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In a few places, like Boston, the national heat wave came to a sudden halt Thursday. At 2 p.m., it was 93 degrees at Logan airport. By 3 p.m., the thermometer read 73 degrees.
 
New York City is hoping for relief today. At least a dozen people have died heat-related deaths this week. (Bloomberg reports that the count is as high as 22.) The National Weather Service still has heat warnings and advisories issued for the East Coast.
 
This week in Al's Morning Meeting, we pulled together some story ideas for those of you covering the summer heat and the strain it is creating on the nation's electric infrastructure.

• Heat Stories: Energy assistance... Unpaid utilities... Air-conditioner standards... Cutting down on power... AC measurements... Heat resources.

• How the Nation's Power Grids Work: The system... What uses the most electricity?... Grid-friendly appliances... Heat makes bat babies fall from the sky.

• Some coverage of the story so far.

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Energy Assistance Programs: An Update

How are energy assistance programs faring these days? Here in Tampa Bay, WTSP-TV reporter Dave Bohman discovered:

Electric bills are hitting the needy so hard this summer, the Salvation Army is overwhelmed.

It normally helps 75-80 families with their summer power bills, but more than 750
households are requesting help.

Here are some more resources from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) clearinghouse page
• 2006 LIHEAP state resources
• Tribal LIHEAP resources

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Utility Companies: Cut Off the Air?

How do utility companies decide who to cut off for non-payment of bills during the extreme-weather months? At what point do companies make that decision? How far behind on your bills do you have to be to get cut off? Does the utility company cut anybody any slack? 

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New Standards for Air Conditioners

My air conditioner is on its last leg and I started investigating new units. Along the way, I discovered a few things. In January, the feds imposed a new standard for air conditioners. Now, you cannot buy a new unit with less than a 13 SEER rating. (SEER stands for "seasonal energy efficiency ratio.") See the Department of Energy's notice [PDF] about the new standards. 

The SEER rating system works much in the same way as miles per gallon -- the higher the SEER value, the higher the efficiency. The old standard was 10 SEER. A 13 SEER unit is 30 percent more efficient than the old standard, if it is installed correctly. These high-efficiency units are obviously more expensive to buy than the kind you could have bought last year, but they will, in theory, pay for themselves in savings over time. One air-conditioning company explained:

(Equipment installed before 1980 generally has a SEER rating of 7 to 8. SEER ratings also decrease over the life of a unit. To get the exact energy-efficiency rating of your existing unit, you may wish to contact an   air-conditioning contractor with the model numbers of your indoor and   outdoor equipment, or look at the energy-efficient label on equipment   installed after 1988.) For example, if your existing system's SEER is 7, and you replace it with a system that has a SEER of 11.5, you'll save $507 a year on your electric bill. 

Here is a bulletin that helps to explain why [PDF] sometimes, even when a higher SEER system is installed, it does not perform up to expectations.

I also learned that, beginning in 2010 (just three years away), newly installed air-conditioning units will not use Freon (R-22) anymore. Some sellers are recommending that if you are installing a new air-conditioning unit now to install one that uses the more expensive Puron (R-410A) refrigerant. 
At least a dozen manufacturers have already switched over to the new coolant.  There is a common belief that, after 2010, when manufacturers will not be allowed to produce Freon units, older air conditioners that use Freon may be more difficult to maintain -- and Freon may get a lot more expensive in a decade or so. The EPA disagrees, and sees no major price change on the horizon. The guy who is selling me my new air conditioner says there should be plenty of Freon around for the life of a unit that is installed now. A number of reputable HVAC sites confirms that. The EPA explains the timetable for the transition away from R-22:

January 1, 2004:
In accordance with the terms of the Montreal Protocol, the amount of all HCFCs that can be produced nationwide must be reduced by 35 percent by 2004. In order to achieve this goal, the U.S. is ceasing production of HCFC-141b, the most ozone-damaging of this class of chemicals, on January 1, 2003. This production ban will greatly reduce nationwide use of HCFCs as a group, making it likely that the 2004 deadline will have a minimal effect on R-22 supplies.

January 1, 2010:
After 2010, chemical manufacturers may still produce R-22 to service existing equipment, but not for use in new equipment. As a result, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system manufacturers will only be able to use pre-existing supplies of R-22 to produce new air conditioners and heat pumps. These existing supplies would include R-22 recovered from existing equipment and recycled.

January 1, 2020:
Use of existing refrigerant, including refrigerant that has been recovered and recycled, will be allowed beyond 2020 to service existing systems, but chemical manufacturers will no longer be able to produce R-22 to service existing air conditioners and heat pumps.

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Can You Save Money During a Heat Wave?

Go into a home with an energy expert and see all the ways you can cut power usage, from pulling the drapes closed to cutting off all the phantom electricity units, including computers, VCRs and such that sit there all day, sucking power. (And don't forget to ask about electronic thermostats, too.)
And don't forget to change the dang air filter. That alone will help lower your bill.

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AC Measurements

What does "tons" mean when purchasing an air conditioner? When describing how big an air conditioner/heating unit a home needs, one would describe it in tons. A rough rule of thumb is that you need a ton for every 500 square feet of space you are cooling/heating. 

Here is a page that explains how air conditioners work and how to calculate a unit size to fit your needs. Here is an interesting tidbit: The word "ton" has nothing to do with the weight of the unit. It is based on the old measure of how much heat is absorbed by one ton of ice. Here is more about all of that, plus an explanation about BTUs, if you care.

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Heat-Related Resources

Below are some more resources you might find useful while covering the heat wave:

• DOE's EnergyStar Web site
• American Red Cross: Heat Waves page
• DisasterCenter.com: Heat Wave
• An interview with the author of "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago," which details the city's 1995 heat wave, in which more than 700 people died
• State of Florida
• Division of Emergency Management's "Hazards Watch: Heat Wave"
• "Heat Wave: Florida's Guide to Beating the Heat," produced by the state's Department of Community Affairs
  
• National Weather Service 
• Heat index
• "Heat Wave: A Major Summer Killer"
  
• The World Health Organization's European division: "Heat Waves: Risks and Responses"
• Time magazine's coverage of the heat wave's national impact
• Heat Wave Awareness Project
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Extreme Heat
• Excessive Heat Events Guidebook
• BBC News: Hot-weather risks
  

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A Primer on the Power Grids

Over and over this week, as I heard reporters chirp, "The heat wave is putting pressure on the nation's power grid," I thought to myself, "I bet they don't know much about the nation's power grid." Neither, frankly, did I. So here is some background.

The stress that we see on the nation's power is only a symptom of a system that is stressed in the best of times. In 2002, the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions took a deep and long-term look at the nation's power supply and demand.

That report, published by the Department of Energy, said we need to build more capacity [PDF] and find ways to conserve. Neither has happened to any great degree. The American Society for Civil Engineers says total U.S. transmission capacity decreased by approximately 19 percent per year between 1992 and 2002. In other words, things are getting worse, not better. The Department of Energy noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to "site" high-power transmission lines in today's urban environments. All of this leads up to a chilling revelation in that 2002 DoE report -- something that most of us have no idea is going on in the background when we turn on our air conditioning. The report says:

Today, power failures, close calls, and near misses are much more common than in the past.

A July 2003 DoE study says [PDF]:

America's electric system, "the supreme engineering achievement of the 20th century," is aging, inefficient, and congested, and incapable of meeting the future energy needs of the Information Economy without operational changes and substantial capital investment over the next several decades.

The study continues [PDF]:

America operates about 157,000 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines. While
electricity demand increased by about 25 percent since 1990, construction of transmission facilities decreased about 30 percent. In fact, annual investment in new transmission facilities has declined over the last 25 years. The result is grid congestion, which can mean higher electricity costs because customers cannot get access to lower-cost electricity supplies, and because of higher line losses.

Transmission and distribution losses are related to how heavily the system is loaded. U.S.-wide transmission and distribution losses were about 5 percent in 1970, and grew to 9.5 percent in 2001, due to heavier utilization and more frequent congestion. Congested transmission paths, or "bottlenecks," now affect many parts of the grid across the country. In addition, it is estimated that power outages and power quality disturbances cost the economy from $25 to $180 billion annually. These costs could soar if outages or disturbances become more frequent or longer in duration. There are also operational problems in maintaining voltage levels.

Journalists should know that there is no "national power grid" in the United States, per se. The continental United States is divided into three main interconnected power grids, which may transfer power to each other if they have enough to spare:

• The Eastern Interconnected System, or the Eastern Interconnect
• The Western Interconnected System, or the Western Interconnect
• The Texas Interconnected System, or the Texas Interconnect

Look at this graphic from the Department of Energy to see which interconnection you live in:
Now, let's take a look at how the grid shows up in your town. From power plant to your house, HowStuffWorks.com shows you how the electrical system is set up:

Ever wonder why high-voltage transmission towers always have three wires on the bottom and some lone wires on the top? There is a reason. Power plants produce three phases of power so each line on the bottom carries a phase, plus the top wires are there to act as lightning rods.

In your neighborhoods, you may see power substations. Here is what they do. Think of them as step-down units from the high-voltage lines. They are like train stations, they slow things down and distribute the power to other directions.

When you look at a power pole along a street, notice the three phase wires once again, there is usually a fourth wire for grounding, then there may be "guy wires," which carry no current, to improve strength. Then, sometimes, you will find cables for telephones or cable TV. 

Howstuffworks explains what the wires on the pole next to your house do. The transformer drum, once again, steps down the power.

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What Uses the Most Electricity in Your Home?

In order to cut your electric bill during the hot weather, you have to know where the juice is flowing. Howstuffworks.com calculates the biggest drains:

Howstuffworks continues:

Water heating uses a good bit of power as well. When you take a shower or run a load of clothes in the washer, the electric water heater might run for an hour reheating the water in the tank. That's 40 cents. A typical household can burn several dollars a day heating water. Because we don't normally think of it this way, it is funny to consider that every shower you take costs 40 cents! When you add in the cost of washing and drying the towels (every load of clothes that you run might cost $1 to $2 for washing and drying), plus the soap and shampoo, it can cost nearly a buck to take a shower!

Refrigeration is another big power drain because the refrigerator can easily run for 10 hours a day. That's about $1 per day to keep the milk cold. If you leave the computer or TV on all day, it can add up to $1 per day as well.

Then we get to light bulbs. At 0.6 cents per hour, it doesn't seem like much. However, many fixtures contain two or more bulbs, and it is easy to leave several fixtures on. If 10 bulbs are burning, that's 6 cents an hour. If they burn for six hours a day, that's 36 cents per day for lighting. Multiply that by 30 days in a month, and it's $10 per month for photons.

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Grid-Friendly Appliances

One interesting innovation is the notion of a "grid-friendly" appliance. Scientists are working on electronic controllers that can be built into appliances that could, for a few seconds at a time, shut off some parts of the appliance to relieve pressure on electric grids. As a consumer, you wouldn't even notice the change, but it could have a huge impact on electrical use at peak times. Last summer, Wired magazine wrote about the technology.

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Heat Makes Bat Babies Fall from the Sky

Hey, I have the video from The Weather Channel. The situation is this: It is so hot in the roosts that the adult bats push the babies out.

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Some Coverage of the Story So Far

• "The Health Legacy of a Heat Wave," NPR (July 31, 2006)
• "Drought, Heat Hit Farms Hard, But Consumers May Not See Prices Rise," USA Today (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Region's Air Both Hot and Unhealthy," WSOC-TV -- Charlotte, N.C. (Aug. 3, 2006)
• "Heat Forces Teams to Be Cautious," The (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Sun (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Contractors Use Tricks to Keep Cool in Heat," The (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) Citizens' Voice (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Heat a Factor in Inmate Deaths," The Indianapolis Star (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Fewer Bites in the Heat Wave," The Boston Globe (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Heat Inspires 'Commute Suit,'" The Associated Press (Aug. 3, 2006)
• "Heat Drives Shoppers Back into Retail Stores," Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "How Farms Cope in the Heat," WFMZ-TV -- Allentown, Pa. (Aug. 3, 2006)
• "Heat Wave Could Hike Homeless Count," The Norman (Okla.) Transcript (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Extreme Heat Puts Drain on Homeless Shelters' Finances," The Roanoke (Va.) Times (Aug. 4, 2006)
• "Japan Vetoes Suits in Summer Heat," BBC (June 1, 2006)

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.

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