Yeah thermal plants will Always be more flexible than nuclear.
The way prc runs them here is pretty much just on/off.
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The way prc runs them here is pretty much just on/off.
Years ago I read about a company working on a gyroscope they would use an electric motor to spin up to like 50K RPM when there was excess grid power.
When they needed power they flipped a switch and they would use the inertia to spin the electric motor, turning it into a generator. Electric motors and generators are very similar. One you put power in and it spins, the other you spin and get power out - there both windings and magnets.
It seemed like a good idea to me. Anyone else heard of this? It would be a way to turn nuclear power into a way to handle peak?
When they needed power they flipped a switch and they would use the inertia to spin the electric motor, turning it into a generator. Electric motors and generators are very similar. One you put power in and it spins, the other you spin and get power out - there both windings and magnets.
It seemed like a good idea to me. Anyone else heard of this? It would be a way to turn nuclear power into a way to handle peak?
JHZR2
Staff member
Maybe cheaply built homes from the post ww2 era? Older homes had boilers and radiators or similar systems. Coal/oil/gas were installed over time.
My point was just that my parents knew that electric was expensive in the 80s, before solar or net metering or anything else. I remember them doing the research and evaluating the trades. So it just surprised me that it would be done at all in Canada.
That said, if it was like northern Norway where hydro power and relatively low demand made electricity nearly free, and now that’s turned on its head, that’s a different story again.
France claims some of their NPP’s can ramp 5%/minute and some of their plants drop 50% at night. The rest of EU wants their NPP’s operating continuously at 50-100% with a 3%/min ramp rate, and can cycle between minimum and maximum output twice a day/5x per week/200x a year.
I've seen a few houses in Northern VA that have electric baseboard heat. One thermostat per room to control the baseboard heat. Most were built in the 70s and prior.
Hydronic heat is a very Northeast thing. Was not a thing at all on the plains or northern Midwest.
Electricity used to be cheap in those areas. It would make sense that it was also cheap in Canada. In the 70's and early 80's during the oil embargo heating oil/diesel heat would be expensive. People building houses all through the 70's and 80's remembered the spikes. Plus you had to have a large tank to store it, and ductwork to move it around. Central AC wasn't really a thing in those regions because summers were short so ductwork could be avoided with a baseboard. A baseboard which was cheap to install, clean, no storage, and you could set each room individually - ie what they now call zoning.
Once natural gas became popular in the mid 90's most house construction transitioned to that if they had access.
There's a bunch of houses around here built in the 1960s with hydronic heat. Summers are anything but short around here (it's hot enough to grow cotton in this area). I think those houses were just built as cheaply as possible and hydronic heat was one way to keep the cost down, compared to a furnace and ductwork.
I worked briefly for a company that manufactured electronic HVAC controls - and the only place they sold resedential hydronic stuff was the Northeast. Your pretty close to DC - which is sort of the line between Northeast and Southeast, so not all that surprised given central air was a 70's thing at best, so no need for forced air with hydronic . You didn't see it much South of you because heating becomes a secondary consideration anyway. Didn't see it in the Midwest or plains much - no idea why - maybe just housing construction in general was cheaper?
JHZR2
Staff member
I’ve seen it like that in beach houses built in the 60s/70s, complete with aluminum wiring. But they were three month homes.
JHZR2
Staff member
Hydronic is more efficient and was more cost effective back in the days of low combustion efficiency and cheap oil and gas.
A lot of the crappy 60s/70s houses around here have aluminum wiring complete with Federal Pacific Electric breaker panels. I'm surprised that more of them haven't gone up in flames.
A fried of mine owns one of those houses. Anyone who says that 60s construction was better hasn't seen this crap.
Ahh the 70's, bell bottoms, FPE breakers, polybutylene water pipes, baseboard heaters. Much simpler times. 
My parents had a house in Elmhurst, IL with central air. It was built in 1965. That's probably why it wasn't seen much in the midwest.
That condensing unit was made by Edison and I'd never seen one like it since.
JHZR2
Staff member
I’ll never live in a post ww2 home if I can avoid it.
But, relative to solar, I would go solar but my hip roof and lots of tall shade trees makes it not worth it. I wish the cost of a net meter and install wasn’t so prohibitive (I could easily DIY), but I’d want like a micro inverter 800w system that could get ideal full sun and just offset load. But that doesn’t fit the installers’ model. It would be cost effective, better performing throughout the day/year, far lower capital cost, and work better.
Did it look like a sheet metal box with some louvers?
I'd never live in any home built at any time anywhere that building codes don't exist or aren't enforced.
It looked like a big cube with the intake on one side and the discharge on the other side. Not like modern condensing units that have the intake on all 4 sides and the discharge out the top.
I have seen what I think your describing - a flat coil on one side and a fan blowing air through it from the other side. Commercial units were like that much longer. Might still be?
JHZR2
Staff member
The ww2 era chiller in one of my garages looks like that.
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