Shout out to the Power companies
Discussion
My dad has just retired from our local electricity board. He was a fitter there for 44 years. There has been a combination of more robust systems as well as automation to work around any faults quickly, but even then there were plenty of times when I was a kid where the phone would ring at 2 in the morning, and that was dad gone until sometimes the following evening. Alot of problems they used to have were caused by wind and trees shorting out overhead lines which would pop a breaker and would require the fault to be found, sometimes in the middle of a forest, before being manually reset. More recently it would turn off when a fault occurred, but the system would then automatically try to reset the system after 10 seconds. If it was just a nuisance tree then it would usually be fine, but if the fault was more serious it would stay off. They also make a big effort to use generators wherever possible when doing routine maintenance, so they don't tend to send out many of the 'Your electricity will be turned off from 7am on the 5th' letters anymore. Along with the automation it meant that my dad's evolved slowly from big rubberised tools, to also using Ipads for automation. Alot of investment and work has gone into the network to the pont that we really do now just take it all granted.
Don't forget that everyone having full electrical supply is a comparatively recent thing - certainly within my parents lifetime.
Their first house was built in the 30s, when they bought it in1949 it didn't have electricity so universal electricity is more recent than cars which means when we talk of power cuts (excluding those due to government/unions falling out) in the 60s compared to now it's like comparing a Morris Minor to a current supermini.
Their first house was built in the 30s, when they bought it in1949 it didn't have electricity so universal electricity is more recent than cars which means when we talk of power cuts (excluding those due to government/unions falling out) in the 60s compared to now it's like comparing a Morris Minor to a current supermini.
I'm a 90s kid and whilst I'm English, I remember going to visit my family heritage in Asia and seeing powercuts very regularly. You just made do - as I got older and technology improved, generators and UPS' became more common, but I remember playing Morrowind back in the early 2000s, forgetting to save for an hour or so, and getting disproportionately pissed off when the UPS kept everything running but reset the computer because of the 0.2 seconds it took to kick in.
Perhaps that's why Asian families are so large, hah. Nothing to do because there's no electricity? Take your missus to bed and explore sexual positions.
With all that said, I'm sure the Greta-lovers will tell us that power is bad and we need to live in igloos with a small wind turbine to power our phone chargers.
Edit: I also remembered a little marketing trick in SE Asia with newer hybrid cars - if the power goes out, you can run your house off the car. Doesn't work with stuff we get here as the cars aren't designed to export power, but it works well where power isn't consistent.
Perhaps that's why Asian families are so large, hah. Nothing to do because there's no electricity? Take your missus to bed and explore sexual positions.
With all that said, I'm sure the Greta-lovers will tell us that power is bad and we need to live in igloos with a small wind turbine to power our phone chargers.
Edit: I also remembered a little marketing trick in SE Asia with newer hybrid cars - if the power goes out, you can run your house off the car. Doesn't work with stuff we get here as the cars aren't designed to export power, but it works well where power isn't consistent.
Edited by Second Best on Tuesday 7th January 00:40
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff