[asterisk-biz] backup power requirements for emergency calling

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Friday 14 April 2006 18:20, alex at pilosoft.com wrote:
> In words of Randy Bush, I encourage my competitors to use you for the
> electrical engineering. *plonk*

I'm sure they already do.  :-)

> I don't know about squirrels in your neck of woods, but over here in New
> York, I've had my genset start exactly once in 5 years that wasn't a
> "major power outage". (Major power outage = 9/11 and 2003 blackout).

If your genset starts up within 20 seconds of an outage and it hasn't been 
started up in 5 years then you either have no clue as to what your genset's 
doing or you're outright lying.  New York's power quality ain't that great 
that they haven't had an outage longer than 20 seconds in 5 years.

> Starting genset is a minor price to pay for assurance that your stuff is
> operating properly *at the moment of the outage* and UPS batteries won't
> be unnecessarily drained.

That very well may be, but it's also unnecessary wear on the engine and 
starter if you're starting it every time the grid blips.

> Besides, no ATS will run genset for 2-3 minutes, they all have "30 minute
> minimum" and then "spindown" time.

I typically have the minimum around half that time.  Either way, it's 
hysteresis; you flip on the genset after every blip, I tend to wait and make 
reasonably sure it'll be out for a while.  You run it for a half hour after 
starting it, I run it for about 15.

*plonk* me if you like, I am willing to bet my gensets require far less 
maintenance than yours, based simply on the assumption that mine start up far 
less often than yours.

-A.