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by labster 1995 days ago
Hospitals are running out of oxygen in a way: so much is going through the pipes that the upper floors have low pressure, and the oxygen pipes occasionally freeze from adiabatic expansion. In LA.
2 comments

You'd think they would test systems like that at maximum consumption.

Mind you, electricity and water systems are also not designed for every outlet to be maxed out. Whomst among us hasn't caused a breaker to trip from having too much stuff on at the same time.

Without knowing at all what I'm talking about, wouldn't be surprised if they are beyond maximum rated consumption.
Why would you? There's almost no cases where you would need oxygen to every room...
I doubt they tested for the case where they needed oxygen for the patients in the conference rooms and gift shop, either. It’s not like they can order more rooms on AWS; physical infrastructure has a breaking point and LA hospitals hit it.
Is it from adiabatic expansion, or is it just the LOX vaporizer/heater being overwhelmed?
Honestly wasn’t sure when I wrote it, I’m an atmospheric scientist, not an engineer, so it seems typically adiabatic to me... quite possibly the answer is “both”.