Well my neighbor has her own backup power system. Plus she's an attractive, single, successful woman so I'm already envious. Or something along those lines. :)

But that is the point, this is not capitalism.

Yes, but if your neighbor has an intermittent ground problem that is under their driveway and their electrical bill is twice yours until they spend $10K to fix it you probably will not be so envious.

Jan, you and I seem to be on a very similar wavelength on many topics!

"If I build a home from scratch, it will have a large 'channel' on the inner walls..." Yes, I have had the very same idea in mind for years. " do the repairs, standing up, in a temperature controlled environment, with plenty of light and no spiders." No spiders! I loathe spiders even though I know that without them the planet would be 10' deep in insects. In my current home I keep the unfinished-but-otherwise-modern basement free of them with minimal effort, but my previous house was built in 1900 with a fieldstone foundation and dirt floor. I was physically unable to go down there. I broke out in a cold sweat if I even stood in the open doorway for more than 20 seconds. If I blew a fuse I had an understanding neighbor who would replace it for me!

Regarding buried utilities, electric, twisted-pair copper, co-ax cable and fiber optic cable are *usually* accessible without digging up the street. If troubles pop up that proved to be located between the street and a home it usually just requires digging a shallow trench if there's a reason to have to expose the conduit.

When I repave my driveway in a few years I'll have the contractor install the necessary conduit(s) to run my utilities underground from the pole.

I think that makes a lot of sense. But I do not believe you can easily bury the long distance high voltage lines. Partly because of the cost but just as importantly there are losses due to the non-isotropic nature of the soil that result in electrical changes that result in losses and other problems.

and **despite** these impediments, our formerly-
capitalistic system **still** outperforms the competition,
hands-down. -- j

That's a cool invention. I live in New England where most of the power lines are on poles. One issue to work through regarding the invention is that on our winding country roads, where the majority of the lines come down in a storm, the power lines cross the road very often. If the lines were auto-lowered they'd be laying across the road. That's a problem even if they're de-energized.

Nevertheless, this invention could still be used where appropriate and provide the benefits as described.

I have wondered about this with reference to home construction too: we make it very difficult to access the mechanisms of our modern life. It would seem to me that a ground level conduit, perhaps concrete, would be the sensible way to build utilities transmission routes across cities. It could contain waste, water, electricity, fibre, gas, whatever was needed at the time. And it should be either big enough to walk in or have removable panels so that people who needed to work on one of the utilities could reach their line or pipe.

While I am on a roll here: It used to be the custom for suburban homes to have septic tanks. Septic tanks are a pain, but at least you are not transporting sewage tens of miles to be processed. My current home has a high-tech sewage treatment system...which the State of CA rates as 'output can go into the Pacific Ocean'. So, the output is essentially 'clean' (though not potable). One could potentially re-use this output for agricultural purposes. Since we have this technology, why do we still build around the concept of sewer lines?

If I build a home from scratch, it will have a large 'channel' on the inner walls, at a convenient height. In this channel will run my electrical, gas, water, and com lines. The channel will be covered with a piece of wood trim that is part of a wainscoting or chair rail. When I need to do a repair, I will just yank off a section of the wainscoting and I will be able to do the repairs. I will be able to do the repairs, standing up, in a temperature controlled environment, with plenty of light and no spiders.

It seems obvious to me that one should not build utilities on any scale such that you have to tear up a street or a concrete pad or a wall in order to repair them (and spend most of your time tearing and rebuilding too).

Jan

fabulous invention, thanks for posting. now to get a single power company to use it. he has my support.

But if you live through the winters of the northeast you tend to look in envy at some of the neighborhoods where they have buried lines and aren't losing power every other week.

Unfortunately, I think the only way to sell this is to get to the regulators, who would then demand they use this invention. Not a great way to do business.

Amazing. If utilities were not regulated, this could easily be broken up

No, but if you can put them back up quicker it gives them less time and if the power is up it encourages them less.

K was freaking this morning, no internet, no power and a really hot night with mesquites. But the internet came back on, so now all we need is ice, and electricity and the beer truck to come by, and,

Actually that is much more expensive and has a number of loss problems. And if you have ever lived with buried lines that start having problems, you know much more expensive to fix.

There was already an amazing idea for protecting power lines from storms, it's called burying them.

Sounds like the Union Boss in Atlas Shrugged telling Dagny that the UNION will not let the men drive the train on the "untested rails". Oh so many parallels. WSJ article, "Atlas Shrugged" Fiction to Fact in 53 years.

I had a similar experience here in Oklahoma. One of the utility companies' biggest expense is replacing lines brought down by ice storms, and I proposed spraying the lines with an environmentally clean aerospace lubricant once a year to prevent ice buildup. After an initial enthusiastic response, I was abruptly "uninvited" to further discussion. Months later, one of the state engineers told me that an influential state politician's brother owned one of the companies that was contracted to replace the downed power lines every year, and my idea would have shut down his company.

Sounds like a great invention.If they could just use it in one community to prove how effective it is I think people would demand it. Makes me wonder how many other inventions are sitting idle???

Remembering Atlas Shrugged, does it have a way to stop the looters from stealing the valuable power lines while they are down?

Thank you for posting this. Prime example of government interference that affects everyone negatively whether they realize it or not.
Stay safe and I hope you have power again soon.

Who is John Galt?