I'm presently without power, and may be for some time, due to recent
wind
storm activity. My generator blew up my surge protector, so I'm
running my
DSL modem off of the battery from my van, and using our laptop
w/wireless.
I strongly suspect our generator is malfunctioning and pumping an
unregulated voltage supply, which unfortunately blows stuff up. Is
there an
external voltage rectifying unit I can purchase which will avoid this
situation so it doesn't keep happening every time I fire up the
generator?
You may find that all your gear runs just fine 'unprotected'.
I use an APC 2kW smart-UPS on the computer bank. Got it at auction for
$35 with another 400W back-UPS. Both obviously in need of batteries.
I put four 75AH gell cells on the 2kW unit as it uses a 48V battery
bank. $300. Works great when you yank the plug out of the wall, but in
the recent windstorm the power yo-yo'd a couple of times, and the APC
killed power to the computers for a second, then came on steadily.
Of course, they'd all lost it by then. I was not happy.
It is not easy, apparently, to design a backup power supply system
that can properly handle all the ills that power lines are subject to.
-- Jim
