Half blackout

[Se7en]

Well this morning our power kinda went out....I am only seeing 65VAC out of the wall.....wtf...a fan still turns on but its so slow the cable boxes are half light up. My ys500 meter is half light up (led). Microwave keeps going bep help being and flashes a zero everything is acting like a dead battery haha....very trippy.

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[Se7en]

Here is a photo of my meter.


http://s1101.photobucket.com/albums...tion=view&current=2012-05-22_10-08-49_258.jpg


I have analog vac meter that is 5x5" but it isn't responding to the 60vac +/-

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[Mudfoot]

Unplug your sensitive stuff in case of a surge later.

I see no pix.

 

[Se7en]

Unplug your sensitive stuff in case of a surge later.

I see no pix.

Did that already. Its weird, the lights turn on but there really dim.

Picture:

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[TonyV225]

Becareful this can wreck things and as said makesure you have things unplugged because Ive seen disasters happen when a surge hits and brownouts a notorious for this

 

[Se7en]

Becareful this can wreck things and as said makesure you have things unplugged because Ive seen disasters happen when a surge hits and brownouts a notorious for this

Only thing plugged in is my meter and a room fan which isn't turning but the motor is buzzing.

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[KC9Q]

Sounds like a major brown out, or the neutral line of the 220 Volt feeder became disconnected. The later happened to my parents house and everything in the house was running on 1/2 voltage or so. They lived 3 miles from O'Hare Airport, on a glide path/runway path, and after 30+ years of vibrations from the planes overhead, the 220 neutral line came loose. The local electric company (ComEd) had to come out and reconnect the main to the house.

 

[unit_399]

Sounds like a major brown out, or the neutral line of the 220 Volt feeder became disconnected.

Had some of these when we lived in SoCal. I would call ConEd .

- 399

 

[Se7en]

Had some of these when we lived in SoCal. I would call ConEd .

- 399

I did. It seems many were without power or half power. Its fixed now.

Would any of this have to do wwith these readings:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html


And this: http://geomag.usgs.gov/realtime/
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[KC9Q]

Only if little aliens were present in the area.

No, not really. Probably just too much demand for the generator(s) and the electric company had to back the voltage down. In any case, it's bad news for electrical appliances. If voltage goes down, the current draw goes up to make the power. Low voltage with higher than normal current = burned out motor windings from the stress. Then people wonder why their AC, refrigerator, and TV's don't last long.

 

[FatHam]

Sounds like a Brown out... If you've got a pool, hurry up and turn the breaker off because the motor will burn up. Try not to run anything until it comes back up, because you can do a lot of damage. Been there...

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The current draw of a normal non-motor operated device cannot go up if the voltage goes down due to basic Ohms Law.The device will not providse the same power as it would with full voltage. The big danger is electronic circuits being operated with improper bias and control or switching voltages and then things can reall go bad. Got into a heated argument ( no pun intended) with an industrial electrician at work over that in relation to electrically heated dies on some machines at work. He and I both predicted what the current would be in light of a big voltage differential. He later admitted he was wrong and I agreed. In the case of motors they can burn out as they do not generate the required back EMF and over heat. Electric utilities would NEVER back the line voltage down to those levels because of the damage that can result and the liability of doing so. If many people in the area had the same problem my bet is that either a main neutral at a sub station became open or there was a problem with the voltage regulator at a sub station. Substation voltage regulators act sort of like HUGE variacs except they switch taps instead of have a smooth changes and sometimes they can stick either high or low. Either that or a transformer had shorted windings.

 

[Mudfoot]

Ask for 50% off your bill for today.

 

[Se7en]

Ask for 50% off your bill for today.

Yea right.

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[TonyV225]

Ask for 50% off your bill for today.

LMA!! yeah right!!! I nalways think about this with our internet when its out!!