No-one mention the power!

Author: jawapro
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 03:57 PM




 

At work, Clinton (my boss) has been collecting details about various pieces of equipment around the place. Network gear, patch records, etc.

 

This morning we were talking about the UPS (battery backup) and the generator that starts automatically when the power goes out.

 

I mentioned how much more reliable the power is in Devonport than it was back in Exeter (where we’d have power flickers quite regularly).

 

Tim told me not to say that, because I’d put a jinx on it and we’d lose power today.

 

Well, at lunch I went over the river and finally bought a battery for my personal UPS (which is going to be part of my server mod) and priced some new batteries for a spare work UPS.

 

I came back, and found Clinton taking photos of equipment in the computer room, and went to tell him about the prices for the UPS I’d gotten in town.

 

As we were talking, Clinton was looking at a set of fuses in a cabinet on the wall – and had just shut the door of the cabinet when….

 

The power went out….

 

Immediately I though we’d done something to the fuses – but people appeared from all over asking what we’d done – which meant the problem was more wide-spread than the fuses we were looking at.

 

Tim appeared and said “I knew it – you shouldn’t have mentioned the power”.

 

And after a quick check, we discovered that power was out for all of Devonport and some of the surrounding towns.

 

How much coincidence can you get?

 

At least it was a good test of the server room UPS and the generator backup – which worked flawlessly. The only problem was a couple of important modems that weren’t on the UPS, but we quickly fixed that problem, and waited for the power to come back on – which it did after a while.

 

So just remember – no one mention the power….

Comments: 7

 

Comment: 1

Author: LittleSis
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 05:15 PM




Thats kinda freaky

 

Comment: 2

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 05:32 PM




I love irony. Murphey is a great guy isn't he?

Speaking of which, I reckon your copy of Halo 3 will turn up very very shortly :)

 

Comment: 3

Author: omnimors
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 10:44 PM




Ouch, your power quality isn't that great.  How long were you without power? 

And, because I'm a real geek, what kind of generator do you have?  Just curious. 

 

Comment: 4

Author: jawapro
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 10:55 PM




We were only out for about 15 minutes. Compared with Exeter (small town) where we sometimes had no power for over 12 hours (although rare).

Devonport has been good otherwise though. Since I've been here I've had one flicker that's been enough to turn my computer off, and this one - so that's not too bad.

And the generater - umm..... A big green diesel one. More than that I'm not sure.

 

Comment: 5

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Thu 15/11/2007 11:56 AM




The power down here is pretty steady. Well, at least where we are it is. I don't think we can say the same thing for LittleSis! But we don't exactly live right next to the biggest power consumer in Tassie like she does. The Zinc Works (what we all call it down here) takes 1/3 of the power used in Tasmania. That is insane. And LittleSis gets to use the same lines. No wonder she has issues. Our power is generally pretty good though, its rare for it to go off, and nothing seems to go pop on a regular basis. Further south, however, you do have things that go pop regularly. A friends UPS is telling they have power of up to 264V, which isn't actually good for it. Or anything else. It normally sits around 252V, which is still a bit high. They go through ovens, electric frypans, light globes, like there's no tomorrow! We don't get many flickers round here either, I haven't had my computer turn off because of one of them. When we lose power, we do it properly.

BTW, how many litres is the generator, does it generate 1 or 3 phase, and is it common rail injection? Answer me these. I can probably guess the answer to the last question, but I won't bother enlightening you! Enjoy the search.

 

Comment: 6

Author: jawapro
Date: Thu 15/11/2007 12:26 PM




It's a 60 litre generator with 42 phases and it's an uncommon rail incjection system.

It's also got a turbo-charger and anti-diff lock.

Cheers.

 

Comment: 7

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Mon 19/11/2007 09:15 PM




And I can fly by pulling my little finger.