Battery Backup

[InvGrp2]

I am looking to buy a battery backup for my computers and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations?

Bruce

[ckryza]

I have used several over the years and, in my opinion, the APC UPS systems are very reliable and a good value.

Chris

[Guest]

Here is a link to some. I have an APC that I bought, it takes care of those short blips I get pretty well, however, I have less than 10 min run time. What surprised me was the speed in which the battery is run down. A CRT will take ~ 100 Watts and depending on the size or brand, an LCD will be half of that. That does not give you much time to shutdown. I noticed that there are some brands other than APC that have impressive specs and offer some incredible capacity (e.g. ARCHTEK, Belkin, CYBER POWER) plus surprisingly cheap shipping if you mail order. Look at rated wattage and battery run time.

http://www.newegg.com/app/manufactor...alog=72&DEPA=1

If you are hooked into cable, or other high speed access, to maintain connectivity with the net (assuming isp is available) you must supply battery backup to the cable modem and hub/routers too.

btw - while I was composing my response, I noticed Chris replied and recommended APC. I had two of the APC 700VA UPS Smart UPS at my day job, they worked very well, but battery life was an issue for me, I had to replace one at 3 years and another at 5. What surprised me more than anything, was that when I looked at the link, that some other brands complete unit was less than the price of a replacement battery for the APC. As with anything, shop around, look at reviews, and try and understand what you need and what you are getting for your money.

[Bob A.]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the post. I have APC's (an old 500 and a 1400 Pro). They're great but I agree with your comments about battery life and cost. Good to know there are viable alternatives cause I should really replace my old one. What I've learned is to pony up for the next more powerful (pun intended) model than you calculate you need.

Regards,
Bob (now "bobat" on Woodies)

[n23mc]

I've seen one setup where several car batteries were hooked together & then into a device (I want to say variac, but I may be wrong, I'm not an electrician), and that device has several power plugs coming off it that keep a series of PC's running for well over 8 hours. The exact setup maybe someone else can describe.

[MR]

The cheaper Tripp-Lite backup brand didn't do the job when we had electrical blackouts. We bought APC later and so far, so good.