Battery Backup Power - Here's What You Need to Know - Comments Page 1

Great Advice. I am adding BackUPS to my computers as sag protection and another layer of spike/sag protection will protect our investments in computers and my wife's high dollar embroidery machine. Batterys+ https://www.batteriesplus.com/ has given me good service on replacement batteries for just about anything. Thanks for your consistent good advice on how to keep my electronics going.
BTW: I have a full house (Generac 22 kW not cheap $6-10k installed. Lowe's, Home Depot, etc) natural gas generator that automatically switches on if the power dies. When line power returns, it switches off so quickly that I can't see a blip on the monitor or TV screen. In addition, I have a TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor) plugged into my main power box. It offers spike protection to the whole house...not to mention keeps my HVAC running in 100F+ summers.

Approximately 20 years ago a power surge destroyed the HDD in one of our office computers. It was plugged in to a surge protector power bar. The other computers were plugged in to their own surge protected power bars and were fine. Luckily we had a back up. We changed to a UPS for each computer. No further trouble. We already had UPS's for each computer at home. Since then no more troubles except replacing batteries. Then the issue becomes one of where to recycle (preferably) or dispose of the old ones.

Great info! We have four APC1500 units on our computers, televisions, and modem/router combination and have never had a problem. The 1500's have Automatic Voltage Regulation for surge and dip protection. Over the years we've upgraded and moved the smaller APC units to other equipment, so we've a total of six units throughout the house. We recently replaced our Generac 15kWh generator with a whole house 22kWh unit (propane powered), so are protected both for electronics in addition to critical well pump and water heater. Expensive upgrades, but well worth the long term investment.

If I'm working on my laptop computer, I can turn off the surge suppressor that it's plugged in to, and the laptop keeps running fine for some time, just using the built-in battery instead of the electric line.
Therefore it seems to me that one does not really need a UPS if only working with a laptop computer.

Well living in florida you need one if you do not want to lose your data. Summer or Winter you never know when you are going to lose power. I have a Backups NS 1500M2. cost around 120 dollars and lasts for 45 mins to an hour. which more than enough time to finish what am doing and save.

Kenyon Davies

You may or may not be able to use your cable or other Internet service during a power outage even with a UPS. The cable amplifiers, converters from fiber to cable, etc. all use power from the power company and are usually dead during a significant power outage. Depending on your area and where the power outage is, your cell phone towers may also be out. Usually I have found that one or the other is working. So if my cable is out, I turn my cell phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. And if I am really desperate, I can dial in using my old copper landline which gets it power from the phone company and works even in most emergencies.

I learned many years ago that when typing a document that is very complicated, you need to save every 5 minutes. I learned that the hard way when the lights went out one day. Now to be further safe you could type your document in google docs and it would be saved in the cloud and not on the computer.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the advice.

I am currently in a house built back in 1955, which still has it's original wiring. I was told that with the current wiring a UPS would not be of any benefit to me.

Is that true, and if so, is there another workable alternative available?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I tell people that I tend to believe in what I call sympathetic magic: if you carry your umbrella with you, it won't rain and the fastest way to find a lost item is to buy a replacement. Bob's generator story sounds like another example.

For many years I've had two of the APC products and never had a problem. I don't remember right off the bat which models they are, but they provide an hour or so of battery backup. It's fun when the neighborhood is all blacked out and we can still sit here and watch TV. I've got another of the same model for my computer. We also have the backup system for our FiOS system that was installed by Verizon. It's been here many years and never had a problem!

Sarah, while you may not NEED a UPS, there is no reason I can think of why your house wiring or its vintage would make one of no benefit. The UPS will keep you running for a bit when any power interruption occurs, whether from home wiring issues or loss of utility power due to whatever reason. The only reason you might not benefit is if you do not do anything that cannot be easily redone or seldom have your computer on, especially in bad weather. Or if you use a laptop, which contains a battery of its own and thus has a built-in UPS.

I've used APC backup power supplies for years. Never had a problem with them (although when I tried a different brand I had a problem with that!) and am currently using a 1500 with my PC. The APC units have saved the day for me on many occasions. And no, I don't work for them, but I will recommend their products from now till doomsday because they've done the job consistently.

I too cannot imagine why the age of the house wiring should matter. We live in a house that was built in 1953 and it has never been a problem. Mind you, the service panel has been upgraded twice and we have a number of circuits that were added later. We also have a UPS that backs up the settings for the PVR but nothing for our computers because they are both laptops.

It would really be nice if there was a way to check the health of your UPS battery periodically, and then--based on the health check--replace it before it goes dead, yet not so early (trying to predict its life) that you waste money by too-early/too-frequent replacements. I have a gizmo that plugs into my car's cigarette lighter and it gives me info about the battery and its charge. It would be cool to have a tester sort of like this that you could just plug into the unplugged UPS and get an idea about the UPS's battery. Does something like this already exist? You could use a voltmeter, but interpretation of the readout may be tricky.

Don't forget other "smart" devices such as expensive sewing machines (probably computer driven)

These UPS have replaceable batteries but surge protector needs replacement every few years anyway (due to MOV -metal oxide varistor - degration). So UPS needs to be replaced every few years?

I'm on my 2nd APC 660 unit & will never be without one!
Re: "It would really be nice if there was a way to check the health of your UPS battery periodically,..." I'd be interested in the answer to that question, too!

Re "It would really be nice if there was a way to check the health of your UPS battery periodically": On my unit there is a display which shows the strength of the battery. The software should check that too, but sometimes that has glitches. When I start noticing the battery life indicator going seriously down (which I didn't think to do last time!), I'm going to treat it like I treat my gas gauge - fill 'er up, i.e., get a new battery and replace the existing one.

Two comments for previous responders:
Sarah - as long as the wiring in your house is up to code, and you have 3-prong (grounded) outlets, go ahead and get that UPS. If you do not have grounded outlets, my advice would be to spend your money to update your wiring, and then get the UPS.
Nigel (and everyone) - Try to recycle UPS batteries at your local auto parts store. They take them in my area, and it seems likely it would be the same nation-wide.

A stand-by generator may still require a UPS. There may is a generator startup period and a switchover from street power to generator power lag which can be approximately one minute. Our Generac generator does not supply power fast enough to prevent the computer from shutting down.