Power failure

[Ray]

Last night the town was without power for about six hours or so.

The Phone information line told us nothing other than that, "the power was out in our area through an unknown cause and if it were not on in two hours, to ring back"...  Helpful, NOT.

Before it got dark I thought that it might be an idea to get the old pressure lamp and check it over. This is normally left in the shed, full of fuel and hopefully ready to go. Sure enough the mantle was damaged, so a new one was fitted and then the lamp tested,... all OK. It started to get dark and the lamp was lit and taken inside.

By this time it was becoming apparent that the whole town was affected and I started to get the nagging feeling that this might be more than a short outage, so I uncovered an old Honda alternator stashed away for just such an occasion, (but usually deemed too much trouble to drag out) and gave it a quick run. It started quickly and easily so I placed it on the tank stand and ran a power cord inside so the "little woman" could watch her favourite show at 9:30pm.

I only put a cup of fuel in it, thinking that this should see us through the next hour, but by the time the show was over there was still no sign of the power being restored, so I grabbed the torch and went up to the shed for a litre of fuel which I topped up with the alternator still running. Perhaps not the most safety conscious thing to do, but it saved me faffing about by torch light.

I thought about running a further cord up to my computer, but eventually thought better of it, not knowing how stable the frequency was coming from the alternator. By midnight we had both had enough of TV repeats and switched off the alternator and went to bed, leaving a safety lamp going on the kitchen table in case either of us should need to get up through the night. I have a small collection of Miners safety lamps, and I aways knew that they would come in handy one day



I don't know what time the power was restored, but it seemed that I had just shut my eyes and I became aware of a glow in the hallway, which proved to be the lamp in my computer room, so I duly got up and switched it of and went back to bed.

As is often the case I was up again a little after 3:20am, and decided to sit and write this to pass the time . It's great being retired, you can pretty much do whatever you wish, when you wish.

[adminer]

You are WAY too orgjinated Ray - most people hunt for candles - only to remember how the candles melted all over the table cloth at the last dinner party and were never replaced!

[Ray]

Every time I can remember looking for candles, I find that I have either put them away in a safe spot which I can no longer remember,...  or on one occasion, I found then to have all softened and gone out of shape, making it almost impossible to get then to stand up and not drip wax everywhere.

Somewhere in the back of a cupboard in my shed there must be at least two or three boxes of emergency candles all at least 20 years old.

[tricky]

Start of whinge.

I often wonder why ETSA take such an incredibly long time to clear the faults that cause power failures in Jamestown.
Maybe other communities experience the same lengthy power outages?
We are all so dependant upon electricity nowadays that loss of power during the working week has previously made it necessary for us to cancel some customer appointments. (No vehicle hoists, lighting, compressed air, power tools, etc.)
I am constantly frustrated by the automated approach to restoration advice provided by ETSA, and miss the days where we knew the phone numbers of the repair crew so that we could get practical and genuine updates about the ETA of the restoration.

End of whinge.

[Ray]

Tricky, it's all part of the new business plan where the returns for the stockholders are maximised, whilst the customers are milked for every penny. The word "service" no longer has any practical meaning.

Once ETSA were responsible to their customers for damage caused by surges and brownouts etc,... no more. There is no responsibility. It's all part of the CYA mentality and Americanised "management practices".

[utegirl70]

We live in an area known for it's constant power failures. And where we used to live, was even worse!
Some days, we'd have up to 5 power glitches. Everytime, you wondered whether the computer, or something would end up karking it.

As for what Tricky mentioned, about not being able to carry out appointments, I can understand this in the type of business he runs, but it annoys me when you're at the supermarket, and they have to basically shut down the whole shop because everything is all computerised.

When I used to work as a "Checkout Chick", we had to use our grey matter to work out the total price during a power failure, now days it's all done for you via the scanner, and they cannot take your money or work out your total.

Sometimes progress is not all it's cracked out to be.