Are you ready for a power cut ?

[Robbo3]

On last nights BBC4 programme about quizzing, Paul Sinner replied to Anne Robinson's jibe to tell her a male chauvinist joke ....
"I'm not worried about power cuts. The wife is quite capable of washing up in the dark."

 

[Cheshirechappie]

It has started to surface in the MSM -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12 ... pay-extra/

Smart meters allow electricity suppliers to control supply to individual premises. The older meters don't - the only control they then have is to go to the local substation and switch off supply to a whole area. Consequently, I'm not quite sure how the suggestions set out in the article will work where consumers have old-style 'non-smart' meters.

That apart, the idea of electricity rationing, or selling to the highest bidder, does sound a bit regressive for a so-called advanced economy.

We need more coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Preferably very soon.

 

[RogerS]

.....
Smart meters allow electricity suppliers to control supply to individual premises. .....

This is very true but the organisation promoting smart meters keep this very quiet. In fact they are deliberately obscure when it comes to this fact. On their website tere is a list of FAQs and one of those is ....

Does a smart meter mean my energy can be cut off more easily?

No. You’re protected by strict regulations against your energy supplier switching off or disconnecting your gas or electricity supply. This protection remains as strong with smart meters as it is with traditional meters.

I would argue that their reply is disingenuous and misleading. The answer is Yes. Unfortunately the ASA did not agree.

And, of course, if they can switch off your electricity then so can any one else with a bit of hacking.

 

[novocaine]

And, of course, if they can switch off your electricity then so can any one else with a bit of hacking.

but not as much fun as making your smart fridge run warm, your smart cooker igniting while your out and all the smart lights disco dancing on and off till they overload the circuit though.

 

[bugbear]

And, of course, if they can switch off your electricity then so can any one else with a bit of hacking.

but not as much fun as making your smart fridge run warm, your smart cooker igniting while your out and all the smart lights disco dancing on and off till they overload the circuit though.

In other news, you can get wi-fi-kettles, which sounds like the output of a random word generator, but isn't.

BugBear

 

[novocaine]

my kettles voice activated. some times at least, the other times it gives me a kick and tells me to make it myself.

wifi enabled toaster anybody? it will add the weather to your toast for you in the morning, which lets face it, is what we all want in the morning, slightly burned toast with a hint of misinformation.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I've been out most of the day. Got back home about 4-15pm. Turned the kitchen lights on, and thought, "Oh fiddlesticks*, a bulb's gone." Looked round them all - all working, but only at the barest glimmer. The central heating's not come on, either. Try a few more lights. The eco type ones take an age to fire up, the ordinary ones just glimmer. Peer outside - all the streetlights are out. Still, next door's Christmas deccy lights are flashing away merrily, so that's all right then ( ! ).

Made a cup of tea. This worked, but took about three times longer than usual. Rang my mum to see if she was OK - she lives about three miles away. She reports no problems with the electrickery supply. Look at the National Grid monitor in first post of this thread - strewth! we're just about in the red!

About 6.05pm, the whole lot went off - Oh bullocks, that's going to put a damper on the evening! Ten seconds later, it all comes back on again - at full strength. The central heating fired up, and I can see what I'm doing in the kitchen. Phew.

Are they spreading this sort of thing round the country to try and stop people noticing what's happening? Or did we just have a quickly-fixed local supply fault?

Never mind! Gummint are subsidising the installation of lots of bright, shiny new solar panels. Just what we need to solve the problem in December evenings!

* erm, well, something like that anyway - it started with 'f'.

 

[RogerS]

Cheshirechappie...almost certainly a local fault with one of the phases.

 

[Woodchips2]

I bought an emergency LED light like this http://www.coopersofstortford.co.uk/coo ... dst06271i/. Just leave it on charge and it automatically comes on if there is a power cut.

Regards Keith

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Cheshirechappie...almost certainly a local fault with one of the phases.

Roger - I'm not an electrical engineer or a sparky, so you may well be right, but usually when one phase goes down, every third house loses power doesn't it? We had a fault of that nature in the road last year (fixed in about 5 hours), and whilst some of us lost all supply, others were unaffected except when supply was switched off to piece the cable. This evening, the entire district seemed to be on reduced voltage, and the streetlights were out altogether.

 

[llangatwgnedd]

We need more coal, gas and nuclear power stations. Preferably very soon.

Sucssesive clueless goverment$ have now made that immpossible or extremley expensive.

Also I like to add, those smart meters are not installed for the benefit of the customer, they are to cut back on employees.

We all know how to lower our bills without a gadget telling us.... just switch it off.

 

[MMUK]

Cheshirechappie...almost certainly a local fault with one of the phases.

Roger - I'm not an electrical engineer or a sparky, so you may well be right, but usually when one phase goes down, every third house loses power doesn't it? We had a fault of that nature in the road last year (fixed in about 5 hours), and whilst some of us lost all supply, others were unaffected except when supply was switched off to piece the cable. This evening, the entire district seemed to be on reduced voltage, and the streetlights were out altogether.

Quite true, the phases are split once they leave the local sub. However, each phase has to be balanced as much as possible to avoid issues at the generation end. Sometimes, developers and engineers forget this when they design new builds :roll:

 

[n0legs]

Quite true, the phases are split once they leave the local sub.

How do they do that?

 

[RogerS]

Quite true, the phases are split once they leave the local sub.

How do they do that?

Magic

 

[lurker]

Is it true the electricity leaks out of the sockets if you leave then switched on?
Would that explain the yellow stuff on my floor every morning
My neighbour has the same problem but it's blue on his floor

 

[n0legs]

Magic

I've been wondering for years RS :wink:

 

[n0legs]

Is it true the electricity leaks out of the sockets if you leave then switched on?

Is that true Jim :shock:

N0legs disappears to check all the sockets.


Edit,
Jim is that the same for lights without bulbs in??
Help, I'm hemorrhaging elasticktrickery #-o

 

[lurker]

Is it true the electricity leaks out of the sockets if you leave then switched on?

Is that true Jim :shock:

N0legs disappears to check all the sockets.


Edit,
Jim is that the same for lights without bulbs in??
Help, I'm hemorrhaging elasticktrickery #-o

Much worse. It pours out of ceiling mounted ones. It's the gravity. Fit bulbs ASAP

 

[n0legs]

Is it true the electricity leaks out of the sockets if you leave then switched on?

Is that true Jim :shock:

N0legs disappears to check all the sockets.


Edit,
Jim is that the same for lights without bulbs in??
Help, I'm hemorrhaging elasticktrickery #-o

Much worse. It pours out of ceiling mounted ones. It's the gravity. Fit bulbs ASAP

Cheers Jim, life saver mate total life saver =D>

Any advice how to get red phase stains out of carpet :lol:

 

[lurker]

But don't worry about it because all the spare electricity flows into the " ground" and goes back to the power station through an earth, so nothing is wasted.