Power cuts

[DanFox]

This morning I experienced an electrical power cut at home for the fourth day running. The power outage only lasts about 5 minutes and there are no obvious causes. The only ?pattern' to the power cuts is that they seem to take place a few minutes after switching off my electric shower (note: a few minutes after, not immediately).

No fuses appear to blow, and the power is restored after about five minutes. I've done no electrical work prior to this happening and have been using the shower for approx four months without any problems.

Any ideas?

[David Hearn]

I would assume that if the power comes back on again without you having to do anything and lasts a similar amount of time each time, then the cut is not happening inside your house. Sounds more likely that there's a fault on the supply somewhere and an auto-reset is happening (or similar). Have you tried asking neighbours if they have a similar problem?

I would possibly suggest contacting your supplier (or should that be distribution company?) and see if they know of any faults, or could take a look.

D

[BigWallop]

When the power is killed, is it just your property or does the whole area go down ? If its just your property, then what type of supply do you have ? Are you in a rural or urban area ? Is yours the only from the mains on a pole outside ?

[Christian McArdle]

It sounds like the local electricity supply has had a little too much diversity applied to it. Assuming your shower is at a similar time every morning, along with everyone else nearby showering and putting on the kettle, this morning peak may overload the local transformer, which is cutting out, but auto-reclosing after it has cooled off. Have any nearby houses been built/newly occupied recently?

Christian.

[Andrew Gabriel]

How widespread is the outage? Have you asked your electricity supplier?

[Wanderer]

If you don't have to do anything to get the supply back on, then the problem is almost certainly outside your property - unless you happen to have some weird and wonderful control equipment! :-)

The symptoms you describe are typical of an auto-reclose on a high voltage overhead circuit. Are you in a fairly rural area? Are your neighbours affected? If it's happening at more or less the same time each day, it could be something as simple as birds flying into overhead lines at that time of day, or cattle scratching themselves on a stay wire causing the overhead wires to clash, but not actually break.

Predominantly overhead rural systems have automatic circuit breakers at the source substation and at one or two points out on the network. These disconnect the supply in the event of a transient fault, like birds flying into overhead lines, and then reclose onto the circuit after a short interval.

Tell your local electricity company about the problem, they will (should!) carry out an inspection of the circuit if the problem persists.

[Harry Bloomfield]

DanFox wrote on 15/01/2004 :-

From your description, it seems unlikely (although not impossible) it would be a problem inside your house. Ask if any of your neighbours are similarly affected. the problem may only affect one single phase of the supply, so it would be asking several neighbours.

One further thought on this.... Are you saying that ALL of your power is going off, or is it just the shower? Showers incorporate a thermal switch which often open and remain open for some minutes after the shower is turned off, until the unit cools down.

[ARWadsworth]

Try running the shower at other times of the day to eliminate it from the equation, although I do not think the shower is to blame. If all the other power is fine (ie no flickering lights etc) then the problem is probably outside your house.

-- Adam

adamwadsworth@(REMOVETHIS)blueyonder.co.uk

[DanFox]

Thanks for all your replies on this - loads more than I expected!

The problem didn't occur this morning - so hopefully whatever caused the problem has been fixed. (I reported it to the electricity company so maybe they sorted it.... they wouldnt tell me on the phone, but said they will write to me within 7 days to advise on any action taken?!?!?!?).

Thanks again for all your replies.

Dan