[ale] APC UPS

[Danny Cox]

Thompson,

On Wed, 2003-05-07 at 14:55, tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:
> Question time - There used to be power conditioners which were 
> intermediate between a surge suppressor and a UPS in price. You didn't see 
> them often, but I haven't seen any in ages. They could tame _big_ power 
> surges, big short voltage drops, longer slight voltage drops, and in 
> general clean up the line power to something pretty nice. 
> 
> Question is are these things still around for sale and worth the effort?

	Oboy!  I get to play "professor" for a bit! ;-)

	Brent Laminack explained how one type of "constant voltage" transformer
worked, and some of the large UPSs also use this technique.

	Okay, any given transformer has a 'saturation point' that, once
reached, any additional input voltage will not produce any more voltage
on the output.  Some transformers are purposfully built this way, so
that over a range of say 90-140 volts input, you'll still have 115 volts
output.  A small spike presented to such a transformer will only be
converted to heat.

	We had one of these things at In Touch, protecting our cassette
duplicators.  The thing was massive!  About 8x8x14 inches, it seemed to
be mostly the steel, with a small "attractive" box fitted around it. 
Ugly as homemade sin!  But it worked admiredly.  Kicked off lots of
heat, though.

	When ALE-NE was touring EDeltaCom, they described their setup in the
case of blackout: desiel engines turning generators, but they also
didn't take their power directly from the grid.  The grid powered a
motor, which spins a HUGE flywheel, which turns a generator.  They said
the flywheel alone would last for about 15 minutes.  No, they didn't let
us see it (or PLAY with it hehehehehehe!).  Same idea, sorta.  A spike
would have a hard time getting through that interface.

	Okay, enough rambling.
-- 
kernel, n.: A part of an operating system that preserves the
medieval traditions of sorcery and black art.

Danny

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