by Anura Guruge
on July 9, 2024
This was AHEAD of a storm we are expecting.
There were a few, brief, MINOR gusts of wind.
Then we lost power TWICE in quick succession.
In both instances it was back within 4 minutes!
So, though ‘Eversource‘, as ALWAYS, is blaming it on tree branches on wires, I think it was either crew doing some maintenance or them messing around at a station. Either way I am NOT happy BUT delighted that I have my ‘Generac‘ (installed just over a year ago).
by Anura Guruge
on June 24, 2023
Luckily I slept through it. Not so my daughter. But, she didn’t wake me because she knew it would ‘distress’ I.
They claim it was ‘animal contact’ with equipment — whatever that means.
It appears to have been a transformer across the road from us. I didn’t see/hear it but I am told that there were 3 trucks there to fix it.
Only our road was affected. This happens too many times, i.e., just our road.
Our 24kW ‘Generac‘, delivered last Tuesday, isn’t still hooked up. Just my luck.
Luckily this was short, i.e., 2-hours, & happened when I was asleep. For that I am glad.
Well …
Can’t wait to get the Generac hooked up & functional — which should be this coming week, with LUCK (something I don’t have unless it is prefixed by ‘BAD’).
by Anura Guruge
on December 26, 2022
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I heard about this on the 6 o’clock news on ‘WMUR‘ & was intrigued. Had to go find more details & pictures. I did — finally, on ‘Twitter‘.
On TV it was mentioned that this was the idea/invention of an Eversource employee. Bravo. Kudos.
A step in the right direction.
I did NOT realize that it was on a trailer. I thought it was a lightweight, temporary pole that they still stuck in the ground — in a hole. I guess digging the hole takes time.
Not sure how many trailers, i.e., “Rapid Poles“, Eversource currently has. I could be wrong but I can’t see these being widely deployed after a storm. Going to be costly & unwieldy. But, a great start. Somebody is thinking along the right lines. For that I am GRATEFUL.
Good, good, good.
Eversource has been halfway decent, SO FAR, this Winter. I am impressed, pleased & THANKFUL.
by Anura Guruge
on December 24, 2022
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That was one heck of a storm. Most brutal I that I remember weathering in quite a long time. The howling winds, torrential bursts of rain & then to cap it all snow during the night.
We lost power Friday morning. I had been dreading that all week. I have a FEW IRRATIONAL fears & loathings & losing power is high among these. I can’t rationalize it. In the scheme of things, other than missing out on my beloved ‘time on my PC‘, it is not too disruptive. I keep 3 generators. We need 2 going to power about 1/2 of this 4-storey house. But, with those 2 generators going we have heat, water, stove, fridge, freezer, lights in the bedroom & some outlets. So we can function. BUT, I HATE LOSING POWER. Puts me on edge. Totally rattles I.
We had 2 generators running from ~9am to 11:30pm. We used about 7 gallons of gas. I made two trips to get gas — though in the end I had over 10 gallons on hand.
I expected that we would be out of power most of Christmas Eve as well! That was not a pleasant thought. I had things to do. I had to go to Laconia to ring the bell for ‘The Salvation Army‘. At 9:15am ‘Eversource’ could NOT give me as estimate as to when we might see out power restored.
As it transpired we had power back within 45 minutes of that call.
I am not complaining. I was delighted. I waited 30 minutes before disconnecting the generators just in case we lost power again. So far, so good. I am happy.
I am never sure about Eversource! But, I will thank them again.
They made my Christmas.
Christmas would have been a drag without power.
by Anura Guruge
on December 17, 2022
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Click to ENLARGE.
It was quite the nightmare day — BUT, I appreciate that we LUCKED OUT, BIG TIME. It could have been worse! I see that there are a lot of folks still without power. I truly feel bad for them. Even an hour after our power was restored at 1:09pm there were folks 1/2 mile away without power.
Two very kind folks, my young next door neighbor (Anthony (who is constantly helping me out)) & a total stranger who was plowing a driveway 2 -houses from us helped us clear away the BIG branch that was blocking our drive. They wielded chainsaws. Teischan, though still not well, hauled away all the bits while I was struggling with the snowblowers. By the time I was done she had cleared all the debris. That was pretty amazing. The gentleman who helped me out & also plowed the top of our drive to make things easier for us was Mr. Dan LaCroix. Thank you. He & Anthony saved our day.
It was wet, heavy snow like wet concrete. Clogged up the snowblowers. Glad I have two!
Well, we survived. It wasn’t a fun day. Between hauling the two generators (with help), plowing the drive (some of it by hand) & getting the branch taken down that was a lot of physical work. This is when I am glad that I am a tad fit.
Appears we have another storm a coming same time next week. Oh, what fun!
by Anura Guruge
on September 6, 2022
Two contradictory explanations.
1/ Tree limbs contacting power lines.
2/ Tree taking pole down.
Click to ENLARGE.
The above is also NOT the only ‘contradiction’ by them.
For the first 2-hours of the outage they insisted that power would be restored by 7:15pm. This would have lulled many into a false sense of security & expectancy. Some would have forgone the opportunity to get their generator hooked-up or make any other contingency plans thinking that all was going to be well before dark. THEY LIED!
At 7:20pm there was an automated call saying that power would not be restored till 1:30am the next day, i.e., Tuesday. Well, I have never trusted Eversource. So, I had, as you can see from top image, hooked up & running well before it got dark. Glad I had. We had them running till 11pm. Then I turned them off because they make a racket.
I really despair of Eversource. They are becoming increasingly sleazy, unreliable, greedy & untrustworthy. They are a monopoly & relish abusing that power.
There really was no grounds for an 8-hour outage yesterday, i.e., Monday, September 5, 2022. We didn’t really have any bad weather. Just some rain — mainly drizzle. I should know. I walked, outside, in the ‘rain’, for 8-miles. NOT heavy rain. ZERO WIND. Nothing. Not even a breeze.
Then the power goes off & stay off for 8 bloody hours!
Not right.
I really despair of Eversource. I wish I could switch to another provider. But, of course, I can’t. They have me by my throat.
by Anura Guruge
on July 28, 2022
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I know it is because of my new PC & printer BECAUSE I set out to reduce my electric bill with these two purchases.
By PC, I refer to my Desktop PC which is really the ONLY computer I use — other than my Android tablet & Pixel 6 Pro phone. I don’t have a laptop. Laptops are physically too small for my needs. [I do have two other desktop PCs as backups.]
I got this new PC in late October last year after using my prior desktop, continuously, on a daily basis (unless I was travelling) for 12-years!
My main desktop PC stays on for an average of 14-hours A DAY, 7 DAYS a WEEK. So, it uses a fair amount of power. I have known that.
My old, 12-year old PC was a power-hog. I knew that.
When I was designing the new PC I was DETERMINED to get one of the new, energy efficient CPUs. I lucked out. I got a 6-core, i5-11400F (4.4Ghz) with a MAX power draw of 65W. Yep, max. 65 Watts. That is less than an average incandescent bulb. The 6-core i5 was ALL that I needed. Yes, I had downgraded. My older PC had a i7 — albeit a 1st gen i7 from 2010. This i5, of course, is faster & uses much less power. WIN-WIN.
I also retired my laser printer. I still have it, but it is powered off most of the time. That was another power hog. Instead, I now have a cheap, but efficient ink-jet printer.
That is how I reduced my electric bill by over 20%. Only major change we made. Still use the same amount of A/C etc. & we did get any new (more efficient) A/Cs in the last year.
by Anura Guruge
on March 12, 2022
I was AMAZED & extremely thankful to Eversource for this gallant effort — hence this post.
This was Monday night/Tuesday morning (i.e., March 7/8) of this week when we had that quite horrendous wind/rain storm. We were, in theory, outside of the high risk area. But, just after midnight, on Tuesday morning, the power went off.
It was blowing a gale outside. As they had warned us on TV you could feel it, you could hear it. It was pretty serious.
Losing power around midnight is not bad. You can just go to sleep & hope that power is restored in sometime in the morning, once they had enough sunlight to work with. Normally this wouldn’t have bothered me much. But, there was a HITCH this time. I was planning to leave, by 7am, to head for a quick/short mini-break to the Bold Coast (Maine). Not having power would delay my start. Bummer, BUT not the end of the world. I was resigned to delaying my start.
We called up Eversource about 30 minutes later. They already knew about the outage. They even knew that it was a tree down. They said that they were dispatching a crew and hoped to have the power restored by 6am. That sounded too good to be true.
It was night. It was dark. It was blowing a gale.
I was sure that the crew, as they used to do in the past, would wait for the winds to abate & for the sun to come up. I was thinking that best case would be around 8:30am.
I was wrong. Power was back up, without any flickering or brownouts, just after 5am.
I was AMAZED. I waited to see if it would go off again. It didn’t. It was solid.
I was delighted. I was grateful.
This was a NEW, a DIFFERENT Eversource. They had worked in the dark, in a gale to help us.
I am thankful. I am appreciative. Hence this post.
THANK YOU, EVERSOURCE.