Wols Lists wrote: > On 29/10/17 11:21, Dale wrote: >> Power failures aren't as often the past few years anyway. I could >> almost make it without a UPS BUT I do like having that extra >> protection. Mine has some serious surge protection in it plus >> brownout/over voltage protection/warning as well. While I have a fairly >> decent power supply in this rig, I didn't buy the cheapest thing out >> there, having a little extra is nice. May save my bacon one day. ;-) > Depends where you live. Are you in the States? > > I'm in the UK and powercuts are almost unheard of AT THE MOMENT. But we > keep getting dire warnings that our generation is going down, while > demand is going up, and they are on the verge of crossing ... > > Dunno what's going to happen then, but we tend to get trips and cuts, > not brownouts, so we could be in for a nasty shock in the not too > distant future :-( > > Cheers, > Wol
Yes, I do live in the States. When I built my first rig well over a decade ago, we had lots of power problems. Some of the wires were many decades old, had been spliced many times from trees failing on them, had trees grown up into the lines and such. Blinks, drop outs and such were pretty much a daily thing even when weather was nice outside, no rain or wind. The local power companies told people that if they have trees close to or under power lines, they were going to be dealt with, either by the property owners or the power companies. That was one of the problems. Trees were allowed to grow to the point they would touch the lines or would fall on the lines during storms/winds. It took years, a decade or so, to get the trees cleared out. Some were not happy but all the power companies have the right to trim trees that can contact the lines. When they came to talk to me, I told them to cut anything that could touch the lines or was dying and could touch the lines with wind behind it. Hey, I want to have good power too. I have two fridges, two freezers, a computer, TVs and such that like clean power. Even things like a well pump likes reasonably clean power. Also, several years ago, they replaced the main lines all the way from the substation to just up the road about half a mile from here. Since then, brownouts and such are rare. Even during some pretty strong storms, power is stable. They replaced a good ten miles worth of lines. They also upgraded to three phase since a large grain and river port was built across the woods. They have HUGE, I mean HUGE, fans/blowers over there. At night, even tho I'm close to a mile away, I can go outside and listen to the whirring noise they make. We also have issues because of our aging infrastructure. Thing is, at some point the companies are going to realize they must step up and upgrade/replace some things. Just like the old lines out here, once it cost more to keep repairing them instead of replacing them, they replaced them. One thing to keep in mind, if the meter isn't turning, they are losing money. It may take a while but eventually, power companies will have to deal with that. To make money, the meter has to have power going through it. I've read where a lot of countries are having issues like that. On one hand, they want us to use power, that way they make money. On the other hand, they claim to want us to conserve power. Which is it? LOL I wouldn't dream of running my puter a decade ago without a UPS. I just had way to many power problems back then. I even took the top off the UPS and stuck tape over the beeper. Every time the power would drop, surge or something, it would beep. I do like to sleep at least a little. Now tho, it's good to have in case of a severe storm but the UPS rarely complains. It has improved to the point that my newer UPS is allowed to beep. ;-) I might add, my old UPS is now running my TV. I'm going to catch them on sale one day and get one for the living room TV as well. I've always seen UPSs as the best insurance of decent power. I find them handy for almost anything electronic. No matter where a person lives, good power is sometimes just not going to be there. Dale :-) :-)
