Re: The Physics Behind the Spanish Blackout

On 6/10/2025 11:06 AM, bitrex wrote:

We used to have oil heat when I was a kid, Dad would put a few gallons of diesel in the tank once in a while if they accidentally ran low, this was back when diesel was like $1 a gallon or whatever.
 But nobody who owns a detached home and can afford the switch to something else wants to have oil heat anymore here, and at the very least if they can't switch

OK, that's what I was getting at.  We installed oil when the house was built
~70 years ago; the banker had recommended gas (but, as the *only* home on
the street, there was no gas line to tap!)

fuels entirely they're sun setting their forced-air HVAC in favor of a mini-split setup.
 People with gas are installing mini-splits also though I think the overall cost/benefit is less clear there, depends more on how many hot days you have that require active cooling I think...mini-splits seem very effective at spot cooling.

I don't think refrigeration is as important as dehumidification, there.
I don't recall many days above 90F wen I lived East.  But, 80 would
be brutal with all the moisture interfering with your body's cooling
abilities.

Our condo has a propane-fueled combi boiler with baseboard hot water, no central AC just use window units in the office and bedroom when needed, we're

Yes, my parents had a window unit in their bedroom and, later in life, I
installed a ~14K BTU unit in the kitchen/dining area (which couldn't be
isolated from the rest of the house but still provided adequate
dehumidification to be worth the effort.

still relatively young enough and New England isn't yet sweltering enough that we feel central cooling is a sine qua non (particularly in a ground floor unit) :)
 Maybe someday when we're closer to retirement but we're regularly not even home during the heat of the day in summer, anyway.

I found Chicago "called for" refrigeration more than New England.  Perhaps
because of the heat island issues (city living vs. more rural).
Here (DSW), it is really only necessary during Monsoon (100F with high
humidity) despite the temperatures being higher in Summer (110+ but dry).