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Those of you living in parts of the USA and, indeed, in other regions of the world, will be familiar with power outages, but this true story brings a new dimension to the scene.
A close friend of my wife's lives in a rather upmarket neighbourhood where 45 detached houses are located. The owners were given plenty of notice that the electricity supply was being turned off to allow for "improvements to the service", or some such.
This duly happened and all were prepared. But they were not prepared for when the power was turned back on.
As a result of acknowledged human error, there was a "neutral power surge". "Neutral" turned out to be a misnomer. Such was the intensity of this surge that virtually all electrical appliances in these 45 homes were destroyed.
TV sets, radios, fridges, freezers, cookers - you name it. And, of course, computers, tablets - anything that was connected to the electricity when power was re-established. In fact, several appliances caught fire.
The response by the authorities has been excellent, it is true, but for each house almost all their electrical appliances have had to be replaced. It is estimated that the average replacement per household is upwards of £15,000; but for a few, much higher than this - one or two had outside pools/jacuzzis (yes, even in Wales).
Adding in the costs of support, the final bill to the company will exceed £1 million.
Consider for a moment the incredible disruption to one's life. Scary, is it not?
Ian
A close friend of my wife's lives in a rather upmarket neighbourhood where 45 detached houses are located. The owners were given plenty of notice that the electricity supply was being turned off to allow for "improvements to the service", or some such.
This duly happened and all were prepared. But they were not prepared for when the power was turned back on.
As a result of acknowledged human error, there was a "neutral power surge". "Neutral" turned out to be a misnomer. Such was the intensity of this surge that virtually all electrical appliances in these 45 homes were destroyed.
TV sets, radios, fridges, freezers, cookers - you name it. And, of course, computers, tablets - anything that was connected to the electricity when power was re-established. In fact, several appliances caught fire.
The response by the authorities has been excellent, it is true, but for each house almost all their electrical appliances have had to be replaced. It is estimated that the average replacement per household is upwards of £15,000; but for a few, much higher than this - one or two had outside pools/jacuzzis (yes, even in Wales).
Adding in the costs of support, the final bill to the company will exceed £1 million.
Consider for a moment the incredible disruption to one's life. Scary, is it not?
Ian
