Black Out

[unassuming]

Anyone affected by last night's black out caused by a raccoon?

Not me, I live just outside the BO boundary. (St. Clair Avenue West to Gerrard Street West and Avenue Road to the Don Valley Parkway.)

 

[shack]

They said 7,000 people were affected.

 

[xmontrealer]

Dang. I just missed out. I've been dying for a brief blackout to try out the battery powered emergency lanterns I bought last year.

Yeah yeah, I know that trying them with the lights out will work, but its not really the same thing as a complete blackout...

 

[Ponderling]

A few years ago I was doing an end of summer run of my old school non invertor gas powered 4kW generator.

I had syphoned most gas from tank, added a bit of seafoam, started the engine and left it to run dry.
Yes , with windows open, it is noisy.

It had been used by a pal at a cottage in the spring to run an air nailing compressor to replace a deck.
His nice quiet invertor genny was not up to powering the load and he did not want to rent a gas air compressor.

So its Tuesday about 4:30pm, mid September and genny had been on for about 5 min with just a 1500w space heater load, and engine was starting to sputter.

Neighbour starts waving at me over the fence as I pick up twigs, pull weeds etc.
He's panicking that it is too loud, insists I shut it off.

Just then the gas runs out, so his concern was addressed.

So I pulled the bowl off the carb, wiped it dry.
Changed the oil and put it in its winter enclosure where one door lifted clear and it will run in a snow storm.
Put the battery maintainer on its starting battery and all was set.

I have less than 1 year old stabilized premium gas in old coleman fuel cans - about 90l at hand.
In the spring it fuels the cars and we start the fresh fuel cycle agian

Guess who is now not going to get an neighbourly offer to throwing an extension cord over the fence to plug to my genny in a winter power outage to keep the furnace running?

 

[dvous11]

Generac or generlink with an inverter generator. Either are smart investments.

 

[jeff2]

I was affected. I was worried about all the salmon in my freezer. I buy a whack when on special.
Fortunately, it lasted about 3 hours.

 

[Ponderling]

Toss a sleeping bag on top of the freezer and resist opening the freezer door, and a day of no power will be fine.

 

[jeff2]

As a kid I remember them being called blackouts.
In the Philippines, I heard people call them brownouts.

Here is my internet search result:

A blackout is a complete loss of electrical power supply. This means that all the lights and appliances shut down when it happens. On the other hand, a brownout is a temporary reduction in power voltage that causes lights to dim and other electrical appliances to malfunction or shut down.

 

[NotADcotor]

As a kid I remember them being called blackouts.
In the Philippines, I heard people call them brownouts.

I would figure in the Philippines it would be called a Tuesday