Posted on 08/13/2023 4:48:16 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Most of us have trouble thinking to the end of the month. This can be demonstrated by the fact that 64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Actually, most are permanently in debt, what with credit card balances, car payments, student loan debt, and the rest. The point is that it's human nature not to look ahead, not to prepare. As long as we have the essentials, it's difficult to project into next week, next month, or next year.
That fact explains many things, including the public's lack of concern about a $33-trillion federal debt. Another striking example is the public's fascination with what has been a warm summer. This summer has seen record heat or near-record heat
SNIP
What are the odds of a very cold winter in 2023–24? Several factors are involved. First, we have not had a very cold winter in years. The "abandoned slot machine" theory suggests that it's time to have one, if not this winter, then soon.
Second, volcanic activity has been on the rise, and volcanoes do contribute to cold winters. Large volcanoes spew sunlight-blocking ash into the stratosphere, lowering temperatures, as did the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Recent volcanic activity in Iceland, Indonesia, Guatemala, Tonga, Hawaii, Sicily, Russia, and elsewhere has emitted sunlight-blocking ash with the potential for lower temperatures this winter.
The Farmers' Almanac has been more accurate than climate scientists in predicting the weather, perhaps because the Almanac's editors don't have a political ax to grind. This year's prediction is for a winter that is "colder and wetter" in the eastern half of the country and extremely cold in the central U.S., while New England and New York will be snowy and bitterly cold. In sum, the Almanac states, "We expect more snow and low temperatures nationwide."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Why don’t we close down the power plants and have everyone put out “We Believe in Windmills” yard signs?
I'm not anti-EV. In fact my wife and I get good productive use from our EV. But we live in warm Alabama. I can't imagine doing most our driving in an EV in the winter if I lived up north. That seems horribly impractical.
In terms of financial matters, what is very interesting to me is how financially illiterate most people are and combined with literally no intellectual curiosity, is a recipe for disaster.
I realize I’m on the fringe of things, as a kid I was fascinated by the business page of newspapers, especially the stock and mutual funds numbers. I remember getting to college and getting really excited taking a business finance class and learning how to read the stock page of the newspaper and what the numbers meant.
Basic things I think everyone should know like how interest rates work when taking out a loan to buy a car or house, how interest rates work on credit card balances, taxes of all kinds, the vast majority of people have no idea about any of this and have no curiosity to find out, basically going thru like as a financial illiterate is not a good idea.
The government may not be but we are.
Anyone who depends on the government to be ready for any kind of disaster is a fool.
I’ve got 8 cords split and stacked and another 14 cords coming in logs next month to cut, split, and stack.
Always be a year ahead in the wood heating business.
I’m looking at adding insulation in my attic. Where I live, winters usually aren’t harsh. But last Christmas’ highs in the teens in north/central Alabama was a huge cost in my power bill (all-electric home).
“The point is that it’s human nature not to look ahead, not to prepare.”
I really HOPE that American Thinker Jeffrey Folks is saying this tongue in cheek!
Stupid humans ACT this way - it’s not in our collective ‘nature.’ It’s been bred OUT of the vast majority of the population by now via Mother Government.
You are my kind of FReeper. Preach it! :)
Winters are generally cold from where I come from.
Especially considering you are not using waste heat to warm the cabin, you are drawing from the energy you are using to drive.
Great point. And the left WANTS people to be dependent on government.
A couple of things have been really shocking to me when I ask simple questions.
I ask people, did you ever wonder why Banks have the biggest, nicest buildings in most cities, no clue and don’t care.
Have you ever wondered why they’re so many people are advertising mortgages and other services related to mortgages, no clue and don’t care.
On a 30-year mortgage have you ever wondered how much you would actually pay if you stayed in the house for 30 years, no clue and don’t care.
Over those 30 years given you have a fixed rate loan, have you ever wondered why your mortgage payment might vary slightly from year to year, no clue and don’t care.
I’ve had people try to convince me that a 15-year mortgage is much worse than a 30-year mortgage because the payments are lower, when I asked them have you ever run an amortization scheduled and compared the numbers, most have no idea what an amortization schedule is or what it’s used for.
Many home owners don’t know they are paying property taxes because the taxes are collected and paid by their mortgage holder.
I live on the Ohio River. In the last 6 years four of six coal fired plants within fifty miles of me have shut down. Not a windmill in sight.
I do see reduced range in the summer from running the A/C. Not enough to be a problem (on trips my wife wants to stop every 200 miles anyway to walk around for 10-15 minutes, which is conducive to how often and how quickly our EV charges). But as a data hog I like to watch the numbers and can see a difference. That one aspect alone would add a significant amount to my power bill if I didn't have lots of solar (which gives me plenty of free power in the summer anyway). And even in the winter when it's really cold (really cold to us in Alabama LOL) those tend to be sunny days too (free solar to help warm the home and do the extra charging the EV needs to compensate having to keep the cabin warm). Plus solar panels have a weird feature in that they operate more efficiently in cold weather (assuming everything else being equal).
For what it's worth, this past December we had a horrible cold snap in which for one day the high never got out of the teens. That's bitter cold to us. LOL I had the EV sit outside in the cold all day (it was Christmas holidays) so I could experiment with the charge loss from cold. It lost about 10% doing nothing but sitting in the cold. That's not enough to be a show stopper (maybe my newish EV can handle the cold better than others). But it'd be enough so that if I lived up north I might rethink the math on how much having an EV adds to the power bill for it to be worth the gas savings. I didn't drive the EV during those cold days and I didn't try to charge it at a fast charger (to see if the cold reduced my charging speed as much as the EV forums were complaining about). So I can't say from experience if trying to road-side charge an EV in bitter cold is as bad as the EV forums make it out to be.
“north/central Alabama was a huge cost in my power bill”
I think we ain’t seen nothing yet. I believe Alabama Power has increased rates by 20 to 25% and this summer has been HOT. My summer bill has been significantly higher than usual, even after making a/c repairman recommended house modifications (installed ridge vent and soffit vents). This is my estimate for this month:
This Month’s Bill Estimate
$166 - $225
This is last year’s bill for August:
Billed Amount
$106.37
That’s pretty crazy.
It's:
cost per kWh = (total bill - $15.60) / kWh pulled from grid
When comparing to the prior year's bills, before August 2022 change the $15.60 to $15.86 (they went down on their natural disaster recovery fee from 75 cents to 50 cents, and a 4% state tax makes it a 26 cent difference).
For example, my July bill was $40.67 for 160kWh, which comes to 15.6¢/kWh. A 25.8% increase YOY to last July's 13.1¢/kWh.
To be fair to the power company, much of that is from their energy cost rider. Basically, Obama made them shut down the Gorgas coal plant and replace it with more "clean burning natural gas" fueled power, only for Brandon to now declare natural gas the bogey man that's killing us all and making natural gas hard to come by (and expensive). So Alabama Power passes their fuel cost to you as a per kWh rider. They don't state that cost and other per kWh riders. However, they do state the exact fixed costs: $14.50 per month regular flat fee + 50¢ natural disaster recovery fee = $15 total flat fees + 4% state tax on that = $15.60 we pay every month even if we don't pull power from the grid. Anything above that is usage charge (including 4% state tax on all of that).
That's the math I went through a couple of years ago to help me decide whether or not it's worth going solar (which reduces only the per kWh charge, not the flat monthly charges) and also see if it's worth improving on the solar and/or improving efficiency of the house (i.e. adding insulation).
Here in Northern CT the power company raised the per kilowatt hour rate by 60% in January.
60%.
Any EV owners here got the “shock” of their lives.
Also, if Mother Government offers you a wool blanket to keep warm this winter - don’t take it! ;)
All of us should prepare for an unreliable electricity supply because of this sort of stuff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.