Outage or Outrage

Kalimera or good morning in Greek,

We have been experiencing an electrical problem….

We have none. Typical for summer, the power goes off almost everyday for a few minutes up to an hour or so. A few nights last summer we experienced a night with no electricity at all…. A very hot night.

During the winter months we experience a lot of wind…. The wind causes the Internet to go out, but usually not the power. Or we have what we call dirty power, where the power dies down to 50% percent. The lights dim, and we scurry around to turn off all appliances….if we do not we can kiss them good-bye.

The problem in winter….. I think we fry the lines. Greek homes have 1 outlet per wall. One single outlet, not the 2 plugs per outlet like we at home take for granted. One.







We have our usual montage of electrical appliances to include:
Transformer / converter
TV
DVD player
Satellite
Xbox
Phone charger
Glade air freshener (you know the necessities when living with guys a dog)





And that’s just the television area…..you should see the computer area. I have no clue what all Kayne, Harry and myself have plugged up there. I just know there is 2 (two) power strips plugged into 1 (one) Greek outlet…





But during the winter months we have to include the radiator and electric heater. So we tend to cause self-induced outages here lately. If you use any 2 combinations of electrical appliances that use heating elements, then lights out.

Literally, we are now in the dark. And frustrated….. before we use the coffee maker or rapid tea pot we check to see if anyone else in the house has turned on the space heater or iron or dryer. There is nothing worse than flipping a switching only to hear the house go silent. Followed by the walk of shame to the electric box to flip the breaker back on… but only after we have disconnected the original electric source that caused the outage.





We though, here in the Hansen household tend to melt the fuse. We take the whole house down. Then make the call of shame to the land lord, who calls the electrical company, then replaces our fuse.

We are smarter now…. 35A that’s what he uses and I found a local hardware store that sells them. And needless to say…. We have a Costco supply of them now!

Blessings to those with Power,
Kristie