Any news articles on the electricity blackout?

Chris_533976

Been trying to find some about the Knocknacarra blackouts this week, but the only one I can find is the tribune, which is subscriber only.

Any others out there, some people wont believe me when I say this happened.

Ardscoil Ris

jautukas87

It happened. Came back from holidays and radio on the stereo has reset.

Usually it has been once a month for a second or so, these might have been longer.

So what happened?

ukgalwaymcguire

hahaha not so bloody funny when you have two kids, electric cooker and everything went off at 6.30 on tuesday did piss me off... had too go out get take away, had a freezer full of food and was worried about it thawing out..
poxy esb then think they can send me a bill... they can wait and wait and wait..
happens a lot in the middle if the night as well, because the times my alarm clock has reset it self too midnight and i didnt get up and over slept

never known anything like it, well not since the 1970s, in the uk with the coal strike, and 4 day week but i was a kid then
thank god i put yankee candles on my christmas list!!!

snubbleste

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Been trying to find some about the Knocknacarra blackouts this week, but the only one I can find is the tribune, which is subscriber only.

Any others out there, some people wont believe me when I say this happened.

This may come as a shock, but the Tribune is available in non-internet form at your local retailer.

ukgalwaymcguire

jautukas87 wrote: »

It happened. Came back from holidays and radio on the stereo has reset.

Usually it has been once a month for a second or so, these might have been longer.

So what happened?

tuesday night,, everything went off at 6.30 came back at about 10pm, then went off again at 10.45 ish and came back at around 3, because i left my bedroom light on and it woke me up...

weirdly, i live off cappagh road, but when i went out too get take away for my kids, cappagh road itself was fine..
my brother who lives round the corner on barna road was also fine
but from cappagh road right the way down too b+q on the western distributor everything was out, i felt for thoose living up cappagh / bally moneen upper, must have been bloody freezing!!

at least when i was in the uk, 90 per cent of houses have gas cookers
and central heating and dont rely on electric as a inginition...
happened about a month back as well..

when i do get round too paying esb, i will be taking off 100 euro loss of frozen food as well, they can kiss my ass

Chris_533976

It was 9 degrees in my house that evening, I'm down the Cappagh road but connected with the electricity of the estates to the east.

That meant that I had no power from 630 to 1am, and had to watch everyone on the other side of the road have lots of electricity.

ukgalwaymcguire

Chris_533976 wrote: »

It was 9 degrees in my house that evening, I'm down the Cappagh road but connected with the electricity of the estates to the east.

That meant that I had no power from 630 to 1am, and had to watch everyone on the other side of the road have lots of electricity.

i know exactly how you feel,, and funny enough im in the house at the back,, even more weirdly my brother is about too move in too a flat there.. (the ones of the same name as the road i live on)
think we should kick esbs arses!! im gonna claim for a freezer full of food i had too throw away, i have a habit of freezing chickens and beef and lamb, so theres always loads of meat at the ready, had too chuck the lot. you have my sympathy i was there with ya!!:)

http://www.galwaynews.ie/6156-big-chill-caused-power-blackout

THE ESB are installing a high-tech back-up system at their power station in Rahoon – set to eliminate powercuts during freezing weather – as part of an overall €40million investment.

However, the news will be cold comfort for more than 4,000 households in the Knocknacarra area who were left without electricity for up to six hours on Tuesday evening.

A massive increase in electricity consumption during the freezing spell caused a major overload on the network at around 6.30pm on Tuesday and caused the cuts in Rahoon and Knocknacarra.

As temperatures dropped to minus three degrees, householders boiling the kettle, switching on the heat and cooking their tea caused a major overload of the power network.

While some estates had their power restored within the hour, others living further along the Western Distributor Road towards Barna were left in the dark until after midnight.

Following the massive blackout...

Mrs OBumble

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

im gonna claim for a freezer full of food i had too throw away, i have a habit of freezing chickens and beef and lamb, so theres always loads of meat at the ready, had too chuck the lot. you have my sympathy i was there with ya!!:)

Good luck with that.

If you'd just left the freezer door closed, there is no way things would have defrosted in that short a time.

ukgalwaymcguire

JustMary wrote: »

Good luck with that.

If you'd just left the freezer door closed, there is no way things would have defrosted in that short a time.

oh and now justmary is a electrician are you???
i know what happened in my freezer do you ?? were you there
no..
not a intelligent comment..

jenno86

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

oh and now justmary is a electrician are you???
i know what happened in my freezer do you ?? were you there
no..
not a intelligent comment..

No need to be snapping at people...... :rolleyes:

Xiney

No, it's true ukgm, if you kept your freezer door closed and it still defrosted in such a short period of time, there's something wrong with your freezer. In the summer of 2003, we lived with intermitent power for nearly a week, in 35 degree + weather, and our freezers' contents were fine.

That said, it has just occurred to me that should there be a long term power outage in winter where we're living, we'd likely freeze to death unless we went elsewhere: electric heat, electric cooker, electric kettle, electric water heater.... we have a gas fireplace but we haven't managed to get it working. Not that it would matter since it probably wouldn't give off much heat anyway. Also, the insulation in Irish buildings is non-existent, so it doesn't take long to start matching the outdoor for temperatures.


Maybe I should get a little camping stove, just in case.

ukgalwaymcguire

Xiney wrote: »

No, it's true ukgm, if you kept your freezer door closed and it still defrosted in such a short period of time, there's something wrong with your freezer. In the summer of 2003, we lived with intermitent power for nearly a week, in 35 degree + weather, and our freezers' contents were fine.

That said, it has just occurred to me that should there be a long term power outage in winter where we're living, we'd likely freeze to death unless we went elsewhere: electric heat, electric cooker, electric kettle, electric water heater.... we have a gas fireplace but we haven't managed to get it working. Not that it would matter since it probably wouldn't give off much heat anyway. Also, the insulation in Irish buildings is non-existent, so it doesn't take long to start matching the outdoor for temperatures.


Maybe I should get a little camping stove, just in case.

well i had 3 chickens a whole leg of lamb and 3 beef joints, they were all partly unfrozen, and not taking any risks with meat, especially the chickens .
got too say though the insulation in my place is very very good my house is only 8 years old though and i wish wish we had gas!! gas central heating is so much warmer than oil plus it really brings it home too me
about the enviroment having a tanker pull outside, but gas is no better for that.
but yes the meat had too go , as did ice cream and veg, i have a small freezer in my ultility room thats the one where i had too throw food out from the fridge freezer in the kitchen itself was ok but the majority of food was in the other..

swimgal08

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

well i had 3 chickens a whole leg of lamb and 3 beef joints, they were all partly unfrozen, and not taking any risks with meat, especially the chickens .
got too say though the insulation in my place is very very good my house is only 8 years old though and i wish wish we had gas!! gas central heating is so much warmer than oil plus it really brings it home too me
about the enviroment having a tanker pull outside, but gas is no better for that.
but yes the meat had too go , as did ice cream and veg, i have a small freezer in my ultility room thats the one where i had too throw food out from the fridge freezer in the kitchen itself was ok but the majority of food was in the other..

you may talk highly of gas but at the same time it is a very dangerous chemical look at the young man it westport who died over christmas from a gas leak ....and theres more storys like that. you wont have that problem with electric cookers ..

and hey theres always supermacs;);)

galwaybabe

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

well i had 3 chickens a whole leg of lamb and 3 beef joints, they were all partly unfrozen, and not taking any risks with meat, especially the chickens .
got too say though the insulation in my place is very very good my house is only 8 years old though and i wish wish we had gas!! gas central heating is so much warmer than oil plus it really brings it home too me
about the enviroment having a tanker pull outside, but gas is no better for that.
but yes the meat had too go , as did ice cream and veg, i have a small freezer in my ultility room thats the one where i had too throw food out from the fridge freezer in the kitchen itself was ok but the majority of food was in the other..

What is it with some people's grammar? :eek::eek::eek::eek:

ukgalwaymcguire

galwaybabe wrote: »

What is it with some people's grammar? :eek::eek::eek::eek:

im sorry galway babe. i didnt know you were a english grammar teacher.

but do get a life , humming round boards too correct other peoples mistakes isnt one really is it....
yet another hater too add too my ignore list, the boards is full of them,
maybe they have a hard time expressing themselves in reality lol...
thanks for that your petty mindedness has made my day, and made me laugh so so much cheers love

Mrs OBumble

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

oh and now justmary is a electrician are you???
i know what happened in my freezer do you ?? were you there
no..
not a intelligent comment..

Do let us know how you get on with withholding payment to the ESB as "compensation".

Das Kitty

ukgalwaymcguire, you shoulda put your meat out the back in a bucket or bin with a lid. It was -2C that night.

Luckily ours was only out for about an hour so we were grand. We were going to hoik a load of frozen stuff outside but we rang the ESB and they gave us the eta for it being back up we didn't bother.

Webbs

swimgal08 wrote: »

you may talk highly of gas but at the same time it is a very dangerous chemical look at the young man it westport who died over christmas from a gas leak ....and theres more storys like that. you wont have that problem with electric cookers ..

and hey theres always supermacs;);)

I thought the sad case in Westport was carbon monoxide poisoning which usually comes from a defective boiler. Gas is treated to give it a smell so you would likely smell it well before it becomes a poison issue (more likely to blow your self up befoer then!)
We are lucky enough to have mains gas central heating and cooking which having got used to it in the UK is a godsend.

Also I would definitely think there was something wrong with a freezer that defrosts in couple of hours, maybe the seal is not working properly. We use Freezers constantly with my work and we have had freezers go off all night and they are still in minus figures the next day.
If you can get hold of a freezer thermometer and check the temperature it may be well above the -20 mark to start with.

Xiney

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

well i had 3 chickens a whole leg of lamb and 3 beef joints, they were all partly unfrozen, and not taking any risks with meat, especially the chickens .
got too say though the insulation in my place is very very good my house is only 8 years old though and i wish wish we had gas!! gas central heating is so much warmer than oil plus it really brings it home too me
about the enviroment having a tanker pull outside, but gas is no better for that.
but yes the meat had too go , as did ice cream and veg, i have a small freezer in my ultility room thats the one where i had too throw food out from the fridge freezer in the kitchen itself was ok but the majority of food was in the other..

Then my point stands that there's something wrong with your freezer. Like I said, we had no power for over 24 hours in one go followed by smaller blackouts 2-6 hours long during the course of a week in the height of summer in Ontario, and our freezer contents were fine.

6 hours off in what was probably the coldest room in the house shouldn't have done anything to your food if you weren't checking it constantly to see if it was defrosted yet.


Edit: The apartment we're living in was built only 18 months ago, it's just that everything in Ireland is cinderblock construction whereas I'm used to timber frame construction which seriously outperforms the former in energy efficiency. I'm not used to needing to have the heat on "high" constantly just because the temperature outside is -4.

kayos

That was annoying blackout alright thankfully we were only trying to decide on what we were gonna cook rather than being in the middle of cooking. DeRoberta’s were quiet busy with plenty of knocknacarra patrons .

As for a freezer defrosting after 6 hours that honestly sounds like you have a dodgy seal.