Futile and power cuts

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olive
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:13 pm
Location: Poniente, Granada

Futile and power cuts

Postby olive » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:27 pm

Don't get me wrong, if you live in the campo and you have mains electricity then it is a blessing. However after double figures worth of power cuts last night and again tonight lasting from a few seconds to half an hour, in perfectly good weather, I am driven to ask a couple of questions.

Firstly - apart from 20 year old overhead cabling does anyone actually know why the power (not our trip) goes on and off like a yo yo? (that is your cue Beachcomber I suspect!)

Secondly (and here is I suspect dodgy ground) has anyone thought of "mentioning" it to their local electric company. After all it may be that they are blissfully unaware of an unmanned switch trip problem :lol: (Yeh right) . Has anyone ever complained successfully? Yes I have been here long enough to know that this would be fairly futile!

olive

pete_l
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Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:59 pm
Location: Benamaurel, Granada

Postby pete_l » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:33 am

Maybe one of your local farmers has got a new piece of inductrial
equipment that trips the local transformer every time it's started?

I expect that whenever the power goes off the electricity company
gets an earful from the spanish population, depending of course what
TV programs go black on them!

On a practical point, you can get a thing called an "uninterruptible power
supply" aka UPS. This will provide power for domestic equipment[1] like
lights, TV for a few seconds/minutes, depending on the capacity of UPS
you get. They can also be useful at supressing spikes in the voltage that
can break delicate stuff. You may find you're getting voltage spikes when
the power goes off, or comes back on again.
Recomended for campo living.

Pete

[1] It won't power your kettle or other high power stuff like immersion heaters, though.

Moving Soon
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Posts: 232
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:12 pm
Location: Manchester/Velez Malaga

Postby Moving Soon » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:46 am

We've got a small rechargeable fluorescent light for use during power cuts (fine as long as you remember to recharge it!!) which at least gives enough light to read by and get around safely during a cut. Bought from Argos if I remember rightly. We keep it hanging on the inside of the door to the understairs cupboard so we know where to find it when the lights go out!

Beachcomber
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Location: Guadalhorce Valley

Postby Beachcomber » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:52 am

When it is windy the overhead power cables can touch momentarily and cause a short circuit which trips a safety cut out in the transformer. This usually resets automatically after a short period of time.

It is the momentary power cuts (microcortas) which cause the most damage to sensitive electronic equipment and a good quality UPS is essential (I have six or them).

jane grant

Postby jane grant » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:13 pm

We also have had problems with the local electric supply going off and on like a belisha beacon, but our problem is an antiquated sub station built when there were only about 20 houses down the road, there are now more than 120! Endesa say when they have connected all the new poligono industriales in the area, they might get round to changng it! Only real problem we have (apart from owning more candles that the local church) is if we do have a specific problem with our supply we tend to think it's just another power cut, and do nothing for hours!!!!


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