Who stole my rolling blackout?

[FG Lurker]

An Amazon seller has a good price on the 750W APC unit.

[Yokohammer]

I have all my critical stuff – modem, phones, airport extreme, network disks – hanging off an Omron BY50S. That seems to be plenty for "normal" power glitches, because it kept all that stuff up and running for an hour or more after the big quake hit. Unfortunately the power remained off for about 5 days ...

[Samurai_Jerk]

That's what I immediately asked my wife, and she said no, some members told her the cult had been given some kind of waiver from TEPCO for being a "designated social welfare provider" or some such shit.

Is it even possible to shut down a section of the grid while diverting electircity to certain preferred buildings on that grid? It could just be that the SG folks are on a different grid. When I lived in Atlanta we once lost power for 5 days due to a hurricane. Pretty much eveyone else in our area got power days before we did because even though we were in the same neighborhood we were on a different grid that short of jutted out into the middle of our neighbors.

[FG Lurker]

Is it even possible to shut down a section of the grid while diverting electircity to certain preferred buildings on that grid? It could just be that the SG folks are on a different grid. When I lived in Atlanta we once lost power for 5 days due to a hurricane. Pretty much eveyone else in our area got power days before we did because even though we were in the same neighborhood we were on a different grid that short of jutted out into the middle of our neighbors.

If the SG compound is large enough it wouldn't be surprising that they had power lines coming in from two or more separate grids. This is fairly common for things like data centers. Even if the compound isn't that big SG is well connected enough that they could have made this happen during construction.

[IkemenTommy]

An Amazon seller has a good price on the 750W APC unit.

Next item on the store shelf to be on massive shortage: UPS.

Heh.. actually I highly doubt that.

[Crystal Skull]

Lost power from 4ish to 6:50, it's now 7:12 and the speakers are warning of a coming blackout.

Yes, I know people are dying up north.

[ttjereth]

I recommend buying a good UPS. Dell sells a variety of APC models that should give you enough time to safely shut down your computer. Here's one for smaller office computers or POS systems that will probably do well. There are a couple of larger models if your machine sucks a lot more juice, but of course the price climbs quickly as the rated power goes up.

Next I recommend downloading and installing CrashPlan. Get an external hard disk and have it back up to that so you have near-line backup in case of disk failure. If you have a few computers you want to back up you can have them back up to each other instead of using an external hard disk. Get their "Family Plan" which is $120/year and lets you back up a max of 10pcs to their off site locations. CrashPlan only takes a few minutes to download and install and the backups thereafter are totally automatic. More than worth the peace of mind.

Yeah, I really need to get a new UPS. My old one fried.

CrashPlan looks nice, but unfortunately online backup services aren't an option for me. The ridiculous amount of data I have makes offsite backup very time consuming and impractical (although most of it doesn't change very often, so it would mostly be a one time thing) and contractually I'm prohibited from having the vast majority of my work stuff stored on any of those types of services.

The 2 pcs I lost (1 work pc and my wife's pc) wouldn't have been helped by a UPS unfortunately. I didn't lose any data off them thankfully because the hard drives are still intact, but the pcs actually just got bashed around by the quake, the work one was actually wedged under my desk between a filing cabinet and a wall with just enough room on the sides for ventilation and would have been the safest thing in the house I thought, but I guess it just got thrown back and forth between the cabinet and the wall and smashed up. The side of the case actually fell off, and a whole bunch of the internal parts came loose (like the drive cage ).

We also need to replace our washer and dryer, which were super old anyway but busted up by the quake beyond any reasonable hope of cost effective repair, but I should probably put priority on a UPS since the blackout worries look like they are going to continue for awhile.

We didn't seem to get the promised power outage today either. I've actually be scheduling my sleep around the power outages. Work while there's power and sleep when we are supposed to have an outage so that I can have the PC off and safe from any potential outage beforehand

[FG Lurker]

CrashPlan looks nice, but unfortunately online backup services aren't an option for me. The ridiculous amount of data I have makes offsite backup very time consuming and impractical (although most of it doesn't change very often, so it would mostly be a one time thing) and contractually I'm prohibited from having the vast majority of my work stuff stored on any of those types of services.

I have a few hundred gigs of photos stored on CrashPlan. It took quite some time for the initial backup to run but since then it hasn't been a big deal.

With CrashPlan you can make "backup sets" to decide what gets backed up to where. You could back up your personal data to offsite backup & to a local PC but have it back up your business data only to another local PC or to an external hard disk. I'm in no way affiliated with CrashPlan but have found it to be very flexible and it provides me with great peace of mind.

[ttjereth]

I have a few hundred gigs of photos stored on CrashPlan. It took quite some time for the initial backup to run but since then it hasn't been a big deal.

With CrashPlan you can make "backup sets" to decide what gets backed up to where. You could back up your personal data to offsite backup & to a local PC but have it back up your business data only to another local PC or to an external hard disk. I'm in no way affiliated with CrashPlan but have found it to be very flexible and it provides me with great peace of mind.

I've got something like 16tb of drives and over half are full

I do have an external raid setup here and everything, so overall I'm less worried about loss of data and more worried about loss of work environment and the currently usable PC.

But it's definitely worth considering for private stuff. Thanks for the info!

[Mulboyne]

The 23 wards of Tokyo have largely been exempt from planned blackouts. Since power outages are likely to be continue through summer, METI now thinks this exemption is unfair and so has called for the wards to be included in future schedules.

Source (Japanese)

[Taro Toporific]

The 23 wards of Tokyo have largely been exempt from planned blackouts. Since power outages are likely to be continue through summer, METI now thinks this exemption is unfair and so has called for the wards to be included in future schedules.Source (Japanese)

When the temp goes over 33C without aircon, I'm a flyjin.

[Coligny]

Next item on the store shelf to be on massive shortage: UPS.

Heh.. actually I highly doubt that.

heemmm aboot that...

The first thing I did when I heard 'black out' was to order another Omron BN100s... Forgotting that the battery bank fans make as much noise as a B747 at take off... will have to drill holes in the drywall to install it in the room beside my bedroom. On a more ridiculous sidenote, that thing is so heavy that I ordered a Tamiya Flatbed truck trailer to load it and move it around only with the Help of an RC Peterbuild sleepercab... Le Circus iz in town... as usual...

[ttjereth]

When the temp goes over 33C without aircon, I'm a flyjin.

We were actually planning on going home for a month sometime this year anyway. Originally planned on the fall (because tickets are cheaper) but I think we might go for the summer because I don't think I'll live through the summer with no AC during the afternoon.



My resentment of my wife for not letting us move to hokkaido grows everyday...

[Coligny]

My resentment of my wife for not letting us move to hokkaido grows everyday...

So I presume you never saw the movie Deliverance...

[Sarutaro]

The 23 wards of Tokyo have largely been exempt from planned blackouts. Since power outages are likely to be continue through summer, METI now thinks this exemption is unfair and so has called for the wards to be included in future schedules.

Source (Japanese)

Something tells me Minato-ku will be exempted...

[Doctor Stop]

Something tells me Minato-ku will be exempted...

And Chiyoda-ku.

[FG Lurker]

And Chiyoda-ku.

Chiyoda-ku is where the diet is, right? I think they should just shut the power off there 24/7, it's not like they ever get anything useful done anyway.

[ttjereth]

Chiyoda-ku is where the diet is, right? I think they should just shut the power off there 24/7, it's not like they ever get anything useful done anyway.

Why does the diet need electricity anyway? It's not like any of the 60+ year old politicians are the ones at PCs doing the actual work, and last time I checked pens and rubber stamps don't require electricity.

[Caustic Saint]

Track those blackouts, the Evangelion way!



Real-time Tepco power usage tracking. (found on Kotaku)

[IkemenTommy]

And Chiyoda-ku.

Nerima-ku and Adachi-ku can power off as well because they are the least important wards in my opinion.

[IkemenTommy]

I bet all you people who switched to All-Denka (electric furnace, electric kitchen stove, etc).. sponsored by who else but TEPCO.. are now starting to regret that decision.

[ttjereth]

I bet all you people who switched to All-Denka (electric furnace, electric kitchen stove, etc).. sponsored by who else but TEPCO.. are now starting to regret that decision.

Funny you should mention that...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20110323-00000569-yom-bus_all

[Coligny]

I bet all you people who switched to All-Denka (electric furnace, electric kitchen stove, etc).. sponsored by who else but TEPCO.. are now starting to regret that decision.

Here... with the usual family inertia... we still have only 50A for the whole building. I only have one power generator for now, but it give me 50% of my max availability... a second one (5 mans) and I could ride blackouts (that I don't have) without even noticing them...

But as you can guess... Mom hair dryer blow the fuse every other day, we bought her a gas oven when she started hobby-bread making. (those things are incredibly expensive here...) and I enjoy cancer-haooy toyu heater all day long... night are electric because that fooking fan-toyu shut down every 3 hours... and the non fan one nearly killed me 3 years ago (not a metaphor, was really a close call).

[Coligny]

SIDE NOTE, in the US it seems easy to find home sized propane electric power generators, but I have yet to find any here, do you have some links ?
Kahma got some working on 2 cooking gaz bottles for 2 hours 900W but 10 mans is excessive when the gasoline one are 5 man for 2300W

(My wife is still overdue for my christmas gift)

[IkemenTommy]

[Yokohammer]

I only have one power generator for now, but it give me 50% of my max availability... a second one (5 mans) and I could ride blackouts (that I don't have) without even noticing them...

One of my very next purchases ... when it actually becomes possible to purchase stuff again ... is going to be a gasoline-powered generator. Unfortunately it'll be necessary to store dangerous quantities of gasoline as well, because you sure as heck can't buy the stuff when the poop hits the rotary ventilating unit.

Of course once I do that I'll never need it. I'll just keep it around as an "o-mamori".

[Doctor Stop]

Nerima-ku and Adachi-ku can power off as well because they are the least important wards in my opinion.

I think part of Arakawa-ku was the only of the 23 included in the first blackout group list.

[Coligny]

Of course once I do that I'll never need it. I'll just keep it around as an "o-mamori".

Don't be too sure aboot dat... For this year, one typhoon knocked the power out (day known as Carmaggeddon since traffic light were out and every intersection turned into a Michael Bay movie). Now this, AND A FRACKING COLD MONTH OF MARCH... next will be another typhoon season that I phear might also suck donkey balls...

Somehow... turning into a survivalist and heading for the countryside seems more and more reasonable...

[Coligny]

BANKS TO GIVE MOAR MUNEY TO TEPCO:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110324a2.html

I'd seriously think aboot this twice if I wuz them...

[IkemenTommy]