[rescue] UPS Recommendations - A True Story

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

On Mon, 2 Jul 2001, Brian Dunbar wrote:

> I've been asking my I just didn't unplug and bring everyone to a halt.  The
> answer is .. I'm dumb.  I believed the guy who said he had it all doped out
> (he sounded competant and confident) and it was easier to believe than to
> ask everyone on site to stop work for a few minutes.  In hindsight, yes, I
> should have brought eveyone/everything down.

A guy at a company I worked for was having an electric dryer installed in
his home, so he had an electrician come in to add an outlet (had gas
before).

Somehow (and I'm not quite clear how) they managed to hook 240 across the
normal 1-leg hot/cold 120, while leaving ground at the center (and with
120V potential to both other leads in the outlets).  As a former licensed
electrical contractor, I'm not quite sure what they were thinking when
they did this.

_Everything_ with a wall-wart blew up.  Everything.  Some of the computer
equipment that could handle 240 survived, but there were sparks spraying
out of the printer, etc.

I rely on my UPS', but I still unplug them and my phone lines when a
thunderstorm comes by.  No sense tempting fate.

-James