Backup power supply and power monitor?

TylerRadford · May 21, 2011

I'm looking for a good power monitor, and a good backup energy supply.

You know, just in case this rapture comes late.

Seriously though, I do want one just in case there is a power failure.

I.M.O.G. · May 21, 2011

How much are you looking to spend? Good ups can get very expensive.

TylerRadford · May 21, 2011

Well NE had:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

I'm not looking to spend a crazy amount of money, but I really would like protection for my computer, it wasn't cheap.

I.M.O.G. · May 21, 2011

For protection a ten dollar surge protector will do the trick.

A ups is useful only if you are worried about losing progress in a document or something else you are working on if the power goes out and you haven't saved it.

TylerRadford · May 21, 2011

I.M.O.G. said:
For protection a ten dollar surge protector will do the trick.

A ups is useful only if you are worried about losing progress in a document or something else you are working on if the power goes out and you haven't saved it.

I don't really write documents, and all the games I play, such as WoW, auto save. So what would you recommend to protect my system?

I.M.O.G. · May 21, 2011

I think the best bet would be a surge protector/power strip. You can get good ones under 20 dollars. I am not familiar with specific makes, but I buy the cheap ones - as long as they have a breaker that resets if there is a surge, that is supposed to protect your system.

It isn't any different than surge protectors on any home electronics, like your TV or stereo. A ups is used when people don't want to have a few minutes to save whatever they are working on when they have a power outage.

petteyg359 · May 21, 2011

A good quality UPS would also include a line conditioner, which would offer better protection against surges than a cheap surge protector (a 2 second surge will be suppressed without cutting power like a breaker would), and protection against brownout ("anti-surge"). The UPS linked in post 3 seems to have this, from the description.

I.M.O.G. · May 21, 2011

Good to know. I didn't know that.

What does a line conditioner do?

petteyg359 · May 22, 2011

I.M.O.G. said:
Good to know. I didn't know that.

What does a line conditioner do?

Raises low voltages and lowers high voltages, basically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_conditioner

Conumdrum · May 22, 2011

A good UPS does the conditioning in normal human usage. You have brownouts, spikes etc, it protects the components. You need the batteries in a UPS to raise the voltage during a brownout. One thing bad about a UPS, it has a power loss due to the electronics. We have a few $105k UPS for the controls on our printing presses to protect the controls and keep it on for 45 min in case of a power outage. Better than over an hour of down time and more than a few PSU's and AC stepper drives crapping out on us.

A good UPS takes the wall AC, turns it to DC, and cleans up the signal. Then turn it back to a ohh so pretty stable sine wave in almost any conditions.

TylerRadford · May 22, 2011

Thank you all. I will definitely look into getting the UPS that I posted in post 3.

Backup power supply and power monitor?

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