Off topic...but be safe tonight...bad weather

Football
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We were without power for about two days, including the coldest night. We slept under four down comforters that night. It got down to about 40 degrees inside the house.

Power has been back on for awhile now though (knock on wood).

Fortunately, we always had a gas range that we could manually light up for cooking, could always charge cell phones in our cars, and have always had running water.

So far, our only casualties have been a few plants, and our sprinkler system, which will have to get fixed.

Pipes are all still OK. Again, knock on wood.

Thankful to God that my 77 year old Mother hasn’t lost power through all this.

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Just when he could help, Ted Cruz goes on vacation in Mexico. Nice

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what do we do with all the discarded windmill blades? They have a finite life as well and will end up in the big windmill graveyard somewhere in West Texas.
As you pointed out, the ridiculous solution to de-ice the blades using a helicopter isnt flawed just because of the time involved. That helicopter is using up more BTU’s in fuel than that windmill will generate in months. Add the costs of maintenance in and the entire episode is an exercise in futility and waste.

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I have a stupid question. How does a gas line freeze?

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can natural gas lines freeze?

YES they can. Probably not at the meter at your house but unrefined natural gas has a bad habit of freezing in the pipes at any temperature below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This ice is called a hydrate and can be found in the ocean floor where temperatures allow it. The formation of hydrates is a real concern to oil companies in and above ground at high pressure natural gas wells.

Due to the Bernoulli principle that expanding gas lowers the temperature (that’s how your refrigerator or AC works) hydrates can form in piping where there are pressure drops. Hydrates can form in any weather but cold weather is most common. They can also form in unexpected places in the lines.

A few years back Texas came under a very cold spell and was forced into rolling blackouts during that time. The cold weather caught gas producers under prepared and hydrates blocked many gas lines. Starved for fuel gas, many generators shut down. Texas electric companies were forced to go into rolling blackout mode.

Hydrates can be prevented but not necessarily removed with the injection of methanol into the piping. Methanol is ascorbic and can keep hydrates from forming. Some wells produce ‘dry gas’ meaning that the dew point of the gas is so low that water entrained in the gas will not condense out even at low temperatures. These wells are the exception not the rule.

Once the gas is delivered to a refiner ‘gas plant’ it goes through fractionalization and all of the (‘anes) are separated from it. Propane, butane, gasoline are all distilled out as well as the moisture. Then the almost pure methane is shipped out to a delivery company. One or the other is responsible for adding mercaptan (the odor) to the gas before it goes to the end user.

More chemistry involved than I even want to know, but there are your basics.

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When it gets cold enough anything will freeze

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Thanks. That was helpful. I had no idea how complicated the gas and oil industry was.

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Its official…
HELL has frozen over…
Camels ‘Confused’ by Snow as Video of Saudi Arabia Winter Storm Goes Viral (msn.com)

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Interesting article… NASA predicting ICE AGE in …

Interesting article from NASA about a new ICE AGE coming…

Why NASA scientist predicted ICE AGE to strike on THIS date – thanks to Antartica find
A NASA scientist predicted when the next ice age could strike after making a discovery 3,000 metres below the ice of Antarctica.

By CALLUM HOARE
PUBLISHED: 06:40, Fri, May 3, 2019 | UPDATED: 06:42, Fri, May 3, 2019

An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere which results in the expansion of continental and polar ice sheets. Scientists have known for a long time that the Earth goes through cycles of climate change , following adjustments in its orbit, as well as geological factors. This results in long-term periods of glaciation, forcing the expansion of ice sheets across the surface.

Earth is currently in the Quaternary glaciation, an alternating series of glacial and interglacial periods that began 2.58 million years ago.

However, it was revealed during Amazon Prime’s “Steps to the Future” how former NASA scientist Dr Jerome Chappellaz is using Antarctica to understand more about what will happen to the future.

The 2010 documentary revealed: “Researchers from the Grenoble Glaciology Laboratory have preserved precious archives taken in the Arctic and Antarctic expedition after expedition.

“The concept is very simple, the deeper we dig, the deeper we go into the past."

“The drilling tool is equipped with a knife which drills the ice and the shavings are evacuated by an endless screw.

“After weeks of drilling, that reached depths of over 3,000 metres, spanning back to over 250,000 years in the past."

Dr Chapellaz, who heads-up the NASA-backed project then explained what his findings revealed.

He detailed during the same show: “What does an ice age look like? It typically looks the whole of the Northern hemisphere covered in ice.

“Two kilometres of ice on Canada and the alpine glaciers spread to Lyon.

“We could walk from England to France.

“In the future we expect these conditions to come in 40,000 to 60,000 years."

The programme went on to explain how the scientist can predict an ice age, thanks to his understanding of space.

The narrator added: “Our distant cousins – Saturn and Jupiter – are responsible.

“These two planets are so big that their mass periodically deforms the Earth’s orbit, making it more elliptic.

“Since the sun is further away, the energy we receive from it lessens.

“The Earth’s orbit around the sun causes the quantity of the energy received at the surface of the planet to change with time.

“If we take winter snowfall at out latitudes, there needs to be enough energy during the summer to make it melt but, if it is not strong enough, the snow will stay and form a glacier over summer.”

In the future we expect these conditions to come in 40 to 60,000 years

Dr Jerome Chappellaz

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Another great article about the Pole shifts and how they are moving. There are many variables in weather. But historically the North Pole esepiallly has moved around. And also the rotational “wobble” or procession constantly changes the place the pole points by like 75 miles per yer until it wobbles completely back to realignment.

Earth’s Magnetic North Pole Has Shifted So Much We’ve Had to Update GPS (sciencealert.com)

Article on procession
Astronomy: precession of earth (wsu.edu)

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Do a search on Milankovitch Cycles.

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My thread has gotten wonderfully off topic…looks like we all made it through the storm and hopefully the damage was minimal (I myself had some damage to my pool equipment, but my family made it through pretty well and I got a lot of quality family time in)

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This is for the person who posted a couple of days ago, regarding Tesla batteries and their possible impact to the energy situation in the future. I live in Reno, NV which is 20 miles west of the Tesla Battery Gigafactory. It is HUGE. The average super WalMart is around 120,000 square feet. The Tesla factory is 4 million square feet and already has be permitted to expand to 32 million square feet. It is just incredibly large.

Tesla has a close relationship with the Univ of Nevada engineering dept. As an ex high school teacher, I had several students graduate and go to the University of Nevada as engineering students. One of the students told me about one project they are working on, to create graphene batteries. My understanding is they are one molecule of graphic thick and very efficient. Those of you who are engineers can expand on the subject.

The purpose of this post is to say, technology is coming to help, in the difficult situations my alumni friends are in, living in Texas, and it even may come those crazy states west of the Rockies.

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TMI on the responses to your question. Short answer, natural gas has water in it. Water freezes.

The real problem with the plants was so many devices that can freeze, like gauges, meters, pressure regulators.

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Cmon Mr Martin, tell us something we don’t know. I think we all have at least an eighth grade education… :joy: Actually I think I understood the first and last sentences of your post and nothing in between. But thankfully there are folks who do study and understand this stuff. Unfortunately they’re not in the state legislature.

On another topic, how many folks in Houston have burst water lines? I’ve been guessing around 90%, but that may be colored by what I see in our neighborhood. Pretty sure it’s 100% in our area, except for the geniuses that actually cut off their water and drained their lines before the freeze.

We’re almost 100% block and beam houses, so the waterlines are completely exposed to the air under our houses. Even with pipe insulation and dripping the faucets our lines froze then burst.

The good news is the pipes are pretty accessible, and when they leak there’s no damage inside the home. I’ve seen some horrible images of folks with burst pipes in their ceilings.

I know for a fact that of the eight lots adjacent to me (next door, across the street, and behind us), all of them have burst pipes. And obviously many more in the neighborhood, as our roadside ditches are pretty full…and it ain’t from melting snow.

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My son owns a townhome and the one next to him is vacant and up for sale. The owner left town and left his heat off. His fire suppression lines broke and water began to come into my sons home through the wall. My son got the realtors name and was able to get in and turn off the water. By then two inches of water were in the vacant townhome and starting too freeze.

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My pipes and water pressure are fine, but my lawn sprinkler system burst a valve.

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Same here. I blame myself for that. I spent a half week running around far west Houston including your Lowes and Home Depots in Katy trying to find a jacket to protect the sprinkler system which I have used before with success. At these temperatures (10 degrees) it would not have helped. But I wrapped them good with many towels and duck tape last Sunday. Much more protection then those winter freeze jackets. The key step I forgot was turning the damn thing off. When it came on Monday morning it blew like Old Faithful and sounded like a gun going off. It took me awhile to get all the towels and tape off as it was soaking me like a fire hose in 10 degrees. Got to be careful with those valves for when they age they will rust and can break. But I got the valves shut down and secured. I had ice dripping off my ski jacket the water froze that quickly. A nice hot shower did the trick.

The big lesson learned for our next one in 10 year freeze in Houston is to turn the damn thing off and drain it. I won’t even need a jacket if the damn thing is trained besides being turned off.

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I remember from the freeze in 1989 on one of the local networks reported many homes with busted pipes even though water was dripping. Interviewed some plumbers who said the best way to prevent pipes from freezing and busting is to first turn on every spigot and faucet in the house full blast, then cut off the water at the intake valve. Leave all spigots and faucets open I am fortunate that our intake vale is in our garage, so it is not too inconvenient to go through this to drain our pipes. I do this anytime the forecast is a hard freeze for three or more hours.

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I drain my sprinkler and turn it off in late November or sooner if it freezes. No need for sprinkler till March or April.

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