that sucks man, also dont forget you have those theme parks sucking up a TON of electricity too

Fun fact. Disney gets at least some of their power from an on site power-plant. They burn their trash to do so.

well that i figured but i doubt it for universal and seaworld

I do know that every animal habitat at SeaWorld is accompanied by a generator that can supply power for at least 10 days before a refueling is required.

Used to work there.

Just while I was visiting FL, I noticed a lot of brown outs and the power flickering quite frequently, but I don't think i was ever left sitting and waiting for the power to come back on. None the less, I was wondering if those types of flickers happen all the time in Florida. I was irrirated just from the little flicks, haha!

Mostly during the summer. And it depends where you live.

Out in Oviedo, we are far from the power plant. Where you stayed you could see the cooling towers of the plant form out your window.

Extended outage is kind of rare, but this year it has happened to us easily 6 or more times. Once again, It has lots to do with how far out you are. We are fairly low priority with now hospital, and minimal commercial area.

That must be pretty damn annoying. Does it happen often?

Blackouts for me are a massive PITA I have a freezer that I need to have running 24/7 and sometimes the power will go out for hours, sending me into panic attack mode
Never heard of these "large central units" before. Is it an apartment you're talking about? Or a single house?

Last time we had a blackout was a week or so ago, a transformer blew up during a storm. Shit sucked cause there was no AC and it was hot and humid

Hope that the power somes back soon Jeff! I cant imagine how irritating that could be augh.

If you make a giant hamster wheel, I will run in it to generate power while I'm there. Good exercise!

You should get some solar panels. Any area that faces south can make a decent amount of power, especially down south in a state like FL.

Hurricanes make it hard for permanent fixtures like large solar panels. Though we have thought about it. That, and summer ushers in plenty of cloud cover. Power seems to go out most during lightning storms.
A guy I met in south Florida has a fully electric car, and I had asked about solar power. He had said pretty much the same thing I had.

If you get panels that can be taken off the supports easily, you can store them in your house to avoid hurricane damage. And for the cloud/low sunlight issue, you can get a battery bank that stores any extra energy you make and are used in times of low sunlight. Also, if you can actively advocate for people to install solar panels you can essentially put less load and demand on grid power so there will be less black outs in your area. And if all else fails, invest in getting a conventional gas or diesel generator.

For me, I live up in an off-grid house up in VT. We live on 480 square foot panels, battery bank, and a diesel generator. We only turn on the generator about 4 times a year on average (during the winter). It's been 4 years since it was all built and the system already paid for itself.

I realize this might be unworkable, but if you were to work from a laptop that's plugged in... well in a way they do have backup power supplies that cut in the minute your AC turns off. They're kinda handy this way :} That or you could get a UPS for your main system, so at the very least it gives you time to save/shut down before loosing all power.

Well for sewing and airbrushing, and things like that you really just have to wait for consistent power. The current drawn from a compressor, or an industrial machine could take down a backup in less than a few minutes. Plus sewing in the dark has some special challenges in itself.

Oh oh oh... my bad. I thought we were talking about computer work here.

Well... as far as the air compressor issue - I would recommend getting a reserve tank sorted out if possible, just plumb it into your main compressor and have a significant backup, with a regulator.

http://orlando.craigslist.org/tls/2489458623.html would work, and it's not that hard to plumb one into a existing system, just keep in mind your current compressor will run for a long time for the initial charge and slightly longer for recharges, but you'll have quite a reserve to keep going if you should loose power.

Lighting, well that's easy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCN-Py6I-g - I've been making these for years, they run on pure 12vdc and I can light up an entire room bright as day for almost nothing. The room in that video, draws 45 watts, or about 3.5 amps at 12vdc, A truck battery could supply that for an entire day, no sweat.

The sewing... well that is a unique problem. I can imagine you're using a over-locker, and it would be difficult to work one of those into a foot operated pedal system like the really old machines used. (My folks had one of these for the longest time, never used - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hammer.....2/3113257030/)

but yeah... maybe.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatha.....7281/lightbox/ :}

Gotta love the lightning capital of the US. Kinda wish I was still there...on second thought, no. Close to there, but not THERE.

This represents the 98 x 9 x 100 reasons why Florida Sucks.

Oh come on, I thought ya'll had it made down there. *snickers from his equally boring state of SC* ;)

Coal is green fuel.

I know it's probably not enough for what you need to do, but you're more than welcome to come share our AC and use our sewing machine/power! Power-outs and not getting your work done sucks.

Just give us a call/text if you wanna swing by!

Pffffffffft I hear that some pet stores will sell ya giant guinea pigs or hamsters out of there dumpsters if you bribe them with skittles <W>



Lolz o3o'

But in all seriousness that does honestly sucks ass man -w-

-Isgladshelivesinboringol'ohio-

Well now that youve had a major wakeup call about how dependent you are upon electricity.. you thinking about maybe working on lessening your dependency?