What are you doing today?

[Rrumbler]

Beck, it sounds to me like your outfit, and/or the power company, needs to do some serious maintenance on that switchgear, or some upgrade work; maybe the plant load has grown to exceed the original design parameters of the installation.  Upgrades were a big part of my job with the "powco" as we tried to keep our system up to the demands that customers put on it, but once things went into their switchgear, it was out of our hands.  Of course, that does not account for catastrophic outages where you lose all of the feeds into a plant; then, it's scramble time.

[Beck]

Beck, didn't you live in Alaska at one time?

Nope, Not me!

[Beck]

Beck, it sounds to me like your outfit, and/or the power company, needs to do some serious maintenance on that switchgear

Our last problems have been with supply lines (13.8kv) coming into the plant, not our lines inside the plant. I think our 2nd line is tripping on a backfeed sensor as the 1st is frying upstream of us. The switch gear was just serviced. I agree, something isn't right.

[Arnold]

wow... that must be a mess.. i am amazed that when the power goes down.. that the residual steam in the system is not used to blow the system down to empty it  just by opening the drain valves on the return pipes..  i don't know what kind of plant you are in.. but that is how i would have it rigged.. or at least some kind of generator to keep the steam plant operating.   perhaps even an industrial sized dust collector that the electric motor has been replaced with either a gasoline or a diesel ... so the pipes could be vacuumed out in the event of a power failure.

up in bellingham wa.. cousins were shutting down moms 6500 sq ft building.. i had them use the shop vacuums to pull all the water out of the pipes.  worked great.   not a single broken pipe after a winter without any heat or heat tape going.  mom would have loved the idea.. but she never made it back there.

i was out in the back yard sweating today.. had to put up the patio umbrella to stop from melting..

 Memories of ugly jobs,draining stuff.
 Sledgehammering,ice picks,hammers,wailing on ice to get access to drain valves.Cold,blizzard,open areas,on your side in the snow etc.,wacking with pipe wrenches underneath at the side of train locomotives when they quit they had to be drained.They did not run anti freeze because they could not risk getting ANY in the oil.They maintained them by taking oil samples at intervals.
  I was a conductor so technically I did not have to do it..just the engineer. It was sort of understood that everyone had to do this.
 There was sort of no excuse that you could not get the valve open.
 I often hoped one would break..

[papastoyss]

It seems some of my northern friends weather has slipped down to the "sunny south".We normally get 1 or 2  light snows a year, we are at 3 already, last sunday it got really cold for here (daytime highs in the 20s) & stayed that way all week. Thursday am low is predicted to be 0 w/wind chills of 10 /15 -. There have been 4 weather related fatalities in Tn. this week.Two were a mother & son who stopped on I 65 south of Nashville to help a wreck victim & were hit by a semi that couldn't stop due to icy roads.Our snowfalls are so infrequent & light that most people do not know how to drive in snow or  they think they are experts when they are not. I live out in the boonies & my internet is on a sat. dish, it wouldn't work for 2 days due to ice covering everything.

[sirstude]

Just to rub it in.  It is 55degrees here in sunny Montana.  Kind of a weird winter this year.

Doug

[Charlie Chops 1940]

We have had single digits almost every day for the last couple week and some of them had the  minus in front.

[kb426]

Friday night winter is supposed to return. The last couple of weeks have been tolerable for winter. I'm expecting the cold to last several weeks before the next warming trend. The 51 is outside with the engine under a tarp. I have hours of wiring work to do before installing the hood and front clip. It's going to wait for warm weather. I don't want the gas company to get all my money.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I hear you guys. It was 46* here this morning.  Been hitting the high 70's

[wayne petty]

a snow filled yard slows only a few down.

http://i.imgur.com/hL8R5YG.jpg

from boston mass..

best idea i have seen in a LONG time.. enjoying the snow. and the fire pit. .

[phat rat]

Been anywhere from 68-76 degrees here in Sedona since we arrived on 1/27. Carol and I went for a walk around 9 p.m. tonight it was cooling off so we put light jackets on for the first time since we got here.

[phat46]

They closed school here, again, today due to weather. Not snow though, cold temps. It is -6 with a wind chill around -25. All the old timers around here, including me, are lamenting the fact that school was never closed for us regardless of temps. It's probably for the best, but my argument is that it's just as warm in school as it is at home. 😄 (I know, they have to wait for a bus in the snow, but so did we, my hair used to freeze where I put water on it to comb in place! 😬)

[papastoyss]

Most all school systems in Middle Tn. have been closed all week.Most all counties have some hilly areas, nobody wants a bus full of kids sliding off the road.We are required by state law to have a certain # of instruction days per year so most school systems build in a certain amount of "snow days". We have had to have Saturday sessions after an unsual harsh winter in order to keep on schedule.Kids tend to forget the days off when having to make up days missed on Saturday in nice weather!

[Charlie Chops 1940]

I think tonight may be the coldest in Muskegon this winter. It was -1 this morning at the old ranch, got up to +4, and is now 0 and heading down.

[kb426]

Phat46, I concur with your statement. I was a farm student. When the weather was real ugly, they ran mud routes. The bus came to the blacktop 2 miles away and one of the parents delivered the kids to the bus. You had to be waiting or they didn't stop. Other than a blizzard, they never canceled school.  When my son was in school it was the opposite. They had 2 or 3 weeks of snow days in the schedule.