TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Verizon Taking Lessons From Hooterville Telephone Company

Re: Verizon Taking Lessons From Hooterville Telephone Company

Marcus Didius Falco (falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk)
Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:36:02 -0400

>From: J Kelly <jkelly@newsguy.com>
>Subject: Re: Verizon Taking Lessons From Hooterville Telephone Company
>Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 14:55:50 -0500
>Organization: http://newsguy.com
>Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com

> Where my brother lives if the power goes out across town, or even in a
> town 30 miles away (where the headend is), his cable tv and internet
> die. Hard to believe that Mediacom has no UPS's or generators for the
> headend or any of the line amps. I think they bought some cable co's
> that were pretty messed up though. In time I suppose they will clean
> them up.

There isn't much you can do if the utility dies. However, you can keep
your house running indefinitely using something called an "inverter".
This converts DC into "modified sine wave" AC. If you connect an
inverter to the battery of your car with the engine running, you can
power your computer, telephones, or other small utilities until you
run out of gas -- which would probably take several days idling if you
start with a full tank.

An inverter is rated by peak and sustained power. One that will
provide about 1200 Watts sustained will be rated for about 2400 Watts
peak. You can probably find one for under $140 on the internet. This
is enough power to start and run your refrigerator or, possibly, the
fan on your furnace. Maybe even your well pump.

The power is clean enough to run your computer, phones, or other
electronics.

If you have more than one car, then you can have more than one
inverter. The alternator on a car can produce about 400 to 600 Watts,
but the battery can supply the rest of the load. Thus, you can run
your refrigerator, even though it draws about 900 Watts, because it
does not run continuously -- your alternator recharges your battery.

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