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Author Topic: "Hello darkness my old friend..."  (Read 1139 times)

ghostinthemachine

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"Hello darkness my old friend..."
« on: June 09, 2011, 08:35:32 pm »
"Hello darkness my old friend..."

What season is it? Its LOAD-SHEDDING season folks! Service your generators and dust off your lanterns.

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Atjan

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2011, 11:49:58 pm »
Dark there in Mashishieng?

Our power was off for 12 hrs the other day. Not Eskom here...we're in the cruel hands of Joburg City Power. Makes you listen to their k@k music and then  cut you off before you got to speak to 'the next available operator'. Twice....after 20min.
**The second time I had my very excited 5yr old do the heavy holding for me. ;D
This is why some people keep on having kids. They're at their most useful at that age!
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naughty

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2011, 12:20:56 am »
well in my area we have still been disconnected at least a couple of hours each week ...... each time the race course has night racing across the road then within two days of that happening we get a 4 or 5 hour power cut - so im still used to it - my TV even died because of the continuous going on and off and i had to claim for a new one from insurance
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Steerpike

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2011, 12:50:12 am »
Quote from: Atjan on June 09, 2011, 11:49:58 pm
...Joburg City Power. Makes you listen to their k@k music and then  cut you off before you got to speak to 'the next available operator'.

"People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening" indeed!
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Jaco

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2011, 07:28:05 am »

Nice!! Now I can't get the song out of my head... :D
Oh well, nothing wrong with having Simon and Garfunkel singing all day long ;)

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LAV

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2011, 08:09:58 am »
Old joke, but SA is of course one of the few places where "Prince of darkness" does not refer to either Ozzy or the devil.  ;D

Generators are an evil thing, since very few people bought anything intended for quiet running if used in a normal suburban environment (understandable in a way, since a properly silenced gen is not cheap!)

Because I love camping, my house is full of gas appliances...and being a radio ham, there's always a fully charged 105 Ah batt. on standby too.

Very often what people perceive as load shedding are failures due to poor (read "NO") maintenance of distribution infrastructure.
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Vaal Triangle (Southern Gauteng)

Atjan

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2011, 08:57:39 am »
True about the maintenance. If you're paying your minucipality for power then they are 95% of the time responsible for your power outage. How many people know that Kelvin power station near OR Tambo airport in Jhb belongs to the city council? In theory Jhb should not really ever have loadshedding then.
Anyway, I guess the fact that most people see their regular (recent) power troubles as Eskom's fault, saved most of the incompetent city officials in the recent elections.

Believe me, if the cause of your power outage is with Eskom on the generation side, it will not be off for a few hours every couple of weeks. It will be off very regularly and it will go on for many months.
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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2011, 09:23:03 am »
Same story in Grahamstown. Our major and municipal manager each earn well over R1 million a year, yet our electrical infrastructure dates back to the 1950s. Every time we get a new major, his first priority is to buy himself a top-of-the-range BMW X5 at the tax payers' expense.

When the power goes off, I am invariably listenening to music. Can this harm my amp and CD player?
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LAV

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2011, 09:26:00 am »
Quote from: Audio Bug on June 10, 2011, 09:23:03 am
When the power goes off, I am invariably listenening to music. Can this harm my amp and CD player?
The sudden shutdown is seldom an issue for such devices. Sometimes however the failure may be accompanied by supply anomalies like surges or spikes, also when the supply is restored. Those are dangerous.
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Vaal Triangle (Southern Gauteng)

audiomuze

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2011, 09:47:57 am »
Quote from: LAV on June 10, 2011, 09:26:00 am
The sudden shutdown is seldom an issue for such devices. Sometimes however the failure may be accompanied by supply anomalies like surges or spikes, also when the supply is restored. Those are dangerous.
Hence my adding a little something between the wall socket and my gear.  Its only purpose is to protect whatever takes its power from it.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2011, 09:54:51 am by audiomuze »
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Crankshaft

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2011, 09:54:40 am »
Quote from: LAV on June 10, 2011, 09:26:00 am
The sudden shutdown is seldom an issue for such devices. Sometimes however the failure may be accompanied by supply anomalies like surges or spikes, also when the supply is restored. Those are dangerous.

I was looking at getting a delayed-turn-on device for the audio socket.  It only clicks back on after the power has hopefully stabilized.

Quite expensive, but may well be worth it.

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audiomuze

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2011, 10:00:06 am »
^^^ have a look at the stuff on http://www.furmansound.com/ - it does what you're after as well as protect the gear.  http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=03&id=PL-8CE is the unit I've got - key attibutes I was after are: surge & spike protection and Voltage Protection: detects dangerous voltage irregularities and safely powers down itself and connected equipment in unsafe conditions.
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LAV

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2011, 10:24:33 am »
Clearline has a nifty and inexpensive plug-in under/overvoltage and surge/spike protection unit, but their website is honestly a nightmare...
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Vaal Triangle (Southern Gauteng)

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2011, 01:05:18 pm »
Thanks guys. I'll check out the various gizmos you've mentioned.
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johnc

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Re: "Hello darkness my old friend..."
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2011, 05:03:35 pm »
Reminds me of that riddle...
What did South Africans use before candles? Electricity
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