I'm surprised how much stuff still works during a power cut....

[dave87]

...well, I say power cut, I mean a temporary reduction in supply voltage (brown out).

All the PCs still work, as does the internet, switches, printer.

Though somethings I thought would be fine, seem to be struggling - I'm getting an interesting remix from the cordless telephone (answerphone keeps turning itself on and off, proudly declaring that 'calls will be answered....' and not finishing the sentence. repeatedly.)


And the final bit of good news? It's affecting two postcodes and 'they are working on it'. Any bets?

[g8ina]

My last major brownout dropped down to 87VAC !! This was several years ago, but I had the elec company confirm it in writing, and then claimed on their insurance as it all but destroyed a monitor and my hifi amp !

[abaxas]

/me looks over at laptop power supply.

Says..... 80-240 V ac

[Steve]

SMPS's are pretty good these days seeing as they're "full-range" input. The only things that have a really big problem these days are motor-based systems... and if they don't have undervoltage protection then they probably deserve to blow up.

I also like AC-DC (woo metal) PSUs, because the caps at the rectifier can sometimes buy you as much as a couple of seconds in a full on power-cut. I've had power cuts take out my oven's clock, but my HTPC and digital radio haven't reset.

[Rave]

Brownouts?! I thought we had at least two more years before we ran out of gas and coal and the warranty on our nuclear plants ran out

[rox0r]

I had a particularly impressive brownout this morning, looked like Bungle's arm.