power outage -- EVERYBODY FREAK OUT!!!

[roller]

I live in a residential neighborhood in a major city here in the U.S... and this afternoon, right after I began my daily walk, there was a power outage in my neighborhood.

As I strolled through the area, there was a steady trend of unhappy people were coming out of their houses in droves, nervously asking their neighbors if their power was out as well.

Haha... really? Yes, I was amused.

When I was a kid, I never remember a power outage sparking (pun intended) such action amongst the neighbors.

Is this really where we're at as a species? Maybe it's a testament as to how addicted some folks have become to their computers and devices?

 

[DirtDog]

We had a tornado blow through here a couple of years ago and knocked out power to most of the city for 56 hours. I was charging my mobile phone in the car.

up at our rural property, it was 50/50 whether the power would last the weekend. A moderate breeze would knock the transformer out. We managed without power just fine.

 

[Alkali Ike]

Where I live the electric and cable feeds are above ground and there are a *LOT* of trees. The utility company prunes tree limbs back from the power lines almost every year, but if a tree comes down, it takes out the power and cable. A couple years ago we had an extended outage due to ice and snow taking down trees all over the place. I had no power for 17 hours, and no internet for a week. I have a 3KW propane generator that I can use but I'm getting too old to go out in the ice and snow, make a clearing for the gen, drag it out and get it hooked up. I'm thinking of getting a whole-house backup generator powered by natural gas, gas being the utility that's least likely to be interrupted since it's entirely below ground. I'll probably get automatic failover. Power goes out, generator starts and takes over. Power comes back, generator switches back to commercial and shuts off.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Here in CT, about every couple of years we have a fall storm where we lose power for 3-7 days.

 

[mikeoso]

Where I live the electric and cable feeds are above ground and there are a *LOT* of trees. The utility company prunes tree limbs back from the power lines almost every year, but if a tree comes down, it takes out the power and cable. A couple years ago we had an extended outage due to ice and snow taking down trees all over the place. I had no power for 17 hours, and no internet for a week. I have a 3KW propane generator that I can use but I'm getting too old to go out in the ice and snow, make a clearing for the gen, drag it out and get it hooked up. I'm thinking of getting a whole-house backup generator powered by natural gas, gas being the utility that's least likely to be interrupted since it's entirely below ground. I'll probably get automatic failover. Power goes out, generator starts and takes over. Power comes back, generator switches back to commercial and shuts off.

I have a 7.5 kw hardwired propane unit with automatic switching for the parrot building. For my house I have a 7.5 kw gasoline unit, sits in my (non-attached) garage 25 feet from the house. I have to manually start it, plug the feed cable in to a box on the house, and throw the breakers in the basement. Not as nice, but a $2000 difference in price.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Fairly normal to check in with neighbors and determine if the outage is "local to your house" or "widespread", if only to decide whether you personally need to contact the power company, or not. Depending on season, things far more important than "your internet devices" can be a problem (i.e. no heat, even if your heat isn't electric, because your non-electric heat uses electric controls/distribution) - not generally a problem in May, locally. Well pump doesn't work, so no water once the pressure tank goes down. At least my septic is gravity - pumped systems add one more level of inconvenience to that problem. Longer outages are a problem for the food in your freezer and refrigerator unless it IS so cold out you can just put it outside for the duration, etc. No big ones this year, last year our road was out for more than 3 days.

In most cases internet vanishes with the power, as the wires run on the same poles. But not freezing, being able to drink and flush, and not losing a fridge/freezer full of food come a long way ahead of having internet. Cell data isn't great here, and I don't pay enough to have much on my usual cell phone plan anyway. In a bad storm their backhaul (wires or fibers) may also go down...

 

[AboutSweetSue]

Had a guy cut down a tree right onto a power line. I didn't feel the need to ask the neighbors as we were all undoubtably screwed for a few hours.

 

[Alkali Ike]

I have a 7.5 kw hardwired propane unit with automatic switching for the parrot building. For my house I have a 7.5 kw gasoline unit, sits in my (non-attached) garage 25 feet from the house. I have to manually start it, plug the feed cable in to a box on the house, and throw the breakers in the basement. Not as nice, but a $2000 difference in price.

I had my generator connected to the house breaker panel via 4 manual cutover switches connected to 4 house circuits including the gas furnace. Unfortunately, although it was totally safe with no possibility of back feeding to the commercial utility lines, it didn't meet code. Now I'm getting a new HVAC system for this 26 year old house. The project requires electrical inspections, so I had no choice but to tear out the backup gen wiring system.

I could get an electrician to redo it to code, but I'd still have to deal with the generator. I'm inclined to go whole-house, or at least the most important circuits, via a Generac.

 

[MD]

I picked up a small 2500w, dual fuel, inverter generator for this year's upcoming outages. It'll run the fridge, TV, computer and a couple lights. Spec suggest at 1/4 power it'll run 34 hours on a 20lb tank of propane.

 

[Jeff K]

I live in a residential neighborhood in a major city here in the U.S... and this afternoon, right after I began my daily walk, there was a power outage in my neighborhood.

As I strolled through the area, there was a steady trend of unhappy people were coming out of their houses in droves, nervously asking their neighbors if their power was out as well.

Haha... really? Yes, I was amused.

When I was a kid, I never remember a power outage sparking (pun intended) such action amongst the neighbors.

Is this really where we're at as a species? Maybe it's a testament as to how addicted some folks have become to their computers and devices?

Power outages occur fairly regularly around here. Lots of powerful storms, tornados, etc. It's never a welcome occurrence. Several years back, certain areas were without power for over two weeks.

So yes, when it does go out, it can cause a lot of angst. I don't think it has to do so much with "computers and devices" as it does with lack of heat (in winter); A/C (in summer); ruined food; etc. It's a real concern never knowing how long it'll be out.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

There's a fair bit of "meets code just fine" space between "fully automatic" and things that don't meet code. I'm not there yet on the generators having a home base they stay put in, but will get there. I dislike automatic cutover since it requires either-pre-picking a few things that are the only things that get power, or oversizing the generator vastly to "power everything" - neither of which suit my taste, and they cost a lot more than what I do. For the same reason I dislike "weird little generator panels" even if manual (even before I heard what real electricians not trying to sell you one think of them.)

I have a listed/approved manual interlock which allows the main breaker on and the generator breaker off, or the generator breaker on and the main off, or both off. I can power any circuit on the panel, but I can't power them all at once, so it's up to me to manually select what I run when. If I get that wrong, the generator breaker trips, nothing bad happens, more stuff gets turned off and reset the breaker. It's fairly inexpensive, none of the circuits needs to be relocated, and there's no temptation to jury rig because you forgot or added something else you want to power. Not a viable option if you require hands-off or unattended operation, but once the generators are suitably homed it's just fire one up, flip the interlock, turn off everything non-essential at the moment, and flip on the generator breaker. Heavy loads can be cycled as needed.

 

[ajkula66]

Is this really where we're at as a species?

I see it more as a "culture" thing as opposed to "species" thing. Let me elaborate...

I grew up in a vastly different world where 16-hour-rolling-blackouts were pretty much a norm during my teenage years. Some years later, I also lived within the Brits and was absolutely amazed at the level of calm that people displayed when subways had to be emptied out on a moment's notice due to an IRA bomb threat, which were not all that uncommon at the time.

Cross the pond, and you're in a hi-tech nation which hasn't fought a war on its own soil in 150 years. While it's a beautiful thing in its own right, it does come at a cost of some level of complacency IMO.

When Sandy beat the crap out of the East Coast I was involved in restoration work in Manhattan While this particular episode left me with quite a few SMH moments, one conversation in particular still leaves my head spinning after all these years.

I was taking a break outside one of major hospitals and talking to an employee whom I knew who went on to explain how they were evacuating bed-ridden patients from the high floors by stairs minutes before Sandy decided to unleash all of its might on Manhattan's East Side.

My cigarette almost fell out of my mouth. What I wanted to ask but kept quiet was: "What the hell were you people thinking ? This wasn't Pearl Harbor. The warnings were issued days in advance, but you waited until the very last moment ?"

BTW, there are no utility poles in Manhattan. Everything is underground, and when you have the East River come out and flood every manhole three avenues up, you get a month without power - let alone anything else - for just about everyone in the area. Some hospitals were kept on generators for a year. Yes, it was *that* bad.

Sandy was horrible. No questions asked. The level of unpreparedness on just about every level of society was far worse, IMO.

 

[blastoff99]

I used to live in a neighborhood where the power went out on a fairly regular basis. We might be out for 4 hours, or 40 hours. Usually it was closer to the short end of that, but we did have a generator from which we could run the furnace and the freezer.

What people don't seem to know these days is that when the power goes out you need to call the power company and tell them the power is out. Obviously if all cell towers near you are down this doesn't work. But the more people in a given neighborhood call that number, better chance the power company will realize that hey there's a big problem over here and perhaps get on it quicker. Or that's my theory anyway.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

What people don't seem to know these days is that when the power goes out you need to call the power company and tell them the power is out. Obviously if all cell towers near you are down this doesn't work. But the more people in a given neighborhood call that number, better chance the power company will realize that hey there's a big problem over here and perhaps get on it quicker. Or that's my theory anyway.

They respond faster to larger numbers of customers without power from a single problem, given more than one outage to respond to at the same time. However, more calls don't really help once they know what went out, and with the present level of grid information (may vary with how up to date your power company is) they know that power is out to several hundred or thousand people (if it's so many) without getting a call from each one. Smart meters and grid switchgear tell them what happened PDQ, and if you have internet you can often see the whole outage map in near-realtime at your power company's site. You can also report an outage there. But if the outage map already shows that power is out to your house (and for my utility you can zoom in to that level of detail) calling is just wasting their time and yours.

If you have one problem that's affecting 5000 customers, and 11 problems affecting 500 customers each, the 5000 one is at the head of the line, unless they have enough spare manpower in range to start on one or more of the 500's as well.

You have a much larger need to call them if the line just to your house went down, though you are also going to be the bottom of the list to get fixed if there are other outages at the same time.

 

[shadowtippy]

Live on a power grid that serves a hospital. The hospitals normally have generators but they are usually the first (most important) places to get power restored, although, the casinos here got their power restored pretty darn quick after hurricane Laura, granted they housed a lot of the rescue workers in their hotels.

 

[MynameisMe]

Hurricanes usually knock down many trees in my neighborhood. During Hurricane Michael we were out 4 days.
I live in an old neighborhood and we are many large Oaks waiting to fall at the first sign of a storm.
It's okay, I'd rather live here than in a snowy state.
I can hardly stand the cold anymore.

 

[ElectroVibe]

They respond faster to larger numbers of customers without power from a single problem, given more than one outage to respond to at the same time. However, more calls don't really help once they know what went out, and with the present level of grid information (may vary with how up to date your power company is) they know that power is out to several hundred or thousand people (if it's so many) without getting a call from each one. Smart meters and grid switchgear tell them what happened PDQ, and if you have internet you can often see the whole outage map in near-realtime at your power company's site. You can also report an outage there. But if the outage map already shows that power is out to your house (and for my utility you can zoom in to that level of detail) calling is just wasting their time and yours.

If you have one problem that's affecting 5000 customers, and 11 problems affecting 500 customers each, the 5000 one is at the head of the line, unless they have enough spare manpower in range to start on one or more of the 500's as well.

You have a much larger need to call them if the line just to your house went down, though you are also going to be the bottom of the list to get fixed if there are other outages at the same time.

Hopefully more people do call, so they know there is a problem.

 

[Mike JV]

A number of years ago a wind sheer came through our area and knocked our power out for 8 days. I didn't like it but life went on. Can't complain. At least my house was still standing and not totally destroyed by a tornado.

 

[sleddogn]

Yeah, backup generators are a must where we live. In last 15 years, we've had 2 major ice storms that left us without power for over 9 days each time. Learned after first one what needed to be done.

 

[Stewie26]

Funny thing, most post on here are power outages due to cold nasty weather. Here in SoCal, it is just the opposite. We have rolling power outages during hot weather while everyone is using their AC taxing the power grid. The good thing is they last only a few hours and then they switch it to a different neighborhood.