There are three functions of a UPC.

1) The first is to act as a surge protector.

2) The second is to keep the computer running in case of a power glitch (lights flicker) and/or to give you a minute or two to shut 
down your computer gracefully if the power goes out.  These are very important for gamers!

3) The third is to keep the computer running for a long period of time even though the house power has gone off.  For example, your 
want to keep your computer web site up or, in my case, I just want to keep my TIVO going.

The first is difficult for a consumer to judge.  If you want real protection, you should get a whole-house lightning arrestor and 
use surge protectors as a supplement.  For example, I pay my REC $5 per month for some kind of contraption that they have attached 
to the meter that is supposed to provide "surge protection."

The second should work for just about any decent UPC.  You can look on the box for time estimates.

For the third, you have to know the total wattage that you want to protect and the number of hours you want to keep those watts 
going.  Bigger is better.  In fact, when a battery (12v) went bad in one of my UPC's, I ran wires to the garage and connected the 
surge protector to a deep-cycle (marine) battery that I use to power my telescope.  I am sure that the big battery would last a lot 
longer than the little battery that the UPC had.  In any case, many UPC boxes come with charts that give an estimate of run time 
under varying conditions.  My box has 1250 VA (volt amps) and 750 watts, which are current and power limits, neither of which tells 
me watt-hours which is what you really want to know.  You need to use the chart to guess how long the system will run - if you 
believe the charts!

HTH

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Waddell" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 10:13 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] UPC - how much power do I need


Looking for a UPC. Don't know how much power I need. Have 2 computers, one with a 500W PS and the other with a 400W PS. They might 
be overkill for my system. Based on the PS total I might need a UPS that supplys 1000W of power but they are expensive. With the 
right UPC, can I run 2 PC's from one UPC or would it be best for each computer to have it's own UPC. Guess I should look up the 
power consumption fo each component and add 10% for a good estimate. Any thoughts?

Tom

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