Power Outage

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
There was a power outage here last night lasting just about 2 hours (9:50 to 11:50 pm). What a hassle - having to reset all the electric clocks, waiting for modems to reboot, putting a drip pan under the furnace (it leaks if it gets cold) and I can't sleep if the TV isn't on. Probably minor inconveniences since some people rely on electricity to run important health equipment. I always like to know the cause of events, it's usually an animal shorted some equipment or a vehicle accident involving a pole. I PMed the mayor this morning asking the cause. The only reply was something to do with the grid.
 

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Also the stress of not knowing how long it's going to last. I have 2 containers of ice cream in the freezer I'd have to eat so they wouldn't be wasted. ;)

I took a walk around the block. Some houses looked like they had power, but they might have generators. I could see Mechanicville lights reflected off of clouds and also Saratoga, so I might have been a very localized outage.
 

Sorry you went through that! We've had several power outages in the past, and they usually didn't last very long. I think as long as you don't open the freezer, the food/ice cream should be ok for several hours.
 
I'm in the land of "rolling blackouts" We haven't had those in a while. I only have one clock. I run a white noise CD at night.

Do you have a utility company number you can call. Usually they will have an automated message if there is an outage in your area.
 
Glad you were only out for a short time. Loosing power isn't pleasant at all.

I just looked it up because I was curious about freezers. It said a fridge is good for 4 hours, half-filled freezer for 24 hours & full-freezer for 48 hours.
 
Where I live, the power goes out any time of the day or night. Just the other day, it went out while I was trimming hedges, probably because the electric trimmer I was using added too much of a load to the local grid. I knew because the clocks were blinking. Sometimes it goes out for hours sometimes for a few minutes. I grew up in a real backwoods area. There the power went out maybe once a year. Trees fell down every day there, but the power hardly ever failed. This place, you turn on the dryer and the power goes out for everyone around. Blah. Why not just go back to the Stone Age.
 
Judycat said:
I grew up in a real backwoods area. There the power went out maybe once a year. Trees fell down every day there, but the power hardly ever failed. This place, you turn on the dryer and the power goes out for everyone around. Blah. Why not just go back to the Stone Age.
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More people, more appliances, more drain on an outdated grid. My old house had 10 amp service. They was probably adequate when the wiring was installed in the 1930s or 40s. There were no grounded outlets, either.
 
Hereā€™s some relevant information on power outages.
The boom you often hear associated with a power outage is not the transformer, itā€™s an expulsion fuse. Itā€™s designed to protect the transformer from a short.
Most houses are fed from what is known as ā€œsingle phaseā€ electricity. Your neighbor could be tapped off of another phase of a three phase circuit, they could have power and you not. (Or vice-versa) Happens all the time.
That green box (transformer) out front in most cases has 7200 volts feeding it, itā€™s then stepped down to 240 volts. Hiding it with bushes seriously interferes with a linemanā€™s ability to safely restore power. Itā€™s a terrible place to sit waiting for the bus too.
Chicks dig lineman, duh.
 
When I was at the other house, I had a strange outage. I had power in some places in the house and not others. I called the power company and they said if I had some power, it wasn't their problem and to call an electrician. Yeah, try to get someone on Sunday! My next door neighbor had been away for the weekend and he came back late that morning. A few minutes later he rang my doorbell and asked if I had an electric outage. I explained what was going on and he said it was the same thing in his house. I said if HE called the power company, they'd have to send someone. About 2 hours later a power company truck pulled up. Eventually the repairman determined that a tree branch had rubbed against a certain line and shorted out one circuit. That's why there was electricity in some outlets and not others ad it only affected me and my neighbor. The problem was about here:

electric.jpg
 
debodun said:
When I was at the other house, I had a strange outage. I had power in some places in the house and not others. I called the power company and they said if I had some power, it wasn't their problem and to call an electrician. Yeah, try to get someone on Sunday! My next door neighbor had been away for the weekend and he came back late that morning. A few minutes later he rang my doorbell and asked if I had an electric outage. I explained what was going on and he said it was the same thing in his house. I said if HE called the power company, they'd have to send someone. About 2 hours later a power company truck pulled up. Eventually the repairman determined that a tree branch had rubbed against a certain line and shorted out one circuit. That's why there was electricity in some outlets and not others ad it only affected me and my neighbor. The problem was about here:

View attachment 285360
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Easy explanation. Your house service is fed at 240 volts between two legs, one leg alone is 120 volts to neutral. Your panel is 120 volts per side or 240 between the two for dryers, ranges and etc etc. One leg damaged on the service leading to your home would leave you with one side of your panel only. No 240 nor anything tapped off of the damaged leg.
 
Our longest outage was 11 days. We also had a 4 day outage. Losing power for a few hours is fairly common, more than yearly. We get water from a well, and we have electric heat, so power outages are very inconvenient, and even dangerous in the wintertime.

I bought a big generator. It lives out in the barn and I can wheel it to the driveway and plug it into a special outlet. It's big and heavy and provides 10 kW. But our ground is a bit rough and I can barely wheel it around. One of my retirement projects is to put bigger wheels on it to make it easier.
 
Thatā€™s a long stretch. If youā€™re not prepared at least as long as the poster above youā€™re making a mistake. Doesnā€™t matter where you live, trust me. Not to get political but, this EV push is going to make things much much worse. ā€œCart before the horseā€ type of thing. Take that to the bank!
 
Power interruptions are more frequent here than power outages. Glitches, power spikes and brown downs. Have always had our electronics on UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) so our internet gateway is unaffected and can operate stand alone for 40min or so.

Sharon is an author and is thus always "in the middle of writing" when glitches occur. For me, it's no problem and see it as more of a relief than inconvenience.

Back, '08 I think it was, went twenty-one days without power after a hurricane. Had a stash of light sticks that got us through. And some candles rummaged from the attic. Not a generator guy. During that period the entire neighborhood was a cacophony of mind-numbing sound of droning generators-24 hours a day. Thank goodness when they ran out of fuel giving a few minutes of blissful quiet.
 

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