# Power Outage: Residential



## HalfEatenPie (Jul 10, 2013)

So its been three hours since a storm knocked out electricity to my local neighborhood block. There was a temporary 10 seconds of electricity burst ten minutes ago but its down again. Besides for my cell phone, I have no internet and my netbook is pretty useless without WiFi (no I don't have tethering from my phone and no battery backup systems).


Besides for the fact that this happened at possibly the worst time ever as I am moving tomorrow, what's your residential power outage system? Do you have a battery backup system? Maybe a guinea pig wheel that generates electricity? How do you prepare for the dark age?


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## trewq (Jul 10, 2013)

That sucks! Honestly I have no plan for power outages as the power only ever goes out twice a year (MAX) and is only ever our for one or two hours before it's completely restored.


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## dmmcintyre3 (Jul 10, 2013)

I have a UPS on my desktop but it's dead in 30 min even at idle. I also have a 400 watt inverter for the car that I can use to recharge the laptops which also can act as extended batteries for Mom and Dad's iPhones.


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## deluxehost (Jul 10, 2013)

We had a massive storm here today, but my backup system kicked in both times it knocked out my power. i have a dual UPS system for my laptops, and i got tethering on my phone.


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## HostVenom - Brandon (Jul 10, 2013)

It takes a lot for power to go out in my area, however we do have a generator just in case power does go out. Worthwhile investment.


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## texteditor (Jul 10, 2013)

I have two full-tank diesel generators in my spare bedroom wired through the UPS to kick on if/when needed, haven't had them turn on yet

The odor kinda sucks though


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## drmike (Jul 10, 2013)

Well, I use to have UPS units all over the place... The batteries - SLAs are just entirely junk and dead scrap in no time.  Run time on them is embarrassing too.  Even the large ones intended for racks.

I have one 5Kw generator that runs on gasoline.  

Also have an assortment of DC generators.  Have a bicycle that is good for topping off batteries and getting exercise, especially in the winter.  Have another bike that is a DC gen set, but distills water (although in pieces).

These are for extended outages and for when I move finally to offgrid location.  Yes, I have some solar panels and windmills too 

Still shopping for a few pure sine wave inverters to convert DC generated power into clean AC (wall) power.


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## MannDude (Jul 10, 2013)

Camp stove, candles, canned food and water, flashlights, guns, and a first aid kit. Power may be out 10 minutes or 10 days.

A few years ago, Hurricane Ike (I think) made it as far as Indiana. We had sustained 80 mile winds for a day, and I'm nowhere near the ocean. Long story short, lot of downed trees and power outages in my area. We didn't have electricity for 5 or 6 days. Really some of the best times I've had in recent years. Sat around a fire at night eating things my current room mate and I cooked and spent a lot of time in nature. By day 5 I'd sit on the front porch with my knife and just sit there and sharpen sticks or read books or something.


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## MannDude (Jul 10, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Well, I use to have UPS units all over the place... The batteries - SLAs are just entirely junk and dead scrap in no time.  Run time on them is embarrassing too.  Even the large ones intended for racks.
> 
> I have one 5Kw generator that runs on gasoline.
> 
> ...


I've been looking at some of those Honda generators, the ones that are supposed to be pretty quiet. Would like to get my hands on one of those.


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## Magiobiwan (Jul 10, 2013)

I have a little solar panel + battery back that I can recharge phones off of if needed, and my family is thinking about getting a solar panel system for the house. My main desktop computer is a laptop with a broken built in screen, and a mint condition extended life battery. If it loses AC power, it sleeps after 5 minutes, and hibernates after 1 hour. So whatever might have been open will be safe. We don't lose power often where I live though. Mainly just during the winter if there's a BIG storm. Advantage of underground power lines in my city I suppose.


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## wdq (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm very lucky. Every year or so the power will usually go out for less than a minute (usually some sort of surge from a nearby lightning strike) so that's not a real big deal at all. Every once in a while (5-10 years) the power will go out for a longer period of time as in an hour or more. 

I've considered getting a gas generator, or some sort of battery that will temporarily power my house. But since the power rarely goes out I just see it as kind of a waste of money.


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## shawn_ky (Jul 10, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Well, I use to have UPS units all over the place... The batteries - SLAs are just entirely junk and dead scrap in no time.  Run time on them is embarrassing too.  Even the large ones intended for racks.
> 
> I have one 5Kw generator that runs on gasoline.
> 
> ...


You are my hero!!  I wish we could have these around here... Neighbors would not be happy with a windmill going up... 

We lost power last year for about 2 weeks and my house was one of the only ones that did not. We are on the same grid as a high school that's about 1/4 mile down the road. Thankful for that. BUT that means everyone ends up here.  I would like to get a generator sometime soon, but keep having outages everywhere around us and everyone buys them up quickly or the costs are up so high it's just not worth it...


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## Eric1212 (Jul 10, 2013)

texteditor said:


> I have two full-tank diesel generators in my spare bedroom wired through the UPS to kick on if/when needed, haven't had them turn on yet
> 
> The odor kinda sucks though


This can't be safe ^

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The power has been concerning this week with all the storms in Ontario Canada.. especially the flooding in Toronto area. 

I have UPS battery backups on all my equipment.. allowing for about 20minutes of use... or less at full load.

Some petrol generators could be pulled out of storage and hooked up to the home. 

With 4G tethering... assuming the antennas don't go offline, I should be good for many hours


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## Dan (Jul 10, 2013)

Got a few pet dingos running a treadmill out back, we don't have power lines in Australia.

The DC's smell like a zoo.


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## maounique (Jul 10, 2013)

Here power goes off many times a year, sometimes a couple of times a month, but now is good, used to be much worse, daily a few years back. Once took 18 hours and i think also more than a day, but not sure, could have been back for an hour inbetween.

Now the generator is gathering dust ont he balcony, I am not sure will start if needed, is 900 W, enough to recharge UPSes and run the fridge every 18 hours for an hour or two (18 hours can hold if not opened).

No solar power, no windmills, I live in an old area where buildings are supposed to be historic and no modification is allowed, the AC I had to hide in the balconies.

Power failures are very annoying to me, thank god are much fewer now.


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## drmike (Jul 10, 2013)

MannDude said:


> I've been looking at some of those Honda generators, the ones that are supposed to be pretty quiet. Would like to get my hands on one of those.


Honda makes good everything.  You'll pay for them though    As far as quiet, well, no such beast exists.  All gen sets are fairly noisy.  

Me, I am saving up for when I have time to convert my gas guzzler to a tri-fuel setup (adding natural gas and propane as a fuel option).



Magiobiwan said:


> I have a little solar panel + battery back that I can recharge phones off of if needed, and my family is thinking about getting a solar panel system for the house.


Good ideas    Not too terribly expensive to pick up a 25 watt panel and charge/top off a 30A+ 12V battery.  Good low cost introduction to this stuff.   30A isn't going to get you far, but with a small PMA generator could top that off from near dead in little time  (working on such a project).



shawn_ky said:


> ou are my hero!!  I wish we could have these around here... Neighbors would not be happy with a windmill going up...


 

I have two windmills and neither is up currently. Wind power is very hard to deal with, with traditional designs we've all seen.  When it gets really windy, the windmills aren't usable.  In low wind, not usable.  Basically good for kite flying breezy days and there aren't many of those in most places.

I do have a vertical windmill, a Savonius (sp?) design   It's hanging out waiting for me to repair it.  Something broken / jammed internally.

Mostly, I have random small watt pannels (15-50W) on various buildings on my property.  Nothing very exciting.   A garage with no electric now has some light on demand and an outside light when needed.



EB-Eric said:


> I have two full-tank diesel generators in my spare bedroom wired through the UPS to kick on if/when needed,


Those should be outside and ventilated.  Yeah people use kerosene (similar) in their homes for heat.  But it isn't "healthy".   I'd build (if you own) a generator building outside and sandbag it for quietness.  Add an additional muffler  to further silence it and get the fumes out of the generator building.



shawn_ky said:


> keep having outages everywhere around us and everyone buys them up quickly or the costs are up so high it's just not worth it...


Look for one online   Harbor Freight has cheap import models, Ebay has random ones, Craigslist has random options.


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## earl (Jul 10, 2013)

Similar thing happened to me yesterday.. the whole city had a power out for about 6 hours and I'm doing renovations on the house.. even the hotel i'm staying in did not have power in the rooms!!

Supposedly we had a months worth of rain in one day so lots of flooding around the city..


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## texteditor (Jul 10, 2013)

People in my family have a genetic high tolerance for carbon monoxide, it's no big deal


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## rds100 (Jul 10, 2013)

texteditor said:


> I have two full-tank diesel generators in my spare bedroom wired through the UPS to kick on if/when needed, haven't had them turn on yet
> 
> The odor kinda sucks though


Does the fire department know about it?


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## drmike (Jul 10, 2013)

rds100 said:


> Does the fire department know about it?


I'm not sure what is worse, his belief that his people are highly tolerant of carbon monoxide or that we expect the fire department to babysit and nitpick everything in everyones homes....


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## texteditor (Jul 10, 2013)

rds100 said:


> Does the fire department know about it?


The walls are LOADED (and I mean LOADED) with enough asbestos to keep it from spreading


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## trewq (Jul 11, 2013)

texteditor said:


> The walls are LOADED (and I mean LOADED) with enough asbestos to keep it from spreading


I can't tell if you are joking anymore... I really hope you are.


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## willie (Jul 11, 2013)

I don't have any special stuff for a power outage.  If the power goes out, it goes out, I can live without home internet for a while.  I have enough flashlights and batteries in the house (not particularly for power outage purposes) that I can get around ok, and I have a powerbank thingie that can charge my phone, and I guess I can use mobile data (I have a bottom-rung data plan that I almost never use) if I have to get online for something and the mobile data / phone network isn't out.  And I have a cig lighter 12vdc inverter in my car that I guess could charge my laptop.  So if it were a localized outage, I could take the laptop to a wifi place (or to the office where I work).  If it was a widespread outage I guess internet would be the least of my problems.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jul 11, 2013)

Captain's Log: Hour 8.

Still without power.  Packed everything in the dark.  I found a candle and a flash light.  It seems only the residential areas do not have power (commercial areas and high density zones do have power (e.g. apartment complexes)).  

Yep.  Life is "grand".


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## happel (Jul 11, 2013)

I have a flashlight and my laptop has a battery in it .


Power outages are not very common here in the Netherlands, last power outage I had is over 15 years ago.. So it's not really something I'm prepared for ;-).


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## MannDude (Jul 11, 2013)

For what it's worth, the power-grid in America is pretty dated and could use a massive overhaul. Any word from the power company on when it'll return to normal?


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## drmike (Jul 11, 2013)

willie said:


> I have a cig lighter 12vdc inverter in my car that I guess could charge my laptop.


This is a great idea.   Every car should have a 12V to wall power inverter.  Only thing to note here is the inverter you likely have (most are) isn't pure sine wave.  So it is not great power and can break/cause issues with equipment.  Splurge for a pure sine wave inverter then life is perfect 

I have power options (including a stack of AA and AAA batteries for when things go wrong.   That can be anything from power outage to me tripping a breaker to a line down on property.

Folks should look into a low power portable radio also.  I am fond of the Eton older models - no digital display.   AM/FM/shortwave bands + hand crank + battery pack build in + AA batteries on board for redundancy + power output taps (probably useless --- but intended for cell phones).  Helps to pass time / keep informed with some talk radio locally or music or whatever.


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## MartinD (Jul 11, 2013)

Bank of UPS's and a power-pack that's used to jump-start cars. It has an inverter on it so I have quite a bit of power available when it's needed. We get power cuts here perhaps twice a year and it's always in the evening. It's amusing when everyone leaves the house to see what's going on and only our house still has lights and a TV on


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## Zach (Jul 11, 2013)

UPS to keep a light on (single 60w lamp) and charge cell phones until we can get a generator going


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## NodeBytes (Jul 11, 2013)

One of my clients is an audio visual rental company that has generators. So whenever theirs a storm the owner drops one off at the house and we stay online pretty much 100%. Until we get that I usually run a few UPSes for the routers and modem. The server closet then gets shutdown if need be til power is restored/we get a generator with enough juice.

Oh and it's nice to have a couple macbooks around, they can charge iPhones even when they're off.


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## titanicsaled (Jul 11, 2013)

I can't even remember our last power outage so no point in investing in expensive UPS/generator equipment.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jul 11, 2013)

Power came back online at 4:45 AM. Although it seems the damage was pretty severe to the power plant. I'm now no longer there at the moment.


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## peterw (Jul 11, 2013)

We suffered from the high tide. Water was standing 3 feets in the second floor for about a week. Everything destroyed that was not transported to the garret. Car and camper gone. 2 feets of mud in each room of the first floor. This was happening in our area every 200 years. And now about every 5 year. Nobody can tell me that their is no global warming and that the weather conditions do not get crazy.


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## rds100 (Jul 11, 2013)

@peterw wow, that sux man. What country?


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## D. Strout (Jul 11, 2013)

We're right near a fire station, so when we do lose power it's usually not for too long. The worst I can remember was about four days, and in a New England winter no less! We all slept in one room at night, and with lots of blankets we got by. But that's the worst, power is usually very steady, and when it goes off it's usually back within 24 hours. No special preparation for that time, if you can't survive 24 hours without the Internet, I feel sorry for you.


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## kaniini (Jul 11, 2013)

We have a 15 kW generator that runs on natural gas.


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## drmike (Jul 11, 2013)

kaniini said:


> We have a 15 kW generator that runs on natural gas.


How has that unit been?  Ran it for any extended period of time?  

Been considering one for eons since natural gas prices have dropped so much.


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## peterw (Jul 11, 2013)

rds100 said:


> @peterw wow, that sux man. What country?


Germany.

Picture of our street when we were allowed to come back:


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## MannDude (Jul 11, 2013)

peterw said:


> Germany.
> 
> Picture of our street when we were allowed to come back:


Yuck. What is up with all the wood?


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## peterw (Jul 12, 2013)

MannDude said:


> Yuck. What is up with all the wood?


Part of barns, summer houses; the mobile latrine wasn't even based in our village.


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## TheLinuxBug (Jul 12, 2013)

Thought this had some interesting timing:

http://outdoors.dailysteals.com/

The item changes daily but today they have:

Eastern Tools and Equipment 1,800-Watt 3.4 HP 4-Stroke OHV Gas Powered Portable Digital Inverter Generator - Bring The Comforts of Home Outdoors

LIST PRICE:*$699.00*

DISCOUNT:*67%*
YOU SAVE:*$470.00*
FREE SHIPPING.


 

Time left to buy

*18*hrs

*44*mins
*32*secs

Your price: *$229*

 

The on board circuitry control air/fuel mixture and carburetor timing and result in a stunning 3% THD pure sine wave output. This unit is enclosed and insulated for better noise reduction. This clean sine wave power allows the generator to be used with any and all computer and electronic based appliances in today's homes, businesses, construction sites, and outdoor recreation. An added benefit is the ability of these generators to produce 120-volt, 60-hertz current at various engine speeds, thus saving fuel running at slower speeds and low load conditions but with the power for full speed and output when needed. 

 

Cheers!


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## bizzard (Jul 12, 2013)

Though my place is not prone to most of the natural calamities, the power outages are very common here and the people are used to it. Since most of the power production here rely on Hydro electric projects, during the summer, the rivers dry up and the Electricity board regulates power consumption by introducing official power cuts of 1 or 2 hours for non-industries and around 5 to 6 hours for industries. We here have overhead power lines till the customer end and the chance for power outage during rainy days are high due to the breaking of transmission lines.

Here is how the transmission wires are connected on a post. Have you seen this in any other place?



As a caution, we have emergencies and torches. Almost all PC's have UPS here, usually of around 600VA, since the power is not reliable. And since we are used to it, power outages, even for a day or two doesn't affect normal life much.


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## drmike (Jul 12, 2013)

TheLinuxBug said:


> Your price: $229


 4.5 hours runtime at 50% load.

That's the problem with many generators.  The runtime is rated at 50% of total capacity.  

The small tank on board coupled together with a small oil tank means if with some tinkering, your DIY runtime extender has real limitations.

I never understood why they don't make all generators capable of storing at least a gallon of fuel.  This model claims something like or near a gallon (which is surprising considering its small appearance).

At any rate, 4.5 hours run time isn't much.   Cycling generator down to refuel and deal with oil means lots of down time.

I've been through 5 days of total grid power down before.  So be through this before and that was with a larger generator with more gas and oil on board.  I dreaded the self imposed power downs.  Nothing more painful than hot oil splashes


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## Coastercraze (Jul 12, 2013)

Power outages are rare for me, however, I do have a generator and fuel available if needed to run the fridge for a few days. Technology wise, I have my car to charge my phone if I really had to use it for something (providing 3G of course works). I have a netbook as well as a power inverter for the car too.


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## mikho (Jul 13, 2013)

Living in a country with high standards have its advantages. Not often there is a power outage here and when they do happen, they are often planned and only lasts for a few hours.


The power is also stable so a UPS for common equipment is not needed at all.


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## pcan (Jul 13, 2013)

I dumped my home UPS because power outages are extremely rare and the UPS would be the weak point. Sourge protection devices and a well mantained electrical switchboard are more useful here. I experienced this myself a few years ago, during a storm, when a lightning discharged on the roof of the building on the other side of the street, less  than 100 meters from where I stand at the computer. The ceiling light bulb exploded due to the high voltage arcing between the internal wires, but the computer survived because I installed a voltage transient suppressor at the outlet. I also replaced all the 15+ years old main panel switches at my home because old switches could  fail to cut the overload, or trip randomly at low current.



mikho said:


> Living in a country with high standards have its advantages. Not often there is a power outage


It may be more a issue of environement than of country. On urban areas, underground fully-meshed power distribution grid is common, so power failures are unlikely and quickly fixed, because maintenance crew will easily reach all the utility equipment. On rural areas, power distribution is aerial and the grid is not meshed; faults and power instabilities are more likely to happen and could take longer to fix. When I lived basically in the middle of a farm field and the electricity came from a small transformer a the top of a pole outside the house, I experienced black-outs far more often than now.


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## HostUS-Alexander (Jul 13, 2013)

I'm currently in Florida, unreal storms!


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## mtwiscool (Jul 18, 2013)

Ware I am the power goes off about 2 to 5 times a year the only back up I have is for internet ware I can teather my phone to my tablet most cell towers have about 10 to 24 hours of ups power meaning they should be issue getting online


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## Lee (Jul 18, 2013)

I have 2 APC units, but they simply don't power the pc long enough, even if I cut every possible power saving option to the minimum it lasts about 50 mins.

Instead I use 1 for the router/modem to keep the internet running, when I tested it last time it went for 18 hours.  I use the other to charge the Asus Transformer and my phone as needed and that pretty much covers me for up to 36 hours, once the modem dies I can tether the phone.

Never needed to use it so far.


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## Slownode (Jul 24, 2013)

My solution is simple:
2KWH of deep cycle batteries
300W inverter
30W charger
double-throw relay

Try making your own 2KWH UPS for $280

I need a beefier inverter to power the house... I wish my stuff could run on DC.


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## rds100 (Jul 24, 2013)

Most computers can run just fine on DC by the way. 300V DC in Europe or 150V DC in USA.


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