Hacker News Reader

Comment by twawaaay | Hacker News Reader

There are good reasons not to. A lot of apartments here have security devices which will call for assistance when the power is turned off. Then there are devices that expect power 24/7 like fridge. Also, since I was abroad, I relied on the Internet that was at the apartment that would be cut off if the power was turned off.

Also... you know... there are these funny little devices called switches that allow you to turn individual devices on and off without cutting power to entire apartment. Just saying...

View on HN

Breaker boxes, at least were I am, are split in areas, that you can switch off independently. Switching the area were the lights were and leaving kitchen and router solves all your concerns except the security devices when power is off (which I personally never saw).

My first reaction would have been what OP suggested.

You'd be surprised how many older houses don't comply with current electrical codes.

And even the current code in CA doesn't require separate circuits for each room. They require separate circuits for different functionality. E.g. lights vs power plugs.

Even easier then, just turn off the lights.

Wouldn't that be... all of them? They were literally not build with code that didn't exist at the time. Why would that be surprising ?

You have obviously not been to the UK; breaker box will have a few illegible marker squiggles, most faded beyond reading, some with tape over and a second conflictibg squiggle. Even if you decode them then the fridge is just as likly to be on the hall as the kitchen

Same here. You can still trivially try the various switches and see if they cut off the area of the house you're interested it. If the fridge is on the same circuit as the lights you want to kill, there goes you plan. But otherwise, it's fine. In most AirBnB's and rented rooms for short stays the fridge is empty or just has some water/sodas anyway, it's not like there would be the family's food for the month..

Thank you. This seems to me like the common sense approach to solve this problem IRL, as opposed to in a spherical cow world. It will work in 99% cases. In the rest, one can sleep with the lights on, or cover them (if possible).

Unscrewing the bulb a couple turns used to be a great off switch.

Then Big Lighting ruined that by going to LED strips and what not.

I don't think I've ever seen a breaker box that was clearly and correctly labeled at any house that wasn't still on its first owner.

The first thing I do when renting a new apartment is map out the circuits to outlets and leave a map next to the breaker box. We have also consistently had illegible squiggles (and strange circuit layouts) in Canada

I have been working on the map for my house's circuits for 6 years. It's about 80% done.

Whilst some breaker boxes are nice, modern, and make sense... Others are like this [0] and terrifying.

[0] https://reddit.com/r/australia/comments/yq4hks

>Then there are devices that expect power 24/7 like fridge.

I documented a bit recently as in France we will potentially have 2h power extinction at grid level during this winter. Apparently you can have your fridge safely keeping your food for up to 4h, but you should not open it during that period obviously — although since I don’t have any radiator in my kitchen I’m rather confident it wouldn’t be that problematic in the middle of a winter that is announced especially cold.

> Apparently you can have your fridge safely keeping your food for up to 4h, but you should not open it during that period obviously

Kinda depends on fridge, altho sadly it's rare to see that number in manuals.

But one trick is to just take food that you want to eat anyway from the freezer and put it in fridge, the food will slowy defrost while cooling the fridge food. Just make sure water have somewhere to go

>A lot of apartments here have security devices which will call for assistance when the power is turned off.

that's quite rare and bad design if you can't go overnight without power

>Then there are devices that expect power 24/7 like fridge.

that's why i said to leave kitchen ON, not that Airbnb fridge on first night would contain anything requiring power anyway

> Also, since I was abroad, I relied on the Internet that was at the apartment that would be cut off if the power was turned off.

dunno about you, but when I sleep I don't use internet, but maybe you are able to disable some parts of brain and use internet while sleeping

>Also... you know... there are these funny little devices called switches that allow you to turn individual devices on and off without cutting power to entire apartment. Just saying...

Also you know maybe read the comment I'm replying to about faulty automatic switches impossible to switch off.

I thought HN readers pay more attention to what they answer to and the context, but after reading some replies to my comment I've lost all hope that this site is any better than Reddit.

>A lot of apartments here have security devices which will call for assistance when the power is turned off

Some might, but I doubt they are a lot. None have such where I am for sure. People would need to turn power off for specific rooms/circuits or the whole thing once a year or so anyway (to do some electrical work, to change some light fixtures, etc). It also happens by itself if some machine overloads/there's a sudden surge. I've changed several rented houses, and it would ocassionally happen to all of them.

As for the fridge, he did say to leave the kitchen (or fridge including) circuit on.

> Some might, but I doubt they are a lot. None have such where I am for sure.

Just your subjective knowledge of your local area and class of home you normally experience.

Not everybody enjoys the security that western democracies provide (although US and couple other countries seem to be slipping behind). In most of the world people with wealth above standard have to actually take special, pretty expensive precautions to preserve their wealth (and in some places lives).

Here people install security to call security company whenever the alarm is tripped. Lack of power is immediately suspect (thieves like to cut power). The security company is notified by the automation and they call the owner for security code. If the owner does not give the security code within required time they will immediately dispatch their patrol. The owner also has special security code in case he is compelled to give one and this triggers a specially escalated response.

>Just your subjective knowledge of your local area and class of home you normally experience.

So, like yours? When you said "A lot of apartments here have security devices" did you qualify it as "in non western countries with the right balance of affording security services and intenterrupted mains power"?

>Not everybody enjoys the security that western democracies provide

Well, not everybody who doesn't enjoy "the security that western democracies provide" has money to pay for a security company - or even the luxury of continuous power that is not frequently cut anyway, either.

In the context though, in a house with automatic sensors and such, I'd consider my case more likely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com