With May here, summer is on it’s way and in my house, that always makes me thing of one thing: Is my equipment protected from summer storms and the lightning they bring? Last year, after building my latest HTPC, I wanted to know it was protected. Especially with our power company. It only takes one storm for us to get surges and brownouts. Not cool if you have as much electronic equipment as we do.
I thought I’d take time to find some protection and battery back up solutions that you can use to make sure your equipment is safe during unsafe weather.
I thought it might be a good idea to split protection from battery backup but most of today’s solutions are a combination of the two so there’s no sense in splitting them. Most high quality surge protection solution will also come with some sort of battery backup and let’s face it: if the power goes out, having enough juice there to let your PC power down properly is the best solution anyway.
UPSs (Uninterrupted Power Supply) run the gamut in price. That coupled with the fact that I’m not testing any products for this article led me to the conclusion that instead of listing individual products and their specs, I would instead give you an idea of the companies out there who build these systems.
Until starting research for this article, APC was really the only company I knew of when it came to UPS solutions. They’re probably the best known company you’ll see listed here. APC carries solutions ranging from simple surge protection and single system battery back up all the way up to enterprise products that could power and protect your whole office.
Like APC, Powerware offers a gamut of solutions no matter what you’re looking for. After looking at the site, I didn’t see the same scale of enterprise solutions but that’s not to say the company doesn’t have you covered when it comes to protecting your SOHO or home theater electronics.
Another company I found in my search was Cyberpower. While not offering much different from the other two companies I found, they have some good looking solutions including those that will allow you to view stats using a built in LCD right on some of the units. This could be convenient when it comes to line conditioners and making sure you have nice clean power for your equipment.
Again, I don’t intend this to be a head-to-head bang out between these companies. More of a warning to protect your gear. Some things to remember when choosing equipment:
- Phone, Ethernet and coax lines can destroy gear just as easily as power lines
- Choose a solution that will provide enough outlets to safely run your equipment
- For battery back up solutions, be sure and choose a solution that will provide enough power to keep you running long enough to at least save and shut down your systems
While no solution will provide 100% protection, following these rules should help keep you from having to buy a new receiver or motherboard for your HTPC.
