Mains power gone but not sockets

darrenheaphy

I just woke up this morning to my house alarm going off, it does that when the mains power is lost. For some reason all our plug sockets are drawing power but anything else is not. I've no idea what to do here! The trip switch, and all other switches, look ok

darrenheaphy

Strangely some sockets get power, the freezer which is powered by plug does not. My mac plug is making a loud cackling noise

Into The Blue

Plug it out. Try tripping and resetting everything including the RCD.

darrenheaphy

Thank you. I tried that and the same issue remains (some power from sockets). Whilst I was at it I tried the RCD test button and it didn't work, presumably that's due to the above

darrenheaphy

Just go through to Electric Ireland, turns out there's a major outage!

wait4me

darrenheaphy wrote: »

..... when the mains power is lost. For some reason all our plug sockets are drawing power but anything else is not.......

How can you have power in sockets if there is an outage?

Into The Blue

wait4me wrote: »

How can you have power in sockets if there is an outage?

Ups?

darrenheaphy

No idea! I don't have a UPS. Apparently ESB said others had reported this too. Presumably then outage is an incorrect term. Only low power devices it appeared could get power. Anything else was off. Most peculiar. In any event the power finally came back at 11:00. I can get coffee at last!

Stoner

I've never heard of anything like this, would be interested in any follow up you have please.

thank you

Paul_Mc1988

Stoner wrote: »

I've never heard of anything like this, would be interested in any follow up you have please.

thank you

I would also be interested in a follow up. Only thing that pops into my head is a neighbor running a generator that runs in the case of a power outage which may have fed back onto the grid. Granted this should not happen if installed correctly but it is the only logical scenario i can think of.

darrenheaphy

Hi guys, there was no follow up with ESB beyond the initial confirmation of the issue. At that time they confirmed others had reported similar symptoms (some power sockets working). It was resolved somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00, started around 06:30 or 07:00. I didn't bother calling after that!

frankmul

I saw 25v ac been supplied from the mains supply. Up late at night with the kids and all their lights were very dim. Measured the voltage at the sockets. Switched off freezer, fridge and the TV/ sky box. All was grand in the morning. There is only 3 houses off our transformer and none of them have backup generators.

Bruthal

Maybe one phase was down on the 10 or 20kv lines. That leaves a lower output on transformers. If 2 phases were down, leaving only one live, maybe that possibly could give a low output like the 25v, with capacitance between the other 2 lines and the ground as a return. Or a phase down further up the chain.

danjo-xx

This is a new one on me, sounds similar to a car only firing on one cylinder:)

ted1

darrenheaphy wrote: »

I just woke up this morning to my house alarm going off, it does that when the mains power is lost. For some reason all our plug sockets are drawing power but anything else is not. I've no idea what to do here! The trip switch, and all other switches, look ok

What was plugged in to the sockets that where drawing power? What type lamps have you got?

brightspark

Sounds like a Brown Out

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownout_(electricity)


Remember experiencing one a few years ago in a factory, resulted in the loss of several motors and some electronic equipment.

If it happens again, unplug everything, and don't use any lights except perhaps regular filament lamps (life of others will be reduced)

frankmul

ted1 wrote: »

What was plugged in to the sockets that where drawing power? What type lamps have you got?

It was a few years ago but they would have been CFL's. On all night for the kids. I had the standard appliances plugged in. Didn't want to risk damage to fridge or the freezer so I plugged them out

frankmul

Bruthal wrote: »

Maybe one phase was down on the 10 or 20kv lines. That leaves a lower output on transformers. If 2 phases were down, leaving only one live, maybe that possibly could give a low output like the 25v, with capacitance between the other 2 lines and the ground as a return. Or a phase down further up the chain.

I reckon that it was something like that. We are at the end of a long backbone, a single phase transformer. I guessed that it was something on the backbone and that it would be sorted in the morning.

Grab All Association

Happened here last week. Bulbs were dim tv fridge microwave etc kept powering on and off. It was like the house was running off a car battery. Lasted for three hours. ESB networks advised us to plug out everything

dingding

I would say one of the high tension phases went down reducing the voltage to the transformer.

Zen65

Bruthal wrote: »

Maybe one phase was down on the 10 or 20kv lines. That leaves a lower output on transformers. If 2 phases were down, leaving only one live, maybe that possibly could give a low output like the 25v, with capacitance between the other 2 lines and the ground as a return. Or a phase down further up the chain.

Yes, this sounds the most likely explanation, especially if more than one house affected. If it's just a single house that is suffering from low voltage then a neutral break beyond the RCD is a possibility. Either way it's best to unplug your stuff to avoid low voltage damage.