w_tom wrote:



You have provided woefully insufficient information for
anyone to post a probably reason. But even worse, your own
posts are based in speculation. No wonder others posted using
only speculation as a probable reason.

That'a true. My neighbors don't have an instrument recording the
voltage at each outlet.

Every electronic appliance has a unique cutoff voltage.
These are numbers so necessary to appreciate what happened.
Intel even states how low voltage can go and computer still
works just fine. Voltage so low that incandescent bulbs are
at less than 40% intensity.

Do you mean visible light or total radiation? Why not say what voltage
you mean?

Other appliances may cut out at
higher voltages. Again, without that number or knowing which
phase each connected to, then no useful facts are available.

Here are facts. An interruption too brief to see even at night will
knock out my phone clock, microwave clock, and computer. The problem at
my neighbors' was conspicuous in daylight as the lights went on and off
for several seconds. My house was fine. I'd say the problem did not
affect the transformer output terminals.

Here's another fact. The reason my neighbor checked the bedrooms was
that in her experience, any time she had to reset the stuff on one side
she would also have to reset the bedroom clocks. She was amazed to find
them working.

Tom MacIntyre once identified a 120 VAC TV that worked until
voltage dropped below 37 volts. All other electronics could
shutdown while the TV worked? What does that tell us about
household wiring? Nothing.

My TV seems more sensitive when it's off. An interruption too brief to
stop my microwave clock will keep my TV from turning on later. I did
not have to reset it yesterday.

Every appliance must also work so many seconds after power is
lost - as both Mark and PrecisionMachinisT noted. Another
number that varies depending on that appliance's internal
design - and that was not provided. Just more reasons why
what did and did not work provides nothing useful.

Those appliances that work so many seconds without power could be
useful. How many seconds must they work? Are they expensive?

You don't have numbers. Your facts are mostly speculation.
Don't speculate as other posters have done. To learn, at
minimum, you must measure voltages between wall receptacles
that did and did not lose voltage. If for no other reason to
learn which phase each receptacle is connected to - without
speculating.

As a matter of fact, I was about to go over there with a DMM and an
extension cord this afternoon to check phases. Instead, I called a
neighbor who lives on the other side of them. She told me that when my
neighbors' lights flickered, so did hers. She had to restart her
computer and reset digital clocks.

By the process of elimination, I think that in the 50-mph gusts that had
been occuring that day, one of the splices feeding their houses got
worked into a high-resistance condition for a few seconds. Have you a
better explanation for the facts?

Choreboy