Elderly man freezes to death in home

[AGDee]

It is supposed to allow enough electricity to run those things but if you use more than it's set for, it shuts down and all power goes out, even those essential things.

ETA (again): They did say that it can be re-set by the home owner, but nobody knew for sure if the man had been shown how to do that.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

It is supposed to allow enough electricity to run those things but if you use more than it's set for, it shuts down and all power goes out, even those essential things.

EEXXXXXXXAAACTLY.....and once it's gone it was easy to see why this poor fellow froze to death

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

EEXXXXXXXAAACTLY.....and once it's gone it was easy to see why this poor fellow froze to death

You realize that it was only your reading comprehension that ever had this in doubt?

It appears everyone else understood that limiter overload equaled no heat. And please remember that you were the one who suggested that information was in the article that clearly wasn't.

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

The limiter is explained in the article.

[Munchkin03]

I thought most utility providers had a special program, or at least some sort of forbearance, for people who were elderly, infirm, or who always needed electricity/running water/etc. Basically, ConEd can't turn off someone's power if they are elderly, have babies, or have an illness that requires electricity. I figured most places would have it as well.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I thought most utility providers had a special program, or at least some sort of forbearance, for people who were elderly, infirm, or who always needed electricity/running water/etc. Basically, ConEd can't turn off someone's power if they are elderly, have babies, or have an illness that requires electricity. I figured most places would have it as well.

My guess, and of course I don't know, is that the limiter is supposed to be a way around this. You could get "essential" power, but not more. The issue seems to be that with weather this cold, the heat couldn't work without exceeding the amount of limited power.

Honestly, I don't know how I feel about a blanket policy about not cutting off power. I'd be all about requiring a percentage of profits being set aside for assisting those in need, but what seems to sometimes happen (and I'm thinking Atlanta water company here) is that once some customers learn that the utility won't actually be cut off for non-payment, they basically don't pay again for a really long time if ever. (This is kind of a bad example for this particular thread but this covers some corporate clients who went years late:http://www.ajc.com/services/content/...rrisbrown.html)

ETA: sure, the number of people who will meet the criteria you outlined is probably pretty limited, but it seems that there's a better way of dealing with the whole issue rather than just saying certain folks are exempt from getting the utilities cut off.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

ETA: sure, the number of people who will meet the criteria you outlined is probably pretty limited, but it seems that there's a better way of dealing with the whole issue rather than just saying certain folks are exempt from getting the utilities cut off.

It's not that limited, if you think about it. The elderly, ill, people with kids, and those who need power to treat chronic illnesses (that could be as basic as asthma or diabetes, if a case is severe enough) are the most vulnerable. That pretty much eliminates everyone except for able-bodied young and middle-aged people without children in the home. Those people should be able to pay their own power bill.

It seems to work well here in NYC, since people don't freeze to death all winter long.

As far as "the pioneer days" and people not having electricity then, we also live in areas of the world that weren't exactly habitable before the advent of electricity and the automobile. Also, one of the interesting advances of science is medications sometimes have to be refrigerated. We can't pretend that we can do without the things people did 150 years ago because times have changed.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

It's not that limited, if you think about it. The elderly, ill, people with kids, and those who need power to treat chronic illnesses (that could be as basic as asthma or diabetes, if a case is severe enough) are the most vulnerable. That pretty much eliminates everyone except for able-bodied young and middle-aged people without children in the home. Those people should be able to pay their own power bill.

It seems to work well here in NYC, since people don't freeze to death all winter long.

As far as "the pioneer days" and people not having electricity then, we also live in areas of the world that weren't exactly habitable before the advent of electricity and the automobile. Also, one of the interesting advances of science is medications sometimes have to be refrigerated. We can't pretend that we can do without the things people did 150 years ago because times have changed.

People lived in some pretty cold places before electricity was taken for granted, but I'm not suggesting we should go back. I'm pretty grateful for air conditioning in the summer, especially. I just think it's odd how relatively quickly we've come to accept an entitlement to electric power.

I think utilities are something that ought to be a high priority for people to pay for themselves. The number of people who actually can't pay is probably pretty low, but if we make too long a list of people who get power whether they pay for it our not, I think we're going to see a lot fewer people on the list making paying for utilities a priority.

But I'm certainly not saying that we cut power off and let people freeze to death. I just think there may be other effective ways to handle the issue.

I suspect that heat in general is less of an issue in NYC because of shared building heat among apartments. If you are on a floor fairly high up in a building, you might not even need much of your own. So, if power bills are pretty cheap, there probably are not a lot of people who are trying to justify to themselves not paying for it.

You just want to be careful what you indirectly invite with public policy.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I thought most utility providers had a special program, or at least some sort of forbearance, for people who were elderly, infirm, or who always needed electricity/running water/etc. Basically, ConEd can't turn off someone's power if they are elderly, have babies, or have an illness that requires electricity. I figured most places would have it as well.

most places do, but think of how many people slip thru the cracks because for some reason or another they don't or are unable to utilize these resources.