Potential power outages this winter

Haggisman said:
Agreed, we had a little UPS for our tank - as long as you can keep your return going (and possibly a powerhead), then you'll be fine for a few hours. A large volume of water (e.g. the 200l+ in a marine tank) takes a LONG time to cool down.

Got to love the posters saying they don't see what the fuss is, as we were fine in the 70s. Because 50 years of regression isn't all that much of a big deal? :rolleyes: We were fine living in caves as well, but I bet you wouldn't be too happy if someone turned up one day to demolish your house!

Any figures on how many people were working from home via VPN in the 70s? Didn't think so ;), but I'm guessing since we're talking 50 years ago, those particular posters don't need to worry about things like being able to do their job anymore.
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It's like when they say "we managed without central heating when..."

Completely forgetting that say 70 years ago most houses had a coal fire or similar, and the infrastructure was there to provide that fuel for the non gas heating and in most cases the people playing it down either never lived through those times, or have no memory of it. My dad's response to the suggestion that it wasn't to bad was "it was [redacted] awful, we had ice in the sink and had to sleep under all the blankets we had with coats on the bed" as he's grew up in those times that some people seem to think were a golden age for everyone. Modern housing is better insulated than the victorian terraces he grew up in, but still not great (and from what I can tell not a patch on many of the European houses of a similar age).
 
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Haggisman said:
And bill who for my time and travel costs? :p
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Also it's rather assuming that his work will be able to operate during a power outage, or won't require him to throw out any other plans he's got in order to make up the time that he can't work/go into work.
 
Werewolf said:
Also it's rather assuming that his work will be able to operate during a power outage, or won't require him to throw out any other plans he's got in order to make up the time that he can't work/go into work.
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Exactly. What it will actually result in is me twiddling my thumbs for 3 hours during the day and then having to work until ~1am to make up the hours. Of course it's not the end of the world, but that doesn't mean it's not a right pain in the bum.

The point is more that we're (apparently) a developed country, it's 2022, and it's mind-boggling that this is even a possibility.
 
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Haggisman said:
Exactly. What it will actually result in is me twiddling my thumbs for 3 hours during the day and then having to work until ~1am to make up the hours. Of course it's not the end of the world, but that doesn't mean it's not a right pain in the bum.
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I'm in the same boat and main reason I bought a generator.

Because you know damn well it'll be some 10am Tuesday morning, so you are stuck doing nothing, then have to try and make it up in the evening when the kids are home and need feeding and putting to bed etc etc etc....
 
Graetzbridge said:
No baiting from me. I am a professional electrical engineer. You really are not remotely in this league.
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Ohhhh, so my comments got you all butt hurt?

That explains it.

Although... I do question why you are getting offended and defensive about my comments. As an E Eng you should agree... the grid is wholly unfit for it's purpose today.

What I do is also way outside of your league.. if you want to play that game.
 
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ci_newman said:
Out of curiosity, if you have a generator how do you actually connect it to your home? Extension leads off the generator itself?
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Depends how fancy you want to get, but manual or automatic transfer switch which will auto start the generator and shut it off when the grid feed becomes available again.

It kills supply from the grid coming into your consumer unit and takes a feed from generator instead.
 
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Diagro said:
Ohhhh, so my comments got you all butt hurt?

That explains it. I mean... I already knew you were based on how defensive you are being. But don't like to openly presume.

You have absolutely no idea what I do for a living.
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Not it the slightness so try again. And I have no idea what you do for a living. If you want to tell me, that's fine.
 
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So long as the blackout is no longer than 7 days, I'll be good, I can just about last on 2 kWh a day.
Bring it on. :p
 
Graetzbridge said:
Not it the slightness so try again. And I have no idea what you do for a living. If you want to tell me, that's fine.
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To be honest, what I do would probably greatly interest you. Especially if you feel that there is simply NOT enough data made available from high power assets (think 5+ mW motors).
I enable the data, develop NN and ML models to analyse and do secret stuff.
 
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ci_newman said:
Out of curiosity, if you have a generator how do you actually connect it to your home? Extension leads off the generator itself?
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I suspect a lot of people will be just running extension leads off the generator itself - only someone living in an area with poor power quality normally and/or running something critical would likely bother wiring it into the mains with a transfer switch and you'd need to make sure the generator was up to spec for your household load if wired in directly. If you are connecting to your normal household wiring, even with a transfer switch/isolator, there are potential DNO regulations/notification you'd have to be aware of.
 
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Haggisman said:
Got to love the posters saying they don't see what the fuss is, as we were fine in the 70s. Because 50 years of regression isn't all that much of a big deal? :rolleyes: We were fine living in caves as well, but I bet you wouldn't be too happy if someone turned up one day to demolish your house!
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that's what I find ridiculous about things like just stop oil, in theory, everyone could just turn their heating off, wear jumpers, watch less TV, take fewer car journeys, stop taking airlines etc.. back in reality people don't want to do that, it's just not plausible...

If we stopped new oil and gas exploration/extraction we'd just need to import more as people won't want to take the obvious lifestyle hit.

The ironic bit is when you get people cheering on the don't stop oil types but then getting angry re: possible power cuts, or need to budget energy use a bit more - realistically, at least at the moment, you can't have it both ways.
 
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