Read Find Out How to Protect Your Computer from Blackouts and Brown Outs

UPS usually means "What brown can do for you!" now the question is what electricity can do TO you. UPS stands for uninterrupted power supply. In other words, a battery for your desktop computer. When the power goes out in your home and you have a laptop, you notice that the laptop stays on? That's because it has a battery inside of it that can lasts up to 3 hours depending on the computer model. That way you can still work even though there is no power. But for the poor desktop computer, once that power goes out its lights out for you work and your data. Sometimes a power outage can even damage your hard drive, peripherals and also your power supply. The reason for this is that your power supply in your computer depends on a CONSTANT flow of electricity flowing though it at 110 Watts of energy. If you flow gets interrupted suddenly, there is not alternate source that the computer can gets its energy from so it shuts off immediately. And I am not only talking about power outages either. What about brownouts, power surges, or a short in the electrical socket. Well lets explain what happens in each case with your computer and how a UPS can help protect you.

A brownout is when the power drops sharply into your house but still stays on. Think of a garden hose that has a good flow of water going through it. If I put a kink in the hose to weaken the water supply (That's what a brownout actually is), then the water flow will become stagnant. If my computer can only operate on a certain flow of electricity going into it, then the pc will get "sick" and stop working, thus damaging the internal parts. When a UPS senses that the upcoming flow of electricity will be less than expected, it will borrow energy from its reserves to make the computer believe the flow of power never changed thus saving the pc from any damage. Once the brownout is over then the UPS will go back to normal and letting the flow of power go to the computer.

A power surge is when too much power comes through to the computer. That will instantly destroy the power supply of the computer and possible the hard drive. The UPS will act like a water dam and prevent excess power from getting to the computer. It will sort of eat up the excess energy into its internal battery and only let what the pc feels is safe energy to get in. this problem plagues people living near mountains that have a lot of lightning so I recommend a UPS in these areas.

Shorts in electrical sockets means that too many appliances are fighting for the same source and the socket explodes. A UPS can prevent this from affecting your computer but immediately stopping the bad flow of data from getting to the computer and turning on its own source of clean power and giving that to the PC for up to 1 hour depending on which UPS you buy. Home PCS usually use APC products that give 18 minutes worth of battery backup in case of a power loss and protection from brownouts and power surges. They usually cost $80 in retail stores Home offices and small corporate centers will use a stronger product that last up to 2 hours on no power. These retail for about $300. Whichever product you get rest assured that you and your data will be the better consumers for it.