Check AC - Power Outage

[TheProfessor]

August 30, 2016

Power outage.
Out for a few hours.

Then back on.

Went to bed.
Woke up at around 11:00 PM. My bedside radio went dead. So I fiddled with that for a few minutes. It would come on then go off.

Finally got up and I hear beeps all over the house. And half the lights dead.
And some lights at a much lower light level.

First I thought that some power surge had burnt out some bulbs.

Then I went to find all of the beeps. The two telephone answering machines I have would beep every 30 seconds.
The screen on each stated "Check AC". And phone did not work.
So I did check the AC. Unplugged and plugged in. Still beeps every 30 seconds. And still on screen "Check AC".

Went to and turned computer on. Got a strange dialog box asking for some name and password (not wifi - hard wired). I have no clue what the name asking nor what password. Again, not wifi.
Unplugged cable modem. Plugged in computer. Got normal internet back.

So now I am baffled. Have all my appliances gone bezerk?

Then all of the lights that were on but off turned on. The dull lights brightened up.

The mysterious beeping went away. And the screen on the answering machine went back to normal.

I think that someone at the power company was fiddling with my electricity.

[HellRaZoR004]

There are typically two 120V AC lines that run from the street to you electrical panel. Sounds like half your panel was dead and the half that wasn't had low voltage. Hopefully it didn't do damage to anything.

[Newbiesaukee]

I had exactly the same experience including the computer problem. All seems OK now.

[jeffk]

There was a significant power outage in the area last night, around 6PM. A major transmission line came down. They restored power within the hour but I suspect it was a patch job. Later I also noticed a brief power outage and then a "brown out" low power condition for a while. I suspect they were making a more permanent fix to the problem which caused the power outage.

It screwed up my computer configuration but no damage detected so far. Some electrical devices don't respond well to running on lower power or the surges that sometime result as they work to repair things.

[wifi]

Bean Rd was closed. The feeder line from Meredith was taken down, this feeds the Center Harbor (really in Mboro) substation as well as the neck substation. The underwater feeder from Melvin couldn't handle the load, so it fused out. The Melvin (really in Mboro) substation stayed up, so Rt 109 was lit. Later on, as they were putting the jig saw back together, Rt 109 (Melvin) lost power too.

Didn't hear any accident reports, most likely a tree.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by TheProfessor

August 30, 2016

Power outage.
Out for a few hours.

Then back on.

Went to bed.
Woke up at around 11:00 PM. My bedside radio went dead. So I fiddled with that for a few minutes. It would come on then go off.

Finally got up and I hear beeps all over the house. And half the lights dead.
And some lights at a much lower light level.

First I thought that some power surge had burnt out some bulbs.

Then I went to find all of the beeps. The two telephone answering machines I have would beep every 30 seconds.
The screen on each stated "Check AC". And phone did not work.
So I did check the AC. Unplugged and plugged in. Still beeps every 30 seconds. And still on screen "Check AC".

Went to and turned computer on. Got a strange dialog box asking for some name and password (not wifi - hard wired). I have no clue what the name asking nor what password. Again, not wifi.
Unplugged cable modem. Plugged in computer. Got normal internet back.

So now I am baffled. Have all my appliances gone bezerk?

Then all of the lights that were on but off turned on. The dull lights brightened up.

The mysterious beeping went away. And the screen on the answering machine went back to normal.

I think that someone at the power company was fiddling with my electricity.

That was really weird last night. I went to bed around 10:30 to the sound of the fan. A few minutes later the fan went dead (actually slowed down to about half the speed). The light on the clock was really dim. Some lights in the house did not work at all and some went on but were really dull. The whole neighborhood was like that. Everything went back to normal around 11

[wifi]

Near as I can figure it, they threw the knife switches on the poles to isolate the secondaries of the neck and Center Harbor substations, then rewired in the feed from Meredith that broke, then turned the substations back on (replaced the fuses), and the sky cleared, the birds started singing and all was well. Then, later, they went to close the knife switches, which would reconnect all the secondaries to the already operating Melvin and Meredith substations, that's when the problem happened. Namely, they didn't wire the phases the same as they were (should be), and it shorted out. Why it didn't blow fuses is because those isolation transformers (the ones on three poles, the center pole shorter, holding up the three large transformers) were taking the load. Depending how close you were to the substation, would determine your voltage.

I'm happy the transformers didn't blow, they were taking all that power, heating up and would have made a mess. Also surprised it took them that long to take it down and wire it right. Eversource owns/maintains the feeds, NHEC owns the substations and distribution from there. I was sleeping when the "brownout" occurred and don't know if Eversource had left thinking all was well.

[Little Bear]

Originally Posted by GTO

That was really weird last night. I went to bed around 10:30 to the sound of the fan. A few minutes later the fan went dead (actually slowed down to about half the speed). The light on the clock was really dim. Some lights in the house did not work at all and some went on but were really dull. The whole neighborhood was like that. Everything went back to normal around 11

Same thing happened on Little Bear.

[SAMIAM]

Power outages are an inconvenience in your home.......imagine what it's like in a busy restaurant.
Last night we had a full house when the power went out.
We lost A/C, water, lights and everything electrical which includes the dishwasher, coffee maker and POS computer as well as the exhaust fans in the kitchen which drove the temperature up to 115 within minutes.
Since all of our equipment is on propane we continued to serve.
My incredible crew sprung into action....opened all the windows, switched to written slips, drew water from the storage tank in the basement to make coffee on the stove. There was natural light enough in the dining room but the kitchen crew had to use flashlights.
Service continued almost as though nothing was wrong and customers expressed their amazement that we were even able to operate.
So proud of my crew....they pulled together without a word of complaint under those terrible conditions. Lucky to have them.

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by SAMIAM

Power outages are an inconvenience in your home.......imagine what it's like in a busy restaurant.
Last night we had a full house when the power went out.
We lost A/C, water, lights and everything electrical which includes the dishwasher, coffee maker and POS computer as well as the exhaust fans in the kitchen which drove the temperature up to 115 within minutes.
Since all of our equipment is on propane we continued to serve.
My incredible crew sprung into action....opened all the windows, switched to written slips, drew water from the storage tank in the basement to make coffee on the stove. There was natural light enough in the dining room but the kitchen crew had to use flashlights.
Service continued almost as though nothing was wrong and customers expressed their amazement that we were even able to operate.
So proud of my crew....they pulled together without a word of complaint under those terrible conditions. Lucky to have them.

There's the difference between workers and employees with pride in their own work and their place of employment. In the military, it was "adapt and conquer " to get the job done. Kudos to your employees; they certainly have a lot of pride in their work. Must flow down from the top.

[SteveO123]

Originally Posted by wifi

Near as I can figure it, they threw the knife switches on the poles to isolate the secondaries of the neck and Center Harbor substations, then rewired in the feed from Meredith that broke, then turned the substations back on (replaced the fuses), and the sky cleared, the birds started singing and all was well. Then, later, they went to close the knife switches, which would reconnect all the secondaries to the already operating Melvin and Meredith substations, that's when the problem happened. Namely, they didn't wire the phases the same as they were (should be), and it shorted out. Why it didn't blow fuses is because those isolation transformers (the ones on three poles, the center pole shorter, holding up the three large transformers) were taking the load. Depending how close you were to the substation, would determine your voltage.



I'm happy the transformers didn't blow, they were taking all that power, heating up and would have made a mess. Also surprised it took them that long to take it down and wire it right. Eversource owns/maintains the feeds, NHEC owns the substations and distribution from there. I was sleeping when the "brownout" occurred and don't know if Eversource had left thinking all was well.

220, 221-- Whatever it takes!

http://youtu.be/iX3kxAA2L4Q

[longislander]

From NH coop website:

SmartHub Feed

Use this page to see your past notifications. Select which notifications are displayed by toggling the buttons for the desired social network feeds.

Aug 30, 2016
More transmission line trouble: Eversource line down in Ossipee affecting 6300 in nearby towns. Estimated time of restoration is 2 a.m.

Aug 30, 2016
NHEC crews found broken pole in transmission line right of way. Switching is underway with estimated time of restoration 7 pm

Aug 30, 2016
transmission provider is reporting a fault on the line that serves Moultonborough, Ctr Hrbr, Tuftonboro. 6000 currently out. No ETOR yet