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| My location is susceptible to brown-outs, mostly in the summer during peak-loads, and during thunderstorms. I have three of the largest APC units on my main workstation: one dedicated to my RAID, and one for each MacPro (2) that also share surge and battery backup for my monitors, hubs, etc. I put my speakers and mixer on surge outlets only. Get the largest one. They're not that more expensive than the smaller ones. The backup time available depends on how much you load it. FYI, the batteries are replaceable. You'll probably have to replace every couple of years. Some people just buy a new unit when the batteries go bad (There's a warning signal.). There's a Batteries Plus a few miles from me, with batteries in stock, and they will recycle your old batteries for free. My understanding is that UPS don't just provide spare power, they also condition the power coming out of your outlet. This is as important as backup and surge protection, especially if the voltage coming in is sub-par. Not much can protect you from a lightning strike near you. If the power can travel from 10,000 feet down to the ground, through the air, a puny fuse ain't going to do jack to help you. Which reminds me... a recent thunderstorm took out all the ethernet switches and routers in my home office, but nothing else. My U-verse "brain" and my two gigabit switches got zapped. I considered this nothing less than a miracle on the order of Lourdes. I must be a farghing saint. On May 24, 2012, at 11:16 AM, Teddy Gage wrote: oh yeah, also this. The $200 one I suggested is ultra-low-end, especially for that voltage. good ones with similar specs (like APC) are around $400 and up, and that's still for one minute of protection. To be honest, I've stopped even bothering with UPS's and just got excellent surge protectors. What with auto-save and backups I haven't had a disaster yet... |
