Power Outage

[Light Buster]

Anyone here got any recent power outage in or near your homes? I got like one power outage at my dad's last Friday and one just today.

[GameGeeks]

No, but It just looks like I'll be hit by the very edge of the storm. Just expect lots of rain and thunder storms for a few days.

[Munchman]

I don't really understand you Americans. You live in a zone prone for hurricanes and earthquakes and you still make your houses out of dried saliva and toothpicks... Here in Portugal we never have any significant storms and all our houses are either made of cement/steel, bricks or granite. Our power lines are also underground for the most part so storms don't really damage them and in the worst case scenario in a thunderstorm the lights go out for a few minutes...

[nrL]

I don't really understand you Americans. You live in a zone prone for hurricanes and earthquakes and you still make your houses out of dried saliva and toothpicks... Here in Portugal we never have any significant storms and all our houses are either made of cement/steel, bricks or granite. Our power lines are also underground for the most part so storms don't really damage them and in the worst case scenario in a thunderstorm the lights go out for a few minutes...

You talk like my 60 year old uncle

[GameGeeks]

I don't really understand you Americans. You live in a zone prone for hurricanes and earthquakes and you still make your houses out of dried saliva and toothpicks... Here in Portugal we never have any significant storms and all our houses are either made of cement/steel, bricks or granite. Our power lines are also underground for the most part so storms don't really damage them and in the worst case scenario in a thunderstorm the lights go out for a few minutes...

Yeah, also doesn't help that many of them are quickly put together and not very well made. Cheapness ho!

[aether]

I don't really understand you Americans. You live in a zone prone for hurricanes and earthquakes and you still make your houses out of dried saliva and toothpicks... Here in Portugal we never have any significant storms and all our houses are either made of cement/steel, bricks or granite. Our power lines are also underground for the most part so storms don't really damage them and in the worst case scenario in a thunderstorm the lights go out for a few minutes...

Thats America for you build it cheap and quick and make a quick buck lol
Whereas here in Blighty we tend to get tons of building regulations and red tape to meet demands of before a house is passable to live within

[T-Stew]

I don't really understand you Americans. You live in a zone prone for hurricanes and earthquakes and you still make your houses out of dried saliva and toothpicks... Here in Portugal we never have any significant storms and all our houses are either made of cement/steel, bricks or granite. Our power lines are also underground for the most part so storms don't really damage them and in the worst case scenario in a thunderstorm the lights go out for a few minutes...

Its mainly about cost I'd wager, and a stick built home gives you the best bang for buck. But I shake my head too... but regardless of building material I dont think you'll ever catch me in any hurricane / flood prone area.

Building codes also vary a lot, but usually take things like this into consideration. For example both my dad and I built garages 2 years ago. Roughly the same size, though his cost about several grand more simply due to building codes requiring a more robust structure. Mine is built to my local code and no more, so I have a cheaper but also weaker structure. But it was about all I could afford, plus the main difference between them is the trusses, where my snow load is usually no more than a few inches my dads could be up to a few feet normally. I'm not to worried that my structure is weaker, but if we got a freak blizzard it could be a potential problem.

There was no inspection, not even for the electrical work which I did all myself.

Re: power outages... none around here, atleast than I am aware of. Though I work for a big electric utility I had to deal with all sorts of problems due to outages next door in West Virginia. They got hit real bad, with 2-3 feet of snow in many places.

[aether]

Its mainly about cost I'd wager, and a stick built home gives you the best bang for buck. But I shake my head too... but regardless of building material I dont think you'll ever catch me in any hurricane / flood prone area.

Building codes also vary a lot, but usually take things like this into consideration. For example both my dad and I built garages 2 years ago. Roughly the same size, though his cost about several grand more simply due to building codes requiring a more robust structure. Mine is built to my local code and no more, so I have a cheaper but also weaker structure. But it was about all I could afford, plus the main difference between them is the trusses, where my snow load is usually no more than a few inches my dads could be up to a few feet normally. I'm not to worried that my structure is weaker, but if we got a freak blizzard it could be a potential problem.

There was no inspection, not even for the electrical work which I did all myself.

Re: power outages... none around here, atleast than I am aware of. Though I work for a big electric utility I had to deal with all sorts of problems due to outages next door in West Virginia. They got hit real bad, with 2-3 feet of snow in many places.

Fair enough