Un-Interruptible Power Supplies come in various shapes and sizes
The un-interruptible power supply does nothing to enhance your computing experience – unit, that is, until Eskom throws you a curve ball.
The UPS does two things:
- Keeps the computer operating for a while after there is a power glitch or a power blackout. Apart from the obvious advantage of giving you a chance to save your work before shutting down in a controlled way, it also protects the equipment from the electrical punishment of the sudden on-off surge which can seriously harm expensive equipment.
- Conditions the mains supply voltage. This is simply a matter of evening out the dips and spikes caused by a noisy Eskom supply. It does this by cutting in when the mains voltage drops too low (a brownout) and suppressing high voltage spikes.
Once again, you “pays for what you gets”. The more you spend on a UPS the better it will condition the supply and the longer it will last after a power outage before signalling that it is time to shut down.
It is always a good idea to rather have many smaller UPS’s connected to vital components than to have one huge unit for every device in the office.
Please note, it used constantly, the rechargeable batteries contained in UPS’s wear out after between 4 and 6 years.
There are many brands on the market – I recommend APC because they seem to last the longest.
Costs can range between R400 and R6000 depending on features and batterey capacity.
You don’t have to have one for your workstation, but it is false economy not to. Even the cheapest is better than nothing.
