[GTALUG] Dirty Power and Wi Fi Far field effect

[James Knott]

On 03/13/2015 08:24 AM, Russell Reiter wrote:
> I live close to the exhibition grounds which is near to one of the
> city's major grid switches. For example, they were testing the new
> streetcars, the ones with three sections for navigating tight turns
> and they browned us down to (I assume) 50hz. This was visible as all
> the lights dimmed and the streetcar appeared to navigate the loop a
> short time later. As I don't have ups I had powered down my tower. The
> next time I powered up the breaker in the power supply tripped and
> when I reset it and booted, my 1.5v agp video card was toasted, at
> least I hope its the card and not elsewhere on the bus.
>
> So that's not so bad, there's no enterprise stuff at risk, I just hack
> together another box and carry on. However, now I have a real problem
> and I'm in need of a solution. Yesterday I fired up the WiFi while my
> SO was drying her hair. I toasted her salon quality hair dryer. Not
> good. :-( There is no gfi outlet and at this point I'm wondering if I
> need UPS, for the hair dryer, if not the computer.
>
> So my question is, does anyone on this list have similar problems and
> a low cost hack they have used to deal with Toronto's iffy grid.
> TIA
> Russell
>

Something seems wrong here.  If that's actually happening, there's a
problem with the power distribution network and you'd need a TTC power
station nearby.  Streetcars run on DC, not AC and those stations are
used to convert 60 Hz (not 50) to DC.  I suspect that power dip was
caused by something else.  If it was caused by streetcars, you'd see it
happening frequently.  A UPS is always a good idea, but I really doubt
your WiFi damaged the dryer.  A GFI outlet protects people against
electrical leakage.  It does not protect equipment.  However, it's a
good idea to have one for safety with outlets nears sinks etc.