Likely separate things, but a UPS for the router and other sensitive equipment is always a good idea. It isn’t just about service, but you prolong the equipment life as well. One of my routers takes 3.5 minutes to fully reboot, FWIW.
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Grid outage. Odd behavior?
- Thread starter daniel
- Start date
The houses had lights on and the street lights were lit very near to me. Closer to me there was one one lighted house and no street lights were on. The outage was localized to a very small area. (I made no attempt to find out the cause.) It lasted two hours according to the Tesla app.
The cable modem and router belong to Spectrum, and five minutes without service would not bother me, though I think mine take closer to one minute to reboot. Not sure. I can understand that someone who depends on the internet more than I do would want to take such measures. But realistically, since even a localized grid outage seems to shut down the internet service, a USP on the modem and router would have done me no good.
What is really nice is that in less than a minute I had house power.
Thanks to my Powerwalls, which I got only because the utility was no longer accepting customer-generated power.Sounds like our 2+ day power outage due to the PG&E PSPS. We did not have power for that time. But homes in a neighborhood 150 feet behind mine did. Every night from my dark couch I could watch them watching TV. Grrr.
But my neighbor brought over his RV and we connected power to its generator. Using that, I could make my on-demand water heater work and he was able to bring up Wifi and TV from the Xfinity cable. I believe the Xfinity repeaters and amps are in the neighborhood that had power.
One of the reason I am shelling out a lot of money for a Solarglass V3 roof and 2 powerwalls is to never have to be without power again as long as the sun is shining. That, and the roof looks cool.
As I said in another post, it only takes a couple days without power in our modern society for someone to say "I will spend whatever I can to never have to go through that again".
I was not hit by SCE PSPS, although the area included areas really close to me. What did happen to me in 2019, is 2 different power outages during the year, one which was "several hours" which wasnt "that" bad, and one which was about 2 1/2 days due to someone hitting a utility device hard enough to get the cable wrapped up in their car and pull some out of the ground.
That was in january of 2019, and it was "cold" where I live. "Cold" is mid to low 30s at night, and mid 50s to during the day. During those 2 days, the inside of the house got down to around 60 degrees. We had to throw away all our food, we were sitting here, in the dark, with jackets on in the house. We had cellphones because I had just bought my tesla, so I could charge them during using the USBs in the car. I also used the car USB ports to charge an iPad after it ran out.
I used the hotspot on my phone to get internet for my laptop, and my wife and I were huddled around a laptop watching netflix.. until the laptop ran out of power. The first night was not "that" bad, but by the second day, with no real update from the utility on time frame other than "we are working as fast as we can", I had decided that night 2 was it... after night 2, I told her we would go to a hotel. The power came back on mid day on day 3.
Previously, because I had penciled out the powerwalls as a 12 ish year payback, I had decided that "I didnt need them" as I dont consider this house I am in, "the house I will spend my retirement in". During the year, I decided that I would likely stay here until I retire, even if I dont currently plan on spending my retirement in this house (or maybe even this state). Thats likely about 10 years away, give or take, and I decided that "even if the pay off is 12 years, I am never going through that long without power again, especially since I already have solar on my house".
I was not hit by SCE PSPS, although the area included areas really close to me. What did happen to me in 2019, is 2 different power outages during the year, one which was "several hours" which wasnt "that" bad, and one which was about 2 1/2 days due to someone hitting a utility device hard enough to get the cable wrapped up in their car and pull some out of the ground.
That was in january of 2019, and it was "cold" where I live. "Cold" is mid to low 30s at night, and mid 50s to during the day. During those 2 days, the inside of the house got down to around 60 degrees. We had to throw away all our food, we were sitting here, in the dark, with jackets on in the house. We had cellphones because I had just bought my tesla, so I could charge them during using the USBs in the car. I also used the car USB ports to charge an iPad after it ran out.
I used the hotspot on my phone to get internet for my laptop, and my wife and I were huddled around a laptop watching netflix.. until the laptop ran out of power. The first night was not "that" bad, but by the second day, with no real update from the utility on time frame other than "we are working as fast as we can", I had decided that night 2 was it... after night 2, I told her we would go to a hotel. The power came back on mid day on day 3.
Previously, because I had penciled out the powerwalls as a 12 ish year payback, I had decided that "I didnt need them" as I dont consider this house I am in, "the house I will spend my retirement in". During the year, I decided that I would likely stay here until I retire, even if I dont currently plan on spending my retirement in this house (or maybe even this state). Thats likely about 10 years away, give or take, and I decided that "even if the pay off is 12 years, I am never going through that long without power again, especially since I already have solar on my house".
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Apologies if I already posted this: Some time around 1980 IIRC, I lived through a four-day power outage during and after a blizzard in winter in rural North Dakota. Nearest neighbor 3/4 of a mile away. No way to leave the farmstead in the blizzard. I had heat (a non-electric LP-gas parlor heater in the living room that heated the whole house) and plenty of emergency drinking water and a gas stove, but no running water or electricity. I had food and could cook but could not wash pots, dishes, or utensils or flush the toilet. Poop went outside in plastic bags. All the farmers had emergency generators but I could not afford one. I was poor in those days. I did have a propane lantern for light.
If I had had rural water I'd have been fine. But I had a well, and without electricity there was no running water. I'll tell you, that running water is far more important than electricity. I bought that house after the deadline to get on the rural water system, and to get on after the fact would have cost several thousand dollars or more, so I was stuck with the well.
Once the blizzard ended and the roads were plowed the utility company got the power on pretty fast. But that was four days. We hear about disasters where it's weeks or months without power or potable water. We're very lucky. But solar power and battery backup is something I'm very thankful for. I'm going to get a drink of water now.
If I had had rural water I'd have been fine. But I had a well, and without electricity there was no running water. I'll tell you, that running water is far more important than electricity. I bought that house after the deadline to get on the rural water system, and to get on after the fact would have cost several thousand dollars or more, so I was stuck with the well.
Once the blizzard ended and the roads were plowed the utility company got the power on pretty fast. But that was four days. We hear about disasters where it's weeks or months without power or potable water. We're very lucky. But solar power and battery backup is something I'm very thankful for. I'm going to get a drink of water now.
Apologies if I already posted this: Some time around 1980 IIRC, I lived through a four-day power outage during and after a blizzard in winter in rural North Dakota. Nearest neighbor 3/4 of a mile away. No way to leave the farmstead in the blizzard. I had heat (a non-electric LP-gas parlor heater in the living room that heated the whole house) and plenty of emergency drinking water and a gas stove, but no running water or electricity. I had food and could cook but could not wash pots, dishes, or utensils or flush the toilet. Poop went outside in plastic bags. All the farmers had emergency generators but I could not afford one. I was poor in those days. I did have a propane lantern for light.
If I had had rural water I'd have been fine. But I had a well, and without electricity there was no running water. I'll tell you, that running water is far more important than electricity. I bought that house after the deadline to get on the rural water system, and to get on after the fact would have cost several thousand dollars or more, so I was stuck with the well.
Once the blizzard ended and the roads were plowed the utility company got the power on pretty fast. But that was four days. We hear about disasters where it's weeks or months without power or potable water. We're very lucky. But solar power and battery backup is something I'm very thankful for. I'm going to get a drink of water now.
I bet you just as thankful for living in a place which has never seen snow.
Oh, we do see snow here. Haleakala is ten thousand feet high and in winter we can sometimes see snow on the top.
But it is nice to live in a place where even a cold-intolerant person like I am can swim comfortably in the ocean on the last day of December wearing nothing but lycra cycling shorts (which are my swim suit) and swim goggles.
And the whales are starting to arrive. It is sooooo cool when a fifty-ton whale the size of a school bus surfaces ten feet away from your two-person outrigger canoe, as happened a week ago.
Oh, we do see snow here. Haleakala is ten thousand feet high and in winter we can sometimes see snow on the top.
But it is nice to live in a place where even a cold-intolerant person like I am can swim comfortably in the ocean on the last day of December wearing nothing but lycra cycling shorts (which are my swim suit) and swim goggles.
And the whales are starting to arrive. It is sooooo cool when a fifty-ton whale the size of a school bus surfaces ten feet away from your two-person outrigger canoe, as happened a week ago.
Snow is like many dangerous things, best viewed from a distance. Sitting here in my sweater and jeans I am so jealous of your weather
Ulmo
Active Member
Many people prefer wells because they don't get exorbitant bills and threat of criminal prosecutions from the water companies. They can back up their electricity with batteries (and generators) purchased with all the money they're saving from not paying the utility. I would love to have my own well water. We conserve water and see $300 water bills and have to dodge water police.Apologies if I already posted this: Some time around 1980 IIRC, I lived through a four-day power outage during and after a blizzard in winter in rural North Dakota. Nearest neighbor 3/4 of a mile away. No way to leave the farmstead in the blizzard. I had heat (a non-electric LP-gas parlor heater in the living room that heated the whole house) and plenty of emergency drinking water and a gas stove, but no running water or electricity. I had food and could cook but could not wash pots, dishes, or utensils or flush the toilet. Poop went outside in plastic bags. All the farmers had emergency generators but I could not afford one. I was poor in those days. I did have a propane lantern for light.
If I had had rural water I'd have been fine. But I had a well, and without electricity there was no running water. I'll tell you, that running water is far more important than electricity. I bought that house after the deadline to get on the rural water system, and to get on after the fact would have cost several thousand dollars or more, so I was stuck with the well.
Once the blizzard ended and the roads were plowed the utility company got the power on pretty fast. But that was four days. We hear about disasters where it's weeks or months without power or potable water. We're very lucky. But solar power and battery backup is something I'm very thankful for. I'm going to get a drink of water now.
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