When last did you experince a power failure and water shut down?

[Obi Two Kenobi]

I'd like to see how things differ around the country. Where I live, we get power failures about every two weeks or so. Summer or winter, at any random time you can think of. The last one was about 5PM today, before that is was pretty much smooth sailing all month. The same cannot be said for the water service. Last week we had no water for three separate times, each of them lasting a minimum of three hours. Thankfully these were during the day time.

My dad has taken some serious provisions as of late to counter these failures. We now have a 1000l and 2000l water tank in the back of the yard. These tanks are of course hooked up to the gutters for rain water harvesting. We've also recently installed two solar water heaters. These work extremely well and can also be switched to conventional electric water heaters in days of rain or overcast. When the power does stay off for longer than usual, we have a home battery backup solution. This has helped us considerably when we had absolutely no power for three days on end. A crucial transformer at our local power station had gone. A replacement was brought in from Bloemfontein, but the couriers were involved in a motor accident along the way. So a replacement had to be sent by a new courier.

[GeometriX]

I've been living in Roodepoort, JHB for the last year. Had a couple of power failures that lasted a few hours during winter last year, that's it. Haven't had any water shortages. It's actually the most stable area I've lived in in JHB, which includes Orange Grove, Northriding and Westdene. Northern JHB suburbs are the worst, in my experience.

[Antharias]

Load Shedding - Tuesday and Wednesday night. 18:30 to 20:05. Randburg. Welcome to winter in Johannesburg. Honestly, I have not used a heater or aircon apart from the aircon that always runs at work for our servers but I have to deal with load shedding during the time I have to make dinner. Thanks you bastards who feel the need to use a heater instead of a blanket.

[Toxxyc]

We had a power failure the day before yesterday, and it lasted for about 4 hours. Never had our water shut off or "shed" though, and as far as I know it's supposed to be illegal to cut off water to an occupied residence.

[Wesley]

We've yet to have a major power failure in the last year. We've had an afternoon where the power was out for maintenance and installation of new equipment. We've also had a water shortage for the past two years but that's since cleared up. The house has once had its water cut off for an overdue account but we unplugged it and got the local manager to apologise.

Still, I'm buying myself a UPS one of these days.

[willbeonekenobi]

Other than the load shedding I havent had a real power outage in the last 4 or so years. The last time I did not have power for more than 2 hours was when a power substation (I think it was called that) blew up in the middle of the day because it wasn't maintained that much and we had no power for 2 weeks. Luckily we had purchased a generator so we could at least have a hot shower and could cook.

[Shaderow]

Last time we had a power outage here was about three years ago. We've had maintenance here and there but they rarely lasted more than an hour.

[Mikit0707]

We had load shedding last night! YAY! I was beginning to miss it. It lasted from about 18:00 until 20:30. I'm in Hilton, KZN. Never had the water switched off though. I'd take no electricity over no water any day.

[Squirly]

I'd take no electricity over no water any day.

This has me flummoxed. On one hand, yay water, we don't have to live in our own filth. On the other hand, it'll only be cold water which sucks in winter time and you'll still have to shower in the dark. And no PC! AAAARGH!

[Mikit0707]

I'm a hygiene freak. I'd take a cold shower in the middle of winter without hesitation if needs be.

[Flangenimblick]

Not that I'm living in SA now, but I've lived in Oudtshoorn, Grahamstown, Somerset West, Cape Town and Knysna at various points in my life, and here is the assessment:


Oudtshoorn: lived there 15+ years, lived in 4+ different houses, a hotel and a cottage in a trailer park as well. Overall, was used to regular power outages even before load shedding. Always had water, but electricity would go off for a day or two at a time about once a month, so cold showers or swimming in the pool or dam was a regular occurrence. When load-shedding started, we got ourselves a generator, and now even though electricity goes off for about a day at a time about 4+ times a month, we still have some form of electricity, although generator's are expensive to feed and maintain...

Somerset West: Lived there for about 4 years. No water problems and this was long before load-shedding, so only occasional blackouts for about an hour or so once or twice a year.

Knysna: Lived there solid for about 1 year, but have been back and forth there for about 6+ years. Before load-shedding, had electricity outages for a few hours at a time every 2 or so months. No water problems to speak of, even during water restriction periods. Since load-shedding, electricity is off for about half a day once or twice a month.

Cape Town: Lived there for 1 year, this was before load-shedding was a regular thing. Never had water problems and electricity would only go out once every few months for about an hour, if that.

Grahamstown: Lived there for 4 years, what a ****-hole. Rolling blackouts for hours or days at a time every week or every second week. Would frequently not have water for over a week and had to start getting cooking and bathing water from a spring about 10 minutes drive away. When I did have water, it was so chlorinated, I eventually developed an allergic reaction to it. Winter was the worst for electricity. Eventually started having braai's on an almost daily basis just to keep warm and have something to eat.

[Morrigan]

I live in Kuilsrivier
I can honestly say that I cannot remember when last we had a power failure or even load shedding.
It has been at least a couple of years. We have never had water problems.
Guess we are just lucky. When we lived on a farm about 8 years ago though we had our power off at least every 2 weeks for 3 days at a time.

[nukehead]

We used to have a 'magical' house with regards to water. Well, I guess it was more to do with the ineptitude if the municipality. They were convinced that we owed them a substantial amount of money - something along the lines of R40 000 per month because, you know, we filled and drained our pool everyday. So, we obviously refused to pay and had numerous people come through to take readings from the meter, only to tell us that they could not find it. Yet they were able to take readings to bill us? It was infuriating.

So eventually we decided that we would just pay an 'acceptable' rate of what we would most likely be using each month. It was always amusing when I would arrive home to a note detailing how our water had been cut-off due to non-payment, go to the tap, get a glass of water, have a hot shower, and wait for the inevitable arrival of our neighbour asking for a bucket of water. I was always quite generous with how much water he got from us. Joburg, bru.

As for my current place there has not been any water outages - except when our geyser burst - and very rarely will there be a power outage - except when we forget to recharge our meter, usually when I'm working on a deadline and haven't saved for hours. Also we get proper bills that are relevant to how much water and electricity we actually use. Cape Town, yo.

[Cranky]

Lived in valhalla for 8 years ( till beginning last year ) and because it is a military area the only outages we had was when people stole cables and it was done pretty fast. The laod shedding was scheduled for 3Am to 5:30 am so i only ever had it when i got back from Hatfield late.,


Moved to Hennops park for 1 year and had about 3 black outs .

Im in Pierre van Ryneveld now and had 1 in the 8 weeks ive stayed there and it was planned but i didnt mind. It was to get extra pwoer to the NEW telkom exhange allowing us to get faster better lines ( max 15MBs fibre connection and i Run fibre all the way to exchange - less than 1 km away - as the crow fllies )