After the earthquake in San Francisco (the little one, but the power was still out for a day and a half), the answering service I worked for managed to keep running, the traditional part because it was power optional (vintage PBX equipment, using power only for ringing and indicator lights) and the modern part with a couple car batteries and a big inverter (every so often the owner would swap a battery out and take it downstairs and stick in in his car)
Compared to a consumer UPS, you can run stuff for a long long time on a car battery.
Also, if you have a big solid 12VDC source, you can run DC-DC voltage modifiers which are usually more efficient than an inverter plus a transformer block (as long as the final output is DC)
I know this more from running accessories off (the) battery power on my buses than power outages here (infrequent but massive[1]). At home when the power is out, I don't try to run the computers (very power inefficient setup), and everything else can survive with not power. At night, I dig into my camping gear for an LED headlamp (100+ hours on 2 AAs), and a 12LED camp lantern for area lighting (runs on 4 Ds for a long long time[2]).
Good luck with the ice storm, those pretty much sucked when I was growning up in NC.
[1] Last major power outages: earthquake, human error[3] and human error [4].
[2] In the process of modifying one so that it runs off 4 AAs and fits under 4oz for back packing.
[3] For safety reasons, when you are doing work on a substation, you isolate it from the grid and ground it out. When you put it back online, it is a good idea to disconnect the grounding cables...blew fuses all up and down the Peninsula.
[4] Fire alarms do no good if they are ignored or turned off. A small smouldering fire at the unattended Mission substation (40% of SF) was disregarded by remote operators until the smoke got so bad that there was massive arcing and damage at the substation.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
2004-12-11 08:37 (UTC)Compared to a consumer UPS, you can run stuff for a long long time on a car battery.
Also, if you have a big solid 12VDC source, you can run DC-DC voltage modifiers which are usually more efficient than an inverter plus a transformer block (as long as the final output is DC)
I know this more from running accessories off (the) battery power on my buses than power outages here (infrequent but massive[1]). At home when the power is out, I don't try to run the computers (very power inefficient setup), and everything else can survive with not power. At night, I dig into my camping gear for an LED headlamp (100+ hours on 2 AAs), and a 12LED camp lantern for area lighting (runs on 4 Ds for a long long time[2]).
Good luck with the ice storm, those pretty much sucked when I was growning up in NC.
[1] Last major power outages: earthquake, human error[3] and human error [4].
[2] In the process of modifying one so that it runs off 4 AAs and fits under 4oz for back packing.
[3] For safety reasons, when you are doing work on a substation, you isolate it from the grid and ground it out. When you put it back online, it is a good idea to disconnect the grounding cables...blew fuses all up and down the Peninsula.
[4] Fire alarms do no good if they are ignored or turned off. A small smouldering fire at the unattended Mission substation (40% of SF) was disregarded by remote operators until the smoke got so bad that there was massive arcing and damage at the substation.