I got pranked

[Bucknekked]

About two weeks ago our home got pranked by some #@#%^holes who came up to our electrical service box on our house and turned off all the circuit breakers. We know it was a human, or sub-human, and not an electrical surge because the door of the service panel was wide open and every single breaker was tripped, even the main big black one at the top. We normally keep this service panel locked, but for an adventure installing Nest thermostats during the summer I left the padlock off. They took the padlock too.

I post about it here because as luck or Murphy's Law would have it it damaged BOTH my RAID units on my music servers. I have a primary music server that serves as my source and then I have the music server in my music room that I use every day to play music. Both have external RAID units and both of them were gobsmacked. Since its the Thanksgiving season, I can say I'm very grateful for the teachings of everyone that has stressed duplication and replication and always having a backup for any important data. My music counts to me as very important stuff.

Thankfully, and by design, even though both RAID units lost a drive that was unrecoverable, no actual data was lost. All the time and effort I put in to ripping, organizing and maintaining my music survived what I would call a near-miss catastrophe: having both sources of music take a hardware hit due to a prank.

I think the general trend is towards digital media systems (analog systems are awesome too) so the concept of protecting yourself against loss is gaining in importance. Yes, I could always fall back to re-ripping all the CD's in my safe. But that's not something anybody wants to do if a solid plan can prevent it. Even though my library is decent sized, I have never thought about cloud storage. I may include my library in my cloud storage plan in the future as an added layer.

Just an adventure story from out in the desert. I'm thankful for all the great advice that helped me survive the crash.

 

[Drunkpenguin]

Maybe time for a home alarm system for christmas? Mine sends me text alerts when I lose power. Security cams to get the next bastard? Glad you didnt lose any data tho!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Repeat after me slowly to make sure everyone understands - RAID is NOT a BACKUP!
Setting up backup to Google Cloud is not very hard and stupidly cheap, especially for any data you've worked hard to preserve.
Glad that Raid did save the data and you could recover it, but do plan to add a UPS which your nas could talk to in event of power loss to do a graceful shutdown.

 

[Bucknekked]

Repeat after me slowly to make sure everyone understands - RAID is NOT a BACKUP!
Setting up backup to Google Cloud is not very hard and stupidly cheap, especially for any data you've worked hard to preserve.
Glad that Raid did save the data and you could recover it, but do plan to add a UPS which your nas could talk to in event of power loss to do a graceful shutdown.

BSA:
I knew I could count on someone to point out the lack of a UPS unit. As it happens, I do have a complete UPS unit in my office where my main music server and external disks used to live. During the early fall I built a new gaming computer and put that in my office on the UPS and moved my primary music source machine in to my wife's office. I just never got around to buying an additional UPS for her office. My bad for sure. Sometimes it takes a bad situation to make it clear where your gaps are. I used to have that topic covered, and now I have a gap.

I always thought having multiple copies was "good enough" given that the source is always available. And for years its been "good enough". Now, I've seen that low odds problem of both sets of storage taking a hit and I need to patch that gap. I agree with you: using my existing cloud storage would be stupid simple and cheaper than buying ever more local storage units. I'm going to take care of that, I just need to upgrade the size a bit for a few more bucks.

I decided to post about this problem because I knew the discussion would be good not only for me (find the gaps and fix them) but perhaps to others who haven't had the bad thing happen yet.

 

[Bucknekked]

Maybe time for a home alarm system for christmas? Mine sends me text alerts when I lose power. Security cams to get the next bastard? Glad you didnt lose any data tho!

As it happens, I do have video cameras up (with motion detectors) in several locations. As it happens, my electrical service panel is on the blind side of my house and next to a dead end block fence. Nobody ever goes over there because there's nothing there and nowhere to go. Except for the service panel

My wife and I had that conversation about the video cam for that blind side and I decided to go back to the simple and cheap solution of putting the dang padlock back on the service panel. Problem solved. But it did spark quite a discussion about "what it a prank or was it somebody casing our house?". We were home when it happened and it was about 11pm. We decided on the prank version because the criminal casing of our house version was too unsettling.

 

[Bucknekked]

Repeat after me slowly to make sure everyone understands - RAID is NOT a BACKUP!
Setting up backup to Google Cloud is not very hard and stupidly cheap, especially for any data you've worked hard to preserve.
Glad that Raid did save the data and you could recover it, but do plan to add a UPS which your nas could talk to in event of power loss to do a graceful shutdown.

no more promises: upgraded my cloud storage and am pushing files up there right now. By sunset we will not only have multiple copies of the music libraries locally like we've had all along, but, we'll have a cloud backup as well. BSA is correct: cloud storage these days is stupid cheap and easy. I should have done this addition a long time ago. That's what a near disaster will do: get you to re-evaluate and fix what's needed.

I'm also thankful for Audioholics. Its a great place to talk about all things audio. and sometimes technical junk like availability and recovery

 

[KEW]

My back up plan has always been keeping a copy on a hard drive at work or a friend or family members house.

If your house burns down or someone comes and empties your home your backup gets lost.

I put the copy in a $20 lock box like this:
https://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-H0100-Fireproof-Waterproof-Cubic/dp/B00GE586CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543005384&sr=8-1&keywords=sentry+lockbox

It is somewhat waterproof and fireproof, but more importantly, it prevents someone (including me) mixing it in with other stuff and losing track of it. Hard drives are very cheap compared to the time it took to convert the CD's to digital!

Edit: Obviously, the Cloud would work too. I haven't checked the numbers to see how long it would take for the costs to become equal. Thus far I have avoided paying for cloud. I have a mental block of sorts - for me, it easier to pay more up-front than to assume an on-going monthly fee (even if the economics suggest the monthly fee).

 

[Bucknekked]

My back up plan has always been keeping a copy on a hard drive at work or a friend or family members house.

If your house burns down or someone comes and empties your home your backup gets lost.

I put the copy in a $20 lock box like this:
https://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-H0100-Fireproof-Waterproof-Cubic/dp/B00GE586CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543005384&sr=8-1&keywords=sentry+lockbox

It is somewhat waterproof and fireproof, but more importantly, it prevents someone (including me) mixing it in with other stuff and losing track of it. Hard drives are very cheap compared to the time it took to convert the CD's to digital!

Edit: Obviously, the Cloud would work too. I haven't checked the numbers to see how long it would take for the costs to become equal. Thus far I have avoided paying for cloud. I have a mental block of sorts - for me, it easier to pay more up-front than to assume an on-going monthly fee (even if the economics suggest the monthly fee).

I've been in and around computing most of my adult life. Options and different strategies abound for just about every aspect of computing. Your strategy of creating and sticking a hard drive in a lock box, or some offsite location, has worked for a long time. I have a variation in keeping all my CD's in my gun safe. Fireproof.

I have used external RAID devices and keeping multiple copies of my music for a number of years. This satisfies a goodly number of problem areas and has done me just fine for years. As you point out, having a disaster that claims your primary site will kill any inside the site duplication strengths. Its a pretty big flaw.

I should have looked at and created a copy in a cloud storage provider a long time ago. Somehow I thought it would be hard, or expensive or some sort of security problem. In 2018 (soon to be 2019) cloud storage is really none of those things. Its cheap, its really really easy, and its as secure as you want to make it.

When BSA chided me for not having it done, I took that to heart and sat right down and upgraded my existing cloud storage and then started pushing my library up there. It took about 3 hours. Its all done. I now have one version of my library in the cloud. Completely offsite and out of my house, city and state. I should be able to recover it from anywhere in the world.

Its also cheap. The economics don't lie. Anyway, for me, the protection is a no brainer. I should have done it a long time ago. Just like that tire on the car that makes a funny noise. Its best to take care of stuff like this when you first notice it, not when it breaks down and strands you.

 

[lovinthehd]

Just curious, how normal is it to have such a panel outside the house? Mine's inside...

Glad you didn't have to re-rip what a pain that would be.

 

[KEW]

I have a variation in keeping all my CD's in my gun safe. Fireproof.

For me, backing up my music files is equally about not losing my music as not having to re-feed all of those CD's into my computer (I have over 1000 CD's digitized), so this would not be a good solution.
Also, (although I know, for you, it is a moot point now) fireproof is not fireproof. The box gets rated for a certain duration at a certain temperature, you don't have much way of knowing what temp and duration you might actually encounter. Usually people are concerned about papers igniting, but I would be careful about believing plastic CD's would not melt if the box is exposed to continued high temperature.
Poly carbonate gets soft (will warp if under load) at 297 F and actually melts/flows at 311 F and paper ignites (of course...if you are familiar with Ray Bradbury) at Fahrenheit 451!

 

[Drunkpenguin]

Just curious, how normal is it to have such a panel outside the house? Mine's inside...

Glad you didn't have to re-rip what a pain that would be.

Mines on the inside as well but i had to make the electricians do it that way. In some parts its normal to put them outside. Especially on older homes it was the norm.

 

[Bucknekked]

For me, backing up my music files is equally about not losing my music as not having to re-feed all of those CD's into my computer (I have over 1000 CD's digitized), so this would not be a good solution.
Also, (although I know, for you, it is a moot point now) fireproof is not fireproof. The box gets rated for a certain duration at a certain temperature, you don't have much way of knowing what temp and duration you might actually encounter. Usually people are concerned about papers igniting, but I would be careful about believing plastic CD's would not melt if the box is exposed to continued high temperature.
Poly carbonate gets soft (will warp if under load) at 297 F and actually melts/flows at 311 F and paper ignites (of course...if you are familiar with Ray Bradbury) at Fahrenheit 451!

regarding fireproof safes and what may or may not happen in an actual fire: I hear you loud and clear. My safe was pretty danged expensive and fire rated for a reason: its got guns and ammo in it. The guns are worth more than my audio gear, so I spent the money on the safe to protect them. Will it protect CD's in a fire? I hope so but I really have no proof as you point out. So, offsite storage is still a great idea. Cloud qualifies as offsite so I have now covered that base, albeit a bit late in the game. Let's hope I never find out what my safe will do in a fire.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Just curious, how normal is it to have such a panel outside the house? Mine's inside...
...

My son's house in Arizona has the main panel and branch circuit breakers outside. The house is about 25 years old I think. Main breakers with the meter is usually outside.
I have two subpanels inside though, one on each floor.

 

[Bucknekked]

Just curious, how normal is it to have such a panel outside the house? Mine's inside...

Glad you didn't have to re-rip what a pain that would be.

lovinthehd
I live in Arizona and the answer is "it depends". My first home was a home built in the 1950's and the electrical service panel was inside in a storage room. But, every single home I've lived in here that's been built in "recent times" has the electrical service panel on an external wall. We built our current home 5 years ago brand new and I can tell you every single home design we looked at had the electrical service panel on an external wall.

I know building standards vary around the country and what may be normal for one area may not fly or meet code in another. That was an interesting question. I'd never really thought about it much. It seems that up home in Washington where I was born and spent time growing up, all our "fuse boxes" were inside the house somewhere.
Then again, we also had coal chutes.

I wonder if any qualified electricians are on the forum and could toss in an opinion? Anyone know somebody?

 

[KEW]

lovinthehd
I live in Arizona and the answer is "it depends". My first home was a home built in the 1950's and the electrical service panel was inside in a storage room. But, every single home I've lived in here that's been built in "recent times" has the electrical service panel on an external wall. We built our current home 5 years ago brand new and I can tell you every single home design we looked at had the electrical service panel on an external wall.

I know building standards vary around the country and what may be normal for one area may not fly or meet code in another. That was an interesting question. I'd never really thought about it much. It seems that up home in Washington where I was born and spent time growing up, all our "fuse boxes" were inside the house somewhere.
Then again, we also had coal chutes.

I wonder if any qualified electricians are on the forum and could toss in an opinion? Anyone know somebody?

I grew up in SC and the closest I have seen to the panel being outside is having it in a carport or garage. Usually if in a carport it is in a lockable laundry room or storage/tool closet, but I am thinking one home may have had it where you could access it from the carport.
I guess Freddy Kruger doesn't like the way the air in AZ dries his skin, because you know the first thing he is going to do is kill the power! Seriously, I would think this would be a security concern anywhere. There must be some reason AZ does it different!

BTW, how is your panel housed? Is there an awning over it? I wouldn't want to need to open/switch it in a rainstorm, but I guess that is not much of a concern in AZ.

 

[lovinthehd]

Well, mine is inside the garage which is integral to the house...and the last house I lived in in the SF Bay Area had it inside the house, the one before that (also bay area) also inside but also in a garage integral to the house's lower floor. Just interested as to what requirement/reason it would be outside due security concerns....maybe fire safety or something?

 

[Bizarro_Stormy]

About two weeks ago our home got pranked by some #@#%^holes...

Just kidding... MUWAHAHA!

 

[Bucknekked]

Well, mine is inside the garage which is integral to the house...and the last house I lived in in the SF Bay Area had it inside the house, the one before that (also bay area) also inside but also in a garage integral to the house's lower floor. Just interested as to what requirement/reason it would be outside due security concerns....maybe fire safety or something?

Our biggest electrical utility, Arizona Public Service (APS) requires residential service connection points be external and immediately adjacent to the electrical meter. Here's the citation from their requirements documents (I have a friend that works with meters at APS):
301.3 METER LOCATIONS - RESIDENTIAL
For single family residential buildings, meters and metering equipment shall be installed:
a. Outdoors and mounted on or recessed in an exterior building wall but not under a carport, breezeway, patio, porch, or in any area that can be enclosed, or
b. Outdoors in a meter pedestal or service entrance section, but not under a carport, breezeway, patio, porch, or in any area that can be enclosed, or
c. In a room within the building, approved by APS, for the location of electric meters, and with access only by a door opening to the outside of the building. See Paragraph 301.9 for meter room requirements.
In addition, the meter area must be readily accessible (See Section 100, Paragraph 102.20) without requiring passage through restricted private areas, gates or fences. See next page for acceptable meter locations for single family residences. The meter and main switch shall be installed next to each other on the same wall. See Paragraph 301.13.

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/phoenix-area/1713646-all-electrical-panels-located-outside-house-5.html#ixzz5XjfZrCNr

This is what a typical residential service panel looks like. It will be outside the backyard fence line, and usually unobstructed access from the street. Most of the time, on the blind side of your house as well. The panel must be physically adjacent to the meter. The electrician must be able to break the load to the grid (trip your main breaker) to replace the meter. He can't use the meter to break the connection to the grid.

http://www.howibuiltmyownpool.com/images/electrical-subpanel1-large.JPG

I think I now know more about electrical service panels than I ever wanted to know. And yes, the box had a latch for a lock. I took a survey of the homes on my block. There was only 1 other family that put a lock on their box. Now there's two.

 

[Verdinut]

I agree with meters outside to allow electric power company employees to read the meters, when the homes are not equipped with intelligent meters such as we have had for a couple of years in the province of Quebec.

I find it totally silly and dangerous to have circuit breakers placed outside. Should you have an emergency for some reason, an appliance or whatever equipment on fire, there would be time lost in having to get out to switch off a circuit breaker or the main entrance breaker. That doesn't take into account what vandals and assholes have access to.

 

[KEW]

Well, here is seven pages of forum discussion on the topic.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/phoenix-area/1713646-all-electrical-panels-located-outside-house.html

TL,DR:
People are generally annoyed by having them outside, but no one offered a true justification as to why. The closest was for safety due to the risk of the panel starting a fire, but it was also pointed out that that was not at all a common event.

Personally, I'd rather risk a panel fire than have to deal with a woman who tripped a circuit while drying her hair and had to put on clothes and shoes to go out and reset the switch so she could go back inside to finish drying her hair.
Also, if I wanted to shoot someone, I could turn off their AC (in AZ) and just lay in wait for them to come out to check the panel.
Of course, that assumes no lock on the panel, which brings up the porospect that your panel is locked so you need a key should you have an emergency situation where you needed to cut the power!