On Thursday 26 January 2006 04:07, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: >On Wed, 25 Jan 2006, Gene Heskett wrote: >> On Tuesday 24 January 2006 13:27, Matthias Andree wrote: >> >The real point is if some voltage surge comes through your power >> > supply unit, it might fry your computer with all of its hardware >> > at the same time, and the separate drive that was in the cupboard >> > might survive. >> >> In that case, it will have to destroy a 1500J wall suppressor that >> ties everything together surgewise, followed by a 1500KVA Belkin ups >> before > >Do not underestimate lightning ;-)
Never have. I was once, out in Nebraska, driving toward the EDU TV station I was responsible for, and saw from about 2 miles away, 3 different lightning strikes all just sit on that 1079 foot tower for several seconds, bright enough the tower lights had shut off. I figured I'd have all sorts of damages when I arrived. I did, one blown 50 cent 1 amp fuse in the power supply of the processing amplifier. Sort of anti-climactic after the fact. That storm was noisey too, as I was walking up the sidewalk to unlock the door, it took another hit and I got a bit of a jolt because of the voltage potential between my feet as they touched the wet cement of the sidewalk. So yes, I've been 'educated' about lightning. >> If in the unlikely event I get something in here blown, then I'd >> expect the damages to the surrounding area, like the rest of this >> house, will be of far greater importance. One strike that I >> witnessed a year ago, hit the ground wire on top of the pole where >> my transformer is mounted, > >Transformers on poles? Oh the horror! Well, you have to understand this IS West Virginia we're talking about here, Geert. :-) Appalachian mountain country where the hills are right up in your "might as well get used to it cause they ain't goin away" face. What we refer to as a West Virginia Cadillac in these parts is typically King Cab GMC pickup with 4wd. With a bit of babying, its gets 19.5 mpg on the interstate roads. When it gets to use them that is. About half of our rural county roads are paved, but laid out by a drunken sidewinder rattlesnake. 30 mph is a comfortable speed on many of them. And we love this country living. When the franchise came up for renewall about 10 years ago, I made some noise about getting them buried as a condition of the renewal, but no one understood the advantages & I got treated like a bit of a kook. I mean I was a tv engineer, what the heck did I know about power distribution? Ya win some, ya lose some... >> I highly recommend such a setup to anyone. I figure that $60 >> suppressor has paid for itself half a dozen times by now. And >> everybody needs a ups don't they? > >UPS? Yes, we have one at work. But at home? >Probably I'm too spoiled by the reliability of the Belgian power > grid... I'd say. We probably have a 1 or 2 second glitch at least weekly here. Maintainance on line regulator switches is non-existant. It may get fixed for a while if enough of us call and bitch about having to reset all our clocks that are blinking again. But even then you seem to have to get a bit abusive to make the point. I blame the MBA's on the 4th floor. -- Cheers Geert, Gene People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word 'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's stupid bounce rules. I do use spamassassin too. :-) Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
