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From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Power Problems
Message-ID: <1990Oct1.233100.1926@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 1 Oct 90 23:31:00 GMT
References: <28368@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (The News System)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Lines: 32

In article <28368@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> johnim@euler.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (John Im) writes:
>Okay.  This is my first time posting, so please excuse any and all
>irregularities.
>
>My problem is that there seems to be only one power line feeding all the rooms
>(3 of them) in the section of the house I'm in.  What this means, is that 
>whenever a space heater is turned on, the line voltage drops.  I measured it
>this weekend, with two space heaters on (in different rooms), and the line
>voltage dropped by 15-20 V.  Surprisingly, my Mac was still functioning as
>usual.  I had it printing a document and a few other things to see if
>anything would be affected, but everything was fine.

Mac II power supply is rated from 90-170V (and another range around 220).
Check the specs on the mac model you have--- if it is similiar, you probably
don't have any problem. (Specs should be in the owners manual).

>By the way, someone suggested I buy a UPS, but that is not an option.  Since
>the heaters stay on for 5-15 min periods, depending on how cold it is, I'd run
>down the battery on a 500VA UPS pretty fast.  Now, there are some with a
>step-up transformer that will keep the voltage at a steady 120V, but they are
>a bit out of my price range right now.

Wouldn't a UPS (true UPS, not SPS) deplete more slowly if it was getting
power off the line?
(i.e. since a true UPS is always running off the battery, a drop in line
voltage would merely make it charge less efficiently).

>So can anyone tell me if this'll burn out my power supply or something?
>Anyone from Apple out there?
--
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
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