AAR - Brownout

[hidden_waldo]

On Wednesday morning I am laying in bed listening to the radio and I noticed the music was starting and stopping, didn't think anything of it. Then my wife walks up to the bed and states "the lights are dim".

I sit up in bed and see that they are and put two and two together, we are having a brownout. Right when I grab the flashlight off the nightstand, the power is flickering on and off; then stayed off. I get to the circuit breaker as fast as I can and flip the main breaker off.

My wife asks why I did that. I state "I didn't want a power surge to come into the house and I didn't want all the appliances to run on less that full power supplied to them".

After about 15 minutes, I noticed the street lights were consistently staying on, so I went ahead and flipped the main back on and everything was back to normal.

So, was there anything different or better I could have done?

[610Alpha]

I agree with your assessment and reaction to the situation. I am not knowledgeable enough to say if there was anything else you could have done.

[jimmycthemd]

The only thing I do is put consumer grade UPS units on my sensitive electronics (stereo, tv, more expensive radios, etc.). This protects them against brown-outs and the flickering issue. The ones I buy (usually APC) are about $100 each and will ride my electronics through about 3 hours of power failure. We get thunderstorms through here and, early on, the power flickering cost me some serious money.
I don't use them on appliances as the motors, etc., are less sensitive to the crappy power.

[miked2345]

Yes... many, if not most folks don't realize that brown-outs can toast some electronic equipment. Lightning storms too.. My folks make fun of me because I usually unplug most of my electronic stuff when a storm is approaching. Mom always says "That's what home insurance is for!!"

Yup, I have home insurance - but it has a $1000 deductible too. Frankly, I have better things to spend a 1000 bucks on!!