Is there a way of telling if there have been power cuts in the night or while out?

[MM]

Do the power companies keep online logs of power failures of more than a few minutes?

MM

[Broadback]

Well I always know because the clock on both the cooker and the microwave are off. However that does not say how long it was off for. I guess an mains electric clock would show that by time lost.

[Frank Erskine]

Assuming that it self-restarts :-)

[Hugh - in either England or Sp]

Got back a couple of weeks ago from 11 weeks away. Cooker and microwave lights flashing but the freezer contents showed no signs of thawing and re-freezing. A neighbour might know but if only one phase went it might be necessary to ask a few. (A landscape gardener once hit our underground power cable and ISTR one phase was out for quite a while and caused conndusion between neighbours)

[The Natural Philosopher]

The easy way to tell is that your dont reboot on power up server is dead and cold.

>

[Bob Eager]

The UPS logs tell me.

[Brian Gaff]

What has annoyed me lately are the power cuts that last for seconds and seem to have very rough power as they fail. These scramble devices with digital circuitry I often find, like set top boxes and radios. I think the best way one can tell if there has been a cut is to have a good old fashioned electric clock run from the mains. If its wrong by an appreciable amount then you know its been off. I have a relay operated set of sockets for the stereo via a timer, and if the mains drops out it will just go off and await my return. Brian

[Jim K]

ah the trials of the tax exile ;>)

Jim K

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 10:02:37 on Sat, 1 Dec 2012, Brian Gaff remarked:

I've had a few of those the last couple of weeks, plus some others where the lights dimmed and the fridge compressor audibly slowed down but all the PCs etc carried on OK.

What's causing this, is it the old "overhead wires banging together in the gales"?

[The Natural Philosopher]

That unfortunately is what lines banging together or against tree parts do, in high wind.

Since a lot of 11KV and 33KV is in fact up poles, that is what you get..

The alternative is a few percent more on the leccy bill. And underground it.

[usenet2012]

Our oven restarts the clock at 00:00.

[tony sayer]

In article , MM scribeth thus

Not generally . They might not know of smaller events on their networks they still rely in someone to phone them and complain...

[tony sayer]

In article , Roland Perry scribeth thus

The national grid it came to pas. It's wires were made of Brass..

In windy weather they'd bang together, and spark's flew out of its arse!..

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes. Or branches falling on em

More common outside of town

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Confused conductive concussion?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Ah, it's easy to confuse sparks with low-flying apostrophes. They tend to lodge everywhere, the little blighters.

[tony sayer]

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Well the real reason is 99 times outa 100 tree branches clouting the lines causing automatic line reclosers to be activated.

And the trees are not cut back from the lines as much as they ought be....

[ARW]

Not sure what a small event is - but the substation in my garden is remotely monitored at an office in Leeds 20 miles away.

Any self resetting breaker that fails to reset does not need a phone call to tell them that the power is down. I only phone them to tell them that they have locked my cat in the substation and could they come back and let it out.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , tony sayer writes

EDF sent a team to fell a diseased Ash here a few weeks back. The usable wood should see my log burner through this winter:-)

[Andy Champ]

The hundredth being some scrote with a bike frame...

Andy