32
ddit
4y

South Africa Electricity:

This is after I lost my 7th 3000VA online UPS...

In South Africa we have 240V power most of the time which is great, but then there is scheduled power outages (because our electricity companies cannot "handle the load").

When we have a power outage we have automatic generators which brings everything back up although there is still the 1 minute drop which has weird spikes and odd voltages before switching to the generator (as the generators wait until they are stable)

This has being destroying our equipment, we had a $2000 repair bill 3 TIMES for 3 SEPERATE Xerox Machines that have surge protectors although their circuit board somehow fried.

We have lost 7 3000VA UPSes (3 different brands) and 5 voltage regulators we put to protect the UPSes.

The one UPS that fried just had 2 dead fuses, I decided to replace them (unplugged the batteries to avoid 240V) and when plugging the batteries back in there was a huge spark and flame and the metal and plastic melted onto the board and turned black (the metal pins to connect the battery are non existant now)

I am done with electricity...

P.S. 2 of our generators also got hit by lightning as we are high on a hill and ALL the plastic cable coverings inside the generator were melted

Comments
  • 12
    solar on the roof?
    or emigrate to the Netherlands or Belgium?
  • 2
    Oh shit...
    maybe some heavy duty input filtering could work.
  • 0
    Yeah me too. Going back to the caves!
  • 5
    I would suggest three things:
    - Get lightning rods to protect from lightning (if you already have one... I'll take that suggestion back)
    - Get better generators. Our customers would be VERY annoyed if we fry their servers every time we start our generators (every first Thursday of a month or so for testing if they still work) - there do exist generators which are actually stable. There is still a delay, of course, but we never had any destroyed hardware. Alternatively get better filtering.
    - Surge protection on the whole electric installation. This not only protect your copy machines, but also all devices without inbuilt protectors are safe, too. Some vendors even offer warranty.
  • 0
    Massive capacitors?
  • 5
    "I am done with electricity."

    Wrong. You should have been done with South Africa, at least about a year (or howevermuch it was) ago when the genocide of white farmers began, because it's only going to get worse.
  • 1
    @Parzi Dosent work with AC
  • 1
    Get better generators, there is a point where it is just not feasible to fix that shitty voltage.
  • 1
    Come to the EU! We have gigabit fiber for 10$ a month, a lot of our electricity is green and reliable (220-230v), and we have great beers!

    btw if thoose spikes can destroy a 3000VA psu thoose are HUGE FUCKING SPIKES. As an ex-electrican student my guess is that it’s a way bigger problem than just voltage. You might want to hire a dedicated electrican for the company.
  • 2
    @PreyK Gbit for 10$ a month? Only in the half of the countries.
    In Germany, I don't get anything for it (besides awful mobile contracts).
  • 0
    @PreyK As green as green fart
  • 0
    @Gregozor2121 one third is currently green and in good days 50% and more. Its probably getting more green, since coal and nuclear power plants are getting shut down.
  • 0
    @stop Renewable powerplants will fuck up the grid. That is a shame that they shut down nuclear... Im curious how much they pay for the renewable upkeep too.
  • 1
    @Gregozor2121 renewable is today cheaper than nuclear.
    - no fucking nuclear material that needs to be secured for millenia
    - nuclear facilities are per defintion not able to black start
    - there are countries already that have 100% renewable energy in their power grid.
    - far worse worst cases than renewable (tschernobyl vs. A small fire)
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