Efficiency

[Jim Hickstein]

> My experience is different.  Well designed transformers are 95-98%
> efficient, and battery sets and UPS equipment behind transfer
> switches consume miniscule energy once the batteries are fully
> charged.

My little APC units only kick in sometimes, yes.  But true online UPSes
rectify AC to DC and invert DC to AC at all times.  (Thinking back to some
Liebert sales literature I once saw.)  That has to cost something.

But my reasoning about added value seems to have been sucked into an
alternate economic universe as soon as someone said "tariff". :-)  As a
student of history, particularly as regards telecom law, I know how different
the universe can be when you start dealing with a regulated monopoly.
Everything you learned about economics is out the window.