Power outages

[jeffbert]

Where I had been living in MD had terribly unreliable power, every time thunder clapped, we ran to heat water, cook our meals wash clothes, etc., because it failed so frequently. Now, living in PA, our power lines are underground, and we rarely lose power. Several years passed w/out an incident. Yet, two days ago, the power failed. I did not even notice until mom came to my door & wondered why/how my lights were still on. Since living in MD, I have been using a UPS to run my table lamp (uses a CFL), & it ran for nearly 2 hours on a tiny 825 VA 600W UPS, even when it also powered my PC until I turned it off.

So, anyway, I did eventually need to use a D-cell powered lantern after the UPS ran down (took at least 1 1/2 hours, though) & nearly finished reading my Frederik Brown scifi book.

While such incidents are rare, I expect to buy another, larger UPS soon, & have already ordered power failure lights that automatically turn on. Using LEDs set on the dim setting, some of these will run for 15 hours. My poor mom was out there in the family room groping around trying to find a flashlight, & I want to avoid that in the future.

[Earthshine]

It's always a good idea to be prepared for any power outages even in areas that are stable.

I remember when I was about 7 though my aunt lived off the electric grid and she did not have any electricity in her house except that of a small generator that was powered by the river a few hundred meters from her cabin. This was in the early 90s and the generator at night always seemed to cut out when we were there and she'd pull out small kerosene lamps that burned really bright. It's a fond memory.

When she got older she had to move, being that far away from people and in her 60s was not a good idea.

[diehard67]

the power went out at my place this morning, that makes 3 or 4 times sense I have lived there that the power has failed, I gotta get a ups for my cpap machine so it will keep working overnight when I need it to breath.

[jeffbert]

Sounds like your aunt was a rather self-sufficient type, Earthshine.

diehard67: Seems like you need one of those medical-rated units, as most standard ones simply will not run long enough; that, and a likely disclaimer about their unsuitability for running life-support equipment.

[diehard67]

the machine isn't exactly life critical I would just not sleep as well if it stooped, besides I want to get a big ups so I may be able to use it to power the cpap while I am camping or something.

if it was critical to life then I would expect it would have it's own backup power.

[jeffbert]

Good to hear. As far as taking a UPS camping, some may not even turn on if no AC is present; moreover, if the cord is just hanging there, the equipment will NOT be grounded. Depending on the nature of the equipment being powered by the UPS, this could be really dangerous. I suppose there are battery-powered AC sources that are intended for such purposes, but know nothing about them.