At 2/15/00 10:51 AM -0500, James E. Griffin wrote:

>Folks,
>
>Got a client with a power problem at home. His two computers, and
>assorted peripherals, were on surge protectors.
>
>When I went over to see what was wrong with a modem, his wife was
>vacuuming another room. Noticed the other computer re-booting. Yup, too
>much drain on the circuit; checked the breaker box in basement,
>professional install, everything up to code. Despite the surge
>protectors -- you can't depend on this stuff entirely -- his modem
>became an expensive fuse.
>
>While I'm familiar with the problems of power conditioning, it's not
>what I do for a living. I'll throw this out to the list to see what
>other folk recommend. While my client is looking for a low cost solution
>if possible, I'd like to hear other folk's options.

My son's dorm room has a terrible problem with power fluctuations and a
momentary power dips (very old dorm). We found that a smaller APS (APC
Back-UPS Office 400) works great. He was getting re-boots frequently due to
power surges/dips.  we opted to go with two smaller units, one for him and
one for his roommate, rather than a larger one that could handle both.  The
reason was it gave more flexibility in moving the units around the room.
The APC Back-UPS Office 400 is less than $100 and is fairly small. We used
the surge only protection for the printers and scanners, while the monitor
and machine were on the battery backup outlets.  A momentary low power
situation usually doesn't hurt the printer and scanner as it does the
monitor and machine. It also includes protection for the incoming phone
line for your modem protection (no more fuses!). I now have one on my main
machine at home. The URL for the device we use is:

http://www.apc.com/products/back-ups_office/index.cfm

Hope this helps.

Doug

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