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Comment by Brajeshwar | Hacker News Reader

Nice. This will also work well in places that has frequent power cuts.

It is kinda funny when I went back to my home-town. Most household have Washing Machines lying around, unused because they don't have the power required to complete a wash cycle.

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Our washing machine died. I thought it odd, grabbed a nearby circular saw, tried it, and it went. So it was the washing machine, not the power point. So we bought a new washing machine. As the old one left in the truck, we ran a wash. As soon as it reached the spin cycle it stopped. The power point couldn't take the higher draw, the departed washing machine was fine. Annoying.

What kind of overcurrent protection did the circuit have? A fuse would've blown and needed replacing before the power point could be used again; a circuit breaker would've tripped and had to be reset. Are polyfuses used in that role? Or do they make self-resetting circuit breakers for house current?

We had the fusebox replaced soon after this, as it was 1950s vintage. I got a minor shock when using a power tool and went inside to see why the fuse hadn't blown. Someone had replaced the fuse wire with paper clips. However this also doesn't explain what the fault was and I'm pretty sure the electrician replaced the powerpoint in the end. The new fuse box had residual current devices, which had to be reset manually if tripped.

Forget home town, there are frequent power cuts in Bangalore itself. Most of the time 12-16 hours during weekends. I used to get frustrated, as weekends used to be my time when I wash clothes.

Now I have a clever work around, I just put everything in the washing machine in the night at dinner. Then I just wake for a moment at around 3 AM and turn on the washing machine and geyser, by the time I'm awake in the morning the washing machine is done with washing and water is ready hot. I put the clothes for drying and take a bath. By then the power is gone. But then after the major chores are done. Who cares?

Have people tried using capacitors or batteries to accumulate electricity when the power lines are working? Is it too expensive/dangerous to help cover the outages?

On an energy storage density basis, liquid fuels and a generator beat batteries by a long shot.

So if you want a dependable electrical system, you'll have a generator. You might still include batteries and some form of power regulation to get you through spikes and/or brownouts, but that's just a few miliseconds to minutes, not hours. A generator and large diesel tank can run you for days.

> geyser

Is that a local term for hot water heater?

Where are you from? I didn't even know that was a problem that people could have.

Did you know there are places where people don't have regular supply of water or food as well!?

I know, the world is an crazy place.

Edit: For less snark see[0] - Large parts of India, middle east and Asia experience this.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_blackout

I guess he assumed that there was power, or no power, but there was no state of "not enough power", just like me.

he said "don't have the power required to complete a wash cycle", meaning the power the stay continuously long enough to finish washing.

I understood it as during the washing cycle power demands fluctuate, peak, and there is not enough power for that. Like memory, your process starts, has a memory peak after 15min and you get an out of memory error. Does not run through.

You're both possibly right -- as in I've seen both those things happen several times a week, for months.

Thanks for the information.

Very common in India. Only sure things that go inside the washing machine are dirty clothes and detergent. No guarantees about water and power.

This is the main reason I have gone for top loading machine(Samsung fully automatic?? top loading model), so I can catch water in a bucket and pour and keep it running :p.

My washing machine is intelligent enough to handle the power cuts by itself though. I am from Bangalore by the way and staying in an apartment with diesel generator, but it is not in auto stand by. It has to be manually switched on and the power is supplied only to lower wattage power outlets.

It is more irritating, when adsl modem/wifi router goes off and comes up again with diesel backup. All devices lose IP address and starts DHCP again. Soon going to buy UPS for modem/wifi router.

There are much more things, like HP printers jamming, external HDD going down, getting stuck inside elevator, induction cook tops stop working etc.,

Never faced problems with wifi, basically because I have a UPS backup. I have a time based work around for washing clothes and water heater though, start the process of washing machine at around 3-5 AM in the morning and turn on the water heater. By the time the power is gone, your major chores are done.

Other workaround include, switching to CFL instead of tube lights(Save power and net monthly bill, which can be adjusted for UPS expenses), using LPG instead of induction cooker etc.

LED lights are going to be a big thing in India. Plus I can't wait intelligent Solar energy hacks at least for lighting needs. We need innovation there.

UPS will last 3 - 4 hours at best ?

You have to use heavy power rationing if you are on UPS. Devices on heating line are automatically out- Water heaters, refrigerator, microwave ovens etc. The lights run on CFL's whose power consumption is really low. I very rarely use TV during power cuts, unless I'm sure the power is sure to return in 2-3 hours.

The rest wifi modem, laptop etc are all lower power consumption devices.

> intelligent Solar energy hacks at least for lighting needs

At least during the daytime, it's hard to beat intelligent (but low-tech) ways to direct the sunlight to where you want light -- light tubes, for example -- rather than losing most of the energy converting to electricity then back to light, however you do it.

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