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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 59
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Dawg Offline OP
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Originally Posted by SP4RX

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the wording, but didn't the monitor's weird actions begin at the moment of power loss?


Yes you are correct, this happened right at power loss.

On an update my wife said it happened again yesterday; shie heard a boom followed by the lights going very dim, just as they had done the earlier day. It was dark outside and she said the bulbs were producing very little light.

Then she heard another boom (more audiable than the first one) and then the lights went completely dead. She looked out the window and saw utility trucks down the street and a bunch of folks come out to see what the ruckus was all about.

We have no phone poles in our subdivision, I'm guessing it was one of them green boxes on the side of the road....

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
The full story of that computer account still makes me laugh... it happened on my first evening with her(!) and she got pretty freaked because she thought her computer was gone... and crouching on the dirty old carpet under her desk I found that only the power switch in the back was off... her grandfather had thought this was the proper way... (she mostly lived with her grandparents back then)...

Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 2,148
R
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Quote
I've seen that exact same thing - 24 volts - we had one of the phases crap out and someone in the local area went and started up a genset and backfed the current into the grid without making the proper offlodading from their genset back into the line.

Not very likely .... a large load will just stall the prime mover on most generators, not let it run producing very low voltage. The most likely cause of low voltages like this is an open phase on the utility primary.
Don


Don(resqcapt19)
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 853
L
Member
Originally Posted by Texas_Ranger
The full story of that computer account still makes me laugh... it happened on my first evening with her(!) and she got pretty freaked because she thought her computer was gone... and crouching on the dirty old carpet under her desk I found that only the power switch in the back was off... her grandfather had thought this was the proper way... (she mostly lived with her grandparents back then)...


Don't expand further.. The imagination is working fine on the followup. You were the hero and a "lucky" Man! smile

Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
E
e57 Offline
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I have had the exact same type of situation, and went around the neighbors homes and saw very simular effects on different types of things.

POCO phase went out (1 of 3) and what would seem like a normal power outage got wierd. From I assume is the induction of current from the other 2 phases on an open line. Having talked to the line crew already, the whole phase was open due to a HV fuse that they were waiting for. (~3 hours) Having shut off my main at my house, I went to the other homes on the block to tell them to do the same for a little while until this blew over.

The induced voltage to the open phase over about a mile was enough to create ~74/136 through the transformer in my back yard. Although not really usable for most things like incandesant lighting, certain electronics acted very differently. Flashing screens of TV's, flouro lights, squealing cordless phone bases. Of the dozen or so neighbors I talked to they all had something wierd going on. Reguardless of what anyone else says - it can't be good. Maybe not as damaging as an over-voltage, but a lower voltage producing a partially usable current in less robust electronic items.....

IMO if they had grounded the conductor - it would have seemed less wierd. They were comfortable with not doing so - but the effects were freaking me out....


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
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Don't expand further.. The imagination is working fine on the followup. You were the hero and a "lucky" Man! \:\)

Actually the evening was G rated wink
Remember, her grandma was next door *ggg*

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