Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

The debate can rage on about global warming, or if man is responsible for climate and environmental changes, but the fact of the matter is that we are experiencing unprecedented weather in just about every part of the world. My relatives in Italy tell me that they have never seen it rain or snow so hard at times when traditionally the weather is usually nice.

Here in the U.S. we have Midwestern and Southern states experiencing flood conditions while the West Coast is suffering from one of the worst droughts in history. Earlier last week, as I was practicing with my pool team, it turned dark as midnight and began to hail. There is a skylight over the pool table we play on and you could hear how large the hailstones were.

The severe thunderstorm only lasted about 45 minutes, but you could see rivers of water running down the streets. The following night I was listening to the news and people from Connecticut and Pennsylvania were talking about the storm and hearing how some watched a small boat fly past them.

Storms, such as the one that we had last week, cause many problems. According to an article in TIME.com, PECO (News - Alert), in Pennsylvania, said that more than 165,000 homes and businesses were without power. Chester and Delaware counties were hardest hit and officials said full service might not be restored until the weekend. In New Jersey, nearly 210,000 homes and businesses were without electricity. The storm hit the East Coast from D.C. up through Connecticut.

The combination of high winds knocking down tree branches and power lines, lightning hitting transformers and disabling trains, traffic lights, as well as homes and businesses, shows just how vulnerable we really are. Today’s electronics are a lot more sensitive and it only takes a small power surge to render them useless.

When the power goes out in these areas, there is no telling when it will be restored. The question to ask is what can be done to try to save as much information and equipment during situations such as this. Businesses and homes were both affected, meaning that some could have experienced data losses and others will find that they cannot turn their equipment on.

The answer is a simple one, but it is also one that most people do not take advantage of. Connecting the more sensitive equipment to an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) could save you a lot of money. One of the first names that come to my mind when I think about UPSs is Minuteman Power Technologies. The company was founded in 1982 and I was lucky enough to test one of their first products.

I was working on a review of Linux servers from home when power was interrupted for about half an hour. It just so happened that I was also reviewing Minuteman’s UPS and had three servers plugged in at the time. The twenty minutes of backup power was more than enough for me to power down each server and power down the equipment without losing any information or damaging any equipment.

As soon as the power returned, the UPS was fully charged within an hour and I was able to continue my work uninterrupted. It seems that with the sensitivity of today’s equipment, combined with the frequency of severe storms disabling power on what seems like a regular basis, it would be a no-brainer to have a UPS at several strategic locations throughout your home and business.

A lot of equipment today is also designed to know when it is running on battery power as opposed to being plugged in. Most equipment has safety features that allow it save your data and safely power down, however this will only work if you have a UPS affording you or the equipment the necessary time for a successful shutdown.