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[-] Kirp123@lemmy.world 77 points 1 month ago

I sure hope their electricity grid can handle it when everyone turns on the AC and data centers also start pulling extra because it's so hot.

[-] grandma@sh.itjust.works 53 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

At least in my country (Netherlands) the neoliberals have decided every single fucking thing needs to turn a consistent profit and the company who handles the grid is only allowed to upgrade when there is "utility and necessity" which in essence means any time they want to upgrade in anticipation of future demand everyone involved drags their feet.

The result of that policy is that now there is a ridiculous waiting list for commercial grid connections and there are plans to also restrict new high capacity residential connections. For a country that has been run by businessmen for the past 20 years we sure seem to have an awful lack of long-term vision.

Don't even get me started on the attitude that people here have towards A/C. We don't live in a country that's only hot for 1 week a year anymore but lots of ppl just won't accept that. I guess it's climate coping/denial combined with wanting to feel superior to Americans.

We will be cooked (literally)

EDIT: I just remembered that yesterday they unexpectedly had to cut power to 10000 homes for 14 minutes and it wasn't even a hot day.

[-] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

Business men are myopic and not strategic for 30 years into the future? I am so shocked! 🙀 😲

They optimized their profit, just not yours you gotta understand. I.e the money is not gone it's just somewhere else.

[-] grandma@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 month ago

It's crazy to me because surely you would be extracting more wealth from working people (and raising the blessed holy statistic known as GDP) with a grid that actually works and can take on new customers. I know they're evil but I guess they're also just stupid.

[-] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Take my upvote. I too fail to see how "make something work well, get more money" isn't the obvious default choice for businesses

[-] Fluke@feddit.uk 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Because making it work well costs more than making it work barely, and those costs are ultimately profits not being paid to shareholders now.

Those making the decisions get paid their bonuses based on the now, not the maybe, in the future.

It's really that simple.

[-] grandma@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

Its like they only know the R in ROI. This short term thinking is the main driver of enshittification I think.

[-] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

First they underprice anyone to dominate the market and end up as the only one left. They do this on borrowed money and then they need to monetize. That's the R, the rest is other people's money who cares.

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

That, and the fact that the infinite growth model is a basic underpinning of capitalism. The Market must grow, always, or the whole carousel stops.

[-] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Thank you. I still hate they don't think about anything else at all, but this explains it

[-] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Stuff like infrastructure should most of the time not be privatized and remain in state hands.

As a business you just need to outbid your opponent for the electric grid or whatever. Then you do the bare minimum to say you delivered within budget etc. People are sheep and won't notice until they are sitting in the dark.

The company that had a realistic cost in their offer was probably not picked.

[-] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Which means whoever does the picking also doesn't care about anything further away in time than "project declared done, money has been payed". Time for me to take a break (been lamenting about these things for too long now)

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago

For a country that has been run by businessmen for the past 20 years we sure seem to have an awful lack of long-term vision.

Well thats why, why would they ? why would voters elect them

[-] grandma@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Lots of temporarily embarassed millionaires + red scare propaganda still carved into people's minds

[-] sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Even in the U.S., we use a lot more energy heating homes than cooling homes. Around 43% of our total in-home energy usage is on heating, and about 8% is on cooling.

Heat waves don't cause nearly as big of a strain on our grid as winter storms, because AC doesn't consume as much energy as even our efficient heat pumps in the winter.

That's because a heat pump that can lower the temperature by 10°-15°C is really all you need in the hottest part of the summer, whereas in the winter raising the temperature 25°C isn't uncommon.

[-] dingus@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Really? This is wild. I'm in a hot part of the US and it's 95F/35C and humid daily here. I'm honestly really surprised with how much AC blasts here that heating still takes up the majority of nationwide energy consumption.

[-] sparkyshocks@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

Just think about it in terms of the number of people and number of days per year where they need to raise the indoor temperature by a certain amount, compared to the number of people and days needing to lower the temperature.

If you're looking at a place where it's 95°F during the day and 85°F at night, and you like to set the temperature to 75°F, you're only cooling it 10-20°F by time of day.

But if you're looking at a place where it's 35°F during the day and 15°F at night, and you want to heat things up to 65°F, you've gotta change the temperature by 30-50°F throughout the day.

Even when you're comparing absurdly hot weather to absurdly cold weather, you're still comparing something like 110°F to 0°F. You're still looking at a 70°F swing versus a 35°F swing towards comfort.

Throw in the fact that combustion of fuels (fossil fuels like heating oil or natural gas, or other fuels like wood in a fireplace) is usually only about 1/3 or 1/4 as energy efficient than the equivalent temperature change by heat pump, and you can see how much more energy intensive the typical indoor heating setup is compared to the typical indoor cooling setup.

Some of it is obscured by the fact that fossil fuels are much cheaper per unit energy than electricity from the grid, so that heating bills aren't as expensive in the same ratio, but in terms of actual energy used, it's a big difference.

this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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