[NBLUG/talk] UPS for brownouts

[S. Saunders]

On Sun, August 12, 2007 10:27, William Tracy wrote:

> On 8/12/07, Eric Eisenhart <eric at nblug.org> wrote:
>> What you're describing, though, is a UPS with voltage regulation
>> included (a
>> line interactive UPS).  Look for "line interactive", "automatic voltage
>> regulation" or "AVR" in the description of the UPS.
>
> Thanks, that's what I'm looking for. :-)

Last time I shopped seriously, line-interactive UPS'es were rather pricier
than those that were just on-battery or off-battery.  Not by a vast
margin, but by enough that it was a consideration (for me, at the time).


>> Make sure to include surge protection for the modem and/or ethernet
>> connections.
>
> I can see that for phone line, but would it really be necessary for
> ethernet?

Yeah.  In fact, if you're paranoid enough you'll want to protect
*everything* (power and data).

I once found a dead plotter that had been killed by a spike that went
*through* the computer via the parallel-card, across the data-cable via
parallel-port, and had enough juice that it actually *exploded* a trace on
the circuit-board in the plotter.  The computer passed 48hrs of intensive
diagnostics; ONLY the serial-card was damaged (that I could discover), and
the plotter.

Also, it's worth single-branding your power-protection... all-APC, or
all-Belkin, or all-TrippLite or... etc.  I've seen reports from people
whose fancy $50K guarantees weren't upheld by their power-protection
companies because each claimed the fault lay with the other...

I like to run:
   [Wall-socket]====[SurgeStrip]====[UPS]====system.
There're circuits in the UPS that can get blown by a spike, and better to
replace a $9-$50 strip than a $100-$1500 UPS...


- Steve S.