# telephone electrocutions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 27, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-electrocutions/247365 "2004-05-27T16:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scopata\_Fuori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Scopata\_Fuori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scopata_Fuori)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-electrocutions/247365/21 "2004-06-04T02:29:53Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Couple notes about CO battery backup - I was a Bell System employee, too, a long, long time ago (Bell Labs). I remember getting a tour of a CO once, and there were a couple interesting things they told us: > > 1 - they tested their battery backup once a month by actually cutting power to the live central office during off peak hours, to verify that service didn’t get dropped, and the diesel generators they had started up. > > 2 - they had enough diesel fuel to run the central office for some absurd length of time without power, like a couple months. > [@yabob](#): > > 1 - they tested their battery backup once a month by actually cutting power to the live central office during off peak hours, to verify that service didn’t get dropped, and the diesel generators they had started up… Supposed to, anyway. Lack of personnel has cut that way, way back. Used to be it was every month no matter what. Now, it can go many moons. > [@yabob](#): > > 2 - they had enough diesel fuel to run the central office for some absurd length of time without power, like a couple months. Heh. At least around here, it’s 275 to 1000 gallons. Might last a while, but not running continuously for a couple months, I wouldn’t think. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-electrocutions/247365/22 "2004-06-07T22:00:28Z")
Most of the site-powering generators today are built to “exercise” themselves once a month or so. ie: The timer ticks off and the thing fires up for a few minutes to keep fuel from congealing, oil from settling, etc. Whether or not they engage power cut-over is another story. It’s in the “might as well, since the genny’s running” category. And, it is nice to know that it is working right once a month, rather than finding out 30 seconds into a 2-day outage. FWIW, they exercise the whole system here once a year - generally over a holiday weekend so there’s not many people in the building. (We’re stafed 24/7 otherwise) Back to the phone company - Way back whenever, my father was with Ma Bell, and he told me that the system was set up so that the batteries would enable them to ride out brief outages of a couple minutes. After a minute without power, the generator would start. At the same time, (or so) an autodialer would call the fuel company so they could dispatch a fuel truck immediately. As long as the fuel company kept the trucks rolling, they probably could go indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-electrocutions/247365/23 "2004-06-07T22:27:28Z")
> [@olefin](#): > > Yes, they have a lighting arrestor, a simple carbon block where the line enters the house to protect from lighting but takes a lot of volts to blow one. > > It may not always do the job. Very common for modems to be damaged from lighting. My daughters house lost two modems from a lighting strike… neither had a surge protector. Actually, the lightning arrestor did do it’s job. It protected the phone equipment, the lines & telephones in the house. But modems & similar electronics are much more sensitive than standard phones, and will probably be damaged by surges that an old black dial desk phone will just shrug off. > [@olefin](#): > > Good surge protectors protect not only protect 120, they also have inlets/outlets for phone lines and cable. And **good surge protectors** do work! That I know! Quite true! If you have expensive electronics, like modems, digital answering machines, wireless phones, etc. connected to the phone line. having a surge protector in addition to the telco lightning arrestor is certainly worthwhile protection. And cheap, compared to replacement costs! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telephone-electrocutions/247365.md?page=1)