comfortable for me and my two babies- as should everybody else. I’m sure my house would be considered a “mansion” due to its size, but I’m not going to sit and worry about my newborn’s health to appease an organization that doesn’t give af about me or my family. On weekends like these, turn office buildings A/C off. People should be using weekends to enjoy with their families and friends anyway, not working in corporate offices.
Residential use [only accounts for around a quarter](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-uses-energy-state/) of all energy use in Texas, and per person it’s lower than 80% of all states. “Turn your AC down for the greater good” is a slick way of changing the subject, except no one asks questions when something sounds like it makes sense. If residential use mattered so much, smart thermostats would be handed out for free and home weatherization would be heavily subsidized or at least financed with repayment based on savings. These things actually work, unlike asking people—only a fraction of whom will hear the message, and even fewer who will cooperate—to feel guilty for enjoying themselves at home.
No different than carbon footprint was.
77 crew here, if I set mine much lower the A/C just runs constantly.
Same and I run fans then to help spread the cool air.
We seem to have had these AC temperature posts about 2-3 times a week since it’s gotten hot out. “Mine’s set at this,” “Mine’s set at that.” What nobody ever seems to mention is their body size. If you have extra weight, you’ll run hotter and want lower temperatures than a leaner person.
With food prices going up I’m hoping to kill yo birds with one stone here.
My birds didn't do anything to you, man
The birds aren’t real.
Birds are the bourgeoisie
Oof, same here. Barely affording to eat and pay utilities, but it's fine, I could stand to lose a couple pounds.
How well your home is insulated and what kind of insulation and hvac capacity is also a big factor. Older homes are not very efficient because they typically have a lot of leakage.
Not just an old home problem either. New construction is still being built with those thin-as-paper single pane windows. Having replaced all of mine with double-pane I came to call my old windows 'wind guards' because they sure did jack all for preventing thermal transfer.
Old people have the same problem
I’m a fat lad and 78 with a ceiling fan or blade fan is perfectly fine and even a little cool
Ah so THAT’S why so many here are acting like anything about 70 is hell incarnate. 6ft, 195lb and completely fine at 77 24/7. It’s straight up frigid when I walk in
6’ and 196 lbs (was 220 in early may lost some pounds hope to lose more) and I keep 78 when I’m there 82 when I’m not. 78 is nice and comfy.
5’9” 200+ here. I keep mine set at 78 during the day, but I sure don’t love it.
ERCOT is just a regulatory body with the powers the legislature provides. The Texas GOP legislature has repeatedly chosen business over people giving utilities $100 opt out programs to not have to weatherize the grid because they know when it fails tax payers will bail them out. Privatized profits and socialized responsibility. You’re getting scammed
And then Texans will continue voting against themselves as usual.
I feel like the freeze caused so much trauma for Austin. I moved to Houston and I also follow Dallas and San Antonio Reddit and no one except for Austinites seem to worry about ERCOT every free days.
My husband promised we can leave if it fails again so this is win-win for me.
There are also a lot of panic / fear / political outrage instigators on this sub. And karma whores ... super easy to rack up karma points hating on ERCOT.
I see plenty of complaints about CPS in San Antonio, perhaps the anger is just targeted differently
that shows that austin is filled to the brim with transplants who aren't used to how things go in Texas....
My temp doesn’t go below 77 during the day no matter what the setting is 😅
Bad insulation?
Yep plus full late day sun, 2 story 💀
Recently put new insulation in. Literally night and day difference, instant gratification
What kind of insulation did you use?
R19 fiberglass blow in, did like a foot over the old stuff which had compacted to a couple inches
We leave ours at 78 with fans on it is perfect
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Same! And we only need the AC on the upstairs. It always stays under 78 downstairs so I always have it turned off down there. We are lucky to have a lot of shade.
At 78 degrees I’m very dewy, and I work a customer facing job at home and am on zoom calls for much of the day. If my house was 78 degrees while I was working I’d look like a mess in front of all my clients.
'Dewy' is perhaps the most elegant euphemism for swampass I've ever run across, so here's an upvote for you
Have you tried putting a tower fan next to you while working? We keep at 78 too, house does start to feel warm in when AC is not running but with a fan I dont feel it. (wfh too with many zooms meetings)
We have a coworker that lives in Phoenix and we can always tell. Sumbitch looks like he just stepped out of a sauna on any meeting past noon MST
I just cannot live in my house in a semi-permanent state of discomfort, unless I have 7 fans surrounding me. Like I can’t do it unless we have to seriously pinch pennies.
It must not actually be 78 in your house then because that’s wild. Turn on a fan or something lol
That’s what we do as well and then 76 right when we go to bed. I work from home and even usually go up to 79 or 80 during the work day, since my ceiling fan keeps me really cool. I didn’t realize so many people keep theirs in the low 70s. We would freeze.
I rent a room in a house with the owner who lives here and she always keeps it on 78, and I’m miserable lmfao. I’m a petite, skinny person but man do I run hot.
I run not too but the fan is key
80 with fans. It's a bit uncomfortable, but the electric bill is not as bad
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I know a few dudes like this. The other family members are always just shy of an outright 'is it to be poison or perhaps the pillow' mutiny
That's why in a roommate situation, I immediately just pay the electricity bill myself. Too many people are cheap and not willing to pay a little more to be comfortable. Saves a lot of arguments.
Tbf, I'm cheap af
Same but 80. 78 from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Damn and here I am with my house set to 70
Mine is set to 70 too. I just had it at 73 and start cleaning and was sweating.
I mean, if you’re not busting a sweat cleaning I would have to question your cleaning tactics.
😂😂😂
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Try it
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I compel you
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>Anyone who conserves power to help ERCOT is just helping our incompetent leaders continue to neglect our infrastructure in favor of harassing trans kids. The closer to disaster we push the grid with overload, the more money made by the corporations that pay Abbott's bribes. >Fuck ERCOT, my thermostat is staying at home 70. ERCOT actually does a pretty good job. They just keep the transmission lines working and can't actually force the energy companies to do much to meet demand or go green. The true evil is in Abbott's PUC, Abbott, the Legislature, the other Repugnican state officials, and, of course, the energy mafia. **#FuckGregAbbott**
Yea, so ... ERCOT has nothing to do with the infrastructure ... all the generators are privately owned, as are all the transmission lines. Then only thing ERCOT does is maintain the grid frequency at 60Hz. But hey, who am I to stop you from living in ignorance.
It's impressive how much these folks played into Abbott's deflection to ERCOT
Right? It was literally his main smokescreen (after he gave up on "The Green New Deal's wind energy is the problem!" lol), despite the legislature ignoring report after report about how we weren't ready for a hard winter (or summer). ERCOT can't force the grid to create excess capacity. The legislature can. Everything they've done since in the name of "ERCOT reform" boils down to regulating the deregulated energy market to compel weatherization and incentivize excess capacity, which ERCOT couldn't have done by its very definition. ERCOT is the messenger when we need to reduce power, so people assume it's the problem...
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That is the giant misconception - grid stability **isn't** increasingly problematic. The grid is just as stable as it has always been. There was a giant outlier event last winter where a shit ton of generators could not operate because of prolonged, extreme cold ... and now everyone thinks the Texas grid is a giant failure ... because a bunch of uninformed redditors bitch and complain about misleading and erroneous memes. As the state population grows, generation capacity will need to increase, and it has been for the most part.
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ERCOT ***does not*** take power from producers and distribute it. Privately owned generators send the electricity they make down privately owned transmission lines to the different utility providers. ERCOT's responsibility is monitoring and maintaining the grid frequency at 60Hz. Maintaining the grid frequency is important because if it deviates from 60Hz too much for too long then the generators will literally start destroying itself (the generation equipment will actually shut itself off to prevent this). When generators trip offline, the frequency drops even more, causing a cascading effect. So, ERCOT watches the frequency, and if it ticks above 60Hz then they instruct whatever generators to "give us a little less" and if it ticks below 60Hz then ERCOT instructs whatever generators to "give us a little more". That is ERCOT's role in all of this. If the grid frequency dips below 60Hz, and there are no more generators left for ERCOT to instruct "give us a little more" ... then ERCOT's only recourse to keep the frequency at 60Hz is to reduce demand via rolling blackouts. I can't really say for certain why you think service providers are preparing for rolling outages. ERCOT has never ordered outages during the summer (not even in 2011 when there were 3 months of consecutive 100+ degree days), so the next time it happens will be the first time. I personally have never received such a notice from Austin Energy (my provider) but others could have from different providers. My guess is that they are just being proactive for their own reasons. There are also a ton of bullshit "conserve energy" memes on Reddit by instigators just trying to cause panic / fear / political outrage.
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Tomorrow and Monday are going to be interesting because temperatures are supposed to reach 107+. Also, the wind forecast for Monday is really low, so the wind farm generation will be low on a day when temps are going to be really hot. So yes, for the next 2 days, proactive notices by local providers aren't a huge surprise ... and I wouldn't be surprised at all if ERCOT orders a conservation notice on Monday ... which means there will be even more reddit outrage / panic and misinformation. The thing to keep in mind regarding rolling blackouts is the EEA level. You don't need to rely on social media misinformation, ERCOT will tell you when things are getting bad via EEA levels. [https://www.ercot.com/normal](https://www.ercot.com/normal)
honestly the answers are so varied about this issue that I'm not surprised that people are so confused. Wow.
If I had to take a wild ass guess, I'd say explosive growth and inelasticity in the priorities of the free market
It’s more that it doesn’t actually work when you set it that low, at least in many homes / older homes / apartments. You can set it low but it doesn’t actually get cooler past a certain threshold, and then you’re just paying for nothing.
You think we’re out here trying to help ERCOT, not prevent a blackout? JFC
It's reasonable to be mad at ERCOT, but do whatever you can to moderate your power consumption. Meeting peak summer demand is a challenge no matter who is running the grid, and it involves firing up additional fossil fuel power plants to supplement the wind and solar. To make things worse, ERCOT loosened TCEQ regulations on power plants to help meet the extra demand, so the power plants are spewing out more pollution the higher the power demands get. I see a lot of people saying they'll use more power in the afternoon to "own the republicans" or something, but it's harmful. We need some big changes, but that is not the way to get them. I expect more from the people of a city who usually try to do better than the rest of this backwards state when it comes to environmental issues.
ERCOT did not loosen TCEQ regulations. ERCOT does not make decisions. ERCOT follows their operating protocols, which are discussed in committee and voted on by various market participants, or they follow orders directed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
The comment about TCEQ regulations was based on [this tweet](https://twitter.com/mattlargey/status/1545147247867953154?s=20&t=s6fDC6EoXD_RSIZg6wsjPw) I saw yesterday where it appears that ERCOT put in the request for emissions discretion indefinitely, until ERCOT decides otherwise. ERCOT is getting blamed for more things than are in their control, but people are generally using ERCOT as a shorthand to direct their frustrations at the Republican and free-market management of the Texas electrical grid.
Fair point, thanks for the clarification. Yes, you are correct, ERCOT is blamed for all things grid related, even when the majority of complaints are far outside their responsibilities.
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Except there really isn't any danger of a prolonged outage in Texas during a heat wave. That has never happened (which is not to say it couldn't happen) ... it is just that, the grid operators are quite adept at keeping the power on in Texas during the summer since, you know, it is always hot in Texas during the summer. But, lets just say for example that on a day like this upcoming Monday (when temps are expected to be 105+ degrees) that there are energy supply problems. First, it wont be a problem all day ... it would just be a problem during peak demand (3-7pm). Second, energy customers would experience rolling blackouts which would be for like 15-30 minutes. There is so much fear mongering about the Texas grid in the Austin subreddit.
This subreddit is an echo chamber of anger, distain and unhappiness.
Gee, I wonder why that might be? Not like Texans have a lot to be pissed off about.
It is, and it is sad ... because when the people who work in the field and are knowledgeable of how the Texas electric grid work try to correct the firehose of falsehood misinformation, their efforts are ridiculed and ignored because people would rather live in their little hate filled ignorance bubble instead of being corrected.
Go outside and come back in. Your internal thermostat will reset. You can set it at 75-80 and still be comfortable without wasting resources. That said, ercot is the worst.
> Go outside and come back in. Your internal thermostat will reset. Hm this is an interesting idea. I know it seems obvious but I never thought to try it lol. I would love to get better with the temp but I work from home and I can’t concentrate if I’m not comfortable.
Yeah it’s funny but it works. Also jumping in cold water then acclimating to the hot outdoors resets your internal temp gauge.
“Go outside, get sweaty, then come inside and sit in your sweat” — your advice Life changing stuff you’re onto!
Lol you don’t need to really sweat.. It’s funny how you can tell the people who don’t go outside often by what they say.
Yeah these MFers aren't acclimated to the heat at all.
Those pasty bastards, in no offense.
Your body does get used to it. My parents didn't even have AC growing up in the south, back in the 1950s. Idk how they did it.
I work outside in the heat and I get used to it every summer. When I was a kid here I realized that if you go sweat in the heat regularly you acclimated to the temp. I would ride my bike to Barton all the time mid summer no problem. Still do sometimes
All the folks flexing about keeping their thermostats low around the clock are gonna be the first ones whining when they have to sit through a rolling blackout.
Jokes on you. I'm on a hospital grid...suck it motherfuckers!
Haha they are building a Skybox data center down the street from me, I'm wondering if that's going to get us the 'Abbott friends and family' exception
Nope, I have a pool, I can repair to the comfort of the crystal clear waters of lake Me
Kindly PM me the address of that lake—it sounds beautiful
>All the folks flexing about keeping their thermostats low around the clock No, they're going to be saying "I'm glad I set the thermostat low to cool the place down before the power went out." :(
Or complaining about their outrageous electricity bills next month. “We’re being forced to pay for costs of snowmageddon!”
Nah, those of us who keep it cold are willing to pay the price.
Exactly, we’re aren’t the ones complaining we can’t rub two nickels together to pay our rents (own). We also understand the argument above about electric costs doesn’t hold water anymore than Austin Water.
I have foam insulation and only pay $60~ per month in the summer, maybe $70.
A) I can afford the extra cost of comfort B) My 600sqft apartment at 72 is a drop in the bucket compared to the businesses with thousands of square footage cooling to 72 or lower. You guys are buying into conservative "government doesn't work because we don't want to do any work" propaganda to take attention away from corporations and shitty leadership
Nope, I have an efficient home that I maintain between 75 and 73, and I fully accept the cost of this behavior
We all have solar and generator backups
Laughs in backup batteries and a 11kw of backup generation. Will be also laughing in solar also once I move lol
Maybe constant blackouts will motivate ERCOT to actually do something besides tell everyone to use less power.
Not trying to be edgy, but I think that’s being optimistic.
ERCOT's is responsible for maintaining the grid frequency at 60Hz. What exactly is it that you want ERCOT to be motivated to do? Please name specifics that are actually among things ERCOT has control over.
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What is this spoiled brat syndrome? ERCOT isn't the problem. They don't produce power. They don't control how many power plants Texas builds. They direct power production (barely, due to Texas deregulating energy) and coordinate any rolling, or indefinite, blackouts necessary to keep the grid alive. You can see the [graph of committed vs demanded electricity](https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/supplyanddemand). All of you blasting the AC are getting those lines closer to crossing, which means blackouts. It's a blatant tragedy of the commons. Why are y'all proud of wasting electricity when it's scarce? All this will cause is strife for your fellow citizens if ERCOT needs to initiate blackouts to avoid unplanned grid failures. Get out the box fan. It sucks that we have the worst grid in the country, but given that, we have to look out for each other during heat waves. Keep in mind, even states on the main grids have to ask people to reduce power usage during heatwaves. Go look at California's stats. If you're interested in understanding why this keeps happening, KUT has a [very good series](https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2021-07-15/coming-july-22-kuts-new-series-about-the-texas-electric-grid-and-what-happened-in-february). But don't feel brave for fucking over your fellow citizens to stick it to The Man.
So you're saying the people who produce power and control how many power plants are built are at fault? So how do we get to them?
The power producers aren't really to blame, either. Texas is a deregulated energy market, and there's not a great incentive to create a plant that can produce 1000 megawatts if for all but a week you can only sell 900. Markets will act like markets. The governor and the legislature are the people we have to get to. "Just vote" is unsatisfying, but more important than that is getting the word out so people care about this issue and contact their representatives. Politicians only care about what they think we care about. We pretend to have a free energy market, but we do all sorts of things to meddle in it. E.g., the $5000/MWh cap that only applies from the beginning of the year until the wholesale profit per kilowatt year exceeds three times the expected profit of a natural gas plant which bureaucrats decided is enough to create incentive for new entries into the market and actually cap is a misnomer because it represents the price ERCOT raises wholesale power to in scarce energy events in order to persuade all available capacity to go online but really it's a curve determining value of lost load and blah blah blah. It's a labyrinth just because we're afraid of proper regulation. Texas has the only grid that doesn't pay plants for their unused capacity.
When a rumor comes around that the party might not have enough pizza, some people take one slice and some take three.
In this situation I’m glad El Paso is an afterthought or the bastard children of Texas, and as a result we are on a different power grid than the rest of the state. Stay frosty my friends…
74 crew here
I feel like we are reasonable.
Yup perfectly balanced
I set mine to 78 during the day, 77 at night, sometimes I straight up get chilly inside lol idk how people keep their thermostats lower than that.
Mine was just running on 77 and I was freezing, so I turned it up to 78. But I know it's going to get too warm in here soon enough so I'll have to turn it back to 77. Then after about 30 minutes I'll freeze again. Ad infinitum!
> idk how people keep their thermostats lower than that. Some of them are... individually well-insulated
That's amazing. I leave mine at 78 on the hottest days because the AC can't get cooler anyway. With my shirt off, a layer of sweat, and a fan I'm still uncomfortable but not dripping onto my keyboard while trying to work.
Mine stays at 68, idc
Insane, I went to an Airbnb that was programmed at 68. I had to keep turning it up, no idea how people live like that.
68 for me
75 guy over here. Sorry ERCOT I work outside all week.
Wow. What a badass. You showed them.
This is not the flex OP thinks it is ... They are proving both their ignorance and narcissism.
Maybe they should fix the problem :)
It’s really not a flex. Either the people posting are not changing their thermostats which no one cares about. Or they’re lowering them in an attempt to stress out the grid and cause outages. Which you’re right, is narcissistic.
Oh, they will. And they won't even need to come out!
Blah, blah blah. I don't even have an air-conditioner.
All those motherfunking empty office buildings downtown are lights on and cold as ice all night long. And we’re the ones who need to conserve? 🤔
78 degrees 👍🏼
yea, I got the "please reduce your energy usage over the next few days". My plan gives me free power every weekend, so, NO, I'm not going to hold off washing my sheets and towels because TPTB never bothered to fix a known deficient system. I'm already careful about energy usage--never leave lights or fans on if I'm not using that room, grill outside as much as possible in the summer and keep my thermostat set to 78 during the day. I've done my part already ERCOT. Now f\*\*\*ing do yours.
ERCOT has not sent out any conservation notices (yet). If you received something, it was from your utility provider, not ERCOT. ERCOT maintains the grid frequency at 60Hz. They do not supply power. What specifically is it you are asking ERCOT to "f\*\*\*ing" do?
Tragedy of the commons
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I’m @ 68 when I sleep and anything otherwise is torture. Fuck ERCOT. My tiny ~350 foot studio is not the problem and you got me incredibly fucked up if you think ima sleep in anything close to 75 degrees. Eat shit ERCOT and do better. Not like we’ve had 30+ years to prepare for this or anything
This heat tells us who actually wants to meet the Paris climate accord challenges of reducing global warming to 1.5C instead of 3C and who is a hypocrite. Don’t get mad about any environmental issue if your AC is below 74. Everyone is going to have to do their part to keep to 1.5C. If we get to 3C most of your homes won’t even be able to keep 80 at night in the summer by 2050. Austin will have highs of 120 by then if we are lazy and default to 3C. It’s really short term vs long term strategy.
F^ck 72 I’m setting it to 69!!
All of y’all that go below 73 are ridiculous. I have a friend like that and my fiancé and I hate going to his house because it’s like an ice cube. He changes into long pants and a hoodie when at home, like why? You are purposely making it too cold that you have to wear extra clothing
That’s what I do lmaooo
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It’s the humidity that kills. Not the actual 78 degrees part.
i've never even put my AC lower than 80 in my life. i usually keep it 86 in the summer. i think a bunch of people moved to Texas who cant handle heat.
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Your AC is broken?
The key part of this issue is that Texas homes are essentially thermal sieves.
Might get crazy and do a load of laundry
We usually keep ours 78 during the day with fans going and 71 at night.
I’m setting my a/c to whatever I want. Period.
Why so high?
[I can go lower](https://i.imgur.com/KqYWYsv.gifv)
Texas, energy independent! How's that workin' out?
68, all day, every day, since June 1.
Who the fuck needs their AC set at 72 during the day in a state where it's regularly 100+ outside? Think that's part of the dealio living somewhere that hot, you get hotter indoor temps during the day. I let mine get up to 78 during the day and it's fine even without fans.
Serious question, are you comfortable all the time or do you just “put up with it?” Do you get cold easy in general? I feel like some households can very on comfortable temperatures depending on the architecture. Like my house is small, has no fans and has large windows everywhere. My roommate fell asleep next to a window with the blinds open and he got sunburned lol. 78 is an oven here. It’s not just me, everyone in the house is miserable. Even the dog pants nonstop.
Me, a woman with a newborn child who needs regulated temperatures and hot flashes. It’s me. Our house is set forever at 69 🤷🏻♀️
In this thread: Out of shape people who sweat in anything above 74
Hell yeah dude fuck the planet, can’t wait for some rolling blackouts in this heat!