** Reply to message from "chekmarx" <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> on
Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:48:16 -0400

I spent years building and installing instrumentation for every thing from $hit
handling (sewer/storm systems) to water distribution systems to bomb blast
analysis.  The hazards  common to all these systems were location/environment
and lightning.  There is no perfect answer nor is it a subject that can be
covered in a few short messages but you've already had some of the best advice
that can be squeezed in there.  I'll try and address a couple of things in-line
below

Hi Mike,

Wow!  That's all I can think to say about such a massive lightening strike
and the negative results.  No, that's not true.  I think you just convinced
me to do two things:
    

Not especially massive.  The shack was below a 200' water tower so that shunted
most of the energy.  It was located on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina so
lightning was very common during thunderstorms and hurricanes.  Given that the
tower was on metal struts with foundations well into the damp (soggy?) ground
it would have normally been pretty safe but...
  

1] Buy a UPS regardless of the physical size of the unit and find room for
it no matter what!
    

I use an APC P70.  Cost me about $70 at Sam's Club a couple of years back and
runs my whole office for about 30 minutes or the desktop and LCD monitor for an
hour or so.  The computer is programmed to receive the monitoring system and
shut down after 15 minutes of AC failure.  It is NOT intended to keep me typing
rather it serves to allow an orderly shut sown.  Since this house was built in
the early 70's and initially was on a single-point feed from the utility
company, it was subject to frequent short interruptions until they finally
connected a second substation to loop the feed.  It was also subject to
considerable line noise from heavy loads like construction equipment.  Working with truly non-interruptable systems while in the Air Force, that
initial backup would serve to bridge the time between commercial power loss and
stabilization of the diesel generators.  Bear in mind that nothing is perfect -
you run out of diesel after a few days as proven by Hurricane Katrina.
  

2] Get myself some renter's insurance, regardless of the monthly or yearly
premium!
    

Get it from a good agent and be SURE of what it covers.  The premium difference
between cheap policies that are little more than scams and truly good insurance
is fairly small.
 
  

If I got hit with lightening even only somewhat as powerful as you just
described and lost my musical and computer gear I'd be looking in the
neighborhood of $5 to $6 thousand to replace everything.  And some of the
gear is nearly irreplaceable.  The Les-Paul guitar I own for instance
increases in value every quarter of the year.  Models like mine run from
$2000 to $10,000 depending on age and condition.  Gibson Les-Paul's are
pretty much worth their weight in gold.  Go to www.musiciansfriend.com and
take a look at the range of prices and you will be blown away.  Even their
"Studio" models, which are basic pieces with all the sonic qualities of the
more expensive models, they just lack the physical "beauty" of their pricier
kin go for at least a grand and up.
    

Don't expect me to be surprised - my wife owns a violin that is worth more than
this house by far.  With reliable provenance, it dates to 1690 - 1700.  Try and
replace THAT!
 
  

So basically, you have scared the crap out of me!  You'd think with all my
years of experience of working professionally with computers I'd know better
than to tempt fate.  But at all the large firms I worked at we had *HUGE*
power conditioners and a power outage due to any reason just wasn't
something we ever had to worry about.  Out of sight, so out of mind
basically ....
    

>From the sound of it, you don't own your own place.  That means you will be
limited to some extent as to what you can do.  Again, the UPS is an essential
first step.  That battery is a huge energy sink and the transformer is one of
the best isolators you can get.  At one small church I help out, our answer was
multiple smaller UPS units - under $50 each - with one in each office and one
for the phone system and network hubs.  Just for redundancy, I ran #8 wire
between the grounds on each UPS and connected both ends to copper water pipes
(not the gas line like one damned fool in town did).  The only thing you have
that really could use any significant operating time after a power outage is
the computer and even that is small so you don't really need the UPS so much
for power-out operation as for isolation.
  

Do you have any quick methods of how-to size up what power-level of UPS to
buy?  I know I can go to google.com and find the info but if you have some
quick method off the top of your head it will save me the time of reading
and figuring out for myself what I need.  Not to mention the fact that also
I trust your judgment more so than what I might find on the 'net.
    

I'm a fan of multiple UPS setups.  Add up the power needed by each item to be
plugged in, decide how you want it split up, then go to the suppliers catalog
to find something that meets to output spec for each group.  Unless you rattle
the walls with sub-woofers, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how little you
REALLY need.  The cost per watt of UPS output goes down as the size increases
(up to a point) so you may want to share one supply with all you instruments.  

Thanks Mike, seriously!  You've knocked some digital sense into this old
brain-pan of mine, and for that I am grateful.  I'd be sick if I lost even
half of my gear!
    

Someone here mentioned one simple precaution with a very attractive price
(free):  Unplug things that are not in use.  Use a power strip and unplug that
instead of unplugging individual units (don't rely on the switch - the air gap
of an off switch isn't that great).

BTW, I'm assuming you live in a lightning prone area.  I live in Colorado which
is second only to Florida (or the Southeast US in general) in the frequency of
lightning strikes.  While it does a good job of thinning out the golfing
population it is not an ideal location for electronics.