"fred" wrote in message ...
snip
A favourite recollection of a failure of such a backup was a repeated one
at a major BT installation where starting the backup generator produced a
puff of smoke which was drawn in through an air intake to a smoke
detector, causing the fire alarm to trigger and forcing the generator to
be shut down.

It was a while ago so not sure if it also caused the fire brigade to be
called out too but it was certainly a major source of amusement on the
site as we waited for power to be reinstated.

I've only seen a backup generator kick in once.
It was at a computer centre we were visiting.
We were just pulling into the car park when all the lights went out, and
there was an enormous bang and a cloud of smoke from round the back of the
building.
For a moment we thought that someone had blown up the building, but then the
lights came up again and we could hear the generator running.
Delayed us for a long time while they restored the systems, though.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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