Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

Does anybody know for sure whether next week’s threatened electricity strike is on or off?

To go by the following headline in the Cyprus Mail, it would appear to be off:

EAC unions to ditch April 6 strike after meeting Anastasiades

http://cyprusbusinessmail.com/?p=24005

but from the following contained in the article:

Workers at state-owned power producer Electricity Authority of Cyprus will be asked to scrap plans for an indefinite strike starting on April 6, a union leader said

it seems that this will first have to be put to the workers in a vote.

I have received a number of inquiries about work for next week and I am holding back from replying until I know what the situation is (as I will be unable to work if the power is off), so I am pretty keen to find out for sure what is happening.

[Tim Drayton]

I just phoned the electricity authority's customer service number and they told me that 'the latest information is that the strike is off.'

[GreekIslandGirl]

Are your customers/clients so difficult that they would not understand if you took some work on and due to some circumstances it could not be delivered exactly on the DAY?

[Tim Drayton]

Deadlines are sacrosanct in my line of work, and I have never missed one. Clearly, if the electricity workers go on all-out strike (and if it is against privatisation then they have my support) then for a microbusiness like mine this would be a clear instance of force majeure, and there could be no conceivable grounds for legal action, but that is not the issue for me. I have never let anybody down and don't intend to in the future, so I want to be as sure as I can that the power will be on before making any commitments.

[Sotos]

A strike by EAC would not last for more than a few hours... anything more than that would be totally irresponsible and would turn the people against them. If you can't have any downtime at all then you can buy a good UPS which can power your computer for a few hours.

[Tim Drayton]

My understanding of how a UPS works (and I have had to have one in Turkey where power cuts happen several times a day) is that they give you power for a few minutes so that you can save your data and shut systems down safely (unless the power outage is momentary, in which case they enable you to keep going uninterrupted). To be able to continue working through lengthy power cuts you would surely need a private generator, not a UPS, which would be uneconomic for a business of my size.
I thought the electricity workers were threatening an all-out strike of indeterminate length, actually.

[Sotos]

The UPS you are talking about are the cheap ones. There are more expensive UPS that can keep a lot more power and can keep a basic workstation running for a few hours... how much exactly depends on how much power your PC draws, but for your kind of work a very low powered PC would do just fine. Or you can just get a laptop and an extra battery. There are laptops that can run on battery for 10+ hours, so if you have an extra battery that would mean over 20 hours of work on battery... which should be more than enough to cover any strike. EAC will never strike for more than a few hours at a time in the same region.

[Tim Drayton]

You live and learn. In which case it will be useful to know if the kind of rolling strikes you describe are likely to happen or not, in which case it will be worth acquiring the type of UPS you describe.

[erolz66]

You live and learn. In which case it will be useful to know if the kind of rolling strikes you describe are likely to happen or not, in which case it will be worth acquiring the type of UPS you describe.

Firstly with a UPS it is not just how long the battery can keep the PC running, you also need to consider how long it takes to recharge the battery vs how often and for how long the power may go out. Secondly a UPS that would give you multiple hours of usage on a normal PC is going to cost as much or more than a small generator and a good but standard UPS, that could keep a PC running as long as you can keep it fuelled I suspect. I think the most cost effective means of knowing you can run your PC as needed regardless of length and frequency of mains power outage would be a 'standard' but good UPS - prob around 200-300 euro AND a small cheap generator - prob around 200 euro. That would in my opinion give you better 'coverage' of sustained and or frequent mains outage for a PC (and some other basic stuff - small amount of lighting and printer and internet connection) than 500 euro spent just on a UPS alone. If you are looking for a really cheap 'generator' you could get an 'inverter' that could run off your car and use that with a standard but good UPS. So power goes out, you save your work (just to be safe). You go and start your car engine up, plug in the inverter (prob around 30-40 euros) and then unplug your UPS from mains and plug it into the inverter plugged into your car. When power comes back you go and stop the car engine, plug the UPS back into the mains and away you go until the next mains outage. Not the most cost efficient means of generating your own electricity but would be the cheapest solution, capital cost wise, that could ensure your ability to keep PC (and a light or two and maybe printer and internet conection) running regardless of what the mains does.

[Sotos]

Actually a good UPS that can keep a PC (and some peripherals) up and running for a few hours will cost significantly more than €500. But it is a hassle free setup... if you work and the power goes out you just keep working as usual and the electricity will probably return before the battery runs out. But this is indeed a costly solution. The generator + low cost UPS solution is cheaper... but you have to deal with the noise, you need to keep fuel in your house and in general is a more messy solution... and if I remember correctly Tim lives in an apartment which makes the generator an even less appealing idea. I think the cheapest solution is probably a low cost UPS + a laptop with an extra battery. Not as seamless as the expensive UPS ways, but less messy than having a generator. Or just don't worry about it because such things happen very rarely and only last a few hours... he is a translator, not a surgeon!

P.S. New homes should have one or two of those Tesla Powerwalls https://www.teslamotors.com/en_EU/powerwall You can run your whole house for a whole day on them, and if you combine them with solar panels then you can be energy independent! (as long as there is enough sunshine)