Elderly man freezes to death in home

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

The limiter is explained in the article.

It doesn't really answer that question. If it limits your power consumption to a certain point, would that allow your heat to run if the temperature is that cold? I think most of our power bills are mainly heating or air. How limited is limited?

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It doesn't really answer that question. If it limits your power consumption to a certain point, would that allow your heat to run if the temperature is that cold? I think most of our power bills are mainly heating or air. How limited is limited?

more than likely no....

If you clicked the link I left it goes into detail exactly how the limiter works which would explain why temps were below freezing when they found him.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

more than likely no....

If you clicked the link I left it goes into detail exactly how the limiter works which would explain why temps were below freezing when they found him.

Nope. Read it. It doesn't explain how much power the limiter gave the guy. It doesn't explain whether it allows a certain amount of consistent limited use, which a way to allow a space heater or something to run but not central heat (and which would shut off power completely if exceeded)OR if it is a wattage or dollar about limit that shuts down the power when that amount total is used.

And further, knowing that temperatures were below freezing when they found him doesn't really have anything to do with anything since we know that the limiter had already shut the power off.

[aephi alum]

What an awful way to die.

[AGDee]

What they said on the local news about the limiter is that it is supposed to allow enough electricity to be used to keep the heat, refrigerator and stove going. I'm not sure how they determine how much that takes, especially since during that time period, our night time lows were -5 or so with day time highs of 8. My furnace ran continuously to keep the house at 68 during that time period. It was bitter bitter cold. Over 400 school districts in the Detroit area had school cancelled for a "cold" day the day before this guy was found. Bay City is about 150 miles north of Detroit, where it was even colder.

ETA: Since he had no kids and was 93 years old, there's a good chance there was no family at all.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

What they said on the local news about the limiter is that it is supposed to allow enough electricity to be used to keep the heat, refrigerator and stove going. I'm not sure how they determine how much that takes, especially since during that time period, our night time lows were -5 or so with day time highs of 8. My furnace ran continuously to keep the house at 68 during that time period. It was bitter bitter cold. Over 400 school districts in the Detroit area had school cancelled for a "cold" day the day before this guy was found. Bay City is about 150 miles north of Detroit, where it was even colder.

ETA: Since he had no kids and was 93 years old, there's a good chance there was no family at all.

Ok...cool, now an expert...please break it down because if I am reading you correctly, then what you are saying contradicts the the news article....the limiter can possibly shut down the power but keeps the essentials running...correct?

OOOOoooorr...is it as the article states it the article that it allows power for a short time but at a certain point shuts it ALL off, including the heat?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

What they said on the local news about the limiter is that it is supposed to allow enough electricity to be used to keep the heat, refrigerator and stove going. I'm not sure how they determine how much that takes, especially since during that time period, our night time lows were -5 or so with day time highs of 8. My furnace ran continuously to keep the house at 68 during that time period. It was bitter bitter cold. Over 400 school districts in the Detroit area had school cancelled for a "cold" day the day before this guy was found. Bay City is about 150 miles north of Detroit, where it was even colder.

ETA: Since he had no kids and was 93 years old, there's a good chance there was no family at all.

Thank you. This is what I wanted to know, and it most definitely wasn't covered by the article. Another poster suggested that the information was in the linked article, but alas it wasn't. I wasn't the one who expected it to be.

The point you make is the one I wondered about. What's the point of a limiter if the amount of power you need to keep from freezing to death exceeds the limit?

I don't blame the power company specifically, particularly in a case with an outstanding 1,000 dollar bill, but it does seem that as a society we could certainly do better than this.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Nope. Read it. It doesn't explain how much power the limiter gave the guy. It doesn't explain whether it allows a certain amount of consistent limited use, which a way to allow a space heater or something to run but not central heat (and which would shut off power completely if exceeded)OR if it is a wattage or dollar about limit that shuts down the power when that amount total is used.

And further, knowing that temperatures were below freezing when they found him doesn't really have anything to do with anything since we know that the limiter had already shut the power off.

Are you expecting a schematic layout of what the limiter does, in that article?

Wow...it's almost academic !!

What aren't you seeing?

The Limiter:
Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, said Belleman. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

I am not seeing how you can't figure out how this whole thing works and why you need such a detailed explanation as to how this killed him. It says right there in that passage, "It blows like a fuse." What happens when a fuse blows? NO POWER AT ALL.

It doesn't matter how much was getting to the home, the point IS...once the lights went out, everything else went down hill with it...including his life.

Michigan which one can guess at this time of the year is MUCH colder than say...Florida?

Anyone here from Michigan can give us an avg temp for this time of year?

Everything else is really simple.

The man owed on his bill and is 93 years old ...they put the limiter on and once the time passed...POOF NO POWER NO HEAT... once the power went out, it's almost easy to figure out that the temps quickly dropped in his home thereby killing him from hypothermia.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Are you expecting a schematic layout of what the limiter does, in that article?

Wow...it's almost academic !!

What aren't you seeing?

The Limiter:
Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, said Belleman. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

I am not seeing how you can't figure out how this whole thing works and why you need such a detailed explanation as to how this killed him. It says right there in that passage, "It blows like a fuse." What happens when a fuse blows? NO POWER AT ALL.

It doesn't matter how much was getting to the home, the point IS...once the lights went out, everything else went down hill with it...including his life.

Michigan which one can guess at this time of the year is MUCH colder than say...Florida?

Anyone here from Michigan can give us an avg temp for this time of year?

Everything else is really simple.

The man owed on his bill and is 93 years old ...they put the limiter on and once the time passed...POOF NO POWER NO HEAT... once the power went out, it's almost easy to figure out that the temps quickly dropped in his home thereby killing him from hypothermia.

It's not that you don't know what particularly happened that bugs me; it's that you are condescending when you don't even grasp what's being asked.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It's not that you don't know what particularly happened that bugs me; it's that you are condescending when you don't even grasp what's being asked.

That's because you are asking for too much out of an article that was straight to the point about how he died.


It's a news article, not an eletrical engineering report.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

That's because you are asking for too much out of an article that was straight to the point about how he died.


It's a news article, not an eletrical engineering report.

Go back and read. You will see that you were the one who suggested that all information one might want about the limiter was in the article. It was I who asked the good people of GreekChat "What's the idea of the limiter? Would it be enough to run your heat?"

And as you can now see, AGDee answered my question.