NEWCOMER@TL-20B.ARPA (Joseph M. Newcomer) (02/25/85)
A good MG set is EXPENSIVE as well as noisy; most are intended to produce 3-phase power at the tens-of-KVA range (or even hundreds-of-KVA). There are many available UPS/filter systems, for about $600-$1.5K depending on your power consumption. Buy one with surplus power; I always try to run equipment at 60%-80% of its rating...it will last longer. Alas, most of these (which use 12V auto batteries or equivalent) are available thru distributors like MISCO, from whom everything appears to be priced higher than reasonable. However, if you have a local micro accessory distributor (frequently their mainline is mainframe magtapes, disks, etc. so look for them in the Yellow Pages under those categories) you will find their prices lower. Rather than jury-rig MOVs (do you know how to guarantee that when they blow they will not set fire to everything in sight) you might consider the RCA SK400 or SK435 (I think) series of transient protectors. The newer series is better; lower spike voltage and if they blow they interrupt the power flow so you know they are dead. I paid <$10 each, and use them to protect the power distribution bars for my computers, stereo, etc. (I guess having invested thousands of dollars in computer equipment I don't see an advantage to saving $6 in rigging up MOVs when I can buy a UL listed package to do the same job). I was going to explain why you need more than one MOV shunt per house, but an earlier message said it better. -------