[ale] power

[Tom Freeman]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2014, Jim Kinney wrote:

> Had a power blink that hit the entire campus, hospital, everything at
> Emory. Operating rooms went dark for about 10 seconds then it all came
> back.
>
> There are at least 2 substations that power Emory. The hospital is SUPPOSED
> to be power-outage proof (thus MY concerns for the ebola work!).
>
> What power outage gear is being used at home by ALE? At work by ALE people?
> Apparently the datacenter here stayed up. But the power outage in the
> operating rooms occured while surgery was ongoing including brain surgery
> with a computer-controlled microscope.

Basic el-cheapo (and ageing) UPS's infront of most electronics (the 
microwave isn't protected, and several clocks are supposed to include 
their own batteries and don't) Since lightning has taken down the ethernet 
network three times over the past 18 years, I probably am demonstrating 
advanced stupid for not getting that surge protected also.

Worked at a hospital 40 years ago. Facilities claimed that the backup 
generators were at the ready - until a lightning strike proved otherwise 
(that long ago _most_ of the people still knew the manual procedures so 
there was less headaches, but the elevator cages dropped most of a floor 
injuring 2 passengers to compensate). Management hoping into high gear, 
rewired the whole place and reviewed and revamped everything. Announced a 
test run - and as I recall emergency power came on - but crashed when 
returning to grid power taking down the _entire_ special circuit for 
emergency power. That was a fun day to work, with nothing plugged into the 
correct outlet and extension cords running all over the floors...

When I left a few years later for grad school - they were still running 
monthly emergency power drills.