Power Backup Solutions - Tampa, Florida

Power Backup Solutions - Questions and Answers

Imagine lightning has just struck a nearby transformer. If the surge was powerful enough, it traveled instantaneously through wiring (AC, network, serial, phone lines, and more) with the electrical equivalent force of a tidal wave. For PC users, the surge could have traveled into your computer via the AC outlet or phone lines. The first casualty is usually a modem, network card, or motherboard. Chips go next, and data is lost.

Key Terms:

• Dropout Voltage - The voltage at which a device fails to operate properly and/or safely. Most computer systems will reboot, reset, or place save data at risk when line voltage falls below approximately 95-100VAC.

• Fuse - A device that automatically self-destructs when the current passing through exceeds the rated value of the fuse.

• Hot Swappable Battery - Refers to the feature that allows the battery of a UPS to be changed (due to age or defect), without taking the unit (and its attached load) out-of-service.

• Line Conditioner - Any device with a primary function to condition the quality of commercial power received by a load. This term is not applied uniformly among power protection manufacturers.

• Line Interactive UPS - A UPS design based on a standby system with enhancements. Line interactive systems still switch to battery power when a blackout occurs, but instead of also switching to battery power when brownouts or overvoltages occur, a tap switching voltage regulation circuit activates to maintain usable power at the output continuously, without consuming battery power. The main benefit is that connected equipment can run straight through extended brownouts or overvoltages without draining the battery. Line Interactive systems are widely considered mid-level products between basic standby UPS systems and higher end online UPS systems.

• Online Double Conversion UPS - A high-end UPS design where output power is completely regenerated and passed to connected equipment with zero transfer time between line and battery power. Incoming AC power is converted to DC and then re-converted back to AC by a continuous duty inverter system. The dual conversion process completely regenerates the power flowing through an on line UPS, completely removing all surges, spikes, noise and other irregularities, providing pure, frequency regulated sine wave output at all times. Online, double conversion UPS systems are widely considered the best possible type of UPS available.

• Orderly Shutdown - Sequential shutdown procedure used on a computer system to prevent damage to the system or unwanted actions by any of the system's units. For example, a computer typically requires an orderly shutdown to preserve data integrity.

• Power Tap - Basically extension cords with several outlets. They should be used only temporarily, if at all.

• Spike - Also called an "impulse", it is a disturbance of the voltage waveform that is less than about 1 millisecond. Voltages can rise to hundreds or even thousands of volts in a very short period of time.

• Suppressor - A power protection device able to recognize surge conditions and reacts by routing excess energy away from equipment and out to the electrical grounding system.

• Surge - A short-term voltage increase that exceeds established upper limits for several cycles or more. Often confused with Spikes or Transients which last less than 1/2 cycle.

• UPS - An acronym for Uninterruptible Power Supply. Any device that provides continuous, acceptable power to its dependent loads no matter what is (or is not) coming in on the commercial utility's power lines (within limits).

• VA - Abbreviation for Volt Amps. The unit of measurement of apparent power. Most UPS systems are rated in volt amps. Actual wattage is typically 60-70% of this figure.

• Voltage Regulator - A circuit that has a constant output voltage when the input voltage fluctuates.

The Costs Of Downtime

The Internet has emphasized that availability equals viability. If companies do not have reliable solutions for the continuing operation of their equipment, they lose money. If one company's Web server goes down due to blackout, customers are apt to click over to a competitor's. If mission-critical computers involved in manufacturing are damaged by a surge, inventory runs behind and schedules are missed. If electronic noise penetrates sensitive testing and measurement machinery, delays are inevitable.

Disturbing Facts about Power Events

• Power outages interrupt operations at 72 percent of U.S. businesses (source: Ernst & Young, 1997).

• Power problems (surges and lightning) were the number one cause of desktop computer loss in 1999 and 2000 (source: Safeware, The Insurance Agency Inc.).

• Power disturbances account for about one third of all server failures (source: IDC).

• Half of U.S. corporations rate their Internet downtime costs at more than $1,000 per hour (source: The Yankee Group).

• Brownouts account for 87% of all power disturbances (source: Bell Labs).

• While the chances of being struck by lightning in the U.S. are only 1 in 600,000, the odds improve as you travel through Florida, the "lightning capital of the U.S.A." (hence the name of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team) (source: The Weather Channel).

• It is reported that over 100 Americans per year die as a direct result of lightning strikes (source: The Weather Channel).

• Annual property loss in the United States due to lightning has been estimated into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Much of this damage is to sensitive electronics that suffered surge damage as the result of a nearby lightning strike (source: The Weather Channel).

Common Questions about Power Protection:

Q. What do I need to be protected from costly Power Surges?

A. The bare minimum required to protect against a power surge is a true Surge Suppressor. A quality surge suppressor should be rated to absorb at least 400 joules and come with some type of insurance. Unfortunately most homes and offices contain what are commonly called surge strips. These strips are most often merely power taps and offer the same protection as an ordinary extension cord.

Q. What do I need to protect against power failures?

A. When a power failure occurs, it can cause computer users to lose hours of work when their systems shut down without warning. Power failures can even damage hard drives resulting in loss of all data on a system! Consider the fact that a single power outage on a high-traffic network can stall hundreds of users, and you begin to see just how serious power failures can be. Even worse - when the power returns, it often brings after-blackout spikes and surges to cause even more damage. To protect against downtime and various power events, you would need an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). For most home users, APC’s Back-Ups ES series should provide adequate protection. For business workstations however, where downtime can be costly, APC’s Back-UPS Pro series provides the necessary protection. For a business server, APC’s Smart-UPS series should provide the protection and runtime that a server requires to ensure data integrity.

Q. What happens if a power failure occurs and I am away from the computer?

A. Virtually all of APC’s UPS units come with an interface cable that connects to you computer. This cable provides various statistics and also has the ability to perform an orderly shutdown of your computer if you are not there. The UPS unit will save and close any open documents, end any running programs, and safely shut down the computer. So even if you are away for business or pleasure you can rest assured your computer’s data will be protected.

For more information or for assistance in choosing the power protection that is right for you, please call Citrus Computers at 813-926-9672 or 813-960-9123.

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