Sunday, December 21, 2008

computer basics

Computer basics

Most people know that to protect your computer you should use a power bar, designed to protect your electronics from dangerous voltage spikes.

What many people find handy is to use the power bar as a convenient way to turn on and shut down your system.

First, put your power bar in a convenient spot. Plug in your computer, your monitor, your speaker and everything else connected to the computer, such as your speakers.

Note: If you have wireless and a laptop, you will want to plug the routers into a different source so you can be on the Internet without having your computer turned on.

Next, turn the power bar on, and turn everything on except the computer - the monitor, the printer, the speakers, and anything else connected to your computer. Then shut the power bar off and you are ready to use.

When you want to use the computer, turn the power bar on. You just turn on your computer and when it is booted up you are all set.

When you want to end, shut the computer down, then when it shuts off, turn the power bar off.

The advantages of this are you do not have to worry about leaving devices turned on, such as the monitor or speakers, when the computer is turned off.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

'Powerless'?

Last week, a great winter storm left "about 1.3 million homes and businesses from Pennsylvania to Maine were plunged into the dark — and cold — by a storm that coated trees and wires with ice Thursday night into Friday. Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. About 880,000 remained without power Saturday afternoon."
This is according to the AP report.

As usual, utilities rush into great danger attempting to repair power lines as they deal with downed trees.
What nobody is reporting is that there is currently available a vehicle that would help with power outages. A hydrid electric vehicle, capable of producing tens of kwatts of power for several hours, could power a home for several days.
Let's start at the beginning. A hybrid vehicle has an electric motor that moves the vehicle, and either a battery or an engine, or both, to power the motor. The hybrid vehicle must be able to accelerate at regular rates to keep up with traffic. This means that the motor has be able to produce at least 50 kwatt of energy.
If the hybrid vehicle has batteries, then the batteries have to be able to provide electrical power for at least several hours to be practical.
What does this have to do with the power outage? If an owner of a hybrid electric vehicle that has batteries has wired the vehicle up to the home, then in the event of a power outage, the vehicle's batteries can be used to power the home.
If the homeowner conserves energy, the vehicle might be able to run the home for at least two days, and probably a lot longer.
In the years ahead as hybrid vehicles become common place more and more people are going to be self-sufficient, at least for several days, in the event of an outage.