Down here in sunny Mexico, electrical service is not of the same degree of reliability that most of us are used to.
Yesterday I came home and found both computers (my Windows box and SWMBO's Mac) sitting there shut down and both UPS batteries discharged and beeping. "OK, no big deal, local power failure, happens all the time", I thought. The power was back on, the lights worked, etc. But nothing I could do would bring either UPS back to life. About then Victor came by (he's the guy that does my repairs and maintenance when it's something I don't feel competent to handle) and he said let's check the power coming into the house.
Leg 1: 47 volts
Leg 2: 230 volts
Main: 277 volts.
It should have been (of course) 110, 110, and 220 respectively. Clearly the computers were on the 47-volt leg. So far the only casualty I have found is a 2GB flash drive that the computer will no longer recognize. (Is there anything I can do about that?)
CFE (the regional power company) got it fixed after about 6 hours. Sort of. Now the voltages are
Leg 1: 165 volts
Leg 2: 164 volts
Main: 323 volts.
I'm not comfortable with the idea of running my house at 50% over-voltage, but what else can I do?
Are my computers protected by running through the UPS? I am running the computer and monitor, laser printer, my scanner, two external hard drives, the cable modem, the router, the Ooma, and the telephone through the surge protection of the UPS; only the computer, the monitor and the hard drives are on the battery backup in addition to surge protection. SWMBO's setup is similar.
How much risk am I at here? How about things like my refrigerator and the HEPA air filter? Are modern electronics designed to handle this sort of thing?
tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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