Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Normally, when people think about how cold the weather is and how low the temperature is, the first thought is that they will be uncomfortable and try to figure out how many layers to wear to stay warm. The truth of the matter is that the cold has an effect on so many different things, most of which affect our lives.

A worst-case scenario is when the low temperatures cause the water in pipes to freeze, resulting in burst pipes and plumbing headaches.

One such case happened last week at New York’s University at Buffalo. The cold weather caused one of the sprinkler pipes to burst and unfortunately, the pipe was located in one of the electrical rooms. This incident caused 500 students to leave Red Jacket Hall dorms and find other accommodations; 50 of them wound up spending the night on cots in Alumni Arena.

Cold weather and winter storms also affect outdoor power lines; if it happens and you’re home, it could simply result in a night of bundling up and reading a book. On the other hand, if you’re sitting in your dorm room working on a term paper or any school project, having the power go out without any warning could be disastrous. If you are working from notes, it’s not such a big deal. As for me I tend to write on the fly, so most of those wonderful ideas and thoughts could be lost in a blink of the power.

Whether you are spending the next couple of years in a dorm room, or if you live in an area that experiences regular outages due to weather conditions, a simple solution is to invest in an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A lifetime ago I was testing several servers for a review and the power inexplicably went out. As it turned out I was also testing one of the first Minuteman UPSs. I cannot tell you how much of a live-saver that was for me. Not only were all of the servers saved, all of the information that I collected was able to be saved before I had to power everything down.

It is scenarios such as this which make you realize how difficult it is to reclaim lost thoughts. Speaking for myself the second time around is never anything like the first. While I can reclaim most of my original concepts, inevitably, many pearls of wisdom are lost forever. Having a backup option can be a real lifesaver, whether you have your word processor save your document every couple of minutes, or have everything plugged into a reliable UPS.