Power outage - Transmission Tower Down

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#3251260 20-Jun-2024 19:20

I've come across a lot of comments on social media along the lines of "And this is why an EV wouldn't work due to power cuts"...

Meanwhile there are also plenty of people using their EVs to power various appliances & devices around the home and generally carrying on with their day without much disruption.

One big caveat though, and that's providing the car is charged enough in the first place, and that it supports some form of power output method (V2L/V2H etc). But it's great to prove just how versatile these cars can be during power cuts, especially to the naysayers.

HelloThere

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#3251264 20-Jun-2024 19:40

Mehrts: I've come across a lot of comments on social media along the lines of "And this is why an EV wouldn't work due to power cuts"...

While I don't have an EV so I would be in the same boat but I would love to see these naysayers trying to fill up their ICE vehicles in the event of a power cut.

johno1234

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#3251281 20-Jun-2024 20:57

Our gas hot water goes off in an electricity power cut! Can’t ignite the flame.

cyril7

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#3251452 21-Jun-2024 08:39

johno1234: Our gas hot water goes off in an electricity power cut! Can’t ignite the flame.

A Rheem type califont will fail because both the igniter will not work and also due to the furnace fan that blasts air into the firebox that makes it produce so much heat for a small unit wont run.

Cyril

johno1234

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#3251471 21-Jun-2024 09:33

cyril7:

johno1234: Our gas hot water goes off in an electricity power cut! Can’t ignite the flame.

A Rheem type califont will fail because both the igniter will not work and also due to the furnace fan that blasts air into the firebox that makes it produce so much heat for a small unit wont run.

Cyril

Ah, makes sense.

And the other irony is our diesel powered central heating. No igniter and no fan there either if the power is off. Both items require a relatively small amount of electrical power and have a three point point plug so could run for quite a while even if just on a portable battery and inverter.

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#3251472 21-Jun-2024 09:35

Bosch actually makes a unit that doesn't require mains to operate, but it looks like there's a higher minimum flow rate and less effective control: https://www.bosch-homecomfort.com/nz/en/ocs/residential/hydropower-hot-water-systems-1100769-p/

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trig42

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#3251475 21-Jun-2024 09:38

SomeoneSomewhere:

Bosch actually makes a unit that doesn't require mains to operate, but it looks like there's a higher minimum flow rate and less effective control: https://www.bosch-homecomfort.com/nz/en/ocs/residential/hydropower-hot-water-systems-1100769-p/

We have one of those at our bach (off grid).

It works brilliantly. We've had it mounted on an outside wall in the weather for over 20 years. We have to clean out the cobwebs every so often (after winter, when no-one has been there for a few months).

We almost have a better shower there than at home ;)

tweake

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#3251479 21-Jun-2024 09:45

SomeoneSomewhere:

Bosch actually makes a unit that doesn't require mains to operate, but it looks like there's a higher minimum flow rate and less effective control: https://www.bosch-homecomfort.com/nz/en/ocs/residential/hydropower-hot-water-systems-1100769-p/

thats the old style units that some still make. mechanical thermostat.

we have the electronic version at work, complete with adjustable temp on the key pad etc. if i remember right they can fit a back up battery to it. but no power no water pump so not much point.

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#3251484 21-Jun-2024 09:51

tweake:

SomeoneSomewhere:

Bosch actually makes a unit that doesn't require mains to operate, but it looks like there's a higher minimum flow rate and less effective control: https://www.bosch-homecomfort.com/nz/en/ocs/residential/hydropower-hot-water-systems-1100769-p/

thats the old style units that some still make. mechanical thermostat.

we have the electronic version at work, complete with adjustable temp on the key pad etc. if i remember right they can fit a back up battery to it. but no power no water pump so not much point.

I know there were some old versions with a pilot light and fully mechanical, but that actually claims to be powered by a small turbine generator so you don't have standing losses from the pilot.

Silvrav

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#3251541 21-Jun-2024 10:09

HelloThere:
Mehrts: I've come across a lot of comments on social media along the lines of "And this is why an EV wouldn't work due to power cuts"...

While I don't have an EV so I would be in the same boat but I would love to see these naysayers trying to fill up their ICE vehicles in the event of a power cut.

It comes down to the pump design - we often suffered power cuts in South Africa but you could still pump fuel (some elbow grease required). The problem is people removing redundancy systems and relying purely on electricity.

tweake

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#3251543 21-Jun-2024 10:13

SomeoneSomewhere:

I know there were some old versions with a pilot light and fully mechanical, but that actually claims to be powered by a small turbine generator so you don't have standing losses from the pilot.

o i see now. they use the water flow to run a turbine to power the unit. way cool.

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tweake

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#3251545 21-Jun-2024 10:19

Silvrav:

Mehrts: I've come across a lot of comments on social media along the lines of "And this is why an EV wouldn't work due to power cuts"...

It comes down to the pump design - we often suffered power cuts in South Africa but you could still pump fuel (some elbow grease required). The problem is people removing redundancy systems and relying purely on electricity.

its not so much the pumping of gas but running the till's. you can't even pay with cash because none of their tills work.

the other thing here is that even with next to no gas in the car (assuming your silly enough to run it that empty in the first place), you can still drive a long way, probably far enough to get to a gas station that has power. in fact my work car is sitting on empty at the moment, but still has 150km range left.

bagheera

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#3251564 21-Jun-2024 11:20

tweake:

its not so much the pumping of gas but running the till's. you can't even pay with cash because none of their tills work.

the other thing here is that even with next to no gas in the car (assuming your silly enough to run it that empty in the first place), you can still drive a long way, probably far enough to get to a gas station that has power. in fact my work car is sitting on empty at the moment, but still has 150km range left.

good luck getting to an open pump station on 150km over northland goat track roads - if you look at the area affected by this outage there are a lot of Northland greater than 150km, and trust me, that 150km over the last bit will be closer to 100km on the bad windy road that the replacement to the sh1

steve2222

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#3251568 21-Jun-2024 11:31

johno1234:

cyril7:

A Rheem type califont will fail because both the igniter will not work and also due to the furnace fan that blasts air into the firebox that makes it produce so much heat for a small unit wont run.

Cyril

Ah, makes sense.

And the other irony is our diesel powered central heating. No igniter and no fan there either if the power is off. Both items require a relatively small amount of electrical power and have a three point point plug so could run for quite a while even if just on a portable battery and inverter.

Inverter: done exactly that a few years ago when we had a major power cut: plugged the inverter into the car and left it running and ran a long extension lead down to the house and then plugged the Rheem infinity gas hotwater system into the lead and hey presto all the family managed to have showers over the next hour after which the inverter got switched over to powering the fibre box and router plusd charging phones.

Bung

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#3251569 21-Jun-2024 11:33

It might be going back a few years but the last farm petrol tank I've used was on a stand with gravity feed.

Rinnai mention Helios as one supplier that has a suitable UPS for their gas heaters and water heaters.

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