Power: state of the Starport

[mdlbear]

Power is one of those things you don't think of much unless you're paying the bill or it suddenly isn't there. There was a power outage Friday evening, and we learned a couple of things.

The outage only lasted an hour, and the fileserver and network switch (which are on the same UPS) could easily have gone on another hour. The odd thing is that the gateway subnet (my Linux router and the UVerse "cable" router), on an identical UPS with basically the same steady-state power draw (around 25W) shut itself down after only 26 minutes.

It's pretty clear that the UVerse router is the culprit; it draws at least an extra 9W or so when there's data flowing, and sometimes as much as 20. My hunch is that it wastes a lot of power trying to reconnect to its satellite set-top boxes. Stupid.

There's not much I can do about that, except to move the DHCP server from the gateway to the fileserver, so that people with laptops can keep on working. That's basically me, since Colleen uses her netbook mostly for web browsing.

I moved DHCP this morning, with no obvious problems so far.

We also learned that it's really hard to find a bag of candles after the lights go out. Yes, we had flashlights, but those only work if what you're looking for is reasonably close to the last place anyone remembers putting it. It wasn't.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Maybe you need a designated spot for the candles--or at least for one candle? Maybe tape one candle and a couple of matches to your flashlight?

[mdlbear]

Actually, we do have a designated spot for candles. The bag of tea-lights wasn't in it, though, but on a cluttered surface four feet away. That is now fixed.

And a couple of boxes of matches put in with the candles, too.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

This is why a set of chem-light glow sticks in a handy spot is a good idea... or at least a wind-up torch with a strip of glow-in-the-dark paint on it. Me, I have a set in my emergency-bag, which is marked with one of those little tritium glow-stick key-rings.

Also, I'd check the battery in the other UPS, just to be sure.

[idea-fairy.livejournal.com]

This reminds me that as of a few months ago Fry's was selling glow-in-the-dark flashlights for something like $5. These were small LED units that took standard AAA cells. The glow-in-the-dark bit should make them easier to find in an emergency.

I don't know if Fry's still has them, or if anybody else is also selling them, but it may be something worth keeping an eye out for. I keep one by my bed, and a few others in strategic spots elsewhere.

[ranch101.livejournal.com]

I have a couple flashlights that stay plugged in. When the power goes off, they're set to automatically turn on, giving us minimal light to find the other stuff. I also have a couple of nice battery-powered lanterns that give reasonable light for a reasonable time. With small kids and animals around, I don't do candles if I can avoid it! (Hanukkah is nerve-wracking for me.)

[mdlbear]

Yeah; that's what I have. The Container Store sells them around Christmas; they're scattered pretty well throughout the house.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

I bought candles in glass (just plain - no need to invoke Los Siete Poderes Africanos), the tall ones, and placed one on a shelf or countertop in each room, with a small box of matches stuck to the side with StikkyWax. I can easily find these by touch. But since my cell phone is always either attached to my clothing or lying on the desk near my hand, I just use the screen as a "flashlight" to find my other light sources. (My daughter-in-law's cell phone apparently contains a flashlight; this is worth looking into when I'm due for my next new phone.)

[mdlbear]

Yes; Android phones let you use the camera flash, which is just a high-powered LED, as a flashlight. Handy indeed. iPhones may have the same feature; don't know.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]