Ideally, a business should keep running even if the power goes out. As an owner, you need to be prepared for the types of power outages that are dangerous to computers and office equipment. These include voltage surges, blackouts, brownouts, brief periods of frequency oscillation, and nearby lightning strikes. Every business and home office should be prepared for these events and have a backup battery system in the form of an uninterruptible Power Supply, also known as a UPS system.
The ideal UPS system should have specifications that can accept a wide range of input voltages to protect equipment against voltage surges and brownouts. They should also be able to accept a wide range of input frequencies so that the UPS output power will remain constant and well regulated regardless of a change of input voltage or frequency. Power failures and voltage spikes cause millions of dollars in damage to businesses every year—and these can be avoided with the use of a battery backup UPS system.
UPS units must be matched to the power necessary to run the equipment in your business. A unit that is too small for your system may not be sufficient enough to power your system, which can result in data loss and possible damage to your equipment. The purpose of the battery backup UPS system is to keep your systems running long enough on battery power to properly shut down during a blackout. The more resources that your system uses, the bigger the UPS system will need to be.
During a voltage surge, the voltage on the line is temporarily greater than normal. A voltage spike could be harmful to the computer’s power supply and software. A brownout on the line is called a voltage sag; this means that the voltage on the line reduces to an amount less than normal, reducing the power getting to your equipment. There may be brief periods where the line frequency of 60 hertz seems to be oscillating, or having a slight frequency deviation from 60 hertz. This could be harmful to your equipment’s power supply and software. Lightning strikes, if close enough, can destroy the computer’s power supply. This is why it is important to be sure that the UPS device is a proper match with your computer.
After the UPS batteries have gone through so many cycles of charging and draining, they will have to be replaced. It is a good idea for the UPS system to have a readout display or a link-up cable to connect to a monitor so that the status of the UPS battery and software can be carefully monitored.