Red Ring Tupperware Party, Uninterrupted (No Harms ducked in making this thread) #19

Harm wrote in post #12610906
the sub work would have you set for life for work

Yes, our capital work budget will crack $1Billion in a year or so. My chunk of that is 8 projects, about 1/2 of which are still in design. I have a supporting role during the construction phase. I mostly get messy brown field jobs and then the ones that tend to run over many years.

End of May I finished the Scope for a rebuild of a 40yr old CBD substation. We're now detail designing this with construction set to start next year. It will take 3-4 years to finish the project's 5 stages - civil works followed by electrical works, followed by civil, followed by electrical works etc etc etc.

It will be even worse in 30yrs, they'll be thinking about having to replace the stuff we are installing now.

I have a love hate relationship with the brown field work I get. It is so much more challenging than our regular work but that challenge takes it out of you.

Just last week on one of my projects they found a 33kV cable & joint right on the edge of where we are to pour a new foundation for a new 33kV cable support structure. Not supposed to be in that spot is it. I think it is an older cable that was just decommissioned but we have to prove it and then remove it - but we were already to remove it later in another project at the same site, but not for 6mths.

I'm about to start on some IEC 61850 stuff soon. Looking at how we can integrate this into our system.

ahhh yeah, upgrades and replacement work is just so much fun

Greg_C wrote in post #12610864
Gas Turbine?

Harm wrote in post #12610875
Absolutely. 5GTs 2STs.

Then a separate project, is a study regarding CCS, the aux loads for the plant itself is 470MW

Ever have any dealings with Solar Turbines here in San Diego? I think most of their stuff goes to the petroleum industry, both their power packages and natural gas compressors.

GAHH!! All of a sudden my fingers don't work. I suspect arthritis. Some want to stay bent, and others don't want to bend at all.

I suspect I inherited my mother's gnarly finger gene.

Belmondo wrote in post #12610542
They installed them here last year, too. (Southern Cal. Edison). Fortunately, I haven't seen too much variation in our bills. Our electric bill for the hottest months have run as high as $1,400.00)

Yowsers! We run about $300 a month here for electricity. We have those "smart meters" too. Our whole place here is run by electricity. No gas, propane, or wood. Our saving grace is our Geo-Thermal Heat Pump. We installed it about 20 years ago. Government had some major rebates for them if you did not have access to natural gas. Dad figured that in about 12-13 years it completely paid for itself just in what we saved in electricity. Not having to pay for the heat source is wonderful. All it needs electricity for is to run the brine pump, compressor, and air fan. Heat and A/C all in one unit.

Everything else is electric too. Stove, dryer, water heater, water pump, and all the other normal utilities. Before our smart meter appeared, Dad got a timer for the water heater. It only heats between 7pm and 6am, when the rates are the lowest. Took some getting used too, and we've run out of hot water lots of times. But there is an override on the timer so if we're using lots of hot water during the daytime we just turn the heater on.

Not having gas, water, or sewage bills is quite nice too.

Belmondo wrote in post #12611461
GAHH!! All of a sudden my fingers don't work. I suspect arthritis. Some want to stay bent, and others don't want to bend at all.

I suspect I inherited my mother's gnarly finger gene.

I wish I could use arthritis as my excuse, but as far as I know it doesn't effect the brain...

Rhubarb jam is all done and cooling in the jars. Who's making toast?

I have some nice fresh wheat bread that just came out of the oven. I love rhubarb!

Right now we're running about $110/month for electricity and over 12 months I average about $230/month for propane. Other than the water filtration/softener system supplies of about $30 month, like you we have no water or sewer bills. Pumping out the septic system every 7-10 years runs about $300.

I've looked at installing solar, but with my low electric bills, the ROI doesn't work.

I have no idea how much we spend on salt for the water softener, but it's not that much. We're not due for a pump out for quite awhile. We do buy Septo-Bac to treat the tank with. Had issues several years back with the 'bugs' dying and the tank sludging up. Flush a packet of this stuff once a month and the system has been running great. We're careful about using bleach and anti-bacterial stuff because it kills the tank pretty fast.

We would love to have solar, but we have several mature trees and many more younger trees on the property, so the house is shaded quite a bit. Last fall when the big fair was going on we looked at some of the solar water heating systems that are available. We didn't see anything that really works well in a climate that gets so cold. There are options available to winterize the system, but the hassle and lowered efficiency don't make it worth it. We'll just wait for something better to come along.

I love having well water. Can play in the sprinkler all you want and not worry about running up the water bill. Makes having a garden more cost effective too!

JWright wrote in post #12611349
Ever have any dealings with Solar Turbines here in San Diego? I think most of their stuff goes to the petroleum industry, both their power packages and natural gas compressors.

Absolutely, John. Usually they are good for universities, municipals and medical centres.

EMCOR have a lot of experience with Solar turbines, and they usually team up with us for nice little filler projects.

Hi Harm

I made some rhubarb jam specially for you

Photos?

Oh, and the fact that you call it Jam, and not this "Jelly" nonsense give you bonus points

???

Harm wrote in post #12613299
Photos?

Gonna wait till I have nice light coming in the big window