Re: [gentoo-user] Alternatives to knutclient

[Wols Lists <antlists@youngman.org.uk>]

On 31/10/17 23:29, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Oct 2017 17:33:53 +0000
> Wols Lists <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
> 
>> In the UK at least also, we have ring mains. These are rated at 30 Amps,
>> from which you can take a 13 Amp feed from any socket. Once you start
>> taking power over multiple leads the wiring has more resistance, plugs
>> introduce resistance, etc, and the voltage can drop rapidly.
> 
> I've never seen that, nor heard of it. It sounds like a major fire risk too,
> which the wiring regs would never countenance.

Sorry, no, I meant plugging one extension lead into another ... exactly
what you are NOT supposed to do.
> 
>> (It is mandatory, according to code, if you hard-wire a feed off a ring
>> you must separate it with a 16 Amp fuse.)
> 
> I don't recognise that either. It sounds like a special case to me. And
> where do I buy a 16A fuse?
> 
Well, I've got several scattered over my house ... and my father-in-law
has at least one in his fuse box!


You would have thought it was easy to take a spur off of a socket that's
part of a ring main, but believe me, as an amateur sparky it's NOT! They
sell special points - often with a switch - to take a feed off a ring,
and they all have a - mandatory - 16Amp fuse. Or they might take a
standard 13Amp fuse.

My father-in-law has a spur coming off his fuse box, and that has a
16Amp fuse or circuit breaker, rather than the standard 30Amp. I did a
bit of wiring for him ages ago, and when I saw it, my immediate reaction
was "what the heck's that!" and I refused to touch it until I'd worked
out what was going on - very sensible advice with electric!

>> I've never seen one, but I would have thought a motor/generator pair
>> with a hefty flywheel would provide very good surge/spike/whatever
>> protection, and provide nice clean power. Plus, it would be unlikely to
>> burn out if you had to provide protection from several big consecutive
>> shocks, like a lightning strike.
> 
> Just think of the noise though, and the expense.
> 
Why should it be noisy, or expensive? Okay, you're turning electrical
energy into kinetic and back again, but a computer draws typically 2Amps
max. A box like that to provide clean power shouldn't be too bad.
(Actually, using something like that as the PSU to step down to 12V or
5V might be a good idea in areas of dirty power ... :-)

Cheers,
Wol