Vedant’s blog

Caution: This is a draft.
TLDR: I mistook a neutral wire for a line one in the *mains* power distribution unit, fixed a small electrical problem, and went for a walk at 5 in the morning.
First version: May 10, 6:14 am.
Second verson: circa May 11.
Third version: May 15, 6:15 am.

Phew. It’s 6 in the morning and I haven’t slept yet. Cool. However there were a lot of good things about it:

First, the electricity. It’s summer here, so electricity is notoriously bad. At least it is better than the situation in my hometown, where we have been without power for days (non contiguous measure). What happened tonight was similar to events on a previous night, but as I couldn’t determine the events on that night accurately, I can never be sure if the events were the same.

This is what happened today:
Symptoms:
The air conditioner in my room and the inverter had no power.

Cause:
One line from the mains had no power.

Resolution:
Move the inverter and air conditioner lines from the affected line to a line which was not affected.

But the events leading to me fixing it were interesting. At first, I didn’t consider fixing the problem at all. The inverter ran on battery power and supplied the room with electricity. The only thing which has non-functioning in our room related to this problem was the air conditioner. I was not much affected by it because I had lived without an air conditioner for 17 years. However, my roommate seemed very inconvenienced about it. He found it very difficult to sleep. At last he slept, but after an hour or so, the inverter ran out of battery power. We were in the room without any means of cooling; no fan and no air conditioning. My roommate, dissatisfied, went outside to look at the power distribution system. Our head staff, “Daddu”, also woke up and they starting talking about it. I thought I might as well go and join the discussion as I had a considerable idea about the electrical system in our house. Human voices at around 5 in the morning got a housemate and friend of ours curious about what’s going on. He came down from the upper floor to see what was going on.

That was a very good event, because it indicated that he was awake and therefore he could give me my electrical tester which he had taken for *cough* some reasons. With the tools in hand, I successfully fixed the problem without any immediate side effects in about half an hour.

Power was back in my room; all electrical sockets had power now. Both the fan and the air conditioner were working again. This was a huge relief, especially the fact that there were no negative effects of my doings. At least, none have been visible yet. Fire might be starting to ignite in the circuits, but no symptoms have been visible yet. The roommate said thanks, and we finally went to a walk, after the roommate and the housemate had waited since the start to fix the problem.

This indicated a few things:
- I have practical knowledge of electricity
- I can fix electrical problems in the house
- I /know/ what I am doing, as nobody could detect any fault with my methods or result.

To sum it up, there was no power coming to the inverter and the AC in my room, but there was power in other rooms, except the devices connected to the ground floor inverter. I fixed it so that all inverter devices have power now and the AC in our room is working.

We also went for a walk in the park. The walk was good and it told me that I /should/ go for walks much more frequently. We stared at around 5:27 am and returned at around 6:05 am. The increased pace yet not very fast pace of our walking should have been good for my health.

I also got the idea that early mornings are indeed good and quiet here. Except the extra light, it doesn’t disturb concentration inside my room. Outside my room, the extra light which is a decent shade of white yet not yellowish because the sun hasn’t risen yet is great for being outside of the house for a while.

It also helped me realize that I can stay awake till these times without having an adverse effect on my next day unless I have to get up before the afternoon.

So my intended schedule for the holidays is to have coffee at midnight, do useful things till 5 am in the morning, go for a walk, return and review the things done for any improvements, see if there is time for doing more things, and when I get tired, go to sleep. Reviewing things after returning from a walk should be a good idea because my mind will be much fresher then. Also, writing thoughts down while in the walk or after the walk is also a good idea.

Such an eventful night, it’s significance is unparalleled in the last 30 or 60 days or even more!