Sydney set to cook, with the lights out

[heuristics]

News from the front.
I asked my neighbour for a report on his second day at his new job with Integral Energy (largest electricity supplier for western Sydney) .
At induction he was told to buy a generator.
All predictions are Sydney is about to have its hottest summer ever on record. This will result in frequent blackouts as the grid fails. The grid is expected to fail regularly as an estimated 30,000 new houses were built across western Sydney last year - but no extra capacity was added to the grid. The new houses were mostly (not all, but mostly) four and five bedroom McMansions with a voracious appetite for air-conditioning. Western Sydney is commonly 5c hotter than coastal areas on mid-summer afternoon.

The very next night on ABC TV late news I saw a report confirming what my neighbour had told me.

[forest]

I escaped from Sydney in the 70s. thank god. I grew up in Strathfield and then lived at Bondi and Balmain before I knew I had to leave. My sister lives at Faulconbridge. Poor her.

[Cornonthecob]

Bugger if the lights go out people will have to start talking to each other again!

Wait for the baby boom next September!

[Ichsani]

Thanks for the heads up. Will have to endure for 2 more years, and then I am SO out of here. I'll be spending most of the summer at the beach then, and at the court house.....I got summoned for jury duty....sigh

[Cornonthecob]

lol better than being there for other reasons!

:P

[Ichsani]

So true! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[baldcat]

I endure 1 year in Rose Bay (not really that hard to endure) and one year in Leichhardt, and that was the year I knew Sydney was not for me :) (was only last year mind you) When you live 40m from Paramatta road, just before Norton Road (Sydney's equivilant to Lygon St) and directly under the flight path... AAAHHAHHH

I thinkn the power went out last year also !! Luck for us, we didn't have an air-conditoner (only paid $390 a week :roll: ) So the old bed sheet draped down over the opening into the backyard (4m x 4m all paved) then hosed down... Worked a treat, how ever the colour of the sheet went all crazy.. Wen t from being white to a murky kinda colour just from the stuff in the air.. (I think it was the planes.. oh and maybe the 50 odd thousand cars and buses that travel on Parramatta Rd everyday.)

[Franceyne]

That sounds gross Dan - I'm glad I live just over 130km away from Melbourne and thier smog and very glad that we are on solar electricity!

Poor Sydney-siders :(

[forest]

I lived for a short period of time at the other end of Johnston Street. It was in the early 70s, mind you, it was very polluted then too.

[frosty]

Perth has the same problem of too many air conditioners and not enough power

one day last summer the govt told everyone they had to turn them off or be fined .......

you should have heard the wankers whinge on talk back radio about how they would die without aircon :evil:

we get some very hot days up here ....... usually 4 or 5 a year of 43C up to 45C and we dont have aircon :lol:

it is tough when it get that hot but Perth rarely gets over 40C

frosty

[Anissa]

We lived in Marion St in Leichhardt for 7 years!! Then moved out to Blaxland (west of Penrith). Bloody hot in Penrith, right on the flood plain, used to be swamp before they land filled it, just before the mountains, so no breeze and very humid. Wouldn't live there now if you paid me!!

[Steve J.]

Both Syngy and Melburn are 8 hours drive from my place , mmmm still a little close for comfort, I must admit though it gets lonely on the beach all by myself. :lol: NOT

Steve