Powercut?

[Zeldazog]

Anybody knows what happens when there's a powercut mid cycle?

I left the studio earlier with both the Hotstart (doing a slump) and Kiln Bill (Hobbyfuser) doing a full fuse....  there was a powercut around an hour ago - went off for about five minutes at home, hearing various reports but it sounds as though the whole of the town (and surrounding areas) were off for anything from five to fifteen minutes.

Never had a powercut with the Skutt at home, but I suspect it won't hold its programme - anybody any ideas with the Hobbyfuser?  It uses the KRC1 (just not got the plug socket built in)

[Sarah A]

Oh no hope it is ok. I have no idea what happens as I haven't had a powercut when mine has been on. Hopefully won't have one tonight as I've just filled it up!

[sarah t]

no idea but suspect there will bleeping involved when the power comes back on 

[Zeldazog]

Yes, the Skutt bleeps, the power's been back on ages but the studio will be empty so it will be talking to itself.  I think that one will be okay, I started it earlier in the afternoon so it probably reached slumping temperature hours ago, probably made it as far as the anneal soak...  but Bill didn't get switched on til later on, and is on a full fuse - he probably reached process temperature, but I doubt he made it to the annealing phase.... hopefully he holds his heat well enough that the pieces inside survive the (I suspect) uncontrolled cool down - guess I have to programme an annealing cycle in tomorrow....

[Pat from Canvey]

My big ceramic kiln doesn't have a controller that allows an annealing phase yet it takes 12 hours to cool down sufficiently to allow it to be opened once switched off. Hopefully yours will take nearly as long but best to run an annealing cycle if possible. I've never had any breakages from the big kiln though.

[SilverGems89]

no idea about the Kiln Dawn but yes we had a power cut last night, at around 10 to 10 and was off for 10/15 mins!

[Lynnybobs]

No idea but our power was out too - though I'm only round the corner from Gem - must have hit quite a large area though !!!

[Emerald]

hope its all ok this morning Dawn fingers crossed

[Lee - Kilncare]

OK Dawn, stick this in yer kiln knowledge file.

The Hobbyfuser KCR1 will react slightly differently depending on where in the firing it is.
If the kiln was ramping then the KCr1 will continue with that ramp segment.
So if you were doing 100 per hour to 700 and the power went off at 500 and stayed off long enough for the temp to drop to 400, then when the power came back on the KCR1 would start fom 400 and go back to 100 per hour to 700 then continue the program.

If the KCR1 is at a hold or soak point then the kiln will be fired at full power back to the soak point then the ramining soak time will be counted down.

As for the Yankee....not got a clue mate, all I can say is that power failure resumption is pretty much an industry standard here in the U.K. so it may also be over there.

Depending on what you had in the Hobbyfuser, you have every chance of the kilns natural rate getting you a result mate.

[Zeldazog]

Thanks for that info, Lee, I will digest it when I am less frazzled from a days teaching!

Lee, should I have expected the programme not to have cycled properly through all the segments - I did suspect that the glass would survive having seen how efficient Bill is (in fact the Skutt is a slow cooler too, I know having watched it one Xmas morning waiting for a present that I was giving to come out!) no matter what, but I wasn't expecting it to continue with the programme...

Well, when I got there this morning, the Skutt had finished its firing programme as it was flashing complete, with the length of time as it usually displays.  And had slumped fine.

Bill was still in his final segment, the natural cool down from bottom of annealing zone, but he read the correct segment and was at 128 degrees still.  And it gave a full fuse.  So, it looked like it he also continued his full programme to the end as there was no way that it would have been at that point (the cool when we had the power cut I mean)

Perhaps there was a tiny little zone where our studio that didn't get cut off?  Although I understood it affected Ilkeston, Cotmanhay, Heanor, L/Mill as well as the other way... and its right in the middle of the bottom of town...


Suffice to say, items in both kilns survived and look good!

[Sarah A]

So pleased to hear there were no casualties despite the powercut.

[♥♥Tan♥♥]

Thats good news Dawn and boy were you lucky that could have resulted in a royal pain in the arse