Re: Grand Apagon - Electricity (not) in Spain

On 5/8/25 5:43 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
 

I don't think I've ever (regardless of where I've lived) experienced
a deliberate power cut.  A drunk may take out a telephone pole or
a branch may fall on some high tension wires but no one has ever
said "sorry, we're turning the lights out" (for whatever reason)

 That was exactly what happened in the UK in the early 1970s; we had a
rota of power cuts lasting 4 hours each.  I made up an automatic
lighting unit based on a car battery for my parents.  It used relays to
switch on when the mains went, then recharge at a fast rate until the
battery voltage rose high enough, then trickle charge.
 <...>

When the coal miner's strike power usage reductions were in effect I was working at Marconi-Elliott in Borehamwood.  We were not allowed to have the lights or heating on but it was permitted to use test equipment so we would huddle around our Tektronix 547 scopes to keep warm, they used to put out a lot of heat.