For whom it may concern

Wow, interesting. Be sure your data is backed up on something that's totally off-line. Be sure it fits in a box under the bed.

We had some very-nearly-catastrophic issues with the power at work. Most wiring had been done (or modified) in-house without permits by some very unqualified facilities workers. In our computer labs, we kept having ground loop hum issues and tripping circuit breakers, but the last straw was when someone touched the conduit running into the room (1/2" conduit for 30 computers!!) because they'd heard it actually buzzing, and found it was hot to the touch. We found similar problems in our other labs and classrooms, and eventually had everything rewired by a licensed contractor. Since two of our labs have all-metal raised floors with outlets in them, that sort of electrical problem would have been - what they call in the trade - "bad".

 

Oh, and our server room caught fire too, and had to be rewired. Twice. But it was a tiny fire just in one junction box. Still, no fun having to disassemble servers to blow all of the fire extinguishing chemicals out of them.

Where did I hear a story like that before?

Yuck! Glad nothing worse happened, Thomas. I have a 40-ish-year-old-house with "floating ground" issues (lots of hum in audio equipment unless I use plugs without grounding prongs), and one outlet in particular would pop the circuit breaker rather frequently before we finally replaced it. Also, a previous owner did something odd with the phone system that left exactly one phone outlet working, at least until I dropped landline altogether. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to come home to a fresh pile of ashes.

Update: About 2.5 years later my PC suddenly stopped working. After some weeks I finally found that a dying power supply was the cause. Probably it got hit by the neutral line interruption too, which shortened its lifetime.

Was your PC plugged into an uninterruptible power supply?

Nope. I can't remember when we had the last power interruption.

The last three places I lived, the power has slightly flicked on and off here and there or totally gone off because of storms or a circuit breaker flipping off because I used a vacuum cleaner. If I didn't have an uninterruptible power supply, I'd probably have to buy a new computer every 3 months.

Interesting. I thought the power regulations in the US would be comparable to Germany.

Depending on where you live, the power grid in the U.S. can be notoriously unreliable. Some of the infrastructure is quite old and hasn't kept pace with population growth. I live just north of Los Angeles, and when I first moved here our power went out laughably frequently. It's much better now. Also, regional weather can be a huge factor.