Do you have a look outside when there is a power cut?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Did it myself and felt a bit foolish until I saw next door doing it too!

We are currently sitting in candlelight (until about half ten according to National Grid) and the first thing I did when the power went off was to stick my head outside the front door to check it was the whole street and not just us. DD thinks I am a bit mad for doing it, I think it is perfectly normal!

Also, I open the curtains as you do get some light in that way from the moon, she also thinks that is mad as its dark outside. Wont concede that the lounge is a little bit lighter with them open, even though it clearly is!

And now the coffee table has a puddle of wax on it as I caught one when I was grabbing a coaster!

It was, I was reading a paper ( work related, but on the sofa, not in front of my lap top) in the daylight and hadn't even noticed the power cut until several furious people started pinging the group!

Accidental hazard. Let it set and remove it. I hope.you're back on by the morning. I love the idea of people wandering round their houses with the modern day equivalent of Davy lamps on their heads.

Nope I go straight to the fuse box and check if anything is tripped, then I’ll look on Facebook community for our town and guarantee about 30 people have mentioned a power cut.

Yeah, I couldn't remember how old your youngest was or actually how many you had, but I knew it was more than four!

I was, I suppose if you can't develop good eye roll 13 when can you??

It used to drive my dad mad and I used to get told off for it 🤣🤣

No, I don’t need to, we get an instant cacophony of neighbourhood burglar alarms that seem to go on for ever. But if we didn’t, I would definitely look outside

I have a mountain of stuff in front of my fuse box, so rely on the anger of my neighbours.

If I hear nothing, only then will I attempt the deep dive past folding chairs, massive bags of cat litter, picnic stuff etc.

i never took to the hats, mine is the elestic strap ones with the torch attached in asda around 5-£10 depending on the brand i do prefer the energiser ones.
they are also hand for doing model making etc so they have a dual purpose plus ive got used to them dangling that its part of my gear for general usage

we're back! Its been 20 minutes since the lights came on so I am trusting it,.... a bit!

Thank you for helping to prove "oh is it just us?!" is really ok!

No because I wouldn’t be able to see any other houses but it’s perfectly logical to if you live in a village or town… or even a wee hamlet. I know MIL has a good nose out of the front door just to make sure it isn’t just them in the event of a power cut!

It's almost a relief when you see everyones lights off and it's not just your supply that's buggered and having to go through rigmarole of reporting etc.

But this is a good learning experience for your daughter you need to explain you look outside to check whether it's just effecting you or the whole streets as the actions you take after depends on which it is. This is the sort of stuff she needs to learn for when she's older and has her own house. I don't understand why you would feel foolish infront of a child

Exactly as above. You can extend the teaching to actual practical lessons - "And this is the power distribution board; if the lights had been on outside I'd have come here and checked to see if any of the trip switches had tripped then push them back up. Even if the lights were off I'd check anyway, because sometimes the power going out can trip the switches, then they're off when the outside power comes back" etc etc.

We don’t because there’s nothing out there!

Of course. But we have a (nice) neigbours WhatsApp group too so I check on there.

We're in the centre of a large town so luckily hardly ever get power cuts.

How old is DD? Is she one of those teenagers who always know when an adult does something stupid? If so just wait a few years and she’ll get the point about looking outside.

I recently had to report a power cut. I did it online and there was a little questionnaire to fill out. Obviously name, address, contact details. And then asking whether I've checked the fuse box, checked with neighbours etc. So, not only does it make sense to check, it is also expected that you would check that it's not just your own property affected and sometimes popping outside for a look is the easiest and quickest way to do so (it's actually a bit pointless here as I'm very rural though!).

Do you not like her? What turns looking out to see if the neighbours lights are on into a good nose 😂

Always. And then start messaging neighbours too🤣

Tbf we're at a join of 3 grids. It's unusual for all three to be off, so it's a measure of how bad it is.
If it's just ours: need to contact the board in case no one else does. May well be back on quickly as something simple, but we'll be very low priority if there's loads off in the area.
Two sets: normally contact the board, but normally someone else has. Usually takes longer to get back on as it's more complicated than just a fuse, but gets reasonable priority to get someone out if there's lots off.
All three: probably our whole estate, or certainly half will be off. Don't normally bother contacting the board except to ask for updates. Will often be a few hours, sometimes overnight before back on, but we'll be high priority for workmen, normally working within an hour. We'll check neighbours are okay before going to bed.

Because we're at an edge we do also look out to see if others can help. So, for example when our neighbours were looking after their granddaughter's lizard and theirs was off, ours on, we had a cable running from ours to theirs overnight. We've taken phones/power banks round to charge when the opposite happened too.

Of course you look outside, you’d have to be some kind of freak-weirdo not to. Sheesh. Ditto ‘what bin is it tomorrow?’

Totally normal. But my place is dark anyway, so id have to drive to the road to see if it was affecting neighbours.

i love looking out to the dark. I don’t close my living room blinds till I go to bed.

Totally normal to check whether it is the whole street and not just you.

Otherwise you'd look like a right berk sitting there in the dark waiting for it to come back on when the problem lies in your own fuse box.

yeah i need to know if its just me or not. If i need to swear as i work out if its just the breaker box or play the guessing game of what electrical shit the bed now =p

I would always look outside, then go on the village FB page to see if anyone else has posted about it.

Yes of course you check out the window, otherwise how do you know if its your electrics or a power cut?