Let’s face it with more and more high technology gadgets and goodies in use in people’s homes and offices today our ancient (at least by technology standards) power grid is over worked and under paid, so much so that you no longer have to wait for a big storm, lightning strikes or someone taking out a power pole with their car in order get power disruptions. These power disruptions can be a momentary loss of power, a loss of power for several minutes up to a loss of power for hours and in some cases days. Add to this the fluxuations of the power current causing spikes and brown outs (low power levels, but not a full outage) and it is amazing that more of our high technology isn’t like a McDonald’s French fry and that is crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.
If you have a computer be it a notebook or a desktop computer you really need to protect not only the hardware but your data files as well. There is nothing that will make someone scream louder than working several hours on a report, letter or what not and then suffer a power outage that causes the loss of your work because… yes you guessed it you last saved 2 hours earlier. Now these maybe the extremes, but one thing that isn’t is the need to protect your computer and your data and the best most cost effective way of doing that is with a UPS. No we aren’t talking about the package delivery company; they are good but not that good. A UPS is a Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS).
UPS units today are smallish boxes that not only condition the power going in to them, stabilizing it, they also have batteries that can continue to power you computer when the power goes out. Giving you enough time to either ride out the power outage (if it is just a few minutes) or to give you enough time to save your work, exit your applications and shut down your computer in an timely, sane and orderly fashion. Basically you plug a UPS in to a wall outlet and then you connect your important computer components in to it. Things like the computer itself, your monitor or monitors, and maybe a CD/DVD Burner. You don’t plug everything in to it; they are not designed for that in fact the more you plug-in to it the less backup battery time you will have. You just want to plug-in the components that will allow you to finish what you are doing and then shutdown. Also, as I said these UPS units take the power coming in to them and makes any adjustments to it so that the power levels don’t fluxuate, meaning no more power spikes and no brown outs.
Most UPS systems will keep your computer running from anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes or maybe even close to an hour. The amount of battery powered runtime you get depends on the UPS unit you buy and what you have plugged in to it. This is why I recommend you really think hard about what you plug-in. Most UPS units have several outlets on them that aren’t battery backed up. However, they do provide surge and brown out protection, meaning the power coming out of them has been condition and will always remain level. These kinds of outlets you can plug-in whatever you like.
Since all UPS systems have batteries that the unit keeps charged these batteries after several years will need to be replaced. Personally, the cost of replacement is such that it would probably make more sense to just buy a new UPS unit. How long the battery last is dependent on many factors. Neither I nor anyone else can tell you for sure how long the will or won’t last. But, you should get several good years from them if not longer. I can tell you that given the cost of even a mid-level UPS system that you will get your money’s worth from the unit. You also get a great deal of comfort knowing that your computer is getting good clean power and that if a power outage should happen that you will have time to save your work. You can also connect the UPS unit to a USB port on your computer and using the included software allows your computer to control and monitor it. Now that is cool!
For a good amount of backup battery power and a good set of features overall I recommend and use myself the APC (American Power Conversion) BR1500LCD Front Shot Back Shot. |
