Flat rate electricity like water?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Same happens in the UK. One minute it's raining lightly, the next minute it's raining heavily. It's impossible to predict how wet you'll get.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Nope, my water is paid for by the value of my house. Big house, more water, more money, bigger rates.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Only if you live in a a desert like Africa.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

That sounds a lot. Where on earth is that going? That's 90 bucket fulls. Probably 2 gallons to flush the toilet. I assume you don't do that 90 times a day. Do you have 20 people living in your house?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

No, I think because I do that, it's possible. But nobody anywhere pays flat rate for electricity. Why is this?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I though Clare was Canadian.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Who cares? It's simpler and cheaper overall. And it means nobody has to worry about how much they use.

[rbowman]

The Sonoran desert makes parts of Africa look lush.

[Clare Snyder]

3 months of the year when I was in southern Zambia were so wet it was ridiculous - 114 inches the one wet season - the other 9 months were "drier than a fart in a summer breeze" - less than 1/4 inch.

[rbowman]

I get a motorcycle magazine and this month's issue had an article about riding the North Coast 500. Nice pictures. The Torridon Lodge Hotel in the rain. The Bealach na Ba in the rain. A long time exploring Dunrobin Castle since it wasn't raining inside much. At Ackergill Tower Hotel there was enough sun that the bike cast a shadow. A shot of a muddy single track road on the Assynt peninsula. Raining of course. The Inselbergs, cloudy but it didn't appear to be actively raining.

"It was a cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal." The guy seemed to enjoy it although he did mention the 12-year-old Bunnahabhain among the other 350 malt whiskies. Might have had something to do with it.

All in all I'm not about to fly to the UK and rent a bike in the near future.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Flat rate could a $1,000 a month as they know some people would abuse the system. Like leaving doors open in the wintertime. I don't want to pay a flat rate because some knucklehead thinks they have the right to be a jerk because they pay a flat rate. System works great now, you pay for what you use.

[gfretwell]

No, why bother, they are going to burn it anyway.

[gfretwell]

Or a desert like the American Southwest.

[gfretwell]

The problem is, when water was seen as plentiful, people moved into the desert and now they have outgrown that plentiful water supply. They are basically pumping the lakes behind the FDR dams faster than the snow melt and rain from the Rockies can refill them. Places like LA only get 12-15 inches of rain a year and it pretty much all comes at the same time. Places like Las Vegas get more like 4-5". They still expect pools, fountains and big green lawns.

[gfretwell]

I am not sure myself. There are just 2 of us unless the kids are here. I know the R/O wastes a lot of water but it is the only way to get the salt out of my well. We do seem to be right in the middle of what the USGS says is the national average, (80-100 gallons a day per person)

[rbowman]

Do they have impoundments to capture the water during the rainy season? When I was in southern Arizona last fall that wasn't working. Several of the areas that had always been little oases were down to mud, if that.

[rbowman]

Las Vegas built new water intakes in Lake Merde. The lake keeps getting lower and the old intakes may be sucking air soon. The spillway at Hoover Dam last saw water during the Reagan years.

[Dean Hoffman]

We just watched what happens when people don't conserve and use common sense. Irrigation season lasts about two months here. Why should the utilities build generation power for that seasonal load? It would cost a lot more money. We've seen what happened in Texas with the over use of water. The water tables dropped a bunch. Wells ran dry. We have meters on the irrigation wells. There are rules in place to regulate irrigation if the water tables drop to a certain level. A farmer will be able to use X amount of water over three years if regulation becomes necessary.

[Huge]

JWS is either a moron who has never heard of the tragedy of the commons, or a troll who has and doesn't care. Either way, why are you giving him what he wants, which is some attention in his sad and pathetic excuse for a life?