Power question

Had a power outage today. I didn't hear a transformer blow or anything. My next door neighbor and across the street were both out also.
CMP comes out, goes up the pole in front of my house (where there is a transformer) and in about a minute the power is back on.
Could my draw be responsible for whatever issue it was? Interestingly, I powered down some lights that I had been using and powered on some others, but for a net reduction of about 2k. Plus, I was using a lot more power the past two days with the heat.

Tell your neighbors they need to turn off their air conditioning so you can put another 2000 watts in your grow room.

lol
seriously though...the outage was some time after I reduced my usage. Plus, yesterday and all last week I had all my lights plus AC going. Just wondering if it is possible for the draw of one customer to do something on the pole that kills power for neighbors too. I suppose it's possible that the transformer got overloaded and tripped some kind of breaker up there.
I swear the guy looked suspiciously at my house lol

Look at the number on the transformer at the top of the pole...if it's a 10 have em upgrade it to a 25.....

Thanks md. There's also a neighbor who isn't here a lot of the time who happens to be there now. But, like I said I reduced my consumption considerably this morning...but it will go up again soon.
So there is some sort of breaker up there, eh?

lol it's already a 25

lol....ask for a 50....yes on the breaker in there......after 50 they'll charge ya......

If it pops again I certainly will.

mdanforth said:

Look at the number on the transformer at the top of the pole...if it's a 10 have em upgrade it to a 25.....

Click to expand...

Good information

With record draws this past week I don't think he was looking at your house tet. It was humid as hell so you could have been running a few dehumidifiers and two air conditioning units. That exceeds the 2000 watts you said you were pushing extra when you powered down.

yeah, not to mention if the neighbors are running more than usual too, that transformer must be maxed lol
I know at least two neighbors are on that transformer. And one of them, next door to me, has an eight unit condo behind it on the same property. Not sure if they were out also.

Speaking of electricity, did anyone's power bill change substantially when the smart meters were put in?

Hi tet,
We had power issues last fall. We kept having a dimming of lights when the high power devices turned on.
I have a history working with electric, and when i read the voltages, they dropped from 115v to as low as 105v.
CMP came and put in a bigger transformer, and the voltage is near 120v and fluctuates only a few volts.
I guess between us and our neighbors we exceeded the transformer load max.
If you have the ability, check your voltages as the loads are turned on and monitor the voltage at different times to see if it looks stable.
On my Fluke meter there is a minimum/maximum test which will collect readings over a period of time and reads out the peak and lowest voltages read during the test. CMP can do this test also.
I must say that CMP was very responsive and expedient in fixing our problem once they knew one existed.
We are going into more power usage now, and i am getting ready to start pricing backup generators.
Once i become caregiver the last thing i will need is an extended power outage. I'm going to price out solar setups also.

CMP would rather replace a transformer via a scheduled visit than in the middle of the night... I put in a generator last year, it's pretty nice knowing that when the powers out I'm still in business....

Smart move mdanforth that's def a good investment to have

Remember the ice storm, 1998 i think.... some people were out of power for weeks.

The thought of that again scares me.