[Tia Maria]

We had a pretty comprehensive power cut in Devonport last night. I just wondered who else it affected?

Were you prepared?

Roaring fire, candlelight and a bottle of wine?

or

Running around like a mad thing going "I know I put the torch somewhere!", only to find it just as the power came back on? :laugh

Cheers

Tia

[jubjub]

Had a couple of flickers when the lights dimmed, but nothing else...

[marcia]

We've had 4 power cuts here since we moved in at the beginning of April, so we are well prepared now, with torches in strategic places, candles out with boxes of matches at the ready (but away from the kids!!) Thankfully we have gas heating, and gas hob, but found out the other day we couldn't get any wayter because the pump is electric :confused: , luckily there was water in the kettle for us to wash with, I've now filled some empty 3 litre bottles and stashed them in the pantry for next time!

Our first one was the night we moved in, all these alarms started beeping, one was the house alarm another the dishwasher, and the other the fridge freezer, which is the most stupid thing ever - once the power comes back on, you have to hold down two buttons on the front panel to reset the flippin thing, it doesn't automatically come back on, which is soooooooooooooo stupid, what happens if we have a power cut shortly after leaving in the morning??? Defrosted goods in the freezer!!!!!!!! Bad design!!!

[katandbob]

the most stupid thing ever - once the power comes back on, you have to hold down two buttons on the front panel to reset the flippin thing, it doesn't automatically come back on, which is soooooooooooooo stupid,!!!! Bad design!!!

My Oven joins that Catagory Marcia!

Couldn't work out why it wouldn't work - its because it needs the clock to be set before it will work:confused:

So I have to set it each time we get a power cut!


We have candles everywhere and torches....and Solar lights outside!
Kat

[Happyfeet]

yep we had a power cut too in Birkdale. It was off for an hour! Luckily we had already eaten and because I am a candle person had loads on hand to light so we were pretty prepared really. Some friends of ours had gone out for dinner and it went out half way in between preparing their food, so dont know what happened there. Some other friends of ours were watching Shrek III and missed the last 10 minutes!!!

[StevieD]

Not had one yet, but prepared just in case, found my big torch earlier on and the charger so that is going on tonight. Other torches and candles located in the cupboard under the sink and the lighter is easily placed ;)

[pinkpiggy]

We bought one of those dolphin torches the other day in the Warehouse. Got it stashed in a convenient place. When our container arrives (which will be in about 3 weeks) they'll be lots of candles etc. Just have to hope we don't have a power cut before then as the lights did dip last night :uhoh

[jaycee]

Just a flicker last night, but it happens quite often out here in the wild West. No water because the pump's electric and no cooking, because despite the fact I have a gas hob, it seems to have some safety device that cuts off the gas when there's no power for the ignition... but it could be worse.

Remember the poor woman who died recently when the power company disconnected her electricity? Did anyone else wonder what happens in those kind of situations when there's a power cut? Shouldn't a UPS or something be provided with the medical equipment? (A UPS is an uninterruptable power supply, basically a car battery in a box, used to maintain power to computers.) Too expensive I guess.

BTW if your house alarm beeps when the power comes back, it might just need a new clock battery, like mine did.

[Caroline and Dave]

Perhaps this will explain it Tia
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10446796

I understand through our caretaker that the electric gates shut everyone in our complex until the gates were opened manualy

[John Z]

This is such an amazing thing to read!

How, in this day and age, could there ever be a power cut?

I've never ever experienced such a thing in my life. I know these things to happen when privatized, commercial (power)companies tend to save money on good hardware/software, but I expect this is not the case in NZ, is it?

John Z

[Tia Maria]

That's the one Caroline & Dave, it was pretty strange seeing it all blacked out all the way up to Takapuna.

JohnZ, its all pretty amazing really. We've got a guest staying at the moment who was shocked when in the morning we received a letter about signing up for a local Tsunami warning programme, and in the evening the power went out. She took a torch to bed, only to spot a mouse running out from under our uninsulated floorboards. :o

Cheers

Tia

[Silverwing86]

Hi John,

I'm surprised at your surprise about power cuts, have you truly never experienced any in Holland ?? You certainly are lucky then, over the years we've had a couple. The last time was in Almere and it took several hours before it came back on again...

We had one this afternoon for a couple of hours on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula as well. Not so nice for OH since he was slogging away (read: working hard ;)) at his computer. Lost the work he'd done when the power went out so he wasn't a happy camper I'm afraid...

More importantly (and frustratingly !), after 4 months (!) of patient waiting, yesterday we finally managed to get Broadband....... until the power cut that is, now it's not working anymore !! Ofcourse it will take Telecom about 5 days to go out and check the exchange where the problem apparently lies, so we're back to the (slower) Satellite again :no ...

Ah well.... the power cut did give us some time (when he would normally be working) to snuggle up on the sofa under a blanket together to keep each other warm, can't be all bad, right :nice1 ??

Silver

[The Hodges]

Reminds of the time that a 5amp fuse knocked out the London underground. :mad: I had to walk for an hour, then catch a different line to the one I usually catch and get the OH to pick me up. Still, I met up with a guy I knew, but he was pleased as it saved his OH coming out with his new born to pick him up...

Anyone know of a good sparky on this forum? :D

[Milliemoo]

Ofcourse it will take Telecom about 5 days to go out and check the exchange where the problem apparently lies, so we're back to the (slower) Satellite again :no

Silver

Hi,

Apologies if this is a daft suggestion, but when telecom last messed about with the lines (we're with Inspire) we needed to reboot our modem. I didn't know this, but it worked first time :nice1

Milliemoo

[Silverwing86]

Thanx for the suggestion Milliemoo, certainly not daft !

We did try this first, but we weren't getting any DSL signal to the modem at all, which led Orcon (ISP) to believe the problem was with the exchange. We also tested the modem at our neighbours house, where it worked fine, just to make sure the modem wasn't fried.

Our neighbours have had broadband for a long time already. The reason we had to wait so long for it is that there were no ports available anymore on our exchange and we had to wait for an extension to the exchange to become operational. This was probably also the reason that our neighbours still had a signal when we didn't.

In all fairness to Telecom (after my grumble about them yesterday), we were informed that the line is working again today so they seem to have sorted it out very quickly :clap !

Silver

[John Z]

.................Ah well.... the power cut did give us some time (when he would normally be working) to snuggle up on the sofa under a blanket together to keep each other warm, can't be all bad, right :nice1 ??

Silver

Right Siver!

I guess every now and then you ladies get together and arrange these things to happen. It's one of those mysteries related to women?

And reallly, I've never experienced a power cut, anywhere in the world. Guess I'm so powerfull myself...http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/dance015.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

John Z

[John Z]

That's the one Caroline & Dave, it was pretty strange seeing it all blacked out all the way up to Takapuna............

I hope you were also able to enjoy the ancient situation (must have been an amazing sight!) and didn't have to bother (too much) about the power coming back (soon).:)

John Z

[Silverwing86]

I guess every now and then you ladies get together and arrange these things to happen. It's one of those mysteries related to women?

Ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh John, don't give the game away :laugh !

And reallly, I've never experienced a power cut, anywhere in the world.

Lucky ! They used to be 'schering en inslag', as they say in Holland (which, very loosely translated for the non Dutch speakers here, means something like 'happens all the time'), in India/Indonesia when I was living there and, as mentioned, even a couple in Holland over the years. Interesting experience, by the way, since we didn't really expect it there so we were hardly prepared ;) ...

Guess I'm so powerfull myself...http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/dance015.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

John Z

Hahaha that must be it ! Powerful indeed, after all, if I remember correctly, quite a few people felt it here when you stamped your foot to introduce yourself on this forum, didn't they ?! :D

Silver

[John Z]

Oh dear, guess I made some impression, did I?

I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not, I'm tempted, no I'm not,....aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/happy035.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

[Silverwing86]

Gently now John, you do know we have our fair share of earthquakes here already, don't you ??! :D :laugh

[John Z]

There May Be A Powercut
And The Candles Burn Down Low
But Something Inside Of Me
Says The Bad News Isn't So
I May Never Tell You
But Baby You Should Know
There May Be A Miracle
And Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
I May Never Tell You
But Baby You Should Know
There May Be A Miracle
And Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So
Baby I Love You So ....

[swissmissdesigner]

Omg! This Is So Kool!
I Love Ittttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

[bumpffslam]

How, in this day and age, could there ever be a power cut?

John Z

Answer - numerous reasons!

But first realise that power distribution is broken up into approx 34 nework companies responsible for geographic areas (they were the old electric boards). There are a number of power generators (legally seperate from the networks) and a national grid linking networks to the generators. There are then the retailers who do very little except take the consumers money. There is a choice of retailer in all areas - and prices can vary so do compare.

Some "redundancy" is built into the grid and network to keep power following in the event of a fault. But for most consumers they are like leaves at the ends of twigs and branches - if the twig or branch breaks, then every leaf one the twig or branch is doomed!

I suspect that NZ has a far higher percentage of consumers connected via overhead lines than many of the places immigrants are leaving. The significance is that overhead lines are more vulnerable.

Networks are investing in new equipment and increased redundancy but the spend is focused to where it can make most reduce the impact (ie reduce consumer hours lost = number of consumers effected x duration of outage). So if you are at strung at the end of a long feeder with few consumers its unlikely much will be spent!

The answer to the original question is that the most common reason is "foreign interference to the network". This is caused by:
a. vandalism (kids throwing things on overhead lines, hunters shooting at insulators)
b. cars striking poles or road side transformers (transformers are now often located on the side of roads since the privatisation fo the electric networks).
c. Contractors excavating trenches for pipe laying or thrusting (drilling under roads) to lay new services.

Next most common is tree interference to overhead lines. If it's your tree you pay for the cutting!

Equipment failure is a possibility but network companies regularly do routine inspections and maintenance on substations and survey overhead lines and transformers.

Weather events are also a cause, especially in rural areas with mostly overhead lines.

THere will of course also be notified scheduled outages as work is done to network and when new connections are made. All network companies maximise the use of live working where "glove and barriers" techniques are used to protect the linesmen.

So learn to live with it. It won't happen that often, but do protect you electronic items in case of surges.

[John Z]

Thank you bumpffslam,

this explains a lot! I always thought the reason for overhead powerlines was 1. cost and especially for NZ 2. earthquakes. But now that I read what happens to overhead powerlines through al kinds of "vandalism", including cars attacking poles, I'm not so sure anymore that overheads (poles) are in any way "smart" (regardless of the way they ruin the landscape, especially the towers of course).

John Z

[John Z]

Hey, that's not nice! :no

Somebody stole :mad: "The Beatles" :eek: AND the joyfully dancing crowd from the song "Powercut" :cool: