If the power has gone out at your home or place of business, there are a few things that you’ll want to consider as the culprit of the outage before you start taking any steps toward rectifying the problem. Only when you truly know what’s going on can you effectively take the right steps to get your power turned back on?
To help you in making these kinds of determinations, here are three things to consider when the power has gone out.
Planned Power Outages
One of the first things you might want to look into when you experience a power outage is if this outage is planned or not.
Electric companies and communities may plan a power outage for any number of reasons. In some cases, if there is concern that too much demand on the power grid might cause damage to it or widespread outages that aren’t in control, they might decide to shut off the power for a specifically timed length. Additionally, if improvements need to be made to the electrical system, turning off the power for a period of time might be necessary so that the people working on the issue will be safe. If a planned outage is what you’re experiencing, just sit tight and your power should be restored soon without any other steps taken on your side.
The Demand On The System
As was mentioned above, if there’s a lot of demand on the power system, this could cause a power outage. This usually happens during extreme weather that causes people to use either their furnaces or their air conditioners nonstop. Big buildings can have their transformers fail and the large number of buildings and homes using their HVAC systems can just cause electrical grids to shut down from too much use.
If you think that is what happened to you, call your power company to report the outage and see when they expect to be able to make the fixes necessary and get everyone’s power restored.
What’s The Weather Like
In addition to the weather causing people to use more energy that can put strain on the power grid in your area, other forms of weather can also impact your ability to have the consistent power coming to your home that you expect. So before you call the power company to report your outage, consider if poor weather could be impacting things. This can happen when lightning strikes, ice is on the road or power lines, high winds cause power poles to break, and other weather events.
If the power has gone out at your home or place of business, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you determine what might be going on and what steps you should take next.