UPSs

[Alma J Wetzker]

David Bandel wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> Not sure if any of you have had this happy experience.  Power in 3rd
> world countries (or at least Panama) is atrocious.
> 
> Last nite at 0330 local, power went out (not an unusual occurrance
> here).  When it came back on at 0430, I lost 2 UPSs (blown up), two
> more had to be manually reset, lost a SCSI hard drive (wouldn't
> respond to start command), and more.
> 
> Apart from buying a large motor and generator and isolating from the
> Electric disaster company down here via a steel shaft, anyone have
> experience combatting this nonsense?  All my main sites were down this
> a.m.  Lots of driving, reseting of gear, inventorying destroyed
> equipment, etc.
> 
> As you can see, our mail server survived, but not by much.
> 
> Suggestions (apart from starting my own power company too)?
> 
> TIA,
> 
> David A. Bandel
> --
> Focus on the dream, not the competition.
>             - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto

Large chokes.  Large MOVs.  Then UPSs.

Many moons back, we wrote accounting software for a grain elevator. 
Very long distances from the power company, huge motors, massive power 
spikes following brownouts, low power factor (many VARs).  We started 
with UPSs, but they kept getting eaten (APC held up the best.)  We had 
to put a "line tamer" in front of the UPS, and the problem went away. 
The "line tamer" was basicly a power conditioner that ate VARs and 
spikes, and had enough inductance that transient brown outs didn't 
matter much.

You may want to consider a power conditioner to sit between your power 
supplier and your equipment anyway.  You would need a way to clamp 
spikes, probably what killed your equipment, but converting AC to clean 
AC before the UPS will help.  You could also plan for some power 
generation to be added, if you want.

I have a small windmill that I use to charge batteries that power my 
boiler, for house heat.  It really is not that much money to have some 
sort of backup power.  I built the windmill.

     -- Alma