Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.fidonet.org (William Degnan) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: For Telecom-ers Who Live up North Message-ID: <15381@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 10 Dec 90 14:42:27 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 79 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 879, Message 1 of 12 On fritz@m2.ti.com writes: U> Could someone explain to a life-long Southerner why this terribly U> complicated system which depends on human intervention on both U> ends is better than simply having the thermal device in the U> 'Telefreeze' simply turn the heater on? You are missing some important information, no doubt due to the fact that you don't have a second home in, say ... Vermont. The heat is left "on", likely set around 50 degrees (f). The predominant fuel is "oil" (similar to #2 Kero and I suppose JET-A). Normally the fuel supplier refills the tank (often 250 gal.) based on projections involving degree/day calculations and the history of the house. If the heating plant should fail for whatever reason, it might not be noticed until: a) Spring, b) when the fuel tank won't take the estimated delivery amount or c) when the ice from the frozen pipes pushes the walls out a little. The heat can "go out" while commercial power is lost, if water condenses and settles in the fuel line, if the nozzle plugs, if the blower shaft shears, if a leak develops in the fuel system, if the electrodes burn out, if ... There are _lots_ of things to go wrong. Most of them have happened to me but _I_ was around to fix them. If you are absent, you can have your fuel dealer call your house to make sure everything is fine, on a regular basis. One dealer told me that a product similar to the telefreeze was yanked from the market since it went off-hook when the temperature was below the preset limit. This was viewed as harmful to the network and, the unit was not FCC registered as it did not meet requirements (as I recall) for isolation and since "make busy" is a "no no". There were many SxS offices in Vermont and sometimes not enough dialtone to go around. One of the toys with which I have played is the Sensaphone. When I worked for an interconnect company, we sold some for vacation homes. The homeowner could select four (I believe) telephone numbers, which are called in sequence until somebody calls the unit back to acknowledge the voice message. We also had one hooked up to the alarm contacts on a PBX. It would call and report the alarm condition of the switch and the switch room environment. It alerts based on dry-contact input, variance from temperature preset limits, high sound-level, loss of power, and with external sensors a variety of conditions. Paraphrasing the synthisized voice: "Attention. Atttention. This is telephone number 8 0 2 5 5 5 8 1 1 1. Alert condition two exists. The electricity is off. Sound level OK. The temperature is 92. Listen to the sound level for fifteen seconds ... indicate you have heard this message within two minutes by dialing 8 0 2 5 5 5 8 1 1 1. Have a nice day. " It has been a while so I don't remember exactly. You get the idea. I had also been know to program one in the office with four extension numbers and set the temperature limit around 60 degrees. Around 03:00, when the temperature in the office was at it's lowest, it would start calling around looking for help. Call-forward no answer would make it ring at other stations and finally the boss, who lived upstairs would come downstairs and rip it out by the wires. Some people just don't appreciate technology. Disclaimer: Contents do not constitute "advice" unless we are on the clock. William Degnan | wdegnan@mcimail.com Communications Network Solutions | !wdegnan@at&tmail.com -Independent Consultants | William.Degnan@telemail.com in Telecommunications | UUCP: ...!natinst!tqc!39!William.Degnan P.O. Drawer 9530 | ARPA: William.Degnan@f39.n382.z1.FidoNet.Org Austin, TX 78766-9530 | Voice +1 512 323 9383