Dr Watt

Last Thursday at 7:00 am a thunderstorm passed over our area apparently. I was fast asleep and didn't hear a thing. I didn't know anything about it in fact until early evening when I saw in passing  one of the PV unit lights showing red.

During the day had heard that there had been a bit of chaos in Memmingen in the morning rush hour due to a snowstorm (remember this is Germany and rush hour is somewhat earlier than in the UK and not just due to the time difference). I had even got a few emails sent automatically by the PV system saying there was a problem but had ignored them thinking they were just the normal daily reports and minor matters such as the internet connection had gone for a minute.

Asked Angie and she told me some of the house lighting had not worked in the morning and the garden gate no longer worked and about the lightning. Tried fiddling about in the fuse box but no amount of trying to do a reset helped. Only the gate and PV unit seemed to be out.

Assumed the over sensitive gate electronic board had yet again blown up due to current surge which hasn't happened since electrician Stefan completely redid our fusebox in spring. Just another annoyance and 120€ blown away for a replacement. Sent Stefan an evening WhatsApp asking if he knew a fix - he can get in to our PV unit from his phone/PC. He called and I said I thought I might have fixed it in the meantime by switching off all current breakers. He was sceptical and thought one of the phases had been knocked out - apparently we have three of whatever they are. Did our oven work, he asked - yes. Hmmmh he said. I replied, forget it, the red light had gone and apart from the gate everything looked OK.

Next day I had no time as was away in Memmingen but then saw the red light again but didn't bother me as the PV panels were covered in snow and not producing anything. Wasn't till Sunday that Angie contacted Stefan and he said he would come by this week.

At lunchtime he appeared, whizzed around in the fuse box like the dervish he is, clambered up in to the attic and then pronounced his initial diagnosis as correct. One phase had gone and not at our property but up in the village at the junction box where the four wires come 500m over the fields just to our house.

He phoned the electricity board and got through to the wonderful automatic machine that does the job of taking on fault problems. So when Stefan entered the postcode on his mobile, the wonderful machine simply responded "No faults in that postcode, have a nice day" !!?? No wonder we are the only household affected. Luckily he has "Connections" within the electricity board and eventually was able to get the fault reported to a friend who also knew our property and the rather unusual circumstances. So hopefully in the next day or so, a van with crane will show up in the village and open the box up and put the trip switch back on. Stefan is convinced the gate will work when we have all 3 phases back. Wait & see, I have my doubts. If he's right I will in future call him DrWatt. Thanks Stefan.

We had had a complete electricity loss on Christmas Day a few years ago when a tree from the forest fell on our lines and caused a short circuit. Have to say the electricity company reacted very quickly, within a few hours but it did make me buy an emergency petrol generator which thankfully has not been used for this purpose but I am glad to have it as in a big storm/event, our one house electricity wires would not be a priority if dozens of lines were down.

I had done the morning dog walk up by MrBs hunting shed and was surprised to see at least a dozen 30m spruce trees snapped off and uprooted, many lying over the path blocking our way. Not sure when they came down as I haven't been there for a week or so. Possibly in the storm. (Extra photo)

And this evening as I drove out with the dogs for the very late (21:00) walk, heard on the car radio that over 100,000 people had lost power this evening for about an hour in the Oberstdorf, Immenstadt, Bad Hindelang area I had been in last week. Seemingly didn't bother them much, as I guess most have wooden fires, except for the fact that all the mobile phone connections were also down! Nowadays a catastrophic event.

Reason unknown but probably snow brought down trees on to the lines. We keep getting flurries but nearer the Alps suspect the snow is getting pretty deep. Good skiing for Christmas I suspect.

PS The two German flags are those magnetic types and were given away by some shop during the 2014 World Cup. The fuse box is the only metal surface that we have where they can be stored for Angie to haul out every four years. Seeing the photo, I will have to put them on the inside of the doors and hope she doesn't notice!