Record Breaking Weather

[Wonky3]

Yep. This gets boiled down to almost an apple/oranges discussion. (Well, not quite: But close). For instance, I heat my house and water with natural gas so my winter elect bill is not ALL that much higher than the rest of the year. (Helps that being older than some rocks, I go to bed not long after dark). 

And yes, the Public Utility Commission is the go-to organization to resolve this issue. 

The fact remains that if you live in the Southwest and need A/C your elect bill is going to hurt. (unless you are on of the 1%).  Even here in The Valley of the Rogue on our days over 100 degrees F. I can image it can be expense for some. (I have lots of oak trees on the south and west side of the house, so only have a split-unit A/C in the bedroom...so don't have huge A/C bills). I have empathy of those who are ill and need A/C during heat waves to remain comfortable. Those elect bills must hurt! 

Still, Chuck's observations are interesting in the context of "Climate Change" vs. "Weather". Whatever, the fact is that recently the summer heat in the Southwest is getting hotter. Will it reach the point where it starts to drive the more affluent population to areas of more moderate weather?

The fact remains that if you live in the Southwest and need A/C your elect bill is going to hurt.

Pretty much but not necessarily. I'm a firm believer in insulation. A LOT of insulation I imagine a lot of people in the south could do a much better job insulating their homes and they will when the high costs of power force them too.


This is my usage history for the last two years. My highest bill was $227.00 and that was in July 2015.
As far a heating to be accurate I have to mention I heat with a pellet stove and even in the coldest months I spend no more that $75 on pellets.
Our bill would be no where near this high if we were not retired and home all the time.
But IMO it's not high at all relative to what I have. I use electricity to pump my own water and during the hot part of summer I have water running to something 24 hours a day. Plus I have a big shop and a hot tub.So I think an average of $160 a month is pretty good for me.

Insulation is overrated. I lived for a year in a quonset hut with NO insulation and the winter temps dropped down to WAY below 0 degrees. I didn't even get frostbite. Thank the gods for blankets and the Great Coat we put on top of them. On second thought: Insulation is GREAT stuff.

Quonset hut

Do you realize how many people have no clue what the hell that means? LOL. I have one. It's actually a car port but it's also a quonset hut.
I've used that word and I've seen that deer in the head lights look.... Wwhhhattt?

There should be a thread about words people don't recognize if they are under 30. Like .. "Job"

Here's one visqueen.  Even spell check doesn't know what it is.

probably think it's a cross dresser.

My cousin Luther was a cross dresser and so was his other brother Luther. 

Quonset huts: When I first arrived in Korea I was in a tent. Not bad. Then they moved us into new Quonset huts...an upgrade. But, while they were completely assembled they had neglected to tar the seams and at the first rain we got soaked. They gave us little cans of tar, we build a fire to heat the stuff, and sealed the seams. Worked. 
We had a little tin oil burning stove for the winter, and it was fed by a 50 gal oil drum outside the hut and a rubber feed hose to the stove. When the weather got really cold the oil in the rubber tube froze and the stove was useless. Oh well...they didn't want us to get too soft. 

Boy! That's LOTS more than you wanted to know about quonset huts or anything else. (I was waiting for the ice cubes to be ready and didn't have anything else to do)