crankypenguin said:
Ranger4 said:
My UPS starts beeping as soon as the power fails. I then quickly save & close any open files & shut down the computer. I get quite a lot of power outages here & some can run for hours, so I would be not consider using hibernate as the computer is still using some power in that state. Also I don't l know what problems might arise if the power backup fails while in hibernation mode.

To Crankypenguin, unless you really want to monitor your UPS at all times it isn't necessary. The UPS will give you plenty of warning if the power fails. It is only necessary to check it occasionally to see that all is well.
Yeah my UPS beeps too when power is lost, I have it set to manually turn off stuff as I do not leave my PC running when I am not in front of it. I use my UPS as more of a preventative measure against hardware damage(especially HDDs and my SSD) due to power spikes / drops and outages. We have pretty consistent power here, but I have noticed that it fluctuates more in the winter. Perhaps due to people using more juice in the building ie: electric heaters and so forth. I have my PS3, Computer, Monitor and keyboard hooked up to the battery ports, the rest is hooked into non-batter ports and plain old surge protection strips. :) Only reason I have to have my keyboard plugged into the UPS is because it's the G-19 by Logitech and it requires some juice to run properly and it would suck to be left with a working computer but no keyboard...I suppose I could quickly plug the mouse into a free USB port to shut down, but it's a hassle. I get about 32 mins of power in an outage, but set my UPS to shut down when the battery reaches 30%. I am actually considering buying this *extension unit* which looks exactly like the UPS I have, only without the LED or any type of control, basically an extra battery with a spacial connection cord in the back that you plug into your main one. You can wire them up with as many extra batteries as you want.
Summer is when I have the most "dirty" power (low voltage events) due to increased AC usage. My UPS will regulate that directly from the mains without having to use the battery.

I run my computer 24/7, except for occasional shutdowns when something goes pear shaped or, mostly, when installing programs or updates, since I often have updates downloading or backups uploading overnight. I normally shut the computer down when I go out of town but I trust my UPS enough (yes, I've tested it), I had no worries leaving it running during a recent trip because I had a large amount of data that needed to uploaded to Carbonite (it was throttled when I exceeded 200GB online).

I don't understand why you are concerned about the keyboard power. Once the power comes back on, wouldn't the keyboard's PSU power it back up?