Saved - from toast!

[ffutures]

Just had all of the power (to appliances, not to the lights) go out as I was making breakfast. Unfortunately my PC was on at the time, though fortunately I didn't have any unsaved work.

The cause turned out to be a bit of burned bread in the toaster, which had somehow been left behind yesterday and was now a good grade of charcoal. Which conducts electricity, and fell between the bars of the toaster to connect the heating bit to earth. Whereupon the earth leakage breaker tripped...

It's actually good that it happened, because there is a slight chance that a fire could have started. Also, I haven't tested that the breaker still works in several years, so it's good to know that it works.

And fortunately Windows XP is a LOT more robust than 98 etc. when it comes to sudden loss of power, so no harm seems to have been done. On the whole it could have been much worse.

Comments

[timill]

You're not in cix:diy, are you? There's just been a thread on this very subject...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

God forbid. DIY is not my idea of fun, though I can do it if I have to. I'd sooner pay someone competent.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Three words: Uninteruptable Power Supply.

I got one for my desktop system years ago, and it's saved me a few times now.

(Nowdays I do most of my work on my laptop, which isn't bothered by power outages.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Trouble with them is that the batteries slowly die. Better than the hard disk, I suppose, so maybe I should be thinking about it more seriously.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

I picked up a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) for $70 a few years ago. It's been a great investment -- power goes out and I have 15 minutes to save everything and shut down properly. Given that we get a lot of short (<30 second) outages during thunderstorm season I've lost track of the number of times this has saved me from losing work...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thing is that I'm in the middle of London and power cuts are VERY rare.