Do you have a UPS backup for your Computer?

[yoda313]

So do you have an uninteruptable power supply backup for your computer? Or just a basic surge protector? All I have is a basic surge protector.

[ricoman]

Yes, I also use one for my HDTV, cable box and home theater. I live in New England (CT) and storms are common year around. I believe it has saved me grief on several occasions.

[Slowburn]

Yes, on both of them. I use an APC and it does what it's supposed to do in the event of a power failure, allowing you to save your work, then shut down properly. It also provides adequate power during brown-outs. Maybe someone can explain, but I understand it provides 'clean' power?

[ricoman]

Maybe someone can explain, but I understand it provides 'clean' power?

The UPS and other line conditioners have line filters that filter out RF and EMI noise from the power lines. Some power companies are worse than others and radio and magnetic interference creates "dirty power" that goes into you home and affects video or audio signals in the form of interference, snow, static etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference

[gadgetguy]

I'm too lazy. I've got about three UPSs around but they all need the batteries replaced so there's no "backup" value in them.

[redwudz]

I have one of my computers with a UPS on it. But it's not set to automatically shut down the computer, so it's not really that useful. It does wake me up at night with it's 'beeping' when there is a power loss and that keeps me from being late to work because my alarm clock has quit.

I should add that I'm on the same power feed as two major hospitals, so I rarely lose power and if I do, the whole system is usually down. No brown outs or dirty power, though.

And I do have basic surge protectors on most all my electronic devices.

[Nitemare]

I got mine with brown out protection. Too many times I've had the power flicker and lost all of my work. In one case, it fried my PC. I'll never be without one again. It's also handy for my cordless phone.

[Baldrick]

No. I can't even remember the last the time I had a power loss here....and I don't think UPS's for home users are that common here in Sweden.

How often do you lose the power?

[lordsmurf]

Yes, I'm a big advocate of UPS. Anything electronic is on one (tv, video hardware, computers, stereo, etc). The only things not on UPS would be general electrical items, like toasters, microwaves and lamps. My voIP is on one too.

The UPS is not so much about extra power as it is for "uninterrupted power". My computers are set to shut down when the 45-minute batteries get to a 4-minute window. Usually anything else that is plugged into one, and would need to be shut down, would only be on when I'm home and can manually turn it off.

Having a UPS is good to keep routers from losing signal or VCRs from losing the clock/timers. Simple things like that can be a nuisance.

Where I am, we don't get too many outages, but we do get a spike or drop from time to time. In bad weather, it's always nice to have a UPS running.

Losing work sucks. Re-initializing and setting up computer/video hardware sucks. Having a UPS keeps those hassles away.

[Constant Gardener]

No. We have had very few power failures over the last twenty years, and most of those are the result of big windstorms, during which anything electronic is unplugged. I do have good filtered power bars. I've lost precisely one device, a six-year-old router, following a power failure; replacement cost was less than buying a UPS, never mind maintaining four.

[pcbman]

Have very few outtages/brownouts here living next to an AFB but I keep meaning to get one, um, make that 4 or 5, hurricane season approaches..

[Nelson37]

In Southwest Florida, these are absolutely mandatory. During Rainy Season, "blinks" happen quite commonly, longer outages not uncommon, and not just surges and brownouts but direct hits by lightning bolts are a regular occurrence. I have had 2 or 3 PC's that actually caught on fire. For those of you on Dial-up, DO NOT forget to cover the phone line. That is a copper wire connected to the PC that goes outside the building.

I always ask new customers how long they have lived here, if new arrivals I have to go into a long lightning/surge protector speech. Those that have been here thru one rainy season will immediately point to their surge protector, no explanation is necessary, just discussion of brands and warranty.

APC my favorite brand, coverage includes direct strike with no disclaimer. I believe Minuteman and Panamax are the only others with no maximum voltage disclaimer, these are generally much more expensive.

Not a fan of Tripplite. Not at all.

The batteries are easily replacable, and are extremely similar to some types of motorcycle battery.

Technically, these are Battery Backups as oppossed to true UPS. They switch to battery, a UPS is always on battery.

The Line Conditioning is minimal on APC lower-end units, the more expensive ones are better. Actual need for this feature has been extremely minimal, a bigger problem has been adequate building ground. Once had a PC that rebooted whenever the copier ran, battery, line conditioner, nothing solved the problem. Several electricians looked at it with no solution. An experienced electrician fixed it while I watched with 2 or 3 turns of a screwdriver inside an outlet. Unit worked perfectly with no battery or anything, copier had no effect. Man said he "tightened the ground".

Similar issue actually electrified the case on an old AT. Like a strong static shock, damedest thing. They had 4-6 PC running off multiple extension cords, The electrician who came to survey the new wiring needed flat-out Refused to plug it back in. Our first tech refused to touch it again, I tapped it quickly and it was indeed live. Taking a firm grip on the case did not seem like a good idea.

[painkiller]

Yes, I believe in UPs's.

Have two for my computer network, two for my Tivo/entertainment systems, and one for my water treatment system.

[gadgetguy]

...APC my favorite brand, coverage includes direct strike with no disclaimer. I believe Minuteman and Panamax are the only others with no maximum voltage disclaimer, these are generally much more expensive.

Not a fan of Tripplite. Not at all...

My favorite brand is Liebert. The last I knew, they were the only ones that operate fulltime on the inverted power side. All of the benefits of clean power and zero switchover time. Of course, you also have to pay through the nose for them, but if your setup is mission critical it's worth it.

[redwudz]

Good info, Nelson37. A lot of old homes, built in the 1950's or earlier, have just a two wire system, no safety ground. Land lords have rewired some with a three wire outlet, but still no safety ground. I've ran into a few with no safety ground and the hot lead reversed. That can put power on the ground lead. Not a big deal until you contact a ground like a cable TV shield at the same time.

I have a small outlet tester I use that tells you if the outlet leads are reversed or the ground is not connected. Answers a lot of problems.

[Nelson37]

APC does make full UPS units, the only ones I have ever seen were the size of a small refrigerator. Ran a bank of computers, company had a guaranteed 4-hour up-time and onsite tech and replacement.

They had a fantastic business. They collected witholding taxes from a number of banks, charged a fee for doing this, got interest on several million dollars for a day or two, then paid the funds to the government and got a small discount for paying on time. All they did was move money around, and print reports. It's kinda neat to see 5, 6, 8 million dollar transfers happen before your eyes. One office in Florida, one in California, one-man 24-hour staff at each site. They may still be there, but I think they moved several years ago.

Electricity just scares the hell out of me, I avoid messing with it whenever possible. Prying the back end of a claw hammer into a 220 line will do that for you.

I have been told that sloppy building construction is part of the problem on the grounding around here, part of it is a high water table. This is almost all new construction, but much of it is quickly slapped up.

It is important to note that the ONLY exclusion for the coverage on APC units, and presumably others, is for improper grounding. I have never had APC question this when submitting a claim, but have been told that bad grounding can prevent the units from functioning correctly.

I should mention that those damage claims have been less than 6 seperate incidents, as opposed to numerous instances of damage thru lesser units. The lesser ones have no real guarantee, APC has never failed to pay. Including one case where the power company ran 220 thru the 110 lines in a small field office. Several PC's actually lived, three or four out of a dozen were damaged, many minor electircal devices smoked severely, ALL not surge protected and turned on were fried.

Oh, I should mention the "correction factor". When I learned Watts in school, this was Volts times Amps. So 500 Volt Amps should mean 500 Watts. Except it doesn't, for battery backups the actual Wattage is about 10% to 20% less than the VA rating. Both APC and Panamax reps confirmed this years ago. They had some complex explanation, I just took it like the way CRT monitors were measured, it was a cheat but they all did it.

So if you need 500 Watts, a 500 VA battery backup won't provide it. Actually they will, but for a shorter time and the batteries will not last as long.

[AlanHK]

We have damp rising in the concrete walls in the wet season, often the power shorts out. After this happened a few weeks ago it killed my PC power supply. Not too expensive to replace, but got me worried to look into protection. A UPS was rather more than I wanted to pay (as well as being big and heavy), but a surge protector was about 15USD, we'll see if that's sufficient.

A few years ago, living in a farmhouse on a hill, during a storm a lightning strike on the phonelines came down the wire and I saw the LED on the phone splitter explode and shoot across the room. Fortunately, only that and the modem card was destroyed.

[ZAPPER]

I never considered tearing one apart to see what made it tic. I will have to look in the warehouse at work, I think that there are about a half dozen or so piled on a shelf somewhere. It might be worth my efforts if the batteries could be replaced cheaply, or I should just maybe lay out the cash and buy a new one.

@ Baldrick
While maybe not an everyday happening, the power round these parts could "Flicker" at any time and a storm or some idiot driving into a power pole or some contractor digging in the wrong place could knock the power out at anytime as well. Maybe three to ten times a year there may be a power flicker that puts the clocks "on the blink" and depending on the weather I may loose power for an hour or two a couple times a year. A year or so ago we lost power for like three days from an ice storm and I think it was the same year that we lost it for another three days from one of the east coast hurricane related storms. We got Natural Gas for hot water, cooking and heating but it takes electricity to pump the water and blow the warm air. So I have a back up generator/welding machine that I can use when things go down for a little while. The house came with two water heaters one electric, for the two bathrooms and one gas for the laundry and kitchen, go figure, but kind of clever maybe. I also have a fire place that I could heat with if I had to if the gas got interupted, but I only keep a little bit of firewood on hand for the ole ladies entertainment. Here in Georgia it might get below freezing two to ten times a year and I am built for the cold, snuggle time!

Lordsmurf has it about right, these are modern times and there should be provisions for whole house back ups. Hell with modern technologies I don't see why the line voltage is not cut down and more effecient appliances are not the norm. I would guess that HVAC motors and well pumps are the biggest draws and most houses don't have wells and HVAC should be cheaper if it were NG

At anyrate the PC ain't worth saving, maybe some of the data, but the PC no. A good lightning strike would give just the right amount of incentive to buy a new rig! (funny though, I am on my third or fourth surge protector and at least one of them was like a seventy dollar jobber!)

[RabidDog]

Not an issue at all in the UK. solid 24/7 power, all good and clean full on 240v AC. Think I'll go out and burn down a Historic tea clipper.

[offline]

My need for a UPS is not great; but you never need one until you need one...that's my motto. I have a one of those pure sinewave jobs (1500VA) so I can filter all the home office gear through it (including a laser printer.)

[oldfart13]

I had one but the batteries were going and I would get the thing interrupt the computer and satellite TV receiver plugged into it. I junked it last week. I'd like to get another, higher capacity one but I'm still looking....

[cd090580]

Same as oldfart13,

I still have mine but the battery is dead. it Shuts down instantly when there is a power failure.
The battery only works for about 45 seconds with only 2 speakers and PSU for printer plugged.

SO it's definitely dead.

[pstedman]

Living in the heart of "Tornado Alley" I've really come to appreciate my UPS units less for the surge suppression than for ability to keep my electronics alive. Twice during a Tornado Warning I've sat in a dark house. Thanks to my UPS units I was able to

A. Keep the TV on for about 15 minutes to watch the progress of the storm
B. Keep my network alive and track the storm online with my laptop.

[lordsmurf]

Living in the heart of "Tornado Alley" I've really come to appreciate my UPS units less for the surge suppression than for ability to keep my electronics alive. Twice during a Tornado Warning I've sat in a dark house. Thanks to my UPS units I was able to

A. Keep the TV on for about 15 minutes to watch the progress of the storm
B. Keep my network alive and track the storm online with my laptop.

Same here, actually!

[usually_quiet]

How often do you lose the power?

Where I am, power outages are relatively common, about a dozen per year. Usually they last only a few minutes, but a few years ago a bad winter storm took it out for 3 days. I don't have a UPS, just some consumer-grade surge protectors. If I worked from home things would be different, but so far, that has been enough.

Most power lines are above ground here in the USA, and we have lots of severe weather, so that is why we tend to have so many. Other than that, the extra demand for power during heat waves is the only other major cause for brownouts and blackouts. Because of the cost and inconvenience involved, few areas are willing to legislate the relocation of power lines undergound in well-populated areas, even though that would eliminate a lot of power outages. Instead, they periodically prune trees planted near the street, or cut them down entirely, when necessary. (They are doing that this week on my street.)

[Denvers Dawgs]

What type of UPS would you recommend for these 2 setups:

1) a powerstrip plugged into the UPS carrying a PC, Printer, 19 LCD monitor, and pc speakers.

2) a powerstrip plugged into the UPS carrying a 52 DLP HDTV, Stereo Receiver, DVD player comcast cable box, Ps2

Would love to see what the least expensive UPS you would recommend for both, as well as your top recommendation for both. Thanks for any help you can provide...

[lordsmurf]

For the computer, a $100 unit.
For the other stuff, a $50 unit.

[Nelson37]

Using a powerstrip of any kind either before or after most UPS will void the warranty.

Pc and Monitor should be the ONLY things on battery, router and cable modem draw very little power, but speakers and printer can wait. They go on the surge protection only side, not the battery side. Or buy more watts.

NEVER, EVER, plug a laser printer into the battery, unless you are over 1500 watts or so. Laser draws lots of power. Surge protect only.

Wattage needs are based on run-time desired, the PC setup should be fine with 500 or even 350 watts, I run a similar TV setup on a 1200 Watt unit. APC is the only brand I buy or recommend, Panamax or Minuteman the only others I would consider, but more expensive so no need. Not sure if both are even in the market anymore.

Cyberpower, tripplite, belkin and others are better than nothing, but not by much.

[Conquest10]

No. I can't even remember the last the time I had a power loss here

Same here. Actually I did have a power outage last year at around 3 in the morning. ComEd had workers out within 15 minutes of the outage and it was fixed within the hour.

But, stupid guy got me into buying one years ago. Never once used it. As soon as the warranty ended the battery died. And its way of telling me that it was dead was the most annoying beeping noise ever.

[MOVIEGEEK]

UPS:is that like Fedex?
:P

Seriously,I have a surge supressor but I have no use for a UPS because I always save whatever I'm working on.