How often do you guys get electrical black outs in your homes?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Because nothing pisses me off more than those, perticularly since I have an APC Battery Backup+Surge Protector that I use for the very Desktop PC I am using to post this thread, and the PC still shuts down despite being connected to the battery. And the worse thing is this battery is inconsistant, sometimes it saves the PC and other times it doesn't. The only consistancy is if a black out happens when I am playing a rather performance intensive video game like Total War or even World of Warcraft, the PC shuts down despite the battery.

Today I had 2 quick power failures and twice my PC shut down and risking damage to the electronics. I just decided to switch batteries, I have 2 at the moment and I am just waiting and see if this one is more effective in handling however many voltage this PC consumes.

Honestly my dreams is to move to a place that has much more stable electricity so I can avoid shit like this and I want my electronic devices to be safe from overloaded damage.

Does anyone here understand my plight here at least?

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I live in Australia, so its pretty reliable, but we get the occasional blackout (once or twice a year) in particularly bad weather.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not at all often until it happens, and suddenly it's all too frequently.

 

[Saelune]

Pretty rare...but I live in a place that the government actually tries to help after a hurricane. Endured two weeks of no power during Sandy, but then it got fixed and stay fixed. I mean, just two weeks was hell for me, anyone who has lost power for longer than that, I honestly understand that 'sucks' is underselling how awful it is.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Haven't had a blackout in years (though there is a scheduled one for next friday for some maintenance). I did have a blackout a few years ago that ended up with me having no electricity for 4 or 5 days, which is a bit of problem if all of your appliances are electric. I couldn't even boil water. Ended up buying a bunch of "survival" gear in case I have another blackout so I don't have to go stay with friends, or go to a hotel.

 

[Zontar]

If you mean the power goes off for a split second then comes back on, about a dozen times a year (mostly in the winter and summer). If you mean the power goes off for a noteworthy amount of time, 0 to 3 times per year, never lasts more then a few hours.

 

[Trunkage]

You live in Puerto Rico, right? I heard the power is bad there. That sucks.

I live in Australia, so its pretty reliable, but we get the occasional blackout (once or twice a year) in particularly bad weather.

Same situation. One storm earlier this year lead to a night of no power.

I heard South Australia has issue but Musk is on the cases with a large battery solution.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

It used to be that my particular portion of this neighborhood would lose power any time a storm rolled through, even if the rest of the city was fine. It hasn't really happened in a while, aside from a few short occasions (ten minutes or less each)- the power company must've finally fixed whatever the issue was.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Only during maintenance to the road or power lines.

At worst maybe during a really bad storm, but even that's been rarer since we moved a tiny bit further north.

Hell, I've had houses on my street lose power and we're somehow still okay.

If I was still living in the same place I did about 5 years ago? I'd say we'd have a blackout at least once a month. With no explanation as to why. Just a shitty part of town I guess.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

We get blackouts every June-October when the next big typhoon rolls around and skullfucks our country. A few years ago though my dad gave in and finally bought a generator, so blackouts (which now that I think about it, we call brownouts here) aren't so much of a problem anymore.

Our old plasma TV did get destroyed by a blackout though. That really sucked, it was at that point that I stopped gaming as a kid because we had no other TV to hook up my PS3 to.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Once or twice a year, usually for no more than a few hours. Living in a country with top-notch infrastructure is good that way.

 

[Hawki]

Almost never. Only a few times a year.

Live in Oz, and luckily, not South Australia.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Sometimes frequently, but I live in Texas so not only are we in Tornado Alley and have 90mph straight winds, we also have hurricanes too.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

We get blackouts every June-October when the next big typhoon rolls around and skullfucks our country. A few years ago though my dad gave in and finally bought a generator, so blackouts (which now that I think about it, we call brownouts here) aren't so much of a problem anymore.

Our old plasma TV did get destroyed by a blackout though. That really sucked, it was at that point that I stopped gaming as a kid because we had no other TV to hook up my PS3 to.

When growing up I had two different houses I lived in hit by lightning and fried our TVs!

 

[EscapistAccount]

You need to re spec your UPS if you're bumping the delivery limit and getting intermittent failure to take over supply, sounds like your battery is shagged. They're a limited lifetime component. Consider either replacing the battery or going up a tier of capacity.

Having said that a UPS is only supposed to give you enough power to gracefully shut down, it's not really designed for anything more intensive than that.

As for the question, my country's power supply is consistent enough that power cuts are nearly always the result of storm damage.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

You live in Puerto Rico, right? I heard the power is bad there. That sucks.

I live in Australia, so its pretty reliable, but we get the occasional blackout (once or twice a year) in particularly bad weather.

Same situation. One storm earlier this year lead to a night of no power.

I heard South Australia has issue but Musk is on the cases with a large battery solution.

In my neighbourhood it was shitty before the hurricane hit us. Yet places like my grandmothers house, she rarely if ever gets one unless a hurricane or tropical heavy rains happens.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

You need to re spec your UPS if you're bumping the delivery limit and getting intermittent failure to take over supply, sounds like your battery is shagged. They're a limited lifetime component. Consider either replacing the battery or going up a tier of capacity.

Having said that a UPS is only supposed to give you enough power to gracefully shut down, it's not really designed for anything more intensive than that.

I know that, and this battery as I have said before is inconsistant. SOmetimes it saves the computer for blacking out which gives me time to shut it down, but even when I am not playing a game like Total War, it still blacked out.

As I said I already own 2 batteries and I switched them to see if this stays on consistantly.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Poland. Occasionaly, few hours 2-3 times a year. Usually there's a heads up about grid maintenance.
Some places got it worse lately because of the weather getting more unpredictable, but fortunately it wasn't a problem where i live.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Maybe 1-2 times a year. Only happens during sheduled maintenance or sometimes accidentally during road works.

Also helps that much of our cable infrastructure is underground and we don't get a lot of extreme weather to begin with. Although unusually heavy rainfall has caused significant flooding in certain valley regions the past week, so local blackouts are likely. None here though. The perks of living on top a hill.

 

[Satinavian]

Maybe once every three or four years.