Electricity
Most devices and services we use these days requires power. It has made our lives so much easier and more convenient and continues to advance in reliablility over the years.
What happens to the devices providing our services when power flickers or power outages happen? In the best cases, and in wishful thinking, when the power is restored all of the equipment will re-load and continue to work properly. Unfortunately this is not always the case.
What is a power outage?
A power outage is when the power goes out, and stays out for a minute or more.
From Wikipedia “A power outage (also called a power cut, a power out, a power blackout, power failure or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.”
When this happens all of the device in the house turn off, and in the case of computers and devices it is without the proper shutdown sequence.
In most cases, some things may work while others do not. You may have to do a reboot of everything in the order that it is connected, or just specific devices. I know when hydro goes out at my house, my Samsung Smart TV always has an issue getting back online. To fix it, I have to go to the back of the TV, unplug the hydro cable to it, and plug it back in to do a hard reboot. Then the TV seems to work on the internet again.
If rebooting your devices after a power outage, or doing a hard reboot of a device doesn’t bring it back then please be sure to open a ticket with SmartHub, or call into our support line.
What is a power flicker?
A power flicker is when the power goes off and on once or more within a very short period of time. This is something that every electrical service provider is always working to improve.
To show an example, here is some info from a Florida provider:
“Power flickers … momentary outages … brief service interruptions – these are some of the terms used to describe brief power outages lasting less than 60 seconds. We know they are annoying…”
Power flickers tend to be worse for devices as devices usually shut down and need to re-boot the same as a power outage. The difference being if the power goes out again while the devices are re-booting, this can really mess them up in some cases. Sometimes this means they need a reboot, or a special type of reset that our support may recommend you do. Please note: we do not recommend factory resetting your routers unless directed by support, especially if you are on DSL service.
Equipment may get fried in some cases during a power flicker. Use SmartHub to open a ticket, or call into support if your Set Top Boxes or Modems are not powering on correctly.
Lightning Strikes
These types of power issues are usually more serious.
A piece of equipment in the neighbourhood, a single customer’s house, etc… can be hit. There is no predicting what direction the energy from a lightning strike may take. This can damage/fry a single piece of equipment or an entire households devices or entertainment system. Surge protectors are no match for lightning strikes in many cases as well.
Events like this usually require replacement of Set Top Boxes, modems, routers, and potentially even customer provided equipment such as TVs or stereos.
Fibre Optic Services
Phone, TV and Internet services over Fibre also require electricity to keep the Fibre Optical Network Terminal (ONT) up and running. For those customers with phone service, Hay installs a battery backup for the ONT which lasts from 6-12 hours depending on usage. Some customers choose to hook the ONT up to their generator during a power outage. This is done simply by plugging the electrical cable from the battery backup into your generator. Others have stand by generators installed into their homes.
Conclusion
In the end, in most cases, an extra reboot may be necessary once power is restored. Some users use their own back-up power supplies to provide a bit of help with keeping devices from shutting down during a power outage. As always, feel free to contact our support team, or via SmartHub, for any questions.