Has Anyone Elses Power Been Cutting out for a few seconds recently

For the last couple days my neighborhoods power has been resetting around once a day usually late at night. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if it could possibly be a result of increased solar activity?

Assuming you live in the northern hemisphere, you're probably experiencing temporary electrical shortages due to increased demand. In the summer, people tend to turn their air conditioners on at night. This, coupled with all the electric lights, TVs, computers, etc, causes "rolling brown outs" across the electrical grid. There just isn't enough juice to go around.

Yes. It happened once the other night at home, but it was only for a few seconds. It also happened at work about four days again, but again...just for a second or two.

Originally posted by ATLien
For the last couple days my neighborhoods power has been resetting around once a day usually late at night. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else and if it could possibly be a result of increased solar activity?

Sounds to me more like it could be due to faulty equipment. I'm not entirely sure but I was under the impression that if there was a major solar issue it would behave much more like an EMP than anything else, that would fry an electrical grid not just make it flicker.

I'd call your power company and report the problem.

I was told once that the power companies turn down the output after dark since it becomes cooler and the residential air conditioners kick on less. Sometimes when they do this, it results in brown outs or small black outs if they shut it down too far.

Of course, I could have been lied to.

reply to post by ATLien


Where are you located? You do realise that people from ATS come from all corners of the world. If you were in NZ, or Europe, or North Amercia, your're really asking a different audience. So who are you asking?

(Just BTW - in the past month, I have had electricity shut of for a split second in the apartment 3 or 4 times. Just long enough to switch off the comp, TV, and reset clocks on the microwave and stove - Damn annoying! I think 1 of the previous posters is right regarding the consumption of electricity in Northern Hemisphere - large jump compared to winter usage)

[edit on 18-8-2010 by TortoiseKweek]

Yes, it's happened about 15 times in 4 days here...way more than normal for summer here in Atlanta, GA. And it's BRIEF. The only way I know it even happens is that our damn loud doorbell rings when it comes back on and this one touch lamp we have turns on. Not weather related either. We've had some wicked storms the past few days and the power never went out at all. This is happening in daylight and clear weather. No construction going on. No outages being posted on the power companies website at all.

[edit on 8/18/2010 by ~Lucidity]

I'm in Philadelphia..It could be Brown outs, but I've never experienced one in the history of me and now its everyday, so I don't really know.

No company that I know of does 'brown outs' anymore. A brownout is a 5% reduction in voltage at the substation regulator. (normal range is 114v - 126v)
Chicago did it quite often up to the 70's but no more.

When there's an accident (car hit pole or transformer) or lighting or tree in line, a reclosure will kill the power anywhere from 1 - 30 seconds, then automatically turn it back on. If the problem is still there it will shut the power off until the troubleshooter can locate and clear it. Depending on the company some try only once, most try it twice before 'locking out'

Sometimes the crews will have to shut power off while doing their work.

A cme could affect relays at the substation but is very unlikely. More chance of you getting hit by a falling coconut than a cme causing any problem.

[edit on 8/18/2010 by wookiee]

[edit on 8/18/2010 by wookiee]

I live on the east coast and I have noticed in the past couple of weeks we have had odd power fluctuations for a second or two at a time throughout the day and night. Happening at least 10-30 times in a 24 hour period.

[edit on 8/18/2010 by CaptGizmo]

Op, as someone earlier suggested it could be faulty equipment.
A tapchanger on a transformer might have some bad contacts in a raise or lower position.. They may be burned up completely missing that tap as it goes through that voltage range requirement, thus dropping the load.

6-12 times a day for me ...Im in Chicago and having some service guys come in to the apt to check it out

reply to post by dominicus

Chicago has an old electrical infrastructure, and their system is quite overloaded,.. It is showing in their equipment,. unfortunately the corp. that owns Comed is not spending money to upgrade.

twice in rural montana kalispell region and my friend in missola had the same thing happen yesterday just for a second then pop back on....

Yes, our power has cut off 3 times in the past few weeks. 2xs for only seconds and then on this past sunday it was off for 45min.

I'll do you one better. I am some other family members have been experienceing a higher incidence of failures of electrical devices, and even mechanical devices. I have begun to wonder if the solar storms are affecting everything.

My parents went on a road trip with their RV recently. They developed a major fuel leak, their electric awning quit, their electric stairs quit working, and something else that I can't recall at the moment.

I've had a low tire pressure indicator when there isn't (2010 vehicle). Our stove has been acting weird. It has an electrical controller that has been malfunctioning, not turning the oven on when we tell it to.

I've had breakers pop in my house many times over the past month (never happened before this year). Although I think this is partly due to the high temps we've been having. The A/C has been working harder this year.

At my business, we've had many more light bulbs burning out, and I had a light fixture completely stop working that I already replaced the ballasts in.

Overall, just a whole host of gremlins that haven't existed before this summer. Cars, houses, RVs. It's affecting everything and it's frustrating.

Maybe coincidence, but it seems too much for it to be. I have no explanation.

I've had power go out just long enough to make me have to reset clocks a couple of times a week for the last month. It's also flickered twice that many times, just enough to be noticeable.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


Nah, I asked family and friends and there having the same experience along with the other members in this thread from the east coast..I rember the news saying something about increased solar activity last week, it started happening that night and hasn't stopped since.

live in sonoma wine country. power went off early saturday morning for about 1 minute. over cast outside no higher demand. thought it was weird. now more so.

reply to post by ATLien
this isn't solar related.
there hasn't been enough energy from the sun to cause this problem.