S.AFRICA: JOHANNESBURG: FROM JAN: A BIG ELETRICITY OUTAGE IN 5 SUBURBS IN MY AREA

(:E-:N-:R-AZ:C-30:V)   

Yesterday in our suburb something went very wrong. They later blamed it on lightning. But the electricity had gone dead hours before the lightning came. We’ve been without electricity for over 24 hours. For me with my solar, I can function fine for 20 hours without electricity. But I can’t drive ALL my equipment using solar. So after 20 hours I need to switch on my generator. I don’t need to do it often, but my generator is a bit old and I struggled a bit. But I got it going. It needs some servicing. My deep freeze is defrosting as well, so the generator is needed. I only use my generator about twice a year when we have a situation like this. It’s amazing how ridiculously this country runs. Anyhow, the "electricity problem" we have, struck about 5 suburbs of which mine is one, and I could see that the fools would not get it fixed in 24 hours, so this evening I started my generator to let it run for a couple of hours. We will see if the electricity is back by tomorrow or whether it will be another day. In my suburb you know there’s a long outage when, in the daytime you hear generators running in many of the houses! For me in the daytime, I’m functioning perfectly off solar. I rather keep my generator for nighttime in emergencies, because then I can power all the lights in the house, etc. I ensure that I get every cent out of using that expensive petrol!!! So nighttime is when I switch my generator on – but only during emergencies. Otherwise, I hardly ever use it! Normal power outages of under 20 hours are fine and I sail through them. It’s only when it’s longer than a day that I use the generator somewhat. I want to get it serviced next week. I’ve had my little generator since about 2008 and it’s served me well over the years. The other thing I need to buy is batteries because 4 of my batteries in my battery bank have died in the last 8 months. But all in all, I’m pleased with my little setup.