***Official 2021 Weather Thread***

cycloner29

Well-Known Member
Dec 17, 2008
11,529
10,630
113
Ames
If you have State Farm insurance and need to make a claim. Good Luck! Just found out since all their servers are based in Tx and are down. I was dropping a renter's insurance policy and the gal told me she would write it down and enter it once the servers came back up. I though it was weird as I tried to log into their site yesterday with no luck.
 

ISUCyclones2015

Doesn't wipe standing up
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Dec 19, 2010
13,958
9,462
113
Chicago, IL
If you have State Farm insurance and need to make a claim. Good Luck! Just found out since all their servers are based in Tx and are down. I was dropping a renter's insurance policy and the gal told me she would write it down and enter it once the servers came back up. I though it was weird as I tried to log into their site yesterday with no luck.
We do have a ton of data centers because like Iowa we give them the huge Tax breaks and then the electricity is normally very cheap.

But those IT dudes should be fired for having them all in a single location with no disaster recovery plan
 

CascadeClone

Well-Known Member
Oct 24, 2009
9,068
10,896
113
Based on the derecho experience (12 days no power, middle of CR), and this newfound "reliabilty" of the power grid and rolling blackouts... the odds of my going solar are rising rapidly.

Buying a house now, moving in a couple months, was already considering installing solar and a big house battery. Think this has sealed it for me.
 

ISUAgronomist

Well-Known Member
Nov 5, 2009
26,649
8,328
113
On the farm, IA
Based on the derecho experience (12 days no power, middle of CR), and this newfound "reliabilty" of the power grid and rolling blackouts... the odds of my going solar are rising rapidly.

Buying a house now, moving in a couple months, was already considering installing solar and a big house battery. Think this has sealed it for me.

Cool what do you do when your solar panels are covered with snow (assuming not at ground level)?

Propane whole house backup generator makes more sense in my mind.
 

CYEATHAWK

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2007
7,166
5,565
113
Based on the derecho experience (12 days no power, middle of CR), and this newfound "reliabilty" of the power grid and rolling blackouts... the odds of my going solar are rising rapidly.

Buying a house now, moving in a couple months, was already considering installing solar and a big house battery. Think this has sealed it for me.

Before you go balls to the wall with that....research it very well(don't use google). You don't want to get to the "true up" statement and get a very unpleasant surprise.
 

BCClone

Well Seen Member.
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 4, 2011
61,885
56,531
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Not exactly sure.
Southwest Power Pool. Same people who told Lincoln to do it yesterday.

The worst part of this is people are unaware. If they would drop the power and then tell people that you will get it back in an hour and be fine, it think it would help; but how many people lose power, get it back and panic that they will lose it again so they bump the thermostat up to 80 or so to weather it if it goes out longer? Lose a lot of the effectiveness also.
 

ianoconnor

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Nov 11, 2007
13,194
6,980
113
Johnston
Based on the derecho experience (12 days no power, middle of CR), and this newfound "reliabilty" of the power grid and rolling blackouts... the odds of my going solar are rising rapidly.

Buying a house now, moving in a couple months, was already considering installing solar and a big house battery. Think this has sealed it for me.
At the very least, I will have a backup generator at our next house.
 
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Hoggins

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Sep 2, 2019
2,839
3,843
113
35
Based on the derecho experience (12 days no power, middle of CR), and this newfound "reliabilty" of the power grid and rolling blackouts... the odds of my going solar are rising rapidly.

Buying a house now, moving in a couple months, was already considering installing solar and a big house battery. Think this has sealed it for me.

We installed a grid connected system in 2019. Love it. You’d have to install a battery system to be completely off grid, which is something we might eventually do. Depends on how much electric cars expand in the next decade or so.

It’s definitely worth the investment, but the tax breaks are not what they used to be in 2019.
 

Entropy

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2008
8,834
14,432
113
Cedar Rapids, IA
We installed a grid connected system in 2019. Love it. You’d have to install a battery system to be completely off grid, which is something we might eventually do. Depends on how much electric cars expand in the next decade or so.

It’s definitely worth the investment, but the tax breaks are not what they used to be in 2019.
Same here, except from 2017.

Since it's grid based, we weren't able to draw any power out of it during the 10 days after the derecho we didn't have power. It's on my plan long term, but have other projects taking priority.
 

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