Why You Need a Battery Backup
Quite simply, you cannot afford to work without it. In today's office setting, all of our work is powered by computers. One outage can have serious consequences if the proper precautions were not taken. An inconvenience of a power outage could be that it might halt production almost entirely. Another inconvenience, and probably the largest, is that it can cause loss of data. The time spent trying to recover this data, if at all possible, or trying to recreate the files lost, can become a costly expense. Especially, if there are multiple work stations affected during a storm or a power surge. Additionally, a power surge can fry your PC.
Lincoln Spector from PC World says, "If the PC doesn’t turn on at all—no lights, no sounds—the problem might be the motherboard, but it’s probably the power supply...If your PC turns on, then turns off again, it’s probably the motherboard. But there’s also a slight possibility that the information in the CMOS has been scrambled." It is possible to fix these issues yourself? For someone that happens to be a little tech savvy, sure. The real problem comes down to time, costs, scale of damage, number of affected work stations, and the type of damage caused. "If your PC boots to the BIOS screen, or an error message, or just a blinking cursor, the damage is probably to your internal hard drive or SSD. You can replace the drive relatively easily. The hard part, if you don’t have an image backup, is reinstalling your operating system and programs, and recovering your data files. You’ll probably have to send the drive to a data recovery service and hope for the best."
Ultimately, it's cheaper to implement the use of a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), also known as a battery backup, to prevent the possibility of data loss, file corruption, or hardware damage. "UPS units are like power strips that contain a big battery inside, providing a buffer against power supply interruptions. This buffer can range from a few minutes to an hour or more depending on the size of the unit (HowToGeek)." This buffer is essential when it comes to having enough to time to save and backup files, shutting down your PC, and even unplugging if you feel it necessary. "Desktop computers don’t have batteries built-in, like laptops do. If you had been working on a desktop during that power outage, the system would come to an immediate halt. Not only would you lose your work, but the process imposes unnecessary stress on your machine. In all our years of working with computers, the vast majority of hardware failures can be directly attributed to the stress hardware components experience during the shut down and startup process (especially if power surges or blackouts are involved) (HowToGeek)."
Not sure what type of UPS to get? It really depends on what type of purpose you want to give your battery backup and the coverage you're looking for. A more powerful UPS can take you through the outage seamlessly, and you could potentially continue your work until the power is restored, depending on the circumstances.
Typically, we send out the CyberPower 825VA for our client's phone systems and modem to prevent damage during storms. Depending on the number of work stations and time needed, we recommend an 825VA to 1500VA for graceful shutdown on multiple work stations.
Tripp Lite advises, "We recommend a UPS system with an output watt capacity 20–25% higher than the total load to allow for growth and to handle peaks in power consumption."
To calculate the estimated power needed to protect your devices, visit https://www.tripplite.com/products/load-calculator?type=ups&popup=0
For more information, go to our "contact us" page for prices and suggestions.