Am I doing something Wrong?

sygnus21 said:

glennc said:

I shut it down at night and when the box is off and the monitor show it's off, then I turn the UPS off.

sygnus21 said:

Turning it off doesn't protect you from electrical surges unless you unplug from the outlet… and if you're going to do that... why have a UPS, or surge protector in the first place.

glennc said:

If you turn the surge suppressor off, doesn't that disconnect the line voltage from the surge protection circuits and the outlet strip? I hear but I readily confused.

My question is why??? Would you want to turn it off??? This defeats the purpose of having one in the first place!

Here's the other side of the coin.... If the surge protector/UPS is STILL plugged into the outlet, and even though it's turned off, and you have a huge electrical surge, say lightning strike, are the items connected to the surge protector still protected? I think not! But….that would depend on the rating of the UPS/Surge Protector.

My point... even though the surge protector/UPS is "turned off", it STILL doesn't mean you're protected from an electrical surge if it's STILL plugged into the outlet, thus turning it off it useless. You have more protection leaving it on!!!

Have a look at these….
HowStuffWorks "Surge Protector Ratings"
How UPS Devices Work - Types of uninterruptible power sources - Softpedia

Good luck.

Howdy sygnus21,
Thank you for the links. The more I know the more dangerous I become
Appreciate your time.
glennc

glennc said:

What an excellent explanation for the uninitiated. I appreciate it, very much. So I need to keep in mind when three years are up. Do you know of any software that would test the battery beyond what is included in the APC software. I don't have any tests at all.

All tests are done in hardware. Software never tests anything. Software can only talk to and read hardware that must first exist.

Your best test (without $20 or $2000 test equipments - and yes even $20 test device would answer). Power up the computer and peripherals. Yank the UPS power cord from the wall. How long does the UPS operate? As usual, the only useful answers come with a number - this time in minutes.

That ten second startup test is doing same thing. But too short to have a useful answer. That start up test is not monitoring AC line stability. It is testing the battery as fast as possible.

Now, does not matter whether the UPS is on or off. The same tiny surge protector circuit remains connected.

Meanwhile, with the UPS on or off, appliances are still connected directly to AC mains. The protector circuit is as tiny and unproductive as possible – and still declares surge protection in its sales brochure.

Nothing sits between the appliance and AC mains. Nothing between AC mains and appliance to stops a destructive surge – despite so many myths that say otherwise.

When powered off, a power strip protector inside the UPS remains connected to AC mains.

sygnus21 - that HowStuffWorks citation is chock full of obvious electrical lies. So many lies that long posts only discuss the lies on the first pages. HowStuffWorks is a first indication that one has near zero electrical knowledge. Needs to learn some first semester electrical concepts. Is easily deceived by hearsay. HowStuffWorks was one cited in a Wikipedia article on surge protection. Then was removed for being bogus. There is no polite way around a reality that obscene. One must have insufficient electrical knowledge to think that HowStuffWorks citation is honest.

Thanks, though you did agree with most of what I said

Howdy westom,
That makes perfect sense. We agree about the proper solution for total surge protection. You keep me on my toes. Thanks for adding to the discussion.
glennc

I figured I'd let the posts speak for themselves


Peace

Sometime it's better to just let the record (posts) speak for themselves. Let's just move on.