A dedicated Raspberry Pi 4 (credit card sized) single board computer with the
Debian 12 Linux Operating System runs all the time, writing time stamps to text
files every 5 minutes. The time is usually obtained from NTP (Network Time Protocol)
servers when the Internet is available. If not, it uses a lithium battery backed up
DS3231 RTC (real-time clock.) This module retains the date/time when the power is off.
When the power is restored, the system boots up in less than a minute and resumes
writing the time stamps at 5-minute intervals.
The files will have time gaps when the computer is off, and are a proxy for the
beginning and end times of power outages. Thus the start, end, and duration of the
outages can be determined. Because of the 5-minute granularity of the time stamps, this
system may not detect power blinks and outages shorter than 5 minutes.
Data before Jan 2021 is from people's hand written notes on calendars, etc.
There may be other outages during this period that are not listed. From Jan 2021
to June 2023 the data is from a member of the Lake Echo community with an
autostart backup generator that logs the start and end times. It is complete. Data
from July 2023 onward is also complete because it is automatically collected by
the Raspberry Pi 4 system described above.