What's going on with the power failures in Texas?

[AllGold]

With the cold snap... Is there virtually no gas/oil heat; almost all houses in Texas have electric heat?

[graylocks]

The texas grid is probably more accustomed to dealing with heat waves and AC use than heavy winter heat needs.

[Sarcany]

The average February daytime temp in Dallas is 61 degrees, 41 at night.

It's 9-degrees right now, with an overnight low of zero.

Roughly half the homes in the area use natural gas heating and the other half use electric. Usually, it's not a problem.

[pinkoos]

Natural gas heating still needs electricity to work

Circuit boards, blower fan motor, etc.

So, your natural gas heater could still technically work, but without electricity to run the boards and blow the heat out, it won't turn on - it's a safety feature

https://www.bobmims.com/blog/heating-ser...ectricity/

[AllGold]

Sure, but furnace blowers don't use that much electricity so they're not the reason the grid is overloaded.

[pinkoos]

Yes but that is the reason that 1.4 million people in Houston and 4.3 million people in Texas are freezing their butts off *inside* their homes

[pinkoos]

Some fun reading (not)

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/...-the-cold/

https://spacecityweather.com/the-power-s...d-tonight/

[Speedy]

We are in Texas near the frontier. I asked a similar question of the host of our AirBnB: Why is your grid able to support summer air conditioning but not winter cold? His reply: I dunno.

But we have the opposite in Minnesota, when it gets really hot in July we are asked to conserve electricity and some businesses have to shut down. Not so much in -25° winter.

Our AirBnB lost power around 2am and by 5pm we decided to ask our son if we could stay in his apartment which only lost power for a couple of hours. We saw only one utility truck today driving down the road. I expect it will be a few days before our place gets power.

[freeradical]

Ice buildup on power lines can bring them down.

[Speedy]

freeradical wrote:
Ice buildup on power lines can bring them down.

Especially combined with wind.