We were told last week that a temporary generator would be installed
because the substation next door needed some attention. It went in this
morning, and by late afternoon was having problems. The resulting
effects were interesting.

The newish Panasonic TV went off. After a few seconds it went on again,
then off, etc. I disconnected it from the mains. As far as I could tell,
everything else seemed OK. I turned on our elderly Roberts DAB radio,
and although it came on it wouldn't tune any station. It was then I
noticed the house lighting didn't seem its normal brightness. All the
lights - LED, compact fluorescents, and one tungsten (over the hob) were
working, but dimmer than usual. A couple of old T5 fluorescents would
not turn on when I tried them. NB - none of the lamps are dimmable.

A digital voltmeter showed the mains voltage was 160V. I turned on our
old Sharp 22" TV and it worked without problem. After a few minutes, the
Sharp went off. I checked the voltage; it was now 140V. Some of the LEDs
no longer worked. These were Wilko ones with a semicircular design of
light emitter (they no longer supply them, and I haven't been able to
find a picture on the internet). The other G9, COB-type design,
continued to work.

Then the remaining LED lighting went off. A quick check showed the mains
was now 80V. Amazingly, the compact fluorescents were still working. A
couple of other devices working off of wall warts still operated, but
that is not too surprising. I was going to investigate further, but the
power failed completely.

I find it extraordinary that the compact fluorescents stayed on at 80V.

--

Jeff