I've lost power (briefly) at my new home about 5 times in the two months I've been living there. At my previous home, I lost power that many times in 10 years. This appears to be a utility problem, not a problem with the home itself.
These brief losses reset the clocks on my microwave and other devices, as well as down my computers (I will get a UPS.)
My question: is this frequency of power loss unusual?
devices,
All depends-is it just happening to your house or the neighbors, too?
More to the point is it acceptable ?
Ask your neighbors if they have the same problem.
Make sure your alarm clock has a good battery in it.
Report this to your power company and see if they can tell you what the cause was. It might be an under rated transformer that should be upgraded.
Call the power co, when my service was hooked up they forgot to tighten the the main feed to the house, my power did the same thing. They will also give a look over your set up, something may not be safe.
Not sure in all instances. A couple of times, I heard a transformer blow, so I'm sure that others were affected. Other times I was either asleep or it only lasted 30 seconds or so.
No, but I may be spoiled. Where I grew up, we were just a stone's throw from a major utilty substation; we lost power once in 20 years.
Amazingly, it does. Haven't changed it in years.
I was thinking about it, but was looking for some ammo before I talked with anyone.
Thanks
You mentioned it being a new home. I know the power company here is having problems in some of the new areas. The power draw exceeds the supply. So many new homes, such heavy usage. Yes, the new substation(s) is under construction. I always wonder what affect those glitches are having on the microwave/tv/computer/etc. I sure know they wreak havoc on 3 phase buildings in the neighborhood. A $1000 pump motor can fry mighty quick if it gets single phased. Control boards let the magic smoke out. Not pretty.
Guess it could depend on where you are . I don't remember now if it was once every weekend or once every day the power company was doing something that cut the power off for a split second for about a month. If you are in an area that has lots of ice on the trees or could be traffic accidents that are taking out the power.
Hi, You bet. In 11 years in this house since new, I lost power once for about 2 minutes. Tony
Hi, It's highly unlikely residential homes would have 3 phase power. Tony
It is not normal in most areas. However very new areas often have growing pains so if it is a new home that could be it. Also as noted, check with your neighbors and make sure it is not just your home. Call the power company and see what they have to say. If it appears to be a ongoing issue and not something they are really fixing, consider going to the regulatory agency and ask them to take a look.
I would say not in a new neighborhood. But in an established neighborhood it would be surprising (to me).
Actual service performance results vary by location, and, to a certain extent, luck. For example, if you are served by the same substation as a hospital or police station (which are considered mission critical facilities by most utilities), you might well have the benefit of multiple source feeders that switch over in a fraction of a second if there is any significant fault.
If, on the other hand, you live way out in the country at the end of the electric lines, you may not be so lucky. If you've ever seen your lights flash during an electrical storm before going out, you may be downstream from what the utilities call an automatic recloser. The automatic recloser may open the line for one second or so, one, two, or even three times... Downstream switches may be set to shed load at any of these intervals in an attempt to clear the fault. If you are in the first group to be shed, you will be out-of-luck and in the dark.
Bottom line, certain customers (mostly at the end of the line and in isolated locations) are connected with few or no redundant connections. It is not economical for the utility to do so. But if it matters enough to you, you always have the options of backup generators and UPS's.
Also, to the person who suggested that 3 phase power is not supplied to residences... not true at all. Many condominiums and apartment buildings are supplied with 3 phase power. The actual dwelling units may have only single phase service equipment, but often the common area electrical equipment (elevators, blowers, pumps, air conditioners, etc.) are 3 phase.
Beachcomber
Sorry, new to me. Not new construction.
Thanks to everyone who replied. Sounds like this problem shouldn't be happening in a well-established neighborhood. I'll call my power company.
Thank you!
Well, I've lost power here 6 times in 15 minutes. Other times once a month.
Something happened to my burglar alarm and when there is even the shortest power loss, the alarm would go off, even though it wasn't armed. Can't use it anymore.
I think better appliances last longer without losing track of the time. But price is not always what determines these things, and maybe you should test them before you buy anymore in your case.
I have two vcr's and two alarm clocks on the same shelf, all digital. And I can practically measure the outage by the number of them which lose the time. One never does, and gives good FM but bad AM. Another clock has a backup batter, 9v. Both vcr's same brand, Magnavox, but one a couple years newer. The old one loses the time in a split second. The newer one rarely loses anything.
Some vcrr's have a memory capacitor. One of mine broke I guess, and after I replace the cap with what they sold as a memory cap, it didn't forget again.
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I should have said that what I posted below is from suburban Baltimore.
When I lived in Brooklyn NY, there was probably not more than one power loss in 12 years, and that was the black-out that made news all over the country.
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