WPCNR SOUTHEND TIMES. By John F. Bailey. June 13, 2005: Brownouts hit about 200 Con Edison customers in the Highlands area Sunday evening at 10 P.M., and were restored within two hours according to Chris Olert, a spokesperson for Con Edison today. Brownouts continued to be reported during Monday morning to WPCNR in the Copper Beech Circle area, Old Mamaroneck Road and Gedney Way. Mr. Olert said he had no explanation for the brownouts and that he would have to check. The tenuousness of power reliability continued the Con Ed trend in White Plains established last summer and earlier this spring of power troubles on over 85 degree days. Today's high (in the shade), was only 88 degrees at 2 PM. The power wavering can cause damage to your high tech equipment.

WPCNR asked Aaron Wordin, the WPCNR staff technologist what he recommends to cope with the Con Ed power unreliability that is happening with more and more regularity. Here is his report:

In service to your readers, here are some tips re: PCs and power:

1. Most so-called "Surge Protectors" just give you extra outlets.  To really
protect your equipment from brownouts and power spikes, purchase something
called a UPS unit - Uninterruptible Power Supply.  It's essentially a quality
surge protector and high-tech battery rolled into one.  In addition to
smoothing out power nasties, it can provide up to twenty minutes' worth of
steady juice to your PC and monitor (don't connect your printer, especially a
laser printer - it will drain really fast, then!), giving you enough time to
save your current documents and do an orderly shutdown.

2. Don't put your air conditioner in the same outlet as your computer - each
time it turns on, the sudden uptick in current draw can hurt the PC.

3. If you feel comfortable opening up your PC, pop the cover and use one of
those dusting cans to remove buildups of dust - too much of it can act as an
insulator, causing your computer to overheat inside, damaging the components.

4. If there's an impending thunderstorm, give your PC some real protection and
simply unplug it from the wall, and disconnect your phoneline (if you use
dialup) and your cable or DSL modem if you have high-speed access.

---- Aaron