Battery backups will give your computer a longer life. They will protect your computer from minor surges and power outages. When your computer shuts off without a proper shutdown there is a good chance that important operating system files will become corrupt. These improper shutdowns will cause your computer to become unusable or unstable. If you have a battery backup your computer can be cleanly shutdown in the event of a power outage.
Does your computer still turn off when the power goes off, even though you have it plugged into a battery backup? It is likely that only half of your battery backup is on battery the other half is surge suppression only.
We see this often enough that I feel it is worth mentioning. When you purchase a battery backup or UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) you need to make sure that you plug your computer and monitor into the plugs labelled “Battery Backup”. You want to have your monitor plugged into battery backup so you can see to manually shutdown your computer. You will want to make sure that you have installed the UPS software on your computer. Once you have it configured it will automatically shut down your computer when it reaches a certain percentage of battery remaining. Plug your non essential devices into the “Surge Suppression” only ports.
I like using a UPS that has a digital display on the front. It tells you how much electricity you are using and what load is on the battery. The software tells you how much battery time you should have. I recommend APC batteries today. I would get nothing less than a 1000 VA sized UPS for a single computer and monitor.
Batteries do wear out. They wear out even faster if your UPS is sitting on a concrete floor. You can expect to get 18-24 months out of a battery when it is not overloaded. Your UPS will let you know that the battery is dead. It is often cheaper to get new batteries rather than a new UPS every 2 years. I get my batteries from a company called Gruber Power. Make sure to take your old batteries to some place like Batteries Plus or your Metro recycling. They will recycle them for free.
In the event of large electrical storms don’t make your UPS prove their worth. Shut down your system completely and unplug your UPS power from the wall. You can leave your computer gear plugged into the UPS. Lightning strikes are pushing so much power they can jump through system even turned off but still plugged in.
Battery backups will help keep your computer system running for years to come.
