Ah yes, here I am in the wonderfully beautiful, hot, sticky, state of Ohio. I have always lived near Hi Tech Manufacturing companies so am somewhat spoiled with my house power.
Here I notice the lights dimming and the window fan changing speeds, so my little Electrician mind, what little of it is left, tells me this is like totally bad Karma! I was thinking of buying a very minimally sized UPS to help my power supply ride these events out. I already have a very nice UL 1449 surge protector, and my computer is working with a wireless router, so I think I am more likely to lose the router than anything.
Any suggestions? I do not want to get too OC about it.
Much peace
Gwen
Comments
I'd say yes
Based on my experience in PA and the similar weather patterns, etc., I'd say yes. Especially if you're not right inside a fair sized city. I don't need mine often but it's nice to have a couple or three times a year.
How big is yours?
I am thinking of something really small; not enough to run for hours with the power off but just big enough to allow the power supply on my desk top to not feel the strain of a sag or spike.
Any advice?
Gwendolyn
UPS
Having lived most of my life in The Buckeye State, I've had some experience with your problem. Ohio is on several power grids so outages while rather unpredictable, are generally not wide spread. In urban areas you can expect on average two long outages of one half to four hours per year. In rural areas outages tend to last longer but are less frequent. One to five minute drops occur about once a month in the big cities. In the country areas, five second drops are pretty common.
I live in rural central Ohio and have a UPS on both my desktop computer and my HDTV and DircTV system. Last major outage was three weeks ago lasting three and a half hours, and was due to a blown fuse on one phase of the three phase line supplying our road, which affected about 10 households.
A UPS is a good idea if for nothing else than to protect against surges.
As far as the weather, if you don't like the current conditions wait a bit and they will change (tho not usually for the better ;) ).
Rosie
PS While writing this, we had a half second power drop!
Rose
Don't go overboard
However, at the least, buy a UPS with AVR on it. You can get the cheapest one WITH AVR, but it's the best insurance policy you can get for your PC.
The biggest problem on most computers isn't power outages. That's an 'on/off', which they are used to. What is a problem is brownouts, where the voltage sags a bit, then shoots back up. Since that passes into the hardware, everything gets a bit stressed - the system wants to run at 110, nominal, but suddenly gets 103 volts, then 121 volts. Automatic Voltage Regulation (line conditioning) maintains 110 volts to the computer, whether it gets 121 volts, or 94 volts. If it can't maintain current from the wall, then it switches to battery.
Expect the battery to last one to three years - then pay $25 per battery to replace it. Don't bother buying a new one, as most of the time, replacing the battery 'repairs' the UPS.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
another solution
What you need is a line conditioner and an UPS. The conditioner will make sure the power comes in at anice even rate and stop those spikes that can be really bad for computers. Normally you can do without unless you having brown outs or power company likes to ramp up power get it further down the lines and without substations.
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
Hugs,
Jenna From FL
Moderator/Editor
TopShelf BigCloset
It is a long road ahead but I will finally become who I should be.
What you're describing is an
What you're describing is an 'in line' UPS, or a UPS with AVR. (See the post above)
You can buy separate line conditioners, but they aren't cost effective unless you're getting one large enough to run a laser printer or copier. (I had a customer get one for their $30,000 copier. To keep something like that from being hammered by bad power, it was worth the $1,000 for the conditioner)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
My experience
I've been using APC brand on my multiple computers and have found them to be very reliable. I get a power glitch about once a month here so it saves me a lot of grief. It sounds like the basic 350 amp hour model should work for you.
APC is decent, but
APC is decent, but overpriced. They definitely trade on the name.
The basic models, which is what you have, don't have any line conditioning ability, which means they're not as good for anything that requires clean power (computer, monitor). However, they work quite well for items that run with wall-warts or power bricks. That's because the power is being converted from AC to DC in the brick, which performs a similar 'power cleaning' job as an inverter. My main computer(s) and servers are all on AVR UPSes, but most are CyberPower and Belkin. The rarely used equipment and wall-warts (dsl modem, router, access point) are all on a basic brick UPS (I think it's an APC)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I believe FedEx delivers to ALL of North America
So you DO have a choice.
with love,
Hope
with love,
HER
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
I Have an Opti-UPS 1000C
I bought it from NewEgg due to lots of positive customer feedback vs. other available UPS there. Another consideration; You will have thunder storms that are much more intense than what you have experienced in Oregon. I just unplug our computers when there is a thunder storm as the surge protectors and UPS units won't handle the surge from a lightning strike.
Heh
I worked for a company back in the eighties that designed control and reporting hardware and software for industrial purposes. One of our jobs involved an installation in India. The state government there was the customer and they had a list of requirements, including one that our unit be able to withstand a lightning strike on the power lines going into the plant. It really can't be done, or at least, not for the amount of money they were willing to pay.
Our lawyers said that such a requirement would be null and void and unenforceable due to another clause slipped in about acts of God. So we gave it a good solid UPS and surge protection, etc. and shipped it. Before they installed the system though, the plant manager phoned back and told us that the state government required us to say in writing that we had tested the system to see that it met all requirements.
He was a true tech person and not a bureaucrat so he knew what was going on. So we wrote back that we had done all relevant and necessary tests to ensure that blah de blah blah. Privately we told him that we had carried the system up to the top of Mt. Palomar but God had not obliged with a lightning bolt. He thought that was pretty funny. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
The best UPS for your needs
The APC website will spec just what you need based on the criteria you enter.
We have an office in Akron, Ohio and it has very dirty power. For us, line conditioning and UPS is a must.
Hugs,
Connie
It all depends...
It all depends... Yeah, I'm afflicted with the constant's disease. If you're using a laptop - you don't really need the UPS... The battery will do the job, and a replacement battery's cheaper than a UPS.
Though, if you're getting sags and surges you might reduce the life of your machine... They used to make line conditioners that were less expensive than a UPS...
There's also your "brick" what comes out of that is generally DC - You know more about how the AC from the wall is transformed to lower voltage DC... Does the DC change if the incoming voltage or current drops? (I can't remember. Getting senile here, I guess...)
If you have a desktop, the rules are different. You don't have a battery or a transformer external to the machine - the "power supply/fan" is the component that gets worn out/fried (the transformers in there) & the fan doesn't cool as well.
I guess it depends on what kinda box you have, and what you feel like replacing when it goes bad...
Anne
to UPS or not to UPS?
If you are experiencing brownouts, it is likely the power company is having trouble meeting demand. Power outages can result from that, actually even more likely than naturally caused problems.
The question is, are you trying to protect yourself so you can continue to use the computer for the duration of the outage? If so you need a UPS big enough to power all the relevant devices for about an hour. It's too price-prohibitive to size one for longer than that. But if you just want to protect yourself from losing data, you only need about five minutes, just long enough to save stuff and power down. Virtually all good UPSs now run the outputs on synthesized power all the time, so the inputs can run all over the place and the output is still stable. Maybe not the ones available at your local big box retailer, but then again, who buys computers from them (not me!)
Hugs
Carla Ann