Power Cuts?

We had a rash of these a few months back (in the far S/W of Ireland). ....just long enough for the PCs to all fall over.

Complained (several times) to the local power people - who eventually found an intermittent short on the high-voltage supply line and fixed it. In the mean time I'd purchased a UPS.... which, of course, has never been needed - but I guess it's insurance.

Worth telling your local lekky company about it - got the impression from the guys out here that these trips / reconnections aren't treated as high priority unless people complain...

Adrian

No, I'm usually fast asleep at 01:45 - even though I seldom go to bed before midnight.

Had 3 power cuts last night, just over 30 seconds each. Another one this morning, about 40 minutes. I assume these are related to the weather (10" snow now, and still going). Normally power is very good here.

Dave Liquorice wibbled on Wednesday 06 January 2010 08:33

Could be a fault or an overload. The fact it comes back in a matter of seconds is down to the auto-recloser they have on some of the substations. Those usually try to close the breaker up to 3 times before giving up, (though pikeys have been caught out before by assuming it was safe to nick the copper after the 3rd attempt).

I wouldn't bother the leccy co for one episode, but if it keeps happening, best to ring them - there may be something going on they need to look at.

A couple of flickers.

We put it down to the horrendous amount of snow/ice hanging on the lines.

Yes, there is an auto-recloser in the line and the "off" time is about what that does. What made me suspicious is the cuts happening at the same time on consequative mornings.

We had another couple at 1746 this afternoon, so it might be ice(*) or a tree drooping under the weight of snow onto the line and getting blown apart.

(*) After the snow yesterday all the power lines where heavily coated in snow, insulators the lot.

I'd guess at snow-laden branches weighed down and brushing against the conductors.

I recollect one instance many years ago where a pole-mounted auto recloser kept operating at more or less the same time every day for weeks. Carried out line patrols, emergency tree cutitng to make sure the lines were clear, all to no avail.

In the end it turned out to be a farmer who let his bull out into a paddock at more or less the same time every day. There was an angle stay from a pole in the paddock, and the bull would head straight for the stay and start scratching his shoulder on the wire, which caused the overheads to clash. Simple wooden stay guard and the problem went away!

Up here in rural Lincolnshire (Fens) we get power cuts frequently. That's why I bought a UPS several years ago and it's tripped numerous times, often for literally only a few seconds. When I lived down south (High Wycombe) I think I recall getting a power cut only three times in 20 years. Sometimes, here, when we get an outage the power is off for hours.

MM

Yes, no matter what the weather. When we lived in the South Holland area, cuts were an almost daily occurance. As you say, often only for a second or two but enough to be a buggerance, can't count the number of bread loaves ruined through the breadmaker resetting. At least it reinforced the tenet of saving your work on the computer at regular intervals.

My Panasonic will survive (IIRC) a 10 minute power cut before it forgets what it was doing and resets. It warns you if there's been a power cut during the cycle (flashing power light IIRC).