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> but I will note it is a lot easier to keep spares and change out a small transformer. In my neighborhood, about once a year there's a loud pop, or quiet bang
by pacaro 3y ago
> but I will note it is a lot easier to keep spares and change out a small transformer.
In my neighborhood, about once a year there's a loud pop, or quiet bang, and a bunch of houses lose power. The electric company will fix it pretty quickly.
I think that it's performing selection pressure on the unlicensed squirrel electrician population.
- dylan604 3y agoGrowing up in the sticks, I'm pretty sure there was an unlicensed trade school for squirrels in the area. Pretty much once a year, we'd need a replaced transformer from one of these unlicensed squirrel electricians. I never charted the timing of the year this would happen, but now I wonder if aligned with the start of a new class.
- kefabean 3y agoHere in the UK I think some of those unlicensed squirrel electricians are beginning to retain in fibre broadband installations. My neighbour was ‘disconnected’ last week.
- dylan604 3y agoThe next time a friendly representative from the international brotherhood squirrel electrical (IBSE) union stops by to discuss joining their service protection plan, they should reconsider. "This a real nice connection you have here. It'd be shame if something were to happen to it" Edit: or would that be the Free Mesons
- Spooky23 3y agoDepending on where you live, they age out too. The one behind my house exploded a year or two ago. It was manufactured in 1959!
- kelnos 3y agoI was a little surprised that my neighborhood must have some redundancy. A year or so ago a transformer on a pole two doors down from us popped, and our power actually didn't go out.
- bombcar 3y agoThe transformer likely served the houses further down the block - yours was served by one upstream. It isn’t terribly hard to track it back if the wires are above ground.