[Chat] Re: [Discussion] Power to the People

echalmers at mindspring.com echalmers at mindspring.com
Tue Aug 9 14:51:41 EDT 2005


Thanks to Crystal for the many excellent suggestions. Until we all get new technologies, people should complain to the Maryland Public Service Commission about our many power outages. A complaint form is available on line. 

BGE claimed when I spoke to the company about the planned power outage that the work to be done would prevent future outages from happening. As we have seen, this has not happened.

Apparently someone has requested a report on the frequent power outages in this grid, but it won't be ready for a few weeks.



-----Original Message-----
From: Crystal <charlesvillager2002 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Aug 9, 2005 12:25 PM
To: Charles Village Discussion List <Discussion at charlesvillage.info>, 
	Chat at charlesvillage.info
Subject: [Chat] Re: [Discussion] Power to the People

I don't know the specifics on the particular power
outage that you mention, but I expect more, longer,
and more widespread power outages in the future. 
Energy demand is increasing, supply isn't, and old
power plants keep failing especially in high demand
periods.

The class that I'm taking this semester has a capstone
project relating to many aspects of designing a
coal-powered plant that could be located on the
Eastern Shore across the Bay from Baltimore. Based on
existing rail lines and cooling water sources,
Chestertown and Centreville could work. But
Chestertown has a Country & Yacht Club, which would be
downstream of the ideal site, so there could be
stronger objections there. At any rate, I don't expect
our class project to ever actually be built.

Some of the latest solar panel technologies look
pretty good and I think Justin and I can construct a
retractable solar panel awning on the sunniest side of
our new house. Then, we can fold it down to avoid
collecting snow or buffeting by winds and storms.
Later, we may add the two porches, main roof, and
garage. Solar technologies actually don't work as well
in really hot and sunny places because they lose
efficiency when they get hot. Baltimore may in fact be
a more ideal place for solar than, say, Arizona. See
http://www.gaiam.com/retail/gai_content/learn/gai_learnCategory.asp?category%5Fid=158
for more info on solar technologies.

We also put a human power generator on our wedding
wish list.  It's a dynamo that attaches to a
stationary bike and provides a strong motivation for
exercising. We were also surprised recently to find
out that, despite or perhaps because of our energy
star appliances, our water heater currently represents
more than 1/3 of our household energy use.  So, we're
looking into passive solar water heating options.  

Also, our new house is relatively a blank slate of a
yard -- two maple trees and a bunch of grass. So,
we're exploring options for edible landscaping. Let me
know if you're interested and I'll send you the name
of the best catalog that I've found thus far.

There is no magic bullet solution, but the more that
people do things like the above, the slower demand
will rise, the less pollution that will be created,
and the more that we can ease into a future of less
abundant and more expensive energy.

-- Crystal

--- OldHouseHistory at aol.com wrote:

> Or, in this case, no power to the people.  
>  
> For the second time in a week, our power went off
> last night.  I know  it was 
> a large area, and it was off for awhile, from about
> 9:30 until 2:30  am.  It 
> went off a second time about 3:30 am, until about 5
> am. 
>  
> Last week, it was off in the middle of the week for
> about 4 hours on one of  
> the hottest days.  
>  
> I understand the power going off in this extreme
> heat, but I thought our  new 
> substation (and scheduled power outage a few months
> ago) was supposed  to 
> prevent this?
>  
> Paul   
>  
> Paul K.  Williams
> Kelsey & Associates, Inc.
> Preserving Architectural  History
> 2629 Guilford Avenue
> Baltimore, MD 21218
> 410-366-2629
> _BaltimoreMarylandHistory.com_
> (http://baltimoremarylandhistory.com/) 
> 
> 1929  13th Street, NW
> Washington, DC 20009
> 202-462-3389
> _WashingtonHistory.com_
> (http://washingtonhistory.com/) 

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