Power: a good servant, an awful master

Anyone who uses a PC or Mac knows that there are many ways for things to go wrong; dead hard drives, viruses, overheating, software bugs, you name it. Yet, according to Lifehacker.com, only 42 per cent of computer users protect their machines against that oft-overlooked enemy of electronics: bad power.

Power surges, voltage sags and blackouts can kill a computer as easily as other problems. A nearby lightning strike can easily surge through electrical wiring, damaging anything connected to a wall socket.

The easiest way to guard against electrical surges is a surge protector. Many varieties are available at local retailers. Yet few people know that not all surge protectors are created equal, or what the difference is between a surge protector and a UPS.

Surge protectors do exactly what you’d think. They protect against electrical surges that can come through a home or businesses’ power lines. Basic (i.e. cheap) surge protectors are little more than on/off switches for whatever is plugged into them – they offer little or no protection against more powerful surges, such as lightning. Mid-range surge protectors in the $30.00-and-up price range are far more likely to save your computer and accessories from damage – check the product box to see the specific level of protection that this kind of surge protectors guarantee.

Of course, if the power goes out while the computer is still running, Bad Things can happen and a surge protector can do nothing in that case. That’s where a UPS comes in. UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. Basically, a UPS combines a mid-range surge protector and backup battery into one unit. This means that if the power goes out, the computer is still supplied with clean power from the UPS’s batteries. The UPS instantly takes over from the wall current during a power failure, ensuring you have the time to safely save your work. Larger UPS units give you longer battery runtimes in a blackout, sometimes up to an hour of on-battery time for the largest (and more expensive) UPS units.

Making sure a computer doesn’t lose power while running is critical. While most modern operating systems are fairly forgiving, sudden loss of power can still cause file loss, hardware damage or operating system corruption (losing all your data). All the work you’ve done for last few hours may be gone if you’d forgotten to save it. In a worst-case scenario, an unprotected system can be fried by a powerful electrical surge or power failure – the computer’s power supply may die, or an internal component fails (like a hard drive).

I have had some experience with bad power and the damage that can happen. I lived in the countryside for a few years, and during the summer, it was common for our power to fail at least once a week. After the second time my PC blanked during a power failure, I invested in a simple UPS and haven’t looked back since.

‘Clean’ power is another benefit of a UPS. It compensates even for brownouts (lower-than-standard voltage), as well as surges (over-voltage) so that the computers ONLY have ‘perfect’ power supplied from the UPS. No matter what is going on at the wall socket, the computer has exactly the power levels it needs. This ‘power-cleaning’ feature of UPS units is often referred to as ‘AVR’ – Automatic Voltage Regulation. As an added bonus, this ‘clean’ and safe power will easily help lengthen the lifespan of a computer’s various components.

Of course, you should always power down electronics during severe weather to be safe. Besides, it’s good to plug EVERY item in your system into a surge protector or UPS – do not leave a ‘back door’ open. For example, a surge can travel through speaker wires and right into your computer through the sound card – bypassing surge protection. Laser printers should not be plugged into a UPS, but get their own protection instead, as their power requirements can overload a UPS.

You can get a decent surge protector for around $30 and up, from such companies as Kensington or Belkin.

A basic UPS will cost about three times as much, but don’t despair: prices are falling. Most modern UPS’s come with USB ports and software that enables them to shut down an unattended computer in case of a power failure. Common UPS brands include Belkin, Tripp Lite and APC.

The peace of mind that a good UPS or surge protector offer is well worth it. Even laptop users can benefit when they are recharging; nobody is safe from surges, and power outages can literally leave you in the dark if your computer is unprotected. Don’t risk your data and your sanity – a UPS or surge protector is inexpensive insurance compared to the potential costs for repair or replacement. Plus, you can laugh at lightning, and sneer at surges.