Yes, stupid power company! Ok they may not be stupid but they really annoyed us yesterday/last night. I was watching a little Scrubs yesterday at about 4:45pm when we had what appeared to be a power glitch. My computers all went down, the TV turned off and the AC went off. I grabbed the AC remote and tried to get it to come back on but all it would do is light the LED and not really turn on. Then I tried to reboot one of my computers and it wouldn’t start up. It would just make the screen flash wavy lines. It was really strange and I finally figured out we were having a brown-out instead of a black-out.
I grabbed my voltmeter and jammed it in the wall to see what we were getting. Instead of the normal 110-120V we were getting between 40 and 70 but it was mainly nearer to 50V.
At that voltage most electronics won’t work but light bulbs will light in a half-bright mode. Strangely my Uniden Police Scanner did work. I think it’s because the power converter for that normally puts out 13 volts and the radio will work on as low as 9.
At the time of the brownout it was around 103 outside which was down from the 110 high. Inside it was around 85 as our main AC has gone to working intermittently and we were actually waiting for a phone call from a repair guy.
Four of us piled into the car to go to a few cooler places in hopes the power would be back on when we returned home. It wasn’t on when we got home about 7 but shortly after that it went to a complete blackout.
By this time it was around 93 inside and 95 outside so I grabbed my Honda 2KW generator and connected the portable AC unit in our room. It kept overloading so I finally decided I needed a heavier extension cord. Betty and I went to Home Depot and got a 25 ft/ 12 gauge cord. When we got home I went outside and connected it and then started the generator. It wouldn’t run decently for 10 minutes then it finally did. I don’t know why but I’m glad it stopped acting up as I was tired and hot and wanted a cool place to sleep.
With the new cord the generator ran fine until it ran out of gas around 3am. I got up about a half hour later and filled and restarted it. At 5:50am the overhead light in our room popped on and woke me up. It felt so good to have power after not having it for 13 hours. Now I’m tempted to get a larger generator that will handle 2 AC units but I probably won’t.
On another note but related it took down the power supply in one of my computers. I’ve finally got them all up and working again.
Did you every find out what the real problem was? I have never heard of rolling brown outs that lasted anywhere near that long. Must have been an equipment failure of some sort. It’s a good thing more equipment was not damaged at that low voltage.
Comment by Richard — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 9:23 am
I haven’t heard what the problem was yet but I’m sure you are right about equipment failure. I was worried that I didn’t get everything turned off once I discovered it was a brownout. I think the one computer was my only casualty.
Comment by Don — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 10:46 am
Reminds me of that August when my A/C went out. I spent the days at Brian and Carrie’s, and nights at home with my room fan blowing full blast on me. It was about 95° in the house and I was miserable.
You might have saved a couple dollars on your electric bill last night, but I’m sure that was not enough to offset the cost of gasoline to run the generator all night or the overload on your A/C trying to cool it back down this morning.
Comment by Donna — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 10:47 am
The best air conditioners are the ones with wheels on them. We are in Prince George, BC today where it was 50 when we got up and will top out around 68 this afternoon.
Comment by Richard — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 11:07 am
Wow! How miserable. I can’t even imagine temps that high there. Sounds more like Mesa. Did you lose any food in refrigerators/freezers?
Comment by Dianna — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 11:20 am
Everything in the freezer is defrosted. We will have to see what is salvageable. I’ve posted additional information in my blog.
Comment by Betty — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
I agree. We have 3 of those, one in each bedroom. Trouble is when the temp gets above 100 they don’t work as well. As I type this my temp gauge says it’s 115.5 degrees on my back porch.
Comment by Don — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
It has been a bad summer all over (except in Alaska, apparently.) We set a record for the number of days 110º or higher. As of yesterday, it made 31 days and counting. I’ve done more complaining than usual, but thank goodness, Phoenix seems to know how to produce enough electricity to keep everyone going.
Comment by Mom — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
It’s actually been a pretty mild summer here up until this week. This is the first I’ve gotten hot hands on the way home. I even wore gloves on Thursday and I don’t usually do that unless I had burned them the day before.
Comment by Don — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
You have a remote for your AC?
We had a couple really hot days here… but that’s like 90. It’s been nice enough the past couple nights that we haven’t had to turn on the AC. Which will hopefully save money on eletric. We have had 4 fans running 24/7. One in our room so it stays decent, one in the living room so the kitties don’t overheat, and 2 in the basement to try and dry it from the rain. But, overall I think we’ve been having it easy..
Comment by Jocelyn — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
I think Richard’s comment on Air Conditioners with wheels referred to his truck and trailer moving to a cooler climate.
Comment by Daryl — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
Devon is over here from Pasadena and says it’s been intolerable there too, though he wasn’t there to know if the blackout hit his area.
His apartment just has a single window air conditioner in the kitchen/living room, so his bedroom has been very uncomfortable lately.
Global warming?
Comment by Daryl — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
Story about the heat in CA.
I couldn\’t find an update today.
Comment by Daryl — Saturday September 1, 2007 @ 8:12 pm
Here is another story. I know we have had over 100 degrees since around the first week of July. Power bill is $600 a month.
Link
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/25/national/main1832269.shtml
Comment by Betty — Sunday September 2, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
$600?!?!?!?! Oh my GOODNESS!
Comment by Donna — Sunday September 2, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
$600!!!?!?!? Oh Donna’s Goodness!!
And I thought mine was bad at over $400!
Comment by Daryl — Sunday September 2, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
Hope you had a great anniversary. We did.
Comment by Jocelyn — Monday September 3, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
Happy Anniversary!
Comment by Heather — Monday September 3, 2007 @ 8:26 pm