Renewable Energy Is The Future

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Oregon's governor recently announced a water emergency, and some counties are implementing restrictions.

We're being asked to only water on odd or even days, depending on our address.

How in the heck does that conserve water? I water about every 5 days, which would result in alternating odd and even days, but is nowhere near as frequently as every other day.

This is an example of a dumb idea to solve a problem.

You are being asked to water a MAXIMUM of every other day. People in the neighborhood a block over (were I used to rent) water every day. They are required by the HOA to have functional sprinkler systems and keep their yards green all year or pay fines.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Why don't they implement tiered pricing, where the first x amount of water consumption is relatively cheap, while amounts exceeding that become exceedingly more expensive? They could make that tiered pricing only apply in the summer when we don't get rain.

That is exactly how my water bill works. We have fixed $17 charge to be connected and then pay by our water usage in 3 tiers. The first tier is $2.76 a CCF Second tier is $4.30. Third tier is $5.83. That doesn't sound like much but a couple of homes on the fancy side of the neighborhood where houses run $750K to $1 million drilled wells this year. Don't know if they are doing it to get around the watering restrictions or cut costs.

[Piotrsko]

$750K for a well? That's got to be like 12" dia about 1000 ft deep, city use quality.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

$750K for a well? That's got to be like 12" dia about 1000 ft deep, city use quality.

"where houses run $750K to $1 million"

Wealthy people drilling wells so water restrictions don't apply to them.

[Piotrsko]

Grammer is odd then. Obviously, I took it to be where houses RUN 750k to 1 mill wells. You live in an expensive hood

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by JSH

You are being asked to water a MAXIMUM of every other day. People in the neighborhood a block over (were I used to rent) water every day. They are required by the HOA to have functional sprinkler systems and keep their yards green all year or pay fines.



That is exactly how my water bill works. We have fixed $17 charge to be connected and then pay by our water usage in 3 tiers. The first tier is $2.76 a CCF Second tier is $4.30. Third tier is $5.83. That doesn't sound like much but a couple of homes on the fancy side of the neighborhood where houses run $750K to $1 million drilled wells this year. Don't know if they are doing it to get around the watering restrictions or cut costs.

Watering every day is doing it wrong if the goal is a healthy lawn. My grass was green all year watering only every 5 days, and in theory developed a better root system.

Tiered pricing makes sense for conservation and as a progressive tax on the wealthy (and relief for the less wealthy). The lowest tier should allow only the amount the lowest 5% of customers consume, and it should be priced slightly below the actual cost to deliver the water. The poorest people would have the ability to have the most affordable water that way, and others would be incentivised to conserve. From there pricing should get progressively higher up until some maximum. 3 or 4 tiers seems reasonable to me.

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Grammer is odd then. Obviously, I took it to be where houses RUN 750k to 1 mill wells. You live in an expensive hood

I read it that way too initially, then read it again knowing that wasn't right.

Water here is cheap, but it's sewer that the city really gets me over a barrel. I'd be inclined to trench a leach field if I had the property to do it.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Grammer is odd then. Obviously, I took it to be where houses RUN 750k to 1 mill wells. You live in an expensive hood

I live in a middle class / working class hood next to an newer and more expensive development. Median home price in my city is $493K and we are one of the low priced areas on the outer edge of the Portland Metro.

My neighborhood was build in the 70's. Most are basic 1000 to 1200 sq ft 3/1 or 3/2 ranch style houses. The 3 bed / 1 baths go for about $375 - 450K. Add a bath and a little square footage and they jump to about $500K

The neighborhood just north was built in the 90's. Houses are larger and range from $500K for the smaller houses on a 4,000 sq ft lot to $1 million for the larger ones on bigger lots. $750K gets you a 2,500 sq ft 4 bed / 2 bath on a quarter acre lot. For a million you can get 3500 sq ft and a 1/2 acre lot.

[redpoint5]

Man I should have bought that house in Kenton as an investment in 2011 when I was considering it. I had just bought a house in 2010 in Vancouver though, so I didn't.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Not sure if I would define water in Brazil as cheap, but recently a taxi driver from Florianópolis island told me he is quite surprised desalinized seawater is not so commonly used. I have already visited water treatment plants, which are quite energy-intensive and require a lot of chemicals, so maybe desalinized seawater would not be so bad at all.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Fixing leaks would do a lot more than a dumb "every other day" watering scheme.

Of course, but it takes more work than some dumb scheme.

[redpoint5]

I'm currently on a Zoom livestream with my natural gas utility (Northwest Natural) on the topic of renewables in the pipeline. Apparently 3% of energy currently delivered is "renewable". They are talking about long term plans to achieve "net zero".

I asked how cost compares, and they mostly dodged it by saying it was marginally more expensive, and attributed the extra cost to relative newness of the technology. I asked that since the cost is higher, is the project opt-in, or imposed on all customers regardless of their desire to participate. Their answer was that Oregon law had them pass the cost on to all customers.

No surprise, Oregon (and everywhere) could stand to have the political elites replaced with competent and rational leaders.

[freebeard]

To quote aerohead in another thread:

obesity..........injections
I don't believe we're authorized to address these sorts of issues, as we'd have to venture into all the areas which are specifically taboo.

The Kurzgesagt video I'd posted at Permalink #30 there calls for tidal power.

Between ocean current power and the intercontinental grid tie, the Bering Strait assumes twice the importance.