On 06/09/07, Linux Lingam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > a few nights ago my home was filled with thick, burning smoke. an > online UPS caught fire at night, took almost an hour to battle the > flames. the dangerous aspect was the truck-sized batteries connected > to it for 8 to 12 hours of backup during power failures. took another > hour for exhaust fans to clear the air, and even now the place has > residue acrid smells of the smoke & fire.
My office in Okhla had a fire four odd years back due to overheated UPS left on by a user. As one of the UPS manufacturer was a tenant downstairs I could get the following explanation: The issue is that all UPS heat up when "inverting" supply. Over a period the insulation of wire etc is likely to become weak leading to"leakage" (mild short circuiting) which in turn draws more current meaning more heating meaning more insulation breakdown and so on till the cycle results in flames. More true in long power outages. Since then we have switched to APC UPS on all applications that need 24 hour on time and with no external batteries. Some of these have been in service for long time without problem. It is better to use a small genset in tandem with UPS than use batteries unless you have a setup where regular upkeep can be done. I know this is costly but fire is deadly. -- Regards, Sudev Barar See you at 'Freed.in - freedom in technology & software' - India's leading free and open source community event. 28- 29 September 2007, New Delhi. Entry free, on first come basis. Register at http://Freed.in _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - September 28-29, 2007 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
