Damn Power Failures

Telkomisaloser said:
lol you must be... since you got monkeys around your area as well
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Well the power failure on Friday night was just our area because town and across the valley were lit.:o Phoned the department and got no answer :rolleyes:

The one at the start of month everything but town was out if I remember correctly. Phoned the department and the lady couldn't say exactly what was wrong but she said it should take no longer than an hour. It lasted 45min or exactly the first half of the biggest soccer game of the season so far :mad: :mad:

The others have been during the day for about 30mins each.
 
Telkomisaloser said:
The worst this year here was the lights went out for 1 second and back on... following by me cussing since it reset all my hard work I did on the PS2
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Well if you count those I'm on about 10 or 12 :mad: :mad:

My poor P.C has been reset so many times :( nevermind the T.V and all the other appliances :rolleyes:

Funny the alarm people have phoned so often I'm starting to get to know them quite well :D
 
Telkomisaloser said:
Nope, totally silent ones :D

and no I'm not sharing them
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No I think I'll be replacing them :cool:

No power failures, doesn't stink often( Although I can see the cloud of **** you live in) and no loud neighbours.;)

But then I'll lose my view :( :(

Ahhhh I'm so :mad: . We never used to have these damn problems :(
 
Telkomisaloser said:
lol well I lived there for 20 years :D

I don't think my neighbors left hand side will move since they been there about 15 years and on the right hand side is a rented place where people come and go
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There's my gap :cool:

Howdy neighbour :o

I think I'll stick with my view :cool: . Hopefully the power,pollution and neighbours come right again. Unfotunately they are all linked to the same problem :mad: . The people who run this place :sick:

Hopefully it can get back to how it was when we moved in years ago. I'm losing patience though.
 
bwana said:
Thinking about getting a bigger one and wiring it into the board. Right now we end up having a half dozen extension cords lying around - not realy ideal with kids.
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You don't need to wire it into the board, you can simply plug the generator into a normal wall socket :D This is not something for the novice as it can damage your equipment if done incorrectly! The basic concept is that you have all the plugs points you wish to power, as well as the plug point by the generator connected to one phase in your distribution board. I'd suggest keeping your kitchen plug points and any air conditioner or heaters off this circuit as many of these devices are able to use all the power a generator can muster.

When the municipal power trips, you simply do the following:
  • Turn off the breaker (on your distribution board) for the relevant phase (forgetting to do this will result in 480 volts pumping through your cabling when the power comes back on, expect fireworks)
  • Turn the wall socket off that you intend on connecting the generator too
  • Disconnect any cabling connected to the generator (when the generator starts it's power is far from stable and it can damage sensitive equipment).
  • Turn on the generator
  • Connect the cable FIRST TO THE WALL SOCKET and only then connect the other end to the generator (connecting the generator end first will result in the other plug having exposed powered connectors)
  • Finally turn on the wall socket switch

    All the plug points running on the same phase as the generator will now be powered :cool:

When the municipal power is restored:
  • Turn off the wall socket that you have the generator connected too (turning the generator off first will result in power fluctuations as the generator powers down, not good for sensitive equipment).
  • Turn off the generator
  • Disconnect the cable first from the wall and then from the generator (don't leave either end connected as you may accidentally end up with the situation where one is powered)
  • Turn the breaker on your distribution board back on

Repeat as required ... :p


When connecting things as above you may become oblivious to the fact that the municipal power is back on. A solution to this is to keep all your lighting on a separate breaker to your plugs (the lighting would chew up the generator anyhow). Keep a light on in the vicinity of where you are and when the municipal power does come back on you'll be alerted to the fact.

Although the above is rather simple to achieve, I'd recommend getting in an electrician to ensure that your distribution board is wired in a manner that will facilitate the above. It's also worth noting that it is possible to have a generator kick in automatically (still takes a couple of seconds/few minutes) when the power does fail but bear in mind that this requires a generator with an electrical starter and installation will costs in the thousands (the above shouldn't cost most then an hour of an electricians time and very few materials if any).

kaspaas said:
I'm thinking of plugging a UPS into a generator and run my PC from the UPS to safeguard the electronics against surges.
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I'd definitely suggest connecting some UPS's to your generator, generators cause power fluctuations when powering up, power down and worst of all when RUNNING OUT OF FUEL. I run 5 UPS's off my 3kVa generator.

It is however worth noting that generators with an inverter supply produce a square wave voltage, mains provides a sinusoidal voltage waveform. This is not a problem for most equipment but certain equipment (e.g. home automation and other electronics) may become damaged when powered by a inverter. UPS's can be used to correct this but the cheaper UPS's (i.e. Line interactive) will not modify the waveform.

kaspaas said:
Now I'm being told that it does not work because when the UPS switches from battery to 220V supply, the generator slows down, and the UPS swicthes back to battery because of the frequency//low voltage trigger. The generator speeds up again, and the UPS tries to switch over to 220V feed again with the gene slowing down again and everything repeating.
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To prevent the above problem, don't run the UPS in green/enery efficient mode. Check the manual fore your unit, for the PowerCom UPS units you simply need to hold down the power button until you hear the double beep. Alternatively, you could always power a couple of lights, that should keep your generator running at a higher speed.

Hope the above helps but please do be careful ;)
 
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vespax said:
I sometimes live a life off the internet. :p My addiction brings me back though.
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Tell me about it :o

Been on far to much lately. To the displeasure of some :p . Maybe it's a good thing you made yourself scarce. Kilo and co didn't appreciate it though .He's been desperatley calling for aid :D
 
There is a whole world of actual stuff out there that one can experience. You can walk in nature, interact with people who reply through their mouths and not fingers, you can eat food on a flat surface rather than a bumpy keyboard and mouse pad. All this happens! People do it and I got to experience it. ;)

I sometimes take a break from internet and go someplace where it is difficult to check email and browse the web for endless hours. It's like a vacation within a vacation. Pleasant.
 
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