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Not my brightest moment (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 59 points 3 months ago (25 children)

Simplest method to check if the power outage is only your house, or the neighborhood, too:

Open the settings of your phone and check for available wifi networks. If it is empty, power is down elsewhere, too.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago

    Most houses in my neighborhood have Generacs, natural-gas powered generators that automatically start up when the power goes out. They're quite noisy, so I can immediately tell if it's a neighborhood-wide outage without even going outside.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago* (21 children)

    A LOT of people have networks and systems on UPS’s, so that’ll tell you nothing much really.

    I can still watch media on my tablets if the power goes out.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 months ago (12 children)

    I wouldn't say a lot, I've never met anyone else with an UPS, even in my most techy circles

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Really? Here’s one for you. I have a UPS on my computer and another one on my network equipment. I can run for about 45 minutes with no power and still be online. I’ve actually worked through 15 minute power outages before without skipping a beat.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    How many of these folks have a rack mounted somewhere in there... once you get into this degree of tech, you're looking at folks with PoE systems on battery backup, maybe 5G backup circuits in case the internet is cut. It's really not a crazy level of security, if you live in a high crime downtown area for instance. But I also don't go around whipping my rack out in every conversation, and my house is old, so lots of folks don't know how high tech the house really is. And wouldn't until they saw the doorbell still glowing, Wifi still on during a power outage I suppose (Wifi is how we really see each other during power outages, and the sound of gennies for those rich bastards that can afford them)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (4 children)

    Weird, with solar being so easy to install, most people I know want a way to store it.

    Where do you live that this isn’t the case?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (3 children)

    I leave near a historical monument so I cannot install solar panels, nor can almost the whole village... Otherwise in France it seems pretty easy to do so, but I think most of the time people sell the energy to the grid instead of trying to store it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    Selling to the grid here is useless, you can’t sell more than you use. So if you use zero, you can’t sell any back. You can only sell to offset what you used.

    So say you buy $100 from the grid this month, you can only sell back that $100 dollars, you can’t profit from it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Here people can sell more than they use, so some people actually make money out of their solar panels. But they are selling at very different rates than what they are buying.

    Of course storing energy would be more efficient than selling during the day and buying during the night, while putting the grid under more pressure during both

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Nor have I. Personally I have several UPS's because I work in tech and have learned why they are useful. But I don't know anyone else, even my techy friends that have hem.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago*

    It’s common with stuff like balcony solar systems so you have a way to store some power easily.

    There’s different levels and stages of being “techy”. Just having a passion for computers and data is only one. Most of my techy friends are into solar as well.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 months ago

    Every modem that also has a phone line has a battery in it by law in the US. This is so the phone line will stay up in a power outage. So they’re actually more suburban people than you would think who’ve got the whole package of cable, phone, and Internet who’s WiFi will stay on for several hours after the power goes out.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

    A lot of people do, significantly more don't. So if you see the fucking nerds house is the only one with access points available, you know its a wider power cut.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (1 child)

    In a newly built Modern neighborhood the houses are all built to the same basic “set of standards”, that includes an ups or a battery with the solar installation.

    A lot of people who say they are “techy” aren’t actually all that techy, they just have a laptop with a server and Linux. It’s pretty dang common to have ups or battery’s when actual modern tech is installed in a house.

    Even infills in older neighbourhoods are frequent enough that there should be plenty.

    Or try living in the suburbs where you gotta get gas trucked in, you’re gonna want backups.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    I live in the UK, mains are reliable enough that very few people have any kind of UPS. I worked in a computer repair shop years ago and it was almost never mentioned. Most people didn't even know what one was. Though I did meet an interesting chap with one on a boat.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I'm on vacation, the power went out for the entire county. Only one WiFi was still up: "SmokeyTheBear", and there's a known fire chief living in the area.

    Guess who has a working backup generator in the apocalypse? Haha

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    How can you check the Wi-Fi for an entire county?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Haha; that's funny, I meant in the local area. The whole county was out as per cell service not working (cellphone towers typically have good backup), and we inquired at a grocery store who still had Internet (backup power also) they said it was a widespread outage

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