atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Generator worth buying? Will it keep a T1 line running?

Do you guys think its worth while to buy a large standby generator for a building in order to keep the phone system running during a power outage or are your T1 going to be down no matter what?

I’m referring to T1 lines as being both for my voice lines and for my data line for my servers.

I believe my T1 voice and data service providers have backup generators at the central office however are there devices along the way that require commercial power and are not powered by the Telephone company?

For example, the T1 for around my area go into a Pole or a box outside by building.

Does that box need commercial power?

Are there other boxes that the T1 need to go to that are commercial powered?

Is there anyway to find out if a Generator will power a T1 during a power outage without actually committing the money and setting one up?

I don’t want to spend like $40,000 on a generator and have it everything down anyway.

Thanks.

NO, not $40, 000 holy cow and bull too.

What kind of a phone system do you have, one that supplies a city of ten thousand?

First, tell us what brand of PBX you have and how many T-1s and how many phones you have.

You could buy a $400 Honda generator that that would probably be overkill.

Give us some info, you will get some info.

I hope your right and it’s not going to be $40,000. I was just giving a ballpark estimate.

I was thinking of having the entire floor power going into an automatic transfer switch that will power everything.

1. Phone system ( about 100 employees)
2. 2 Voice T1
3. 2 Data T1
4. CSU ACE
5. T1 Racket put with T1 circuit card from Bellsouth(whatever you call this)
6. 100 computers and monitors
7. All the light in the office, 4 copier machines, 12 faxes, 6 printers, coffee maker, microwave,etc...
8. Main Air condition for the office (very hot in Florida)
9. Dedicated Air condition for the server rooms
10. Two rooms dedicated with computer servers running all types of stuff with RIAD data storage with terabytes on information.

You get the idea. Its for entire office power having it transfer automatically like a hospital would work. Its just not for the phone system but for everything. Air condition alone in Florida is a monster power drain on a system.

I am in the process on contacting engineers to try to figure out how large of a generator I would actually need for my building floor.

I am just wondering if this going to be a waste of money and effort if the Voice and data T1 might would be out in a power outage anyway?

Do you remember hurricane Wilma and the weeks without power being the aftermath? Florida power and light(FPL) is like the worst power company in the country. They are very slow in getting powered restored after a hurricane and I don’t want the business to suffer. I am sure if you talk to anyone in Florida affected by Wilma they can backup what I’m saying. I am talking about weeks without power which is not too good for business you know.

I am just trying to do my homework and now throw away whatever the cost would be to setup a backup generator for a 100 employee office running major computer servers and air-condition if the T1 lines will die anyway.

Lets just assume for the purpose the discussion that I’m able to provide power to my entire floor in the building and all my telephone and T1 support equipment inside my building is powered by a generator and my Central office has a backup generator as well.

However, I don’t have access to the Pole(or whatever you call the box outside by office that the T1 go into). I also don’t have access to any other piece of Telephone equipment that is physically outside by building.

How would I know if my T1 would keep running?

Thanks.

If you can provide power to your smartjacks which is where your t1's terminiate at your site (these will be in your building you do not need to worry about the pole or anything like that) and power to your PBX you should be ok assuming your Central office has generators as well which thyey more then likely do.

First of all - complete your profile.

As for backup power - you can only do what is reasonable. You could put in a $100K backup power system and yet if the cable is torn down by a storm you could sit in your nice air conditioned office and twiddle your thumbs.
What do you do now when the cable feeding your facility is cut?
It would take a pretty hefty backup power system to keep all your telephone, computer, lights, printers, air conditioning, etc. functioning. The most practical approach would be a system that would power your phones, a few emergency lights and enough power to gracefully shutdown your servers. This would allow you to stay in contact with your customers and let them know that you are without commercial power.

While there are exceptions to every rule, as a rule, no. The repeaters in T1 and other data lines get their power from the central office, duplexed over the data pair(s). Even the NIU at the customer's premise is line powered. We are good to the Demarq.

Please complete your profile . We like to know the people we try to help . Thanks and .
A simple misconception people forget about BU Generators for a business , is that employees need overhead light and power to their work area to do their job . If you are just looking for PBX/DATA run time , look into an extended hours UPS . Most models can have batt modules added for up to 3or4 hours extended run time . The additional add on modules are far less than 40k and they don't need to have an ENV Survey done to check for , tank leakage ! IMHO

Keep in mind that, if you try and feed a UPS with generator, that the generator MUST produce nice, clean, pure sine-wave power. Most smaller generators produce a modified sine wave or step-wave, that a UPS will reject as "unsuitable". If you're planning to power a whole floor, you really need professional assistance in design...
Mike

For your situation, $40K for a building generator sounds about right. It should power only necessary equipment like servers, phones, lights, essential computers, and enough heat & air to keep a reasonable temperature. To power everything in a building like yours, you might be looking at $50K-$80K. I would suggest running on natural gas instead of diesel, no tank to leak or run out. You would still need battery-powered UPS's on the computers and phones to keep them going during the 2-10 seconds for the generator to kick in. For the server UPS's, get ones with external batteries so when a battery dies you can replace it without shutting down the server.

if you go with large genarator option be sure to secure it so it dosnt walk .

I have a customer who is having one installed on the roof so it wont be stolen/vandilized .

also you should develop a regular testing schedule to assure it works when you need it .