What's the longest power outage you've ever had?

[MichaelCorfman]

Electric power is critical in today's developed world. We all depend on it, and power interruption can be incredibly disruptive. With the growing importance of the power grid, reliable operation is critical. Yet with the growing fury of storms, power has become less reliable in many cases. And extended outages as the result of storms seem to be more common, not just hours or days, but sometimes weeks or even months.

I had my first taste of an extended power outage this past weekend. With the storm on the East Coast of the United States, high winds severed the connection to the power grid for our data center and a number of other buildings last Friday. Our power was not restored until nearly three days later. And we were lucky compared with many others in the area. Emergency backup generators kept the GPWA website running. Without them we would have been down for three days.

So, with that on my mind, I've decided to ask folks about their experiences with power outages for this week's poll. What is the longest power outage you have personally experienced. Be sure to share the details. And share what you do to protect against power outages. Do you use a UPS to protect against short power interruptions?

Michael

[TheGooner]

Only ever hours out - so no - we don't have a UPS or backup generator for computers - our sites are professionally hosted offshore.

When we lived in the country we would have planned outages of 3-5 hours once or twice a year where they would be repairing power pylons, trimming tall trees etc, which helped to minimise outages during storms - so unplaned outages are usually 1-2 hours max.

Having said that during major pacific cyclone storms (once or twice a year) there are always reports of somewhere around the country that was hit harder, several power lines are down, and it can take a couple of days to restore service to all locations - but 99.5% of people have service within a couple of hours.

[Renee]

I don't remember ever not having power for days at a time, but I remember buying a UPS years ago when I still lived in my hometown for no reason other than to power my fridge if there was an outage. We had a couple of hours without power one time and the UPS might have survived for that long (it was a piece of crap UPS) but otherwise never had any other use for it than being able to say I had a UPS.

[Vargoso]

My perspective about this topic is very particular, as I'm an Electrical Engineer, so I'm actually the guy running quickly to solve the problem so all people can follow their curse.

Longest power outage...one day I think, but actually I remember a very different history: It was December 31, like 10 seconds to midnight, and all the family was doing the big countdown for the new year, and 4 seconds to midnight everything was black, so all people was in silence and we didn't noticed when the new year arrived. 00:05 the power was restarted.

Recommendations for you guys: Get an UPS if your process is critical, but I don't know many processes very critical, remember the Wi-fi is gonna be down too. If you use a laptop, I would only recommend a surge protector, cause the battery will work just fine to save ongoing job...Also, have a flashlight at home

[eenzoo]

About 13 hours in the vicinity of Prague after a storm.

[DaftDog]

More than two weeks without power when a major local electrical substation literally blew-up when an electrician switched an old HT switch back on after a period of load shedding.

This was back in 2008 when Zuma cronies had taken over our power utility Eskom. Fortunately "load shedding" is now a thing of the past, along with our now ex-president Zuma.

[baldidiot]

I don't even remember the last time we have a power cut. Maybe one or two very brief ones in the 11 or so years I've been in London. Talking minutes though.

When I was a kid growing up we had them all the time though.

[baldidiot]

Ps. I have no idea what a UPS is?

[DaftDog]

Ps. I have no idea what a UPS is?

A courier service perhaps?

[robertmedl]

Universal Power Supply

[Vargoso]

Ps. I have no idea what a UPS is?

UPS means Uninterruptible Power Service. It is an electronic device with batteries designed to provide power immediately (equipment connected to UPS will no shutdown in a blackout) after a power outage, and for a determined time according to the battery capacity. There are small UPS like for a PC and industrial UPS for big equipments or lots of PC’s.

are very used in IT services like servers.

[NDG]

The longest that I've experienced was slightly over 30 days without power.

This was during a natural disaster that killed a lot of people.. so as bad as the power outage was, it was a blessing to be alive.

[matthewt]

Only my compter has a UPS, that I know of.

[Former Member 14]

ooops, Vargoso already answered it!

[Simseen]

A few days when i was living in Spain. It wasn't really a big problem except for all our things in the freezer and refrigerator has to be thrown out. Me and my roomies just ate out and spent more time than usual at our local bar.
As the bar owners became our friends we was able to charge both out laptops and mobiles there so we had power for our phones througout the night so we could wake up for work.

[allfreechips]

When the east coast of the US went out for days I was somehow in a small pocket with power feel like a king when you look out the windows and see total darkness. Since then I wired some 3 way switches into my breaker box, ran a 30 amp cable to my garage and can plud in two 15 amp plugs from a gas generator outside. I can heat the house, keep the fridge on with some lights and TV/sat. And of course the front porch lights to baffle the neighbors.

[Olivia King Billy]

The longest I was without power was 2 days. We had some problems with electricity when I was studying at the university. I lived with 2 girls and we had no idea what to do back then. So it took as 2 days to find someone to help us. I remember charging my phone in a cafe/ taking shower with candles ( which was kind of cool ).

[Cash Bonus]

The longest power outage that I had lasted only 2 hours, but that's long enough for the dairy products to go off.

[Breakout Affiliates]

We had power cuts quite often a few years ago in S.A. and some areas still get them but they are much less frequent.

[universal4]

2 hours should be no where near long enough to spoil any food.
Stay out of the fridge is the first rule.

I went 1 week last year.

I am now making plans to do the annual maintenance and few needed things for this year's hurricane season, and already am staying at least 1 case of bottled water ahead as well as stocking up a few extra canned goods, and other things that do not require refrigeration such as protein shakes, juices etc.

Rick
Universal4