Partial power failure. This is a first... Should I worry about equipment?

[andrewkw]

I just had a power failure. Sort of. I thought initially I just tripped a breaker but nothing is tripped. Things in the house are running at about 50% power. For instance light bulbs not at full brightness fans at slow speeds. Aquarium pumps stalling.

I've been on hold for 15 mins with the power company but I have no idea if this is our issue or theirs. My immediate question is should I unplug everything aquarium wise and fire up the generator or leave it for now? My concern is ruining equipment at not the right voltage. For instance in my fowlr the korilia power head won't spin. Tunze and jeabos seem fine. My skimmer overflowed but that may have been caused by me flipping the breakers.

I really don't know what to do. This is perplexing.

 

[dealseer]

Most likely it's the electric company. They've lost one phase.

 

[Amoo]

Brown out is way more dangerous then black out, unplug anything sensitive you have

 

[Ebone]

yes brown out is bad, I would take my stuff offline to protect it

 

[andrewkw]

I turne off my breaker. Thanks guys. Never experienced this. The power company has a massive outage but they have no details.

 

[andrewkw]

Power is back on. Only bad thing that happened is some skimmate made it back into the sump. I thought about doing a small water change but it's too hot and it's not the end of the world. All aquarium equipment seems to be fine.

My freezer that is less than a year old appears to be dead. I don't think it came on when I switched to the generator and the brownout must have damaged it. I don't use a transfer switch just extension cords.