And the Moral of the story is …

Computers and Electricity do not mix, especially as we here in the UK use 230/250 volts of the stuff. The government allow the electricity industry + or – 10% of that figure.

Ok, so I had a ‘customer’ come into the workshop today asking “what is the problem” with his machine … it’s a server, oh dear, and “it” and three other machines will not start-up.

It transpires that they had a ‘Power Breaker’ trip and all power went off. Of course they reset the Breaker … without finding out why it ‘tripped’ in the first place.
Rule # 1; ask yourself, “Why did that happen?”
Rule # 2; turn off all sensitive equipment BEFORE turning the mains back on, that includes computers if you were wondering.

Can anyone guess why these computers no longer work … a hint; a power surge will always ensue when turning on a light bulb.


And the Moral of the story is … how many of you (in the UK) have a 13amp fuse fitted to your computer? How many of you know what the ‘Appliance Wattage’ is for a 13amp fuse? How many of you use a “surge protector” on your system, or even a UPS/surge protector?

Answers please on a postcard … the first correct entry to be pulled out of the sack wins an all expenses paid holiday to the top of our stairs.



OK, the answer is;
A 13amp fuse (colour brown) has an Appliance Wattage of 1250-3000W
A 5amp fuse (colour black) has an Appliance Wattage of 750-1250W
A 3amp fuse (colour red) has an Appliance Wattage of 250-750W

I only use 3 amp fuses, (5amp for the monitors) it will/should “blow” before my system does, but then I also use surge protectors, three of them as a mater of fact.

Enjoy!
Mucks

An excellent post, Mucks

Just correcting a typographical mistake there, it should read "1250-3000"

As for those who intend to buy a UPS and wondering how much capacity would be enough, you must keep in mind your actual requirements based on what you will be connecting to the UPS. After you determine the load you will be putting on the UPS you arrive at the figure of total mumber of watts. Keep 25% margin for future additions. Say, if your present requirement is 400 watts, you should consider 500 watts when going for a UPS.

The other thing you must consider is the VA rating of the UPS. If you go for a 750VA UPS it will be sufficiant for a load of 487.5 watts. The calculation for watts when considering a UPS is, VA multiplied by 65%, for example, if you have a load of 325 watts in total your UPS should be rated at 500 VA to accomodate that load.

500 VA = 325 watts
750 VA = 487.5 watts
1000 VA = 650 watts

Above is a very simple way of calculation without going into finer details of formulas which are best left to professionals.

Hope this helps.

Corrected.

good follow-up post.

i have about 14 plug sockets being used.

http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/f9m823uk2m

this will be for my PC, and the other one thats right next too it. a worthy investment? i hope so

Thank you for this interesting article. It helped me with some conversions I needed to make with my UPS.

Thanks