An Interesting Phenomenon

Last night we had trouble with our electricity. About 9 p.m. the lights went dim and a number of electrical appliances started playing up.

The computer went off but the television stayed on.

All our lights that have energy savings bulbs went out but the incandescent ones stayed alight but dimmer.

We have two phone lines with 'modern' cordless phones/answerphones on each. One stopped working and the other didn't (although it was a very crackly line). Where we had one old fashioned phone plugged directly into the phone socket it, of course, worked perfectly.

The freezer's display remained alight and told us that it wasn't keeping things cold - which became easily apparetn as time went by and the temperature started rising.

All our equipment with clocks (cooker, clock radios, DVD, video etc) stayed working but with very dimmed lights - except for one clock radio which went off completely.

Although we were able to turn the computer back on and use it OK the router stayed on, but reported it couldn't connect to the internet.

As the power gradually came back up (about two hours later) everything went back to normal except the lights with energy saving bulbs which had to be turned off and then back on again.

Moral:
Always have one phone that can be plugged directly into the socket without needing electricity (they'll work even in a full powercut) and keep a few old fashioned light bulbs around.

I'm still not convinced as to there being much (if any) cost saving in low energy light bulbs. In my experience they cost a lot more and don't last anywhere near as long as they say on the box. They also don't give put as much light as they say on the box!