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Generators and switch mode power supplies

T

Trevor Wilson

Jan 1, 1970
0
terryc said:
Been there done that when we were younger.
If it requires drainage, make sure that the drainage hose is below the
concrete slab.

**Yep. Already done. Badly, but the previous owner did it. I intend
improving significantly.
You could probably hire a mine ventilator tube as well. The real problem
is when they ggraze the foundations.

**I think I'll do it by hand. It's good for the soul and feels great to jump
in the pool after a hard day's digging.
 
S

Sylvia Else

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
So what's the big deal if it *does* happen?
Not the end of the world.
Go for a walk, go shopping, go visit a friend, read a book by torch or
candle light, and countless other things you can do without mains
power.

It's not for you to tell me how I should seek to apply such resouces as
I have to avoid the consequences of power cuts. You may not find them
annoying.

I do.

Sylvia.
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
It's not for you to tell me how I should seek to apply such resouces as
I have to avoid the consequences of power cuts. You may not find them
annoying.

I do.

Fair enough.
It might help then if you tell us what things you might need to keep
powered during a black-out.
You've already mentioned the computer as an example, what else?
How long and frequent are your typical power-outs?
How long do you want a generator to last?
Maybe a UPS solution is better suited to your needs?

Always more than one way to skin a cat. Take your computer for
example, laptops draw much less power than desktops, and can handle
black-outs of several hours no problems. Add a small UPS to keep a
modem and some other stuff going and you are still in business. I was
happily surfing the web and doing work on my phone while I was stuck
in the lift the other week for example.

Dave.
 
S

Sylvia Else

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
Fair enough.
It might help then if you tell us what things you might need to keep
powered during a black-out.

I asked a very specific question in relation to the tolerance of split
mode power supplies to variations in input waveform. That's all I asked.

Sylvia.
 
B

Bob Parker

Jan 1, 1970
0
I asked a very specific question in relation to the tolerance of split
mode power supplies to variations in input waveform. That's all I asked.


I'm really thick and also my troll filters have blocked out a lot of
recent discussions.

Can someone please tell me what a 'split mode' power supply is? I'd
never heard the term before, and a Google search mainly brings up the
newsgroup threads where they keep getting talked about.

Thanks.
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm really thick and also my troll filters have blocked out a lot of
recent discussions.

Can someone please tell me what a 'split mode' power supply is?

I believe it's a typo, she said "switch mode" in her first post.

Dave.
 
A

atec 77

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bob said:
De-plonk.... it took a while to work out what your comment meant and
I suspect you might be correct. :)
She has that effect.
all of us get accused at some stage but saliva is a certainty as you
will see.

What was the question again :)
 
S

Sylvia Else

Jan 1, 1970
0
David said:
I believe it's a typo, she said "switch mode" in her first post.

Dave.

Though I did use the expression "split mode" in the subject of another
thread. No one commented then, but its's true that it doesn't seem to be
a recognised alternative wording. Put it down to my aging brain cells.

Sylvia.
 
T

Trevor Wilson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark Harriss said:
I once saw an excavator made by Hitachi or someone similar that was made
to drive through a standard 80 cm doorway and was used in Japan mainly
in office blocks where it could ride the elevators. One of those and a
pair of ducted extractor fans would be kind of handy. I've just shifted
30 odd cu M but it was easy sandy stuff outdoors and replaced it with
35 tonnes of cement, and I was glad to hire a guy to excavate for $300.

**As an old mate, of Italian descent used to say:

"We came, we saw, we concreted."
 
A

atec 77

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark said:
There's a big Italian concretor community up this way, that's a very
appropriate saying.

Now all I have to do is get the blockwork up and the three phase
connected.
Good luck getting a good cabler this time of year let alone a sparky who
even bothers to show up
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
**As an old mate, of Italian descent used to say:

"We came, we saw, we concreted."

An Italian neighbour ws discussing my pruning of the orange trees and gave
me his advice about what to do to help them recover from the heavy pruning
brought on by rampant bug infestation.

It basically involved heavy fertilising with compost then mulching
all withn a foot around the trunk.

After he left I explained to chief gardener that his advice wasn't that
useful. He did is that way because they all grew their citrus, figs, etc
tree in little holes in the concrete wasteland that is usual in italian
backyards. I was just going to stick to putting the mulch around the
drip line about 4' & 5' out from the trunk as suit3ed our trees.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Best fertiliser for citrus is cats. Dripline is fine.

Unfortunately some around here insists they be taken for a humane death.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
The two aren't mutually exclusive. Humane death -> burial beneath
citrus

I think my method of stunning them with the back of the shovel, then the
coup de grace with the block splitter is the problem. Tough little
buggers. You really need a solid rock underneath as bricks inevitably
split.

Naah, the local council will take them for free and if wild moggy turns
out to be someones cut puddy that just escaped that night, then there is
no evidence.

Unfortunaely, our local council takes a dim view of recycling anything
organic and has actually passed a law requring all captured cats to be
surrendered. Also gives me the opportunity of retail therapy to get over
the <sob> of sending puddies to the death<sob>. As we leave the
pound "while we are over this way...." can be used -).

I just wish she would not pass around the pictures of me of my playing
with feral kittens to make them cute and cuddly to maximise their adoption
chances at the pound. I guess that is another fringe benefit.
 
T

Trevor Wilson

Jan 1, 1970
0
terryc said:
I think my method of stunning them with the back of the shovel, then the
coup de grace with the block splitter is the problem. Tough little
buggers. You really need a solid rock underneath as bricks inevitably
split.

Naah, the local council will take them for free and if wild moggy turns
out to be someones cut puddy that just escaped that night, then there is
no evidence.

Unfortunaely, our local council takes a dim view of recycling anything
organic and has actually passed a law requring all captured cats to be
surrendered. Also gives me the opportunity of retail therapy to get over
the <sob> of sending puddies to the death<sob>. As we leave the
pound "while we are over this way...." can be used -).

I just wish she would not pass around the pictures of me of my playing
with feral kittens to make them cute and cuddly to maximise their adoption
chances at the pound. I guess that is another fringe benefit.

**On a related matter, I had a run-in with my local pound a few months back.
There was a cat prowling around my yard at night and sometimes during the
day. I lost at least one fish and I have no idea how many native birds and
reptiles have succumbed to the creature. Last time I had a problem, I
arranged with the local animal control guy to loan me a cage, duly baited to
catch the buggers. Owners whose critters are chipped get them back (at a
cost) and usually keep their cats indoors after shelling out a few hundred
Bucks. Moggies get sent to the pound and ferals (and those guys are scary
critters) are executed. Anyway, my new local council wanted ME to knock on
all my neighbours doors and ask them if they owned the cat and if they would
do something about it. Sheesh! I protested that the cat was probably killing
native animals, but they said that they have a 'no execution' policy now.
Probably been petitioned by cat owners. I should introduce those cat owners
to some of the animals living in the stormwater drains.

Fucking cat owners. They're the problem.
 
S

Sylvia Else

Jan 1, 1970
0
terryc said:
Who is your supplier?
I'm on Integral and you expect a few hours once a month. I suspect
they are butchering the wrong trees.

I'm on Energy Australia's network. Significant outgages are not that
common, but they do happen. A friend was without power for an extended
period because of the Chatswood substation fire in 1999. That fire
affected 23,000 people.

There are annecdotal reports of transformers being subject to ad-hoc
cooling with fire hoses to prevent them from overheating. This doesn't
lend confidence that the infrastructure is up to the task of handling
high temperatures.

Part of Victoria's recent power problem arose because Basslink
apparently cannot operate at full capacity in high ambient temperatures
(that is, exactly when it's likely to be most needed).

And of course, from the USA and UK and Europe (Switerland/Italy) we've
seen how power systems can have cascading failures that can take 24
hours to put right. Thought at least we're not likely to see outages
caused by freezing rain.

After the UK had its huge windstorm some 20 years back, some country
properperties were without power for a couple of weeks. I my self was
without power for 12 hours or so. One doesn't realise just how dependent
one is on power until it goes off. Even our stove was electric. I ended
up making tea by sticking a cup of water next to a gas fire (I prefer
electric fan heaters. I'd kept the gas connected, and paid the service
charge, just in case).

I also lived in the UK during a year long miners' strike, and we had
rotating blackouts lasting three hours on several nights a week. That
was a real pain.

Here in NSW we were fortunate that the heatwave occurred most severely
at the weekend when power demands tend to be lower. Had it occurred a
couple of days earlier, NSW reserves would have been stretched.

And of course there's the bushfire season, where bushfires can
compromise transmission lines (and did so last year, or perhsp a few
years before - Parliament House got cut off!).

My main concern is an extended power loss during a worse heatwave then
the one we've just had. I'm not trying to run the entire house - just
the study, with its airconditioning and computers, which has a floor big
enough to drag a a matress or too into to sleep on if the outgage
continues into the night.

How much it's really worth spending on protecting against something that
may never happen, well that's another question, but the price is not
just to address the issue when it arises, it's, like insurance, to
provide assurance that the risk is being managed, one way or the other.

Sylvia.
 
T

terryc

Jan 1, 1970
0
On Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:19:02 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
hs so the supply's not exactly parlous where I am.
I'm on Energy Australia's network. Significant outgages are not that
common, but they do happen. A friend was without power for an extended
period because of the Chatswood substation fire in 1999. That fire
affected 23,000 people.

I just worry about my own provider. If I was in the countryside anywhere,
then I would regard a number of diesel generators as absolutely
essential.

It really vcomes down to economic rationalism. If you can bill
$500 per hour, then your own serious UPS with backup generator and
250litre fuel tank is probably justifiable*.

But if this is just a home userwith an internet adiction, then a
laptop with prepaid wireless access and spending the night in the
knocking shop, woops Formula 1 motel probably makes a lot more
sense. Telstra has one of their WAP accesspoints just across the road from
the knock shop at McChuckies.

* The trouble is where do you stop? Most people do not think about where
they are going to store the 20, 40, 60l of petrol. Someone thought of
running his on mains gas, but what do you do if we have a WA supply
incident. You could end up with more money invested than in your house.
 
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