10-15-2018, 11:35 PM
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/us/pg...ornia.html
So power companies are choosing to shut down power to avoid starting fires during high wind events. First, given that many fires have in fact been started by arcing power lines, this makes perfect sense. I kind of wonder how nobody has threatened to sue them for NOT doing so yet. Second, my brother and sister-in-law are spending what it takes to put solar with battery back-up on their house in Honolulu, essentially installing a whole-house UPS with solar PV charging (they are going with the Tesla PowerWall which strangely charges only from solar, not by grid or generator). Granted my brother and I are outliers in terms of our fondness for alternative energy and more generally in our willingness to look at alternative solutions for problems but it just seems weird to me that families would have a new car before they would have a power system that would keep them safe in the event of a major storm or fire.
So power companies are choosing to shut down power to avoid starting fires during high wind events. First, given that many fires have in fact been started by arcing power lines, this makes perfect sense. I kind of wonder how nobody has threatened to sue them for NOT doing so yet. Second, my brother and sister-in-law are spending what it takes to put solar with battery back-up on their house in Honolulu, essentially installing a whole-house UPS with solar PV charging (they are going with the Tesla PowerWall which strangely charges only from solar, not by grid or generator). Granted my brother and I are outliers in terms of our fondness for alternative energy and more generally in our willingness to look at alternative solutions for problems but it just seems weird to me that families would have a new car before they would have a power system that would keep them safe in the event of a major storm or fire.