Saving Electricity during Peak Hours

Here in California we are being asked to save electricity during peak hours.

It has been interesting to see the misleading headlines that people are sharing that state that California does not want you charging your EV. The headlines do not tell the whole story. They just want you to charge at the right times of the day. california, iso, grid, flex alert, save electricityToday we were in a Flex Alert, which meant that we were asked to reduce electricity use from 5 to 9 PM.

california, iso, grid, flex alert, save electricityThese are usually the hours where electricity use is the highest in California and the grid is under the most stress. This is the time when people are getting home from work and start cooling down their home, doing chores and lights are being turned on.

california, iso, grid, flex alert, save electricityWe get sent e-mails from the power companies that are similar to this one. Do you really need to have your house cold enough to hang meat? Do you need all the lights on if they are not needed.

I have been cooling the house off early in the day and then shut everything up so as the heat rises during the day I do not have to use the AC as much in the late afternoon.

Of course, turning lights out is ingrained in me as we were always told to turn off lights when we left a room and they were not needed.

california, iso, grid, flex alert, save electricityNot using big appliances from 5 to 9 is not a big deal. Electricity costs more during this time anyway so I always run things in the morning or later at night. The sound of the dryer can lull you to sleep.

car research, ford fusion, alto blue, plug in hybridNow for the big one that gets the headlines. The majority of EV owners are going to charge overnight anyway, and most have settings so that you can schedule charging in off-peak hours. The exceptions would be if they have an independent solar system that is not connected to the grid. You can’t charge at night, unless you also have a battery system that stores the solar power during daylight. Most solar systems are directly tied to the grid and send the power out and you pull electricity back from the grid to power your home.

Laptops, tablets and phones don’t use much energy, but it is still good to use them unplugged during a Flex Alert. You can charge them after 9.

There are incentives for using less electricity in peak hours. Don’t you want to save money anyway?

Steven

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Blanchard Thermometer

For a very long time I have had an interesting thermometer hanging on my wall. Of course, with the hot weather we are going through it is an important thing to have.

blanchard, iowa, thermometer, Ideal cafe, border townThe picture is a bit blurry as I just scanned it on my scanner and the frame is a bit above the glass which makes it out of focus.

The thermometer came from the Ideal Cafe in Blanchard, Iowa. The name of the owner is C.W. McFarland. I should have talked to my Dad before writing this post. McFarland must have owned the cafe before Olin Hutt who owned it in the 50’s.

These glass silhouette advertising thermometers were from about the 40’s and 50’s.

My assumption is that this thermometer belonged to my 2nd Great Grandparents who lived near Blanchard. I remember getting it from my Grandmother.

blanchard, iowa, missouri, braman, beck, cemeteryHere you can see that Blanchard is right on the border of Iowa and Missouri.

blanchard, iowa, missouri, braman, beck, cemeterySome of the town is below the border and is known as South Blanchard, Missouri. Blanchard had a population of close to 500 in the early 1900’s but now has a population of only 29 in the last census.

blanchard, iowa, missouri, braman, beck, cemeteryIn the first map you would have seen the location of the Blanchard Cemetery just east of town. This is where several generations of my Braman and Beck families are buried.

blanchard, iowa, missouri, braman, beck, cemeteryI remember going to this cemetery many years ago when I was a little boy to help my Grandpa place flowers on the graves. I remember a gun salute they had for Memorial Day. Not far from this cemetery is where my Grandma and Grandpa Braman are buried along with generations of my Van Duzor ancestors.

Steven

maps and cemetery picture from Google Maps.

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