Wednesday 29 July 2015

What is a UPS?

Power cuts, because of the dreaded load shedding, can not only cause you to lose unsaved work and precious data. It can also damage your valuable hardware and network infrastructure. So how do you protect your computers from load shedding? Enter the UPS

A UPS, or “Uninterruptible Power Supply,” is any device that keeps your computer powered up and operational in the event of a power interruption. Simply put, a UPS is a battery that provides power to your computer or other critical hardware when its primary power source is unavailable. When your computer’s power source is lost, the UPS provides power for a certain amount of time (usually 10 or 15 minutes) so you can save your work and properly shut down your systems.

If you operate your business on a network or have various peripherals connected to your computer, a UPS system can be used to protect multiple devices, including monitors, modems, and routers. Most Uninterruptible Power Supplies will also shield these network systems from damage that may occur from power cuts and surges.

A UPS comes in two basic types: standby or continuous. A standby UPS, as the name implies, doesn’t switch on until power is interrupted. When it detects a loss of power, it switches on immediately (within 5 milliseconds). Most commercial UPSes are of the standby variety.

A continuous UPS, on the other hand, is always on and acts as a battery that powers your computer. A continuous UPS charges itself on power from a wall plug, and in turn runs your computer or other hardware system. This acts as a buffer so that no matter what happens to your power — be it surge, or load shedding — your critical machinery receives a clean, reliable flow of juice.

Uninterruptible power supplies range in price. Some Uninterruptible Power Supplies even include software that automatically saves your open files and shuts down your computer if its power source is compromised.

So before you buy another piece of costly computer hardware, consider investing a little money in a UPS. It can save you the headache of losing valuable data, and, in the event of a power incident, it just might save you some serious money by protecting your infrastructure investment.


Off Grid provides back up power solutions that are both affordable and easy to run! Order yours today and beat the load shedding blues!


1 comment:

  1. Power interruption are quite the challenge on our everyday lives but with the help of a good old ups with quality, situations such as this could be bearable. Investing on a ups will let you be in control even when the power has drop. An expensive hardware is useless when the power is down so be sure to avail for a ups to match with your device.

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