I live in Southern California. We rarely have weather-induced power fluctuations or outages, so I've been cavalierly taking my chances and operating my home office PCs without any uninterruptible power supplies (UPS). That all changed recently, but the story has a happy ending.
Several months ago, I began experiencing power problems. On several occasions a properly grounded isolated circuit -- one that runs straight from my office to the panel with no interruptions -- failed with no notice. You know how much fun that can be when you're working away on your PC, then it's completely dead. D-E-A-D. There were no brownouts, no neighbors had any difficulties, and all other circuits in the house seemed okay.
I had my electrician come over and inspect everything ASAP. I won't waste your time with all they gyrations we went through, suffice it to say that when the dust settled he said the evidence pointed to a bad neutral from my power company (SoCal Edison). He used a voltmeter at the panel that showed fluctuations from 115V to 120V on one leg while the other leg was changing from 120V to 115V. Long story short: I called SoCal Edison, they sent an engineer out, he did an inspection and said everything was kosher, although he did notice that the right leg (the leg sporting my office's isolated circuit) showed lower voltage than left leg. In his opinion, that right leg would be more susceptible to voltage fluctuations. He suggested I might consider moving the isolated circuits to the left leg. TMT (Too Much Trouble), so...
I logged on to the APC (American Power Conversion Corp.) Web site
immediately after he left and selected the right UPS for my
needs.
http://www.thenakedpc.com/t/224/tr.cgi?apc1
At the time, that need was to protect my production PC and watch any more outages to see how they would affect the other PCs on my LAN that were without a UPS. Based on a review of my System Journal (as recommended in our book The Unofficial Guide to PCs) it turns out there was a pattern: the outages occurred on Monday and Wednesday mornings, times when the laundry was being done and both the washer and dryer were running. These appliances are both on the right leg along with the circuit used by my PCs. Since the SoCal Edison engineer did his inspection, there have been no more outages, although I do still get frequent low voltage warnings on laundry days. Go figure.
I chose the Back-UPS Pro 420 (part no. BP420S) because:
1. It sports DoubleBoost and SmartTrim features that correct both over-and under-voltages without draining the battery, thus preserving battery resources. (These features were the key for me.)
2. It has more than enough capacity for my production system and peripherals or any of my other PCs should I swap them from testing to production status.
3. It has 13.6 minutes of backup time at half load.
4. It includes "PowerChute plus" and WorkSafe software and cabling for intelligently shutting down (and saving open files on) the PC in a power outage when the battery finally fails.
There are plenty of other compelling features for this device: building/site wiring fault indicator; automatic, routine internal diagnostic testing; $25,000 lifetime equipment protection guarantee (including lightning events); two-year comprehensive warranty; and more. WOW!
The current list price for the Back-UPS Pro 420 is $299; you can find it for as low as $210 (although neither Amazon or Beyond carried it as of this writing).
At the time, my production system did not have any USB ports (gasp!), so I got the serial cable model (for "PowerChute plus" integration) instead of the USB version. Since then I've switched my production PC to one with USB support. Although USB would be convenient, all my PCs have one open serial port so it's just as easy to use the serial port connection as USB. The "PowerChute plus" software works great. I can monitor the UPS load, output voltage, and minutes of run time remaining in a cool bar graph format!
Here's what I have plugged into the Back-UPS Pro 420 right now: (1) an HP Vectra VE Pentium II/333 in one battery backup outlet; (2) a NEC MultiSync XE15 monitor in another battery backup outlet; (3) an external 56.6 kbps modem in a dangling BlockSafe battery backup outlet; (4) a data phone line through its RJ-11 outlets; (5) the HP's speakers in one BlockSafe "accessory surge protection" outlet; and nothing on the remaining two accessory surge protection outlets. There are plenty of plugs back there: three battery backup outlets, three non-battery backup outlets (they are surge protected), and two RJ-11 outlets (for one phone line or a 10 Base-T Ethernet cable). And the two BlockSafe plugs are extremely handy! (Note: a BlockSafe plug is a 3-prong plug on the end of a 1.5" cord; it dangles from the back plane of the box so that clunky AC/DC adapters and the like have plenty of room to plug in without covering up other plugs.)
I recommend you test your UPS monthly. And I do mean test it. March over to the wall outlet the UPS plugs into and unplug it! Then pat yourself on the back for having had the foresight to protect your equipment from outages, spikes, and brownouts.
My next assignment is to pick up either two Back-UPS 500 models (BK500M) at $169 MSRP each, or perhaps a single UPS with enough capacity for two PCs. APC has a deep product line so there are plenty to choose from. I urge you to order your UPS from APC today, it's a must-have piece of equipment, and I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to get mine. My TNPC associate Dan Butler has the following two APC models, and has high praise for them: Back-UPS 500 (serial) and Back-UPS Pro 350 (USB).
* APC Back-UPS Pro 420 ($299 MSRP)
http://www.thenakedpc.com/t/224/tr.cgi?apc2
* APC Back-UPS Pro 350 USB $163.45 ($229 MSRP) at Beyond.com, you
save $66:
http://www.thenakedpc.com/t/224/tr.cgi?apc3
* APC Back-UPS 500 serial $149.99 ($169 MSRP) at Amazon.com, you
save $19:
http://www.thenakedpc.com/t/224/tr.cgi?apc4
If you've got power problems, solutions, or anecdotes I'd love to hear from you.
