As the winter winds doth blow, so too come inevitable power outtages on the BC coast.
It is always good practice to refrain from using your taps (the residual pressure in your water system pressure tank), when there is no power. This is especially important when you have any history or suspicions that your water is not safe without UV treatment (i.e. all rainwater systems; past positive e-coli tests from your well water).
Three pointers to follow when your power comes back on:
1) Be sure to check to make sure your UV is indeed powered up and not in alarm (beeping or wailing). It may need to be reset (by unplugging for 10 seconds and/or pressing reset button while plugging back in). If this doesn't help, sadly the power cut may have caused your power supply/ballast to fail completely. We strongly advise you put your UV on a dedicated outlet (not sharing an outlet/circuit with a jet pump or centra-vac, etc), and use a good quality surge protector. Much more rarely, a power outtage could cause the lamp too blow, but it will typically show signs of "blackout" at the ends if this is the case.
2) Pour about 1/2 - 1 cup of regular household bleach/chlorine 5.25 - 6 % (unscented, NO fibreguard ) in your filter housing closest to the UV and draw water to all your water lines -- sinks, toilets, showers, etc. -- by running the water for a minute or two at all fixtures and taps. Leave for 20-30 minutes and then flush lines clear of all chlorine odour. Important: if you have an RO system, you will want make sure to shut-off inlet to RO before you use this much chlorine as it will do damage to your system's membrane.
