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Thread ID: 122330 2011-12-15 19:53:00 Help to Protect my electronic equipment! mark1978 (13845) Press F1
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1248861 2011-12-15 19:53:00 Hello,

Look I live in a semi rural area, we have power cuts at least twice a month were the power goes off... and comes back on! Sometimes it can happen that the power is off for longer periods. Last night with bad wind and rain it happened 3 times where it went off and came back on!! And I had enough of it...
I need to protect my equipment, our TV, Blu Ray and Sky Box are all connected to a protected power surge box, then this one goes into the socket.
My computer is also protected by power surge boxes but one of them is a Warehouse one.

Is there ANYTHING to double protect my equipment. Is there ANYTHING that I can stick into the socket????

Please help, I do not want my equipment to get hammered... ANY suggestions, comments are welcome!!! 		mark1978 (13845)
1248862 2011-12-15 20:00:00 Buy a UPS? Speedy Gonzales (78)
1248863 2011-12-15 20:05:00 You probably should get a UPS so the PC can shut down gracefully, surge arrestors don't help for power cuts which are very destructive to hard drives (well the data on them).
A small UPs of around 600-1000VA would be enough to run most PC's long enough to shut down, the larger ones at 1000VA+ could even run it for a while without power.
Just to Explain a UPS is an uniterruptible power supply with it's own battery that runs your equipment for a short time when the power goes off. Designed for exactly your type of problem.

I used to have a 350VA model that could run the PC only (no monitor etc) for about 1-2 mins, it was really too small and although it did just barely allow a shutdown with it's automatic software it ended up destroying itself.

You could get a cheap Watt meter and measure the power consumption at the wall and use that to choose a UPS. Bear in mind that Watts and VA are very different but most UPS's also mention the wattage somewhere (something like 2/3 of the VA would be a safe guess). 		dugimodo (138)
1248864 2011-12-15 20:14:00 Hey Thats really well explained!! Thanks so much!! So where do I buy these???? And any suggestions for the TV etc?? mark1978 (13845)
1248865 2011-12-15 20:32:00 There's 2 at Dick Smith (www.dicksmith.co.nz bmForm%2CbmEditable%2CbmPrevTemplate%2CbmText&bmHash=56c5058b51213818844aa1967f1c7b20c9629cc5)

Dont know if theyre good enough tho 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
1248866 2011-12-15 20:37:00 PB tech, Dick Smith, any computer store.
I'm not sure I'd buy these online without checking freight costs because batteries are heavy but;
www.pbtechnz.com is a basic one, ok if you dont have a high end gaming PC
www.pbtechnz.com should run anything

Note I know nothing about the brand or it's reliability, and lead acid batteries do wear out after a few years.

also www.pp.co.nz has a pretty good range. 		dugimodo (138)
1248867 2011-12-15 20:41:00 Hey thanks so much, I have been googling these as well! Awesome!!!
Thanks Speedy as well.. 		mark1978 (13845)
1248868 2011-12-15 20:48:00 Sweet no probs Speedy Gonzales (78)
1248869 2011-12-15 20:50:00 Just a comment on surge protectors. They help under very limited circumstances, do nothing for power cuts, and nothing stops lightning if it decides to go somewhere.
For those of us in Cities and Urban areas they are unlikely to be useful, in areas with poor power they can help if the voltage tends to fluctuate but that's about it. (surges aren't that common as far as I know)

I'd leave them on your TV's etc and just live with the inconvenience myself, but a computer definately needs better protection if the power goes off that often. 		dugimodo (138)
1248870 2011-12-15 21:05:00 I went looking for a UPS recently. Some are quite cheap. However I was put off the cheap ones by the reviews I read about them. Some of them run real hot. Sounds like you can't go wrong buying APC. AvonBill (11358)
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