this morning for the training course, I was migrating their file server, something I announced in advanced and planned for 9am.
I was in the middle of the project, ant at 8:59am someone ran in and said 'we're teaching a course and the projection won't work, can you come help?'
I had to choose between the urgent and the priority.... and decided to go help with the projection.
Well it didn't take long before I realized the projector was plugged into a UPS, and the battery was dead.
why?
because the switch enabling the outlet from the power was off (in PNG/AUS all outlets are called powerpoints and each outlet has a switch to turn on the power right above the outlet itself).
So I flicked the switch, easy fix... what? still no power.
So I went from outlet to outlet, room to room, trying to be invisible since class was still going on and whenever I moved the pngians seemed to track me with their eyes.
I finally found one powerpoint (outlet) with power, and the ups began to charge and they were up in under 3 minutes total.
Then I went back to continue the server migration.
on the way I ran into the building manager and said 'there is no power in there' he replied, 'I know we have an electrician trying to figure out why right now, but he doesn't know'.
....pause...
sorry had to swipe a horse fly out of my hair, it decided to dive bomb me and got stuck.
where was I?
oh the point about power.
No matter how much technology we employ we're still limited by the power.
power here is completely unreliable.
The only reliable power you get is if you run an inverter system of your own and regulate the voltage.
Things that simply plug into outlet, die quickly.
kitchen appliances, get burned out
electronics get surged and fried
monitors catch on fire.
the voltage and the frequency alter minute by minute and so UPS (battery back up) is a think of life here... surge supressors often give their lives up during lightning storms to save more expensive equipment.
If I had to guess I would say there are maybe 1000 surge surpressors on center,
3 dozen lightning arrestors
600 UPS's
300 power regulators
25 inverter systems (AC to DC power with battery backup)
and 2 gigantic generators to power it all when the power goes out.
we are always battling electricity.
