Power went off

[spackard]

Our power has been out since 1pm. Worst-case estimate is a 24 hour outage, but SCE is very unpredictable what with 145 active outages working in Los Angeles county right now.

Two Honda EU1000i, twinned, running the refrigerator, one fan, and computer equipment.

 

[spackard]

Back on, after 24 hours. Used between 3 and 4 gallons of gas.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: spackard
Back on, after 24 hours. Used between 3 and 4 gallons of gas.


What caused the power failure?

 

[spackard]

High temperatures and no system upgrades.
There were a lot of record-breaking highs on Friday, but likely a transformer blew, on Saturday, and caused my outage.
There was a blown transformer in 2007, during another 'unprecedented' heatwave.
11 years isn't much of a lifetime for a xfmr, kind of tells you it's undersized.
But the powers that regulate don't want to expand capacity.
Search twitter for #LAHeat, #LAHeatWave, or sce outage.

 

[OilFilters]

Originally Posted By: Danomite
Originally Posted By: VeryNoisyPoet
One of the two 120V phases must have dropped out for a moment last night at my place. Some clocks were reset and my computer was shut down, but several other clocks were still keeping time.

Assuming you have single phase 120/240 volt service , how could you lose one leg and not both ?


You can't. Both legs come from the same transformer.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: OilFilters
Originally Posted By: Danomite
Originally Posted By: VeryNoisyPoet
One of the two 120V phases must have dropped out for a moment last night at my place. Some clocks were reset and my computer was shut down, but several other clocks were still keeping time.

Assuming you have single phase 120/240 volt service , how could you lose one leg and not both ?


You can't. Both legs come from the same transformer.


Right but some things are more sensitive than others. We had a pole down and the outlets were receiving 72v the other day. Half the led lights still worked fine.. other half didnt.. I still killed the main breaker until they repaired it.. who knows what 72v with surges will do to your stove etc.

 

[SilverSnake]

I stopped worrying about power outages 9 years ago. When utility power goes out, in 45 seconds, my fully automatic switch starts our 20KW whole house generator. Keeps the house cool, the beer cold, the food hot and the TVs on among other things. Came in real handy when Irma hit here last year. The entire neighborhood was dark except for our house. Those with portable generators could not go outside to start them with 95 MPH winds. No gas to fool with since I have two 125 gallon propane tanks. Best $10K I ever spent.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Power went off here at 12:45 AM Sunday 8 July. That's a good time since electrical demand is low. At 7 AM the power was still out, and my utility had no projection on the time to restore power. Fired up the portable generator (Champion 3500 watt) at 7:15 to make coffee. The refrigerators and chest freezer kicked right on after six hours of outage. The ignitor and induced draft fan on the gas water heater also kicked on. A few minutes later the Keurig coffee maker was called into action, and the generator bogged down for a few seconds but did not stall. After that cup we ran Mr. Coffee for a full pot without incident.

Installing an outdoor outlet connected to a manual transfer switch was one of the best decisions ever made. We have some lights, hot coffee, and hot water ten minutes after startup. One of these days we may go full house with automatic transfer switch, but life is good for now.

And in keeping withe the purpose of BITOG, this portable generator runs Rotella T6 5w40. This run was 90 minutes at 80 degrees; the last one was several hours at 32 degrees. Where I live it helps to use an oil that covers all of the seasonal bases.

 

[Danomite]

Originally Posted By: OilFilters
Originally Posted By: Danomite
Originally Posted By: VeryNoisyPoet
One of the two 120V phases must have dropped out for a moment last night at my place. Some clocks were reset and my computer was shut down, but several other clocks were still keeping time.

Assuming you have single phase 120/240 volt service , how could you lose one leg and not both ?


You can't. Both legs come from the same transformer.
Exactly .