Blackouts.

[Lorns]

Just wandering if anyone else round the country is getting more powercuts than usual. We have had 4 round my neck of the woods in the last week. And bad weather isn't to blame.
Its been nice playing board games by candlelight but it's rather annoying and chilly.

[Nini]

Oh, that explains why I haven't seen much of you this week! Haven't had a blackout in some time now, usually only ever gets my side of the street though which is odd. Used to get odd brownouts which hit lots of substations in my area causing car alarms to go off, only lasted a few seconds when it did go out and never figured out why.

[Sput]

Never figured out why it was only off for a few seconds or why it made car alarms go off?

[Lorns]

Never figured out why it was only off for a few seconds or why it made car alarms go off?

car theives! I heard they're crap at stealing cars in Leeds

[Dr Lobster*]

we haven't had any powercuts where i live for years, but where my mum and dad live (a village about ten miles from me) they've always had regular powercuts, i remember a few years ago the power was out for a couple of days in late summer. i can't remember the reason but it was very frustrating at the time as some of the village had power... still playing cards by candle light is a good laugh.

[Nini]

Never figured out why it was only off for a few seconds or why it made car alarms go off?

The car alarms made sense, it's why it went off for the whole area for a few seconds which doesn't.

[Sput]

Other way round, surely? The car alarms aren't connected to the mains unless you're talking about burglar alarms. The few seconds is probably the system automatically rerouting the supply. It's rather clever. Apparently it's if it goes off, comes on then goes off again it'll be a long one.

[Nini]

The whole car alarm issue I've either linked to light or electricity as the same thing usually happens during heavy thunderstorms.

I'd like to be proven wrong and I couldn't think of anyone better to do it than you Sputson.

[cdd]

Quite regular power cuts around here (in London, amazingly - or maybe not, depending on your POV). They're only momentary though - like a v. brief flicker of the lights.

I have my desktop connected to a power backup supply for this reason, otherwise I'd be endlessly losing my work, this way it just stays on through a brief interruption.

[Nick Harvey]

The few seconds is probably the system automatically rerouting the supply. It's rather clever. Apparently it's if it goes off, comes on then goes off again it'll be a long one.

The short break is normally what's called an "auto re-close".

That's when the trip at a substation goes off and cuts the power. There's a mechanism to automatically close the trip again, it always used to be twice, before assuming that the trip has gone off for a legitimate reason and leaving it open.

The system was introduced to prevent long power cuts being caused by transitory faults, such as foolish children throwing metal bars at the power lines.

In my experience it was always third time unlucky. The trip goes off, it re-closes, it goes off a second time, it re-closes, it goes off a third time, it stays open and they send a man, sorry person, to investigate.

[Nini]

Yay, I've almost been set straight.