The storm (Eunice)

[discobob]

Monday is our day as well - looks to still be there but it has been blowing all night - a lot more gusty than Eunice which is more damaging - you don't drive a nail in with a hammer by just using a constant pressure

[oldypigeonpopper]

3 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

Not as stupid as my neighbours! The fashion amongst these (mostly octogenarians) is to put their bins out on a Sunday lunchtime. The bin men come after lunch on Monday. There was a storm last night, consequently every hedge row and field is covered in their recycling litter. 

Hello, I bet they don't go and pick up ??

[WalkedUp]

Just now, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, I bet they don't go and pick up ??

To be fair I am sure they will do, and I’m happy to help them. But the inevitability of it is nonetheless frustrating! 

[oldypigeonpopper]

10 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

To be fair I am sure they will do, and I’m happy to help them. But the inevitability of it is nonetheless frustrating! 

It does seem that way, I have neighbours who don't know a green  bin from black 🤔

[Mice!]

4 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

I don't know about others, but we seem to have a lot more damage and disruption from Storm Franklin than from Eunice.  Eunice brought one (small) tree down just down the road, and one (rotten and heavily ivy infested) tree up the road.

Franklin has (that I know of so far) brought down 2 trees, 1 wall, and caused one motor accident (details not know other than being a single vehicle and non fatal).  I suspect I will hear of more as reports come in.

Probably because it hasn't stopped raining for a week, things got rattled around Thursday Friday and Saturday then gave up last night.

[JohnfromUK]

14 minutes ago, Mice! said:

Probably because it hasn't stopped raining for a week, things got rattled around Thursday Friday and Saturday then gave up last night.

There is certainly an element of that.  Having had a walk round this morning, the motor accident was most probably a partially flooded road.  The (B road) there is travelled very fast and water lies in a dip where the culvert under the road hasn't the capacity to clear the water away in heavy rain.  Hit it at speed and you can easily spin.  Most of the B road culverts are now partially blocked as they have given up the regular maintenance that was done.  One that flows from one of my fields was completely blocked with willow tree roots at the outlet end (not my side).

The trees have mostly broken off rather than been uprooted, so I doubt rain has had much effect.  All the ones down have been heavily ivy infested, which hugely increases the wind resistance (evergreen).

The wall is a dry stone wall and has lost it's top 2 feet or so for a 6 foot length.  I suspect just gradual movement has weakened it over many years.  It is actually in a quite sheltered spot between buildings.

[Minky]

Well we were without power for 3 hrs less than the 24 for compensation but the power isn't  right. I have checked the house input voltage several time and it is varying from 209 volts up to 230 Volts. But even when it's 230 nothing seems to be working as it should and did.  One of the meekrow waveys goes tound but doesnt heat stuff. The toaster takes two goes to do a couple of slices of bread and the shower had to be on maximum heat and slow water tov be hot/warm enough for a reasonable hot shower.  Again we are getting 230 Volts but either not enough amps behind it or the cycles aren't correct. 

Ps forgot to post...!!!  apparently There were several areas in east Sussex that didn't have water?? Or power a couple of days ago.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Minky

[discobob]

8 hours ago, Minky said:

Well we were without power for 3 hrs less than the 24 for compensation but the power isn't  right. I have checked the house input voltage several time and it is varying from 209 volts up to 230 Volts. But even when it's 230 nothing seems to be working as it should and did.  One of the meekrow waveys goes tound but doesnt heat stuff. The toaster takes two goes to do a couple of slices of bread and the shower had to be on maximum heat and slow water tov be hot/warm enough for a reasonable hot shower.  Again we are getting 230 Volts but either not enough amps behind it or the cycles aren't correct. 

Ps forgot to post...!!!  apparently There were several areas in east Sussex that didn't have water?? Or power a couple of days ago.

Sounds to me like you have the Voltage but not the current - P=I (current) * V (voltage) hence you cant generate enough power for your devices to operate correctly

I wouldn't hazard a guess on how you would test for that though on a household circuit 

[JohnfromUK]

8 hours ago, Minky said:

but the power isn't  right.

You should report this as a fault to your electricity supplier emergency number because there can be hidden dangers in this type of condition. 

Example 1 - an item that uses forced air cooling (such as an induction hob) may (partially) operate getting hot, but there may be insufficient power to start/drive the cooling fans, so it will be damaged.

Example 2 - a motor driven item (e.g. fridge compressor) may be switched on by the thermostat, but if the Voltage is low - the motor may draw current, but not actually have enough power to start rotating and remain 'stalled' - which can cause damage or very rarely initiate a fire.  Remember modern refrigerant gasses are highly inflammable)

It sound like you may have a supply where the Voltage drops seriously as soon as you begin to draw current (i.e. try and draw out power) which can be caused by damaged to cabling which increases it's resistance.  Do the lights dim when a high power units such as a shower is switched on?  One simple test is to measure the Voltage when all (or nearly all) is switched off - then repeat with something that draws a high current (e.g. shower) switched on - and measure again.  A small (say less than 5 or 10 Volts) drop may be OK, but a big drop is indicative of a fault.

[Minky]

Yep we definitely have a random problem. This evening err inside went to do dinner and the electric hob wouldn't operate.  It is an all touch sensitive glass jobby.  She/we managed to cook on one section on full power and other sections (rings) on reduced power.  SO I did a voltage test.  We were running two rings on the hob (half power) , a meekro wavey (full chat) a kettle and other electronic stuff.  The voltage at the kettle socket double socket was 229 volts so the voltage doesn't drop much but the leccy ain't got much grunt behind it.  As an aside our leccy supplier has just gone down the pan so I  am considering fitting an alternator to the back wheel of her pushbike to charge up a couple of tractor batteries  to act as auxiliary power units.  It might tone her up a bit for when Putin turns all of the energy off and it becomes a regular occurrence.   Back to the 3 day week era boys.

[Mr gen]

2 hours ago, Minky said:

Yep we definitely have a random problem. This evening err inside went to do dinner and the electric hob wouldn't operate.  It is an all touch sensitive glass jobby.  She/we managed to cook on one section on full power and other sections (rings) on reduced power.  SO I did a voltage test.  We were running two rings on the hob (half power) , a meekro wavey (full chat) a kettle and other electronic stuff.  The voltage at the kettle socket double socket was 229 volts so the voltage doesn't drop much but the leccy ain't got much grunt behind it.  As an aside our leccy supplier has just gone down the pan so I  am considering fitting an alternator to the back wheel of her pushbike to charge up a couple of tractor batteries  to act as auxiliary power units.  It might tone her up a bit for when Putin turns all of the energy off and it becomes a regular occurrence.   Back to the 3 day week era boys.

Sounds like you might have a neutral fault call 105 and ask your local electricity board to come and do an earth loop impedance test this will test the return path back to the transformer you should be getting a reading below 0.35 ohms. I am guessing that you are a single phase customer fed via a single phase transformer if so likely hood of any appliance damage is small. A three phase supply and transformer on the other hand can do a lot of damage. Call them any time they will have a 24 hour call out.   

[Minky]

13 minutes ago, Mr gen said:

Sounds like you might have a neutral fault call 105 and ask your local electricity board to come and do an earth loop impedance test this will test the return path back to the transformer you should be getting a reading below 0.35 ohms. I am guessing that you are a single phase customer fed via a single phase transformer if so likely hood of any appliance damage is small. A three phase supply and transformer on the other hand can do a lot of damage. Call them any time they will have a 24 hour call out.   

Thanks for the advice.  Do you know  If no fault is found ... or, if there is an external fault in any case do they charge a small fortune like the telephone system do.?

edit. . Everything like fridges & freezers seem to be working except some items don't seem to be performing as well as I think that they did ...  e.g. hob unit.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Minky

[Mr gen]

10 minutes ago, Minky said:

Thanks for the advice.  Do you know  If no fault is found ... or, if there is an external fault in any case do they charge a small fortune like the telephone system do.?

edit. . Everything like fridges & freezers seem to be working except some items don't seem to be performing as well as I think that they did ...  e.g. hob unit.

there will be no charge from the electricity board. if the fault is found to be on your side of the meter they will just tell you to get an electrician. My bet is that it is a neutral conductor broken on their side. when you draw a current it flows down the live conductor (wire) there is a comparative current that flows down the neutral conductor back the the transformer is that has broken it cannot flow hence you don't get the power needed.    

if you turn on some high usage appliances like the cooker, shower, electric heaters do the lights dim or go off?

  

sorry I meant to say all at the same time

 

[Minky]

8 minutes ago, Mr gen said:

there will be no charge from the electricity board. if the fault is found to be on your side of the meter they will just tell you to get an electrician. My bet is that it is a neutral conductor broken on their side. when you draw a current it flows down the live conductor (wire) there is a comparative current that flows down the neutral conductor back the the transformer is that has broken it cannot flow hence you don't get the power needed.    

if you turn on some high usage appliances like the cooker, shower, electric heaters do the lights dim or go off?

  

sorry I meant to say all at the same time

 

Not really but they do look a  it dim and the second tube in the kitchen sometimes doesn't light or drops out.  Stuff is just slow like the electric shower has to be on the higher power and the water flow slowed down to get a warm shower where normally the water would be so hot you couldn't put up with it.

[Mr gen]

if you are still up and don't mind waiting a little while give them a call, our boys would be out within the hour and would be grateful of the overtime

 

[fse10]

Was not good in Kent blew my lorry off the road took out four small tree's a power pole , hit a big tree that stopped me from rolling down a six foot bank into a pond.

[Minky]

1 hour ago, fse10 said:

Was not good in Kent blew my lorry off the road took out four small tree's a power pole , hit a big tree that stopped me from rolling down a six foot bank into a pond.

You had a lucky escape. Stay safe.

[Minky]

23 hours ago, Mr gen said:

Sounds like you might have a neutral fault call 105 and ask your local electricity board to come and do an earth loop impedance test this will test the return path back to the transformer you should be getting a reading below 0.35 ohms. I am guessing that you are a single phase customer fed via a single phase transformer if so likely hood of any appliance damage is small. A three phase supply and transformer on the other hand can do a lot of damage. Call them any time they will have a 24 hour call out.   

Firstly thanks for your help and advice.   This morning I Called 105 and spoke to an operative who said that they were aware of a fault that was an overhead fault.  Soon after this the power went off for about 5 hours.  We thought, "yep, their working on it". Then after a while we realised that our electric problems were still the same.  Back on to 105.  We were given a job code and told that an engineer would attend.  Later an engineer did come and after a few tests and area line fault checking he came back and said that there were so many faults all over that it was a patchwork of local fixes.  He said that the main primary sub for this area was down and would have to be sorted out as an urgent matter. The whole area was being back fed which was causing problems.  The power out earlier wasn't a fault,  someone had reported a low hanging power cable so they shut it down as a safety measure.  It turned out not to be a power cable but a phone cable.!  He said hopefully the problems would be mainly sorted this week but it's dificult.  He said to contact 105 again to ask about the fault after a few days.  We continue in hope.  There's a lot of people still out and our minor problems are very small in comparison to others at the present time in world events. 

[Mr gen]

I am glad that you are on the way to getting your problems sorted although the companies response times and the time they are taking to repair their faults seems a little woeful.