Power Outages....

[pastafreak]

Do you get them where you are? Have you ever?

I ask because my brother back in NY is wondering how the Brits cope. I know that in the 23 years I've been in the UK,I've only had a power loss 2-maybe 3 times max. And only for an hour or two.

[parkie]

Those 'three day weeks' during the seventies with people only working hours at a time and blackouts nearly everywhere we went was something I remember well.
I was a sales rep at the time and would go to visit a customer only to find everything locked up and in darkness. In the end I had to ring my customers in advance and try to work around their power cuts.
Petrol was rationed as well of course.
Where I live now we rarely have any power cuts.

[woofgang]

used to get loads her in Hampshire, and before that in Somerset. Many less these days, maybe one short one a year.

I lived in NJ '91 to'93 and remember many power outs and also brown outs (drops in power) that used to happen at Thanksgiving and Christmas when everybody was cooking at once.
We had an uninterruptable power supply connected to the computer, basically a hug battery that sat on permanent charge connected to the computer and cut on when the mains power failed. the heating and hot water was oil fired and gravity fed but the cooking was electric. We kept gel fuel cans, pressure lanterns, torches, canned food and so on and loads of batteries for the radios and torches.
There was also a solid tanked cellar under the (wooden) house and the house was on a hill so no flood risk. As I have posted elsewhere on here, shelters at the time wouldn't allow animals in so evacuating was not an option.

[mccfluff]

very rarely at home at work we have them now and again but it tends to be someone digging somthing up somewhere and its usually restored fairly quickly