US Power Outages

[rynnor]

Hmm - supposedly this has been caused by overloading the Niagara-Mohawk Power Grid - it's a hell of a big Grid if it covers Ottawa - New York - Cleveland - Toronto etc. etc.

 

[sonicyouth]

Right. You realise this is mostly a UK forum and I doubt anyone will care much?

 

[doh_boy]

BUT I've heard you've been getting more and more of these (brown outs?). Hence bush getting silly with the environment (he's of the opinion that supplying power to the country goes above environmental concerns). Tricky situation altogether :s

 

[Furr]

americans suffering , i think we all need to know about that for the satisfaction

 

[Maljonic]

Originally posted by sonicyouth
Right. You realise this is mostly a UK forum and I doubt anyone will care much?

I care! Oh, wait; thought it said Armenians...

 

[Trancor]

I wonder if the powercuts over there are caused by all the air-conditioning units over their. Just flick it on when it's hot. It doesn't matter that the energy they use causes it to be hot in the first place. Numpties the lot of them.

 

[S-Gray]

help help! osama bin laden and saddam hussein are attacking!

probably the first thing that went thru their minds...

 

[Scouse]

------------------------------------KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALLLLL!!!!!!!!------------------------------------

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by Trancor
I wonder if the powercuts over there are caused by all the air-conditioning units over their. Just flick it on when it's hot. It doesn't matter that the energy they use causes it to be hot in the first place. Numpties the lot of them.

But you wouldn't turn your fridge off would you?

 

[mr.Blacky]

And let my beers get warm? uke:

 

[Teh Krypt]

Originally posted by mr.Blacky
And let my beers get warm? uke:

Could try a fridge...

 

[danger]

Come again?

 

[leggy]

It's a good example of how fragile these large urban power grids really are.

If anything we should be paying close attention and learning from other's mistakes.

 

[Xage]

not just urban, i thought it covered several states in both the USA and canada

 

[Tom]

Nothing like that could happen here, we're British! Americans don't even have a local earth!

 

[Maljonic]

That's because they only have half the voltage which, bizarrely, is more expensive to run....

 

[Tom]

Explain please how 120VAC negates the necessity of an earthing system.

 

[[PS]Mung]

Slap solar panels on everything.
If it's so damn hot they ought to have solar powered air-con.

You don't seem to hear much about alternative energy in the USA.
Probably because "alternative" to them means "someone elses oil"

 

[Clowneh!]

It can be hot in the shadows too..

 

[mr.Blacky]

Tom.

But you wouldn't turn your fridge off would you?

me

And let my beers get warm?

The odd thing however is that last night in New York there were just 4 roberies while in Toronto that has the same problem there were more roberies then normal and pillaging

 

[Will]

Probably due to the way Septemeber 11th affected the city.

 

[Tenko]

I was reading a report that said the same thing really could happen here. The infrastructure problems in the states are due to to loss of investment since deregulisation in the 80's, something that has happened here too.

And this is big news, a country as advanced as the USA looses power for 50 MILLION people?!

Thats completely fucked up.

Of course I blame it on aliens using emp weapons in low earth orbit, they'll be invading soon, mark my words.

 

[Tom]

It might happen here, but really only because the power companies are less inclined to offer spare capacity. Back in t'old days they used to provide 25% spare capacity at peak times. Not terribly efficient, but you need some spare capacity to cope with all the kettles going on during the Coronation St ad break.

 

[mr.Blacky]

Well the US has the problem of having a 30% higher demand and just a 15% higher energy output in the last years (not sure what timeframe heard it on the radio)

 

[rynnor]

Originally posted by Tenko
Of course I blame it on aliens using emp weapons in low earth orbit, they'll be invading soon, mark my words.

Actually it was the colossal power required to create an artificial singularity neccesary for time travel... or a Stargate or something...

<huddles down n casts furtive glances over shoulder>

Expect more soon as they perfect the technique...

 

[Ch3tan]

Originally posted by Tom.
It might happen here, but really only because the power companies are less inclined to offer spare capacity. Back in t'old days they used to provide 25% spare capacity at peak times. Not terribly efficient, but you need some spare capacity to cope with all the kettles going on during the Coronation St ad break.

Its been in the news loads, the whole system needs an overhaul, they cant offer more power at the moment even if they wanted to.

 

[Maljonic]

Originally posted by Tom.
Explain please how 120VAC negates the necessity of an earthing system.

It's not lethal....

 

[danger]

... and they doubley insulate their wires, isn't that the other reason they don't have an earth prong in the plug?

 

[Tom]

Not many people know this, but the neutral wire in a plug actually goes to the same place that an earth wire goes. Ground. This is how people manage to fiddle their electricity bills, they simply remove the seal from the meter, and connect the returning neutral cable to a to a big spike, into the ground, thereby bypassing the meter.

Double insulation is fine, but it isn't much use when you have a metal device that happens to have damaged innards, and the case becomes live. Without an adequate earth, the first person to touch that becomes the 'earth' themselves. People tend to die when that happens.

This country has some of the toughest electricity regulations in the world, and we can be proud of that. Pfft, we virtually invented the stuff.

 

[kameleon]

does that mean the South Africans are going to beat us at electricity too?