Uninterruptible Power Supply for the Home Office
One of the many things I like about working from home is that I get to see what goes on in my neighborhood while everyone else is at work. On the flip side, I also get to experience the phone, cable, and power interruptions that go along with being home all day.
I’ve been working from home full-time for the last four years. In all that time, I have never experienced as many power failures and brownouts as I have in the past year. (The power went out while I was typing the previous sentence.) We don’t lose power every day, but it happens often enough to be a concern.
About a month ago, I finally got fed-up when the power “blinked” and I lost two hours worth of work. I know, I know, the save button is only a click away, but I was in my groove and not paying attention. I had been putting it off for months, but now I was finally ready to buy an uninterruptible power supply.
I went to Sam’s Club and bought an APC Back-UPS NS 1250 uninterruptible power supply for about $120. I chose the 1250VA model because it had six battery outlets (plus 2 surge protection only) and could maintain power for 10.2 minutes at half-load and 1.7 minutes at full-load. Now, that doesn’t sound like much battery time, but if you consider that most brownouts only last for a few seconds, 1.7 minutes is plenty of time to save your work and shutdown your computer.
In my home office, I’m running one server, two workstations, three monitors, a cable modem, and a router. I wanted a UPS that could keep these devices running for at least a short period of time. I really didn’t care as much about the printers, phone, or lights. I also chose to sacrifice two of my three monitors and only keep the center monitor running during a power failure.
After I connected all these devices and the battery was at full charge, I found that I was only using a little over a third of the battery backup’s capacity. That means I can run my server, workstations, and network for 24 minutes with no AC power and still have battery power to spare.
As you can see from the screen shot above, it also comes with software that tracks the power outages and has plenty of options to help you maximize the battery life or keep your computer on as long as possible.
In the last week, I’ve had five blackouts that lasted a total of 1 minute and 33 seconds. I was using my computer during most of them.
It’s worth thinking about getting an uninterruptible power supply for yourself if you experience any power problems in your neighborhood. As a side benefit, you could always use the UPS to power a television or radio during a full-fledged power failure due to a storm or other catastrophe.
Thoughts?
I don’t have as many blackouts as you do (maybe you should call the power company) but this is a great idea. I have a UPS at my 9-5 and it works great. Almost every day there’s a big surge or outage or something that causes the UPS to go on.
But I never considered getting one for home use. My Tivo (old DirecTV version) is an ideal candidate for UPS because it takes so long to power back up. A one second loss of power sometimes causes a 5 minute gap in a recording.
Just found this blog bookmarked it.
Hi Anthony! Thanks for stopping by.
You’re right, I probably should call the power company.
Most of the time it’s the lightning from thunderstorms that cause the blackouts, which was the case this morning. Everytime I hear the beeping from the UPS I pat myself on the back for a job well done.
You make a good point about getting a UPS for the Tivo, I didn’t think about that. I’m sure a much smaller model would work out just fine.
I use UPS for my server..and I realise every day it was a good lomg term investment
Cheers,
Hi Andrew! I totally agree with you. I don’t know how I ever managed without one.
One thing I didn’t mention in this post was surge protection. Most UPS devices have built-in surge protection (electricity and phone) and some even include an insurance policy of sorts against hardware damage.
Good stuff!
I couldn´t survive without my UPS since we have a couple of power outtages daily here (Guatemala) during the rainy season. My computer would have given up the ghost long ago without it!
I’m glad my power problems aren’t as bad as that.
The UPS is a life (and computer) saver, that’s for sure.
I also have ups,Last month, purchased it from couponalbum.com..and it is working great..
Thats is good that you have a good ups for your home.. I work with some businesses that have tons of valuable data with no backup system and no UPS..
But one question.. Why didn’t you hook up your cofee pot to it?
Crazy..