You know how much that wouldn't be a thing if we'd get over ourselves and just tie into the national grid? Do you also know that Robert E. Lee Day in Mississippi is today very intentionally because it's MLK Day? Same ****ing energy will make your energy suspect tomorrow. It's absurd.
I’m betting, no. The previous blackout wasn’t due to too much energy demand….obviously our Summer still have more demand. The blackout was due to freezing temps causing operational failures. We were told they’d fix all the vulnerabilities…like what took the nuclear plant offline. We were told the grid could be fixed, upgraded,,,,whatever. We’ll see. but it wasn’t due to a freeze causing more energy demand than our summer. Not even close, right?
Well when I made that post, ERCOT's supply/demand chart showed a fairly significant shortage at 8am tomorrow. But they apparently added some more capacity, because now it shows them having just enough:
If we were connected to the rest of the grid we could get the power from somewhere were there is power.
I hope the jackass that starting the trend of putting water heaters in the attic to save space and be more efficient is rotting in hell. I want to move mines to the garage but I've put a leak detector in the drain pan and will wait it out.
I still can't believe Texas building code allows it, but then we're not very tight on a lot of stuff based upon the building screw-ups I've seen/heard of around here. lol. I wonder what my garage temp is right now compared to my attic. My attic heats up during the day. So, for example it's around 25 degrees right now outside, but my attic is around 48 degrees at the "floor". Obviously as night falls, that temp will drop when it goes down into the teens and near single digits, but still. I may test that out here in a bit... lol. In any case, I'd rather have my water heater in the garage, I think.
With the hard freeze I've just kept all indoor faucets dripping hot and cold on different ones. I asked the builder to put the water heater in the garage and he told me nah we already put it in the attic after framing. How in the hell am I supposed to get it out in the future? Sigh...
Mine is also in the attic and I live my life in fear of a blow out that will destroy my home. What leak detector do you use? That is a great idea.
One of the stupidest things ever. We can thank greedy builders who care more about convenience and profit for themselves than major consequences that can happen down the line. Fortunately, both my water heater and water shut-off valve are in the garage in very easy to access open areas. When our water heater violently kicked the bucket a few years ago, it took no time and little effort to replace it and I didn't have a ceiling collapse due to water damage.
I still go and check it physically but this is what I use... https://www.moen.com/products/Flo-by-Moen/Moen-Smart-Leak-Detector-1-Pack/920-004
Getting it out of the attic will be the major issue. I suppose it can be done but with the newer homes it's too heavy to bring down an attic ladder per se. Gonna go outside tankless when this one gives up the ghost.
There are a lot of houses in my area that have the water heaters in the attic (and a lot that don't), so people replace those things all the time. I basically told myself I was going to replace my water heater every 10-12 years no matter if it was running ok or not. If it was in the garage, I'd attempt to do it myself, but in the attic, my back won't allow it. lol. Last time the guys that replaced it brought it down the attic ladder (and probably exceeded its weight limits ... lol) pretty "easily". Of course they probably do dozens of those a month. I'm starting to look for a new house online and I swear the first thing I look for is "where's the water heater?"
So I decided to check my garage vs my attic in terms of temps. The temp outside is 26 degrees, my attic is 45 degrees, and my garage is 43 degrees. Weird. I thought my garage would be a bit colder than -2 degrees vs my attic right now. I should check the difference more around noon to 3pm.
Yeah it's really stupid. It not only makes it a PITA to replace it yourself but also the constant worry of how the water heater is going to go out. Quietly or a huge mess. I think it's lazy on builder doing that to you- Ie "that's a problem for some future date when we won't be building here. Just sucks thanks for the suggestion on the leak detector, I've been procrastinating on doing something.
Looks like I have a frozen pipe in my master bath, so turned off the water and drained the rest. Just found it this morning, and we did have the water dripping. Hoping it'll thaw out pretty quick being right around freezing now, but might take a hair dryer into the attic and try to thaw it out. Hopefully no leaks/busts, but who knows. I had one freeze up in 2021 and had a pin hole leak in it and it was close to that same area of the house I think. We covered them, but it's a draft part of the attic (right at a soffit so gets a lot of air). If it leaks, I'll replace it with PEX I suppose.
I was lucky enough that it just thawed and didn't actually burst the pipe. But I should keep some of this on hand.
