A while ago, I wrote about the importance of surge protection. In that article, I talked about how improperly protected modems got fried in a thunderstorm, and how lucky I was to not get anything else destroyed. This time, I want to take electrical protection to the next level by talking about what I think is the most over looked accessory today, battery backups (also called Uninterruptible Power Supplies).

If you are not familiar with them, they are devices which allow to to keep running your computer, and any important peripherals, in case of a power outage. While a normal home UPS will only give you a couple minutes of run time, this will be more than long enough to save what you are working on, and either safely shut down or sleep the computer.

Think about that for a second. No more lost data if the power goes out or surges. No more worrying whether the hard drive head was moving when the power went out (this could mean potentially serious hard drive damage). No more losing your spot in a game because of a short dip in the electricity supply. All these things and more are the benefits of battery backups.

Figure 1. A typical UPS.

Beyond those reasons, there are a few electrical benefits to UPS systems as well. For instance, battery backups normally have better surge protection built-in than your average surge protector strip. So, not only will you still have a running machine throughout the surge, but your computer is less likely to be damaged due to the electricity spike. Anything that provides better protection for our top quality Apple computers is worth the investment.

Better yet, if you are willing to spend a little extra, you can get a UPS with AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation). This bit of circuitry will make use of the battery while running off of AC power. The reason it uses the battery is to provide a better sine wave of electricity to the attached hardware. Normal AC electricity is supposed to be provided at 110 volts and 60 Hz (in the United States). However, like most things in this world, it's impossible to provide electricity at perfect specs all the time, so the AVR is used to always give computer "clean" power. Cleaner power is safer for the computer's sensitive components, so it is definitey a good thing to have.

Ok, so now we know the benefits to battery backup systems, but how does one pick out the right battery backup for them. One of the first steps is to go to APC's website and use their sizing tool. You punch in your computer, monitor, and what peripherals you expect to run off the backup. Then, the calculator will recommend an APC UPS that should be right for you (often, a size up is even better).

However, I like to use the manuals of each device I will be running off the battery, and check the electrical specifications for how much wattage they will typically use. Add those up, and then look for a UPS that will provides slightly more wattage than what you calculated. This way, you know the UPS will be the right sizs for you.

As long as we are on the subject of how to pick out a UPS, it's a good time to talk about the difference between wattage and volt amps (VA). On every UPS system I have ever seen, there will be a volt amp rating, but not always a wattage rating. One Watt is equal to one Volt times one Amp, so how could they be different? Well, without getting technical, the volt amp rating is based on the capacity of the device, while the wattage is power that is actually used. After doing some research, I found that the UPS has to supply as much wattage as the volt amp rating. However, that is for ideal conditions, and thus, you should always multiply the volt amp rating by about 60-70% to determine the actual wattage supplied (under non-ideal conditions).

Another thing you may want to look into is how good the software is for that brand of UPS. I know the APC software is not all that great, while the Belkin software has been consistently better. It is worth noting that as long as the UPS has a USB connection, Mac OS X 10.3 has the provisions built in to allow you sleep/shut down your Mac when running on battery power. It's not super advanced, but it really does not need to be for the home user. The software side should not be the main selling point to any UPS, but it is worth looking into.

No matter which UPS you decide to go with, you know will get piece of mind that your data and computer will be much more safe. Before I had a UPS, I lost many hours of school work, website work, and game playing (sure, I should have saved more often, but that would still mean losing some data in the event of a power outage). Now that I have a UPS, I never worry about these things. If the power goes out, the first thing I hit is Command-S (to save), put the computer to sleep. Then I wait for the power to come back on, at which time, I start working immediately again. I will never go without a UPS again, and nobody else should either.

UPS Manufacturers:
• APC
• Belkin
• CyberPower
• Energizer
• Tripp Lite