Re: Backup power supplies

["Barry L. Kline" <blkline@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

prumschlag@phdinc.com wrote:
>
> I have been wrestling with this same issue _off_ and _on_ (Whew!  What a lousy
> pun) for a while now.  We have a UPS, but I don't think that I could make a
> convincing business case for buying a backup generator.  On the other hand, if
> there was an extended power outage due to some kind of catastrophe, I am sure 
>I
> would be told to just go rent a generator.  I don't know beans about power
> generation and the local rental store won't know anything about an AS/400.  My
> biggest fear is that we would do this in the heat of the moment, fire up the
> generator, and it would burn out half the disk drive motors because of 
>something
> I did not know.  Sure wish I could find a reliable resource to educate me and
> calm my fears.
>
> Phil

Hi Phil.

You do have some things to be scared of from rental generators.
Frequently they're used to run power tools on a job site--and those
devices are much more forgiving of off-spec power supply.  If you want
to do this, just get a UPS that has the appropriate isolation devices
within.  Our Best Ferrups isolates the input and output power.  One
time our 40 year-old generator came online and the governor broke.
The voltage ramped up to some ungodly high value which took out a
sacrificial relay inside the UPS.  There was no damage to any of the
equipment that was connected to the UPS.  Some of the lighting that
was connected directly to the generated didn't fare so well tho...

Barry