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I'm near Houston and it's soon to reach 19 F, which is quite frigid for us. No gas, just electricity. Texas generators are not the most reliable, so we can lose power for 24 hours or more throughout the state. Generators are not public utilities, so there is no connection across borders. We lost power several years ago for 17 hours when the temperature was below 20 F.
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Yup, I remember it was Feb 2021 correct? Had no power for 24-30 hours. Burned almost all our wood in the fireplace during the day. Used battery powered Christmas lights for illumination. Worked great. We are expecting lows in 20's or less next few day. Brrr
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Out of curiosity: How common are 'clean burning' wood stoves in your part of the world? ("Your part" in the sense "where whoever answering is living".)
Most traditional, simple wood stoves have an efficiency of about 40%, a traditional open fireplace may be as low as 30%. The rest of the energy in the wood either isn't produced due to incomplete combustion, or it goes up the chimney with the smoke. Modern clean burning stoves (or fire places with doors that you can close, separate air inlet etc.) typically reach 80-85%, so that you need less than half the amount of wood for the same heat.
Here in Norway, for a number of years, you have not been allowed to install anything but clean burning wood stoves, primarily to reduce local air pollution. If your house has an old stove, you may continue to use it, though. Oil furnaces was forbidden to install many years ago (15 years?), and a few years ago, you could no longer use furnaces installed long ago. Semiportable propane and kerosene stoves are excempt because there tens of thousands of mountain cabins far away from any electric power line, so electric heaters or heat pumps is not a viable option.
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In my part of the US, TX, it does not get cold enough, often enough, to warrant a clean burning stove or fireplace. We use natural gas for heating. As to clean-burning requirements, I cannot say. It is on state by state basis. As of May 2020 in Minnesota 1/2 houses use wood for heat. Clean burning stoves are required:
Only wood-burning appliances that are 2020-certified by the manufacturer can be advertised, offered for sale, sold, or installed in Minnesota. Dealers selling models that aren’t certified are violating the law.
All 2020-certified units must have an approved, permanent label that is visible when installed.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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I pity the linemen who had to go out in that weather to fix the problem! 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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We don't have too many above ground lines here. But the busted transformer or switch would have been a pretty coooooooool job at 4 in the morning!
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Most of local power lines are underground. It's big high power lines that require attention. Yes, those people are incredible. The last outage was also freezing issues with some of the power plants themselves. They failed to protect their backup units as well.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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jmaida wrote: They failed to protect their backup units as well.
The generators that provide the power for emergency operations are the first things that you protect!
The Fukushima disaster happened because they forgot that principle. The reactor vessels were apparently designed to be earthquake- and tsunami-proof, and the design engineers specified that the emergency generators be placed on the roof of the reactor buildings, where they would not be in danger of flooding. The architects didn't like how the reactors would look with the generators on the roof, and moved them to the basement. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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It was more complicated but essential that was the end result.
Not rocket science. About 20+ years ago downtown Houston had an out of ordinary flood event. Many of the emergency generators were in basements so guess what they were also flooded. City codes changed that. Good thing, because when Harvey hit (massive rain fall) power was not as much a problem.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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In my boyhood, the cornerstone factory of our town built, among a multitude of other products, gas turbines - 'gas' as in LNG or propane gas, I am not sure what kind of gas they used - of a size that could be moved on even a small size truck ('Lorry' for you Brits, right?) that could generate a megawatt of electricity. Maybe they were not necessarily the very most efficient ones, but the compactness and portability of the units made them very successful in some scenarios. Just put one of those units on you truck's loading plan and drive to wherever a megawatt of electricity is needed.
That was fifty years ago. You can't expect that sort of solutions to be available today. This cornerstone factory went away many years ago.
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Propane is still very commonly used here in US. Mostly for backyard grills, but many use them for camping. They can power all sorts of appliances. Some people who live in rural areas use them as their main source of heating and sometimes electrical power for their homes. They have exterior tanks of propane 500-1000 gallons. Also not uncommon in rural Canada, Mexico. Not a cornerstone industry for most places, though but still very active.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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He's OK now.
There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet!
Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Good one 
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Are semi-portable propane ovens not common in your area?
Here, you can buy an oven for roughly 100 Euro/USD, providing 4-5 kW of heat, for 10-11 kg propane bottles. (There are smaller models for 5 kg bottles as well.) Refilling the bottle comes currently at 19 cents/kWh, which used to be significantly above Norwegian electricity prices, but this winter, electricity prices have been crazy, jumping up and down, mostly between 30 and 90 cents/kWh (when you add taxes and the kWh-fee to the line company).
Being high power, these ovens can heat up a moderately sized room quite rapidly. Being portable, they can be moved around to the room you need to heat.
I've been an evangelist for this kind of ovens for several years, and this winter, people have understood that I am right . They are sold by the thousands.
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I didn't realize it's summer in Canada 
Glad to see the power's back on 
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Sander Rossel wrote: it's summer in Canada
In winter, Canadians hibernate. Waking a Canadian in winter is extremely dangerous; they may even snap at you!
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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If nobody noticed, it was a pointless meeting anyway.
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Not necessarily. Some meetings include agenda items that are only of interest to a subset of attendees, and others go down rat holes that should be handled offline. It's good to have something productive to work on during such times.
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I did it this morning, with the bonus that I muted Teams audio from the sound mixer and listened to music in the meantime.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Contraption that will banish evil? (6)
[nonclue]Had to pinch one - out of time. Heading to Melbourne in the morning.[/nonclue]
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I like the way you devised your clue.
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Oh very good - but I've already done one this week
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
modified 20-Dec-22 6:20am.
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OK, I'll take it: DEVICE
Contraption DEVICE
that will banish evil? DE-VICE It deserved that question mark! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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