Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Big Night Outage

Moz

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 10:28:11 +1200

if hedges could act as proximity alarms...

hawthorn hedges, certainly :)

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 13:50:08 +1200

Interesting,...
The capacitive touch sensors detect when you touch the board's pad or an object connected to the board. Humans carry a small electrical charge. When you touch a capacitive touch sensor it will detect this charge.

I've often wondered if hedges could act as proximity alarms...

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 08:51:33 +1200

...not going to run out of devices.
It's more that we are caught in de vices,
those jaws have big teeth
they clamp with proprietary 'screws'....

beer can stoves
Neat! These looked ingenious, some more doable than others...

And then there is always the trusty Thermette©

I'm hoping to unearth…

nzlemming

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 23:05:09 +1200

My emergency outdoor cooking, which must be worth at least one star point for preparations nerd of disaster.

That'd be choice to hold onto in a tsunami, bro.

Hebe

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:24:26 +1200

It was more about the effect of the 7.1: it hit Christchurch city, and we sure felt it, but it was centred out at Greendale and fortunately given the magnitude and shallow depth the damage to people and buildings was much more limited.

Many of us regarded that shake as…

Matthew Poole

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 21:08:10 +1200

7.1 is a pretty dramatic first warning, especially if it's warning about a 6.2 to follow. Or have I got that wrong the round way?

Nope, you're correct. February 2011 was technically an aftershock from September 2010.

nzlemming

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:32:31 +1200

It drives me nuts that the nice F&P gas hob we bought a year before we renovated won't work without electricity, it really does.

Um, if the gas comes out, you can light it with a match. You may not be able to use the little piezo-electric starter, but you can…

Moz

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:00:56 +1200

consider the first quake in Chch to have been a forewarning

7.1 is a pretty dramatic first warning, especially if it's warning about a 6.2 to follow. Or have I got that wrong the round way?

BenWilson

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 14:35:16 +1200

Yes, if we consider the first quake in Chch to have been a forewarning, we just got forewarned.

Hebe

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 14:19:38 +1200

It wasn’t a disaster, but it’s an inadvertent rehearsal for one. an opporunity to learn like hell, for everyone.
And it will be pretty much a disaster for those who have lost roofs and other calamities.

BenWilson

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 12:22:25 +1200

‘So then we went to the cafe and had a coffee’ wasn’t my disaster experience – more ‘so then we were trapped at home by the broken bridges and roads’.

Yes, I'm not calling the storm a disaster, even though there are still people without power. It's not really in…

Hebe

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 10:07:17 +1200

Woodburner with cooktop, gives heat, cooking and even some light. And I see one of the Ultra-Low Emission Burners (ULEBs) has two USB charging ports.

Living in an actively earthquaking area, gas makes me nervous, but we’ve caved and bought a double-burner camping stove for cooking outside (lighting the woodburner…

Paul Campbell

Sun, 15 Apr 2018 13:41:37 +1200

Yesterday's Tremain

Dinah Dunavan

Sun, 15 Apr 2018 08:47:10 +1200

Or if you don't drink but you do have a cat, you can make a stove out if a tiny cat food tin.

Dinah Dunavan

Sun, 15 Apr 2018 08:35:19 +1200

A quick web search for beer can stoves will help prepare for the next power outage. Super simple to make and use.

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:41:53 +1200

seek to ruin your life by awarding a mere four stars.

Oh no, Brer Brown, not the 4 stars! Anything but the 4 stars!! You can chunder all over me, make me listen to wub wub, even make me put on talkback radio while we wait in the KFC drive…

Russell Brown

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:27:41 +1200

One thing I’ve learned: cook with gas. I’ve always insisted on having a gas hob and electric oven. You can live without the oven for a long time if you’ve got a kettle-style barbecue/BGEgg/pizza oven, and, well, you’re cookin’ with gas…

It drives me nuts that the nice F&P gas hob…

Russell Brown

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:24:06 +1200

ETA: Oh and of course the car has multiple charger adapters, including one multi adapter for every kind of phone ever made, although TBH that was less about survivalism and more about getting a good Uber rating.

Very well, then. I am moved by your story and I shall not…

Che Tibby

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 18:01:48 +1200

A proper boy scout charges the battery before night time.

Moz

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:57:18 +1200

I don't have organised go-bags and stuff, I just have a set of systems that work together so that I always have a month or so worth of food and water available. Plus my "camping box" of all the stuff I need to go cycle touring. Being single means that…

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:34:23 +1200

I don’t have a car to charge, though

That’s always even more surprising, TBH. :-)

I also bought a relatively cheap solar recharger and I’m completely independent.

So long as a bright sun is shining :-).

I got all survivalist for a bit when the Chch quakes happened, so I’ve…

Paul Campbell

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:19:26 +1200

woo hoo – as of yesterday we can have BBQs again in Dunedin, they've been banned all summer, must have something to do with the 2 inches of white stuff in the back yard

Che Tibby

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 17:09:47 +1200

@ben yeah I just run alligator clips to a car cigarette lighter. It's mounted in the side of a wooden box for stability. Then that usb plug and you're sorted. You could probably charge 4 devices at once if you had to.

I also bought a relatively cheap solar recharger…

Moz

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 16:24:43 +1200

I'm pretty much surprised by anyone who doesn't have a car charger these days.

I don't have a car to charge, though, so I'm not sure what good a charger for one would do. Especially in a power cut.

I do have a 100W solar panel on my sleepout and…

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:48:38 +1200

You can live without the oven for a long time if you’ve got a kettle-style barbecue/BGEgg/pizza oven, and, well, you’re cookin’ with gas…

Although unexpected challenges may arise from strong winds, like the sausages falling off the back into the neighbors yard being hoovered up by their pitbulls, or the…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:02:25 +1200

Gas can be a problem for cooking....a lot of hobs have a mains connection to power igniters

Yeah our gas hob needed matches but otherwise was a dinner saver.

USB rechargable bike lights provided all the light we needed.

Gareth

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 12:43:48 +1200

Matches (you have to have them for the candles*) answer the first problem, and I wasn't aware of the second. Not fitted on my old hob, at least.

*We also invested in headlamp torches. Wonderful things, even if you do end up looking like Torchy The Battery Boy

John Farrell

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 12:32:48 +1200

Gas can be a problem for cooking....a lot of hobs have a mains connection to power igniters, and some have an electrically operated valve for flameout protection.

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 11:20:13 +1200

The idea of not mowing the grass outside of every property (which is not private property, does not belong to the property owners) was the brain child of our left wing mayor, which speaks volumes to why our infrastructure is so run down. Since then, there is now waist deep…

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 11:12:54 +1200

That’s probably one of the limitations of using social media during civil emergencies!

Yes, I don't really want to go posting my phone number and address in public tweet.

BenWilson

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 11:11:43 +1200

For reference sakes it’s really easy to build a 12v usb recharge station for your home with a car battery and a car cigarette lighter.

Yup, you pretty much buy a USB recharger that plugs into the cigarette lighter and you have not only a battery, but also a portable…

Gareth

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:32:26 +1200

Having spent 6 days without power 5 years ago – after the windstorm that felled trees in great numbers throughout North Canterbury (a gust of 200kph recorded on the hills behind us) – I learned a few lessons about resilience. We are resolutely rural, so expect to be more vulnerable…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:04:13 +1200

One more comment.

Next day I read and heard Vector management blaming Aucklanders for having too many trees that knocked down all those power lines.

So here's the thing, I still have my Vector shares and I still get dividends from them.

What the hell is the company doing giving…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 09:58:43 +1200

In Mt Roskill our first indication it was really windy was hearing the old UHF aerial coming down off the roof. I had been meaning to get it down sometime but frankly I don't like heights so having the wind helpfully uninstall it wasn't the worst news.

Then about 9:30…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 09:42:40 +1200

Wellington’s CBD and inner suburbs, streets are cleaned nightly, including by mobile vacuum cleaner; drains and pavements are maintained; and fallen debris is removed promptly. I am quite surprised, on my return to Auckland, to discover that basic level of civic civility is absent.

Essentially Auckland has been under constant…

Che Tibby

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 07:04:35 +1200

For reference sakes it's really easy to build a 12v usb recharge station for your home with a car battery and a car cigarette lighter.

Can post specs if they're needed

Moz

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 23:00:04 +1200

The line was indeed live at the time and it was just lucky he hadn't shocked himself.

In related news, I had an electrician round the other day because a circuit breaker/RCD failed in the switchboard. Turns out that whoever installed it not only used a distribution box that was…

Moz

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:49:40 +1200

This for example. There are better options with a bit more DIY effort, and I will probably end up buying second hand PV panels because those are cheap and fairly reliable. But the advantage there is that I can run my garage and sleepout off them, charge via extension cord…

Sacha

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:45:03 +1200

I decided to basically guard it until they came

onya

BenWilson

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:39:49 +1200

I never lost power, but did lose my rear balcony fence and railing in its entirety, torn clean off. At times the wind gusts were so strong I was not sure if things were hitting the house. The rain was horizontal and I was seriously worried a tornado might form,…

Moz

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 22:31:09 +1200

Holy bat, four grand? I have a $15 second hand plastic drum under a downpipe. That gives me 220 litres that I can drink if I need to, ideally boiling first.

My $4000 spend is more likely to be solar + battery + inverter on the garage roof so I…

nzlemming

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:54:26 +1200

Perhaps it’s reflective of a more deep-seated malaise.

Much of it reflects the old multiple council problems of separate services. The supercity was supposed to resolve this. Bwahahahaha!

nzlemming

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:52:30 +1200

I’ve got one of these: just in case

What do you feed him?

Patrick Xavier

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:32:00 +1200

I’ve just returned to Auckland after an inadvertent 20+ year diversion to Wellington. A couple of years into my Wellington relocation, it occurred to me I had not experienced a single power. Now I am thinking I never experienced a power cut in the entirety of my time in Wellington.…

John Farrell

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:03:14 +1200

Hmm....when I was there we had suburban exchanges, communicating through the central exchange.....all electromechanical.

Paul Campbell

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:40:02 +1200

Yeah sure, these are the same guys who pushed all their DSLAMs into neighbourhood boxes as soon as the govt required them to host ISP's hardware in their exchanges

John Farrell

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:27:37 +1200

They would have done this for the scrap value of copper – when I worked for the Post Office, as a technician, in the 1970s, I was told that more than 60% of the asset value of the network was in the copper wiring.

Glenn Pearce

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:25:53 +1200

The supposed reason for removing the copper is because their resource consent only allows for 1 overhead connection per dwelling (copper or fibre)

Although having said that my copper is still in place

Paul Campbell

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:14:37 +1200

If that’s best practice, it’s nuts

No, I believe 'best practice' (for Chorus at least) is to remove the copper phone lines least some crazy government try and split the copper/fibre monopoly to create some competition in local internet providers (at least they came down my street and removed all…

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 17:49:05 +1200

Excellent story.

barnaclebarnes

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:37:01 +1200

When the Franklin Rd upgrade was being worked through Vector was the only service who wouldn’t come to the party. They said they wouldn’t underground the power. The residents politely informed them to reconsider before we launched a PR firestorm on them (having Bill and Janet in the street has…

Hilary Stace

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:32:10 +1200

A little bit of a gale and the lights on my road go out – this happens quite regularly and it usually takes a few days to fix them. But not power generally. Can't remember the last power outage in Wellington but it would have been since the Wahine storm…

Warren Clark

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:37:55 +1200

I'm sort of an unofficial Civil Defense node for my neighborhood. I have a petrol generator and being a micro ISP for about 20ish households when things go tits up like a power cut everyone comes over to cook on the bbq/use my radio or sat phone.

I've always felt…

Eediot

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:31:50 +1200

‪Does anyone know where to buy those reusable heat packs? (Not online) Like the ones that you use as pocket warmers but larger, table mat size.‬

Glenn Pearce

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:24:23 +1200

I think that’s where the undergrounding comes in.

The UFB rollout was a massive lost opportunity for undergrounding/shared ducting of services.

On my street the Fibre is underground on 1 side of the street then run up the power poles, strung across the street, tethered to my copper phone line…

Nick Russell

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:43:31 +1200

I may be mistaken but my impression is that Auckland has far more frequent and serious power outages than Wellington or Christchurch. Does anyone know if there is a reason why the distribution network is more vulnerable there? It's not unknown for Wellington to have the odd storm, and it's…

Eediot

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:16:45 +1200

To make matters worse I just received an app notification that power had been restored. Arrived home and it hasn’t.

Glenn Pearce

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:14:20 +1200

tsunamis (you’re safe in Pt Chevalier BTW).

That seems to be a rather irresponsible statememt from the Chairmain of the local board that people living on the Meola Reef side of the peninsula would be wise to ignore

Sacha

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:49:50 +1200

Emergency Management (as it’s now called) is turning around towards the community and seeking to engage with the community

Yes, Dragecevich started that in the old Waitakere City Council. The idea is to strengthen connections within local communities before they need to be drawn upon in emergencies. Takes lots of…

Brent Jackson

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:42:42 +1200

I avoided opening the fridge and freezer until last night, for obvious reasons. We seem to have got through okay there, which is a relief – it's a full freezer

We didn't open the freezer until the power came back on after 18 hours off, and when I checked the…

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:13:25 +1200

From Albert-Eden local board chair Peter Haynes on Facebook:

Was going to comment on the blog, but can’t get my password. Anyway, to be fair to John Dragicevich, since he took over Civil Defence things are looking much better. He spoke to the Local Board about a month ago, and…

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:07:28 +1200

And trying not to think about what is going on in the fridge!

I avoided opening the fridge and freezer until last night, for obvious reasons. We seem to have got through okay there, which is a relief – it's a full freezer.

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:05:23 +1200

The Vector update posted at 11.30am says there are still 41,000 homes to be restored.

I wish the Herald would stop reporting these figures as 41,000 (or whatever) individuals. It's homes and businesses: the number of individuals affected will be two or three times that.

Rik

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:03:53 +1200

Someone else said they’d seen the whole North Shore go dark at once.

I can confirm – we never once lost power in Castor Bay, so I suspect this is over stated.

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:02:37 +1200

Meanwhile in Morningside, no power, no appearance on the outage map, no ability to register the outage and no clue as to likely resolution time. The infrequent utterances from Vector ask for patience and indicate incoming weather this afternoon may slow things down. The comms and social media team at…

Russell Brown

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:00:35 +1200

I'm wondering a bit about the resiliency of the power network. If we are going to face more and more weird weather, we might need to be thinking about how to build a stronger network.

I think that's where the undergrounding comes in.

Scungo

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:59:13 +1200

Deborah

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:54:18 +1200

I'm down in Wellington (Parliament is sitting) so I've been relying on friends, family and FB for updates on where there's power, or not. My husband txted on Tuesday evening at about 9pm to tell me the power had gone out. It came back on this morning at about 8.20am.…

Public Address

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 11:54:18 +1200

Discussion from blog post.