DLR wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

The last place I worked was having excessive failures on the
production floor, and erratic computer problems all over the building. I
looked into one of the breaker boxes and told them what was wrong. They
told me I didn't know what I was talking about, that the wiring was done
to code.

Wired to code is a safety issue. Clean power isn't really addressed by the code except where too small a wire would cause a voltage drop.

And yes the double conversion UPS is best. I treat the others as something to use and hope the computer doesn't turn off when the power drops for a bit. Other than that the surge protection they have in them is about the same as the power strip you get at Staples.

Every time we've had "strange" computer issues and I've gotten the office to go with said "good" UPS setups, the strange has vanished. And usually the money spent was way less than the total diagnostic route. Around here and in many parts of the country getting the power company's help in such issues is an almost hopeless task. They put on their DVM that the linemen carry on their belt and if it reads between 110 and 125 (or whatever the allowed range is) they declare victory and leave.

But yes we do first check for obvious stuff in the breaker box, shared breakers with the offset press, old wiring that's failing, etc...


We were in a huge industrial park, with a lot of heavy industrial
work going on. Even when almost nothing was on in the offices or on the
factory floor, the power was dirty. It was cheaper, and better to
upgrade the 15 year old neutrals than add a couple thousand UPS to the
complex. Also, prior the the upgrade, several critical systems had 25 A
240 VAC Variacs on the inputs to raise the line voltage. We were able
to bypass them all, after the upgrade was complete.

The sad thing was that the newer method was already in use when the
complex was built, but the aged EE who designed the system thought
harmonics on neutrals were pure BS.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida