The fact is that we live in the lightning capital of the world, in addition we live in an environment with multiple power surges at home and the office. An although a power surge can feel like a slight inconvenience, it can wreak havoc on our computer equipment.
Even short power outages can interrupt our work flow and efficiency, by losing the email, word or excel file we are working on. Not to mention losing your entire hard drive, PC, or monitor.
Most of these issues can be handled with two devices:
- Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)
- Surge Protector
I would recommend everyone on a PC, especially in a corporate environment have a UPS. From vendors like Office Depot , Best Buy, or CDW, they run from $50-$150.00 and have a Surge Protector built in. This will protect you from damaging surges as well as give you time to save and exit Windows properly on a power outage. On quick power dips, the lights may dim or flicker, but your PC will maintain working. At minimum - be on a Power Strip - ensuring it has the Proper Surge protection.
Couple of Key Hints:
- Read the label on the UPS box - make sure it can handle a Computer and Monitor or specific watts of the equipment plugged in to it.
- Make sure the Power Strip is a Surge Protector as well.
- Don't put Laser Printers on a UPS, most can't handle the high loads of laser and and on power loss, it won't typically be an inconvenience to simply reprint a document.
- But do make sure your Laser printers, copiers, and other electronic devices are on a Surge Protector.
And for you Big screen LCD and Plasma TV owners, which sometimes cost as much as the cars you own, buy some small dollar protection and make sure you use the manufacturer's recommended Surge Protection.
Choice is the classic advice - "Don't be penny wise and pound foolish" Pay a few extra dollars now or Pay significant costs to replace valuable equipment and data recovery later...
Gus Anderson, can be reached for further questions at 954 340-4599 x202 or via email at ganderson@affinitycgi.com.
