Christmas at the Shobers’ home in 2022.
Two years ago, just before Christmas, SACE Research Director Maggie Shober and her family received terrifying news: their gas furnace had been leaking fumes into their home, polluting the air they breathed daily.
Contractors recommended that the Shobers shut off their gas furnace and rely on the electric resistance backup until after the holidays. One problem: a severe cold front was rolling in. Over the next two days, leading up to Christmas Eve, that cold front would turn into Winter Storm Elliott.
If you aren’t thinking about extreme winter weather, electrification, and its impacts on the grid already this week, here’s a fabulous study that lays it all out: why it’s important, and what to do about it (hint: it isn’t just “build more gas”) https://t.co/yajvNJXhMI
— Maggie Shober (@maggie_shober) December 22, 2022
Most people in the Tennessee Valley region didn’t know to expect rolling blackouts due to the cold, but Maggie is an energy expert. She spent the entire day of Dec. 23 monitoring the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s grid monitoring system, which tracks local forecasts and power generation by balancing authority hourly.
Got to spend some time cuddled on the couch with my 7-year old this morning exploring and explaining Grid Monitor and other real-time dashboards. https://t.co/cH2b8zThOi
— Maggie Shober (@maggie_shober) December 23, 2022
Maggie Shober’s daughter helps with cooking while bundled up inside.
She noticed the load was significantly higher than the forecasts, and certain types of generation, such as gas and coal, were falling instead of increasing. Maggie warned friends and family to expect blackouts while dealing with her family’s own scary situation — trying to stay warm inside with little to no heat.
The Shobers woke up on Christmas Eve to a house that was 50 degrees. Early that morning, the Tennessee Valley Authority had announced more blackouts. Knowing their gas furnace was unsafe to use, they resorted to bundling up and sealing off rooms in their home, even considering pitching a tent in their living room to conserve heat.
After the holidays, the family realized they needed a safer, more reliable system. By early January, they had installed a heat pump. New heat pumps are more reliable in cold weather than older heat pumps. The Shober’s heat pump works efficiently down to -4 degrees Fahrenheit.
Currently, tax credits are available for 30% of the installation of a new heat pump, up to $2,000. The Shobers caught the energy efficiency bug and added insulation, also available for tax credits.
By switching to a heat pump, the Shobers found a safer, more reliable way to stay warm and embraced a better solution for their home and the environment. And as a bonus, since a heat pump is also an air conditioner, they’re also saving money in the summer!
The post How Winter Storm Elliott prompted one family’s switch to a heat pump appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
How Winter Storm Elliott prompted one family’s switch to a heat pump
If the question at left were posed to me, I would respond: love one another.
Below is the seal of the school I attended as a boy. The motto in ancient Greek, close to the bottom, is pronounced “fuh-LAY-ta uh-LAY-loose,” and translates into English as exactly that–love one another.
This concept sits at the basis of Quakerism, the principle upon which the Willliam Penn Charter School (“PC”) in Philadelphia was founded in 1689. We are all equal. We all share “personhood.”
To most PC graduates, it’s weird when we hear, for instance, that the Christians and the Muslims or that the Sunnis and the Shiites “don’t get along.” Can’t we just knock off this mean and childish behavior? Our common humanity sits right in front of our noses.
The cave drawings at Lascaux that were made 40,000 years ago reveal something very important. We today are no different from the people living at that time in any way that is fundamental or basic. We all love our children, and we all gaze at the sky, contemplating the wonders of the universe.
Harming each other is the repellant to our minds.
What do you notice about the shopping bag in the photo?
It has no handles.
That’s right, Albertson’s, with annual revenues of more than $83 billion, has decided to inconvenience its customers, forcing them to wrap both of their arms around their grocery bags to get them into and out of their shopping carts, into and out of their cars, and finally into their homes.
The savings? From what I can learn from AI, the answer is somewhere around $0.12 each. If you’re interested, you can Google: “cost per 1000000 paper grocery bags.”
I understand that grocery stores operate on low margins, but if it were my decision to make, I wouldn’t be deliberately pissing off my customers, many of them elderly, who are spending $100 for a bag of my groceries in order to save 12 cents.
Yet the Albertson’s example isn’t unique; in fact, it’s everywhere you go. Look at your cell phone bill and your streaming services. Corporate greed is grinding you into the pavement while it relished in your misery.
What do you notice about the shopping bag in the photo?
It has no handles.
That’s right, Albertson’s, with annual revenues of more than $83 billion, has decided to inconvenience its customers, forcing them to wrap both of their arms around their grocery bags to get them into and out of their shopping carts, into and out of their cars, and finally into their homes.
The savings? From what I can learn from AI, the answer is somewhere around $0.12 each. If you’re interested, you can Google: “cost per 1000000 paper grocery bags.”
I understand that grocery stores operate on low margins, but if it were my decision to make, I wouldn’t be deliberately pissing off my customers who are spending $100 for a bag of my groceries in order to save 12 cents.
Yet Albertson’s isn’t unique; in fact, it’s everywhere you go. Look at your cell phone bill and your streaming services. Corporate greed is grinding you into the pavement while it relished in your misery.
https://www.2greenenergy.com/2026/07/22/why-are-huge-corporations-slapping-their-customers-in-the-face/
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