Several Power Questions

CarlTR6 said:

No surge protector - at least no consumer surge protector that the average person can afford - will protect against a lightning strike. Even those the power company installs will not protect against a direct strike.

So true. My company just had a call on Friday regarding a communication system that we had installed a few months ago. Lightning had struck the power transformer just outside of the building. They have an incredible surge protection network, and a backup supply that will run their system for 24 hours, and the strike still took out half of their installation, as well as the transformer.

It isn't wise to trifle with Mother Nature.

And Karlsnooks is right about those Tripp-Lite UPSes. We use them too.

Glenn, My guess is the second one on the list under desktops, AVR55OU would work just fine for you. It depends on how much battery back up you need. that model has four battery back up receptacles and four that are not battery backed up. All eight are surge protected. I have an older UPS with three receptacles that are battery backed up and three that are only surge protected. If I were buying now, I would buy the AVR55OU. My modem and router are in another location and are plugged into another surge protector. I have my tower, monitor and powered USB hub plugged into the battery backup receptacles. My printer is plugged into the a surge protected receptacle. All you need is for your essentials to be on battery backup so that you can properly shut down in case of a power failure.

You are welcome, Glenn. The less you have plugged into the battery backup receptacles, the less you will have using the battery when the power goes out. That is why I say only plug the essentials into the battery backup. If you were doing a backup when the the power goes out, you would need to abort the backup and shut down. You only get around 15 - 17 minutes of battery life with the essentials plugged in which is plenty of time to do an orderly shutdown.

If your area of the state is like mine, most power outages are just a brief flicker and the power comes right back on. The battery backup just keeps the computer going and the computer never shuts down and reboots.

I think KarlSnooks can better answer your question as I do not have a grasp on the differences and quality. I would say that for normal home use, such as you and I do, a less expensive brand is adequate and will do the job. I am using an APC brand that was around $80.00 when I purchased it five years ago. However, I do not know what I may have "sacrificed" by purchasing a less expensive brand. When I replace this one, I will opt for a Tripp-lite.

glennc said:

3. How many of the members consider a UPS as necessary equipment and always use one?

Here, Here. I'm a UPS user at home and always plan to use one. For the most part, they aren't that much more expensive than a quality power strip. Second, they usually offer guarantees on the safety of the equipment plugged into them. I know that my APC's offer a $25,000 warranty as far as I remember.

So, I've got 4 UPS systems in my house. 1 for my server, 1 for my desktop, 1 for my wife's laptop in the kitchen, and 1 protecting my infrastructure gear (switch, router, cable modem, etc).