By John Trotti

If everyone in the market for onsite power had the same needs, think how this would simplify the purchasing, installation, regulatory approval, and operation processes. One-size-fits-all would take almost all the mystery out of things, but that’s not how things work … far from it, in fact. Unless you’re looking to buy an off-the-shelf emergency backup genset to power a couple of PCs and the 12-cup coffee maker, your task is a lot more daunting.

Do-It-Yourself? A Rough Road to Success
How’s this for a process? The grid gets knocked out by a storm, and the XYZ Co. is without power for 16 hours, an event costing several thousands of dollars and some severely upset stomachs; the chief executive officer tells his board about the situation and how, had power been out for another 12 hours, the loss might have bankrupted the business; the board says, “Yikes, do something;” and the CEO, after devouring a box of antacids, casts around for a solution.

The situation reminds me a little of when I was in school and my roommate and I decided we needed something better than our jerkwater phonograph that was little better than the one Thomas Edison gave the world back in 1877. Our choices in the mid-1950s were, quite simply: (1) order from the Sears catalog; (2) take our chances with something made in Japan (this was in the pre-Kaizen era, when most members of the emerging flood of electronic goodies floating eastward across the Pacific could be counted on to fail while still in the box); (3) build it ourselves from a kit; or (4) hire a pro to do it for us. We, of course, seized upon number 3.

In the golden age of hi-fi, sound systems were readily cobbled from kits.

I don’t recall there being such a thing as a hi-fi magazine in those days, so determining what kits to buy was pretty much a matter of word-of-mouth from other students, but it was with supreme confidence that we mailed off money orders to the suppliers of such disparate pieces as amplifier, pre-amp, tuner, turntable, cartridge, woofers, tweeters, enclosures, and a half-dozen other mysterious components that allowed things to work together.

Our qualifications for the task were limited, but my roommate’s included the knowledge that there was a difference between AC and DC, so he took on the amplifier, while I settled for the far simpler pre-amp. First hiccup in the process came when several of the electrical goodies—diodes and their ilk, I seem to recall—flunked their tests, which should have told us we were headed into big trouble, but we pressed forward undaunted. When my roomie plugged in his amplifier, all the tubes lit up magnificently and the output values met those promised by the kit maker, driving our confidence level into the stratosphere.

Then it came time for me to power up my pre-amp, whereupon terrible noises emerged from within the handsome black case, the dormitory lights dimmed and then snapped off, and the pungent smell of fried parts filled the room. It became instantly apparent that Mr. AC and Mr. DC were not any happier with me than my roommate was.

Find an Expert? Yes, Indeed
We were too far invested in the project by then to pitch it in the trash, so we went ahead and finished it, taking some solace in the fact that it was a step up from a Victrola. We were still too proud and ignorant to do what we should have in the first place and have the system put together by someone who knew what he was doing—in today’s parlance, a consultant—but after the smoke had cleared and our collection of components brought forth sound, we saw the light.

Within the year, several turnkey systems came onto the market, costing about half what ours had. They were for all intents and purposes, plug-and-play requiring no more expertise than how much to twist the volume knob and where to set the bass and treble. Today you can drive down to any of a dozen electronics outlet stores and buy stereo equipment that exceeds your ability to perceive their superior qualities.

Some day a similar turnkey situation may apply to onsite power, but even then you would do well to hire a consultant to be your guide.            

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DE - January/February 2008