If You Work from Home, You Need a Battery Backup System

A small investment in a Battery Backup System can protect you against the risk of losing valuable data or even a single hour of productivity. These devices offer guaranteed power protection for connected electronics. When power is interrupted, or fluctuates outside safe levels, a UPS will instantly provide clean battery backup power and surge protection for plugged-in, sensitive equipment. 

Ensuring that businesses have power protection for critical applications is vital to prevent disruptions to day-to-day operations. For the home office, it’s really a matter of when not if, you’re going to encounter a power disruption. 

Covered In This Article:

Designed For Essential Power Protection
Power Surge Protection
Reliable Battery Life
Out Of Sight And Out Of Mind
FAQs

APC UPS Was Designed For Essential Power Protection Needs

The electronic devices you rely on every day for communication, security and entertainment are at risk of damage and failure due to unexpected blackouts, voltage fluctuations or other power disruptions. A UPS provides battery backup power and protection for electronic devices, including:

• Wireless networking equipment (routers, modems)
• Computers
• Televisions
• Security systems
• Gaming consoles
• Mobile devices

UPSs provide backup power that can keep critical equipment up and running during relatively short outages and allow you to safely power them down in the event of a longer outage.

Or, in cases where a backup generator is available, after a power failure, the UPS can keep systems running until the generator starts.

A Battery Backup System Offers Power Surge Protection

Power surges and outages are more common and destructive than you think. Each of these components needs two levels of power protection from surges and outages.

Power surges are short bursts of power that can damage electrical equipment, essentially by sending more juice than they’re designed to handle. Surges can result from factors inside or outside the home.

Find The Best UPS For Your Budget

Your home will experience power surges no matter where you live.

Outside sources include lightning strikes, disruptions to power lines (think fallen tree limbs or downed lines in snowstorms), or even rodents and other animals getting into a transformer. Utility companies working on lines following such incidents or during routine maintenance can also cause surges.

But surges are far more likely to be caused by internal sources, from motors and compressors powering on and off, such as in refrigerators and air conditioners. Small appliances like hairdryers and some power tools can likewise do the trick, as can faulty wiring.

Power outages can result from many of the same external sources, although now we’re also seeing planned outages. Similarly, during high demand periods, some customers may face brownouts, which are intentional reductions in electricity flow.

Many of the mysteries of equipment failure, downtime, software and data corruption, are the result of a problematic supply of power. There are seven types of power problems that can lead to you missing your deadline: 

• Transients: Potentially the most damaging type of power disturbance, transients are sudden high-peak events that raise the voltage and/or current levels in either a positive or a negative direction. 
• Interruptions: Defined as the complete loss of supply voltage or load current. Depending on its duration, an interruption is categorised as instantaneous, momentary, temporary, or sustained.
• Sag/Undervoltage: Sags are usually caused by system faults, and are also often the result of switching on loads with heavy startup currents. 
• Swell/ Overvoltage: The complete opposite of a sag, swells have an increase in AC voltage.
• Waveform Distortion: A steady-state deviation from an ideal sine wave of power frequency, principally characterised by the spectral content of the deviation.
• Voltage Fluctuations:  In simple terms, voltage fluctuation is a continuous change in the voltage when devices or appliances that require a higher load are extensively used. Extreme cases of voltage fluctuation can cause heavy damage to your life and property.
• Frequency Variations: a change in the way alternating current (AC) flows.

Reducing equipment downtime and production expense, therefore increasing profit, is the goal of any size business.

Understanding these power problems will help in the discovery of better methods to achieve business goals and dreams, such as the utilisation of a battery backup system in a home office. 

Reliable Battery Backup System Is The Name Of The Game

Being aware of and addressing the risks to clean, reliable power is critical to staying connected and avoiding interruptions that impact your productivity from home. UPSs are known for having batteries with short expiration dates. This is where the APC UPS has the upper hand with a battery life of 3 – 5 years. It is also easy to order a replacement battery through the APC website, or even the APC mobile application.

Not too sure which UPS to choose? We’ll Guide You!

APC uses Lithium-ion UPS batteries that offer double the lifecycle of lead-acid batteries. These additions perform better in higher temperatures, such as those grilling South African summers we’re used to. It is good to keep in mind that a Smart-UPS gives you 2x the battery life of other solutions and up to 50% lower total cost of ownership.

It is important to keep in mind these six important points when selecting a UPS solution:

• Backup Time
• UPS Topologies and Protection Offered
• Parallel Systems
• UPS Monitoring and Shutdown Software
• UPS Environment and Battery Lifespan
• Preventative Maintenance Contracts

In order to make your UPS run properly, your UPS has to be large enough to support all of the equipment plugged into it. You will need to find the UPS capacity. Capacity is how much power a UPS system can provide (measured in Watts). The higher the capacity, the more electronic equipment, and devices it can support. To find the UPS capacity, you will need to calculate the load. The load is the combined amount of power each of the devices use.

A UPS That Is Out Of Sight And Out Of Mind

Thanks to design work and form factor that runs throughout the Easy range, these units are easy to set up. They can be wall-mounted or are small enough to be placed in a well-ventilated area that is out of the way. 

FAQs

1. Does APC Make Good Quality UPS Solutions? 

APC by Schneider Electric has a long history of providing battery backup and UPS solutions for all sorts of requirements, from the largest data centres to small, but important, home offices. Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. At Schneider, we call this Life Is On.

2. What Types Of Batteries Do APC Battery Backup System have? 

APC UPS Systems use Valve Regulated Lead Acid (VRLA) batteries. VRLA batteries are designed to recombine hydrogen and oxygen and emit only extremely small amounts of hydrogen under normal operating conditions. Most APC batteries should last three to five years. There are many factors that affect battery life, including the environment and the number of discharges. 

3. Does APC offer Three-Phase UPS solutions? 

Yes! Three-phase UPS power solutions protect today’s energy challenges while setting the standard for quality and innovation. 

4. Which APC UPS Is Right For Me?

You will need to consider exactly how your home is set up and where the various components that provide internet connectivity are located. If your router isn’t in your office, it should have its own UPS for backup. When sizing a UPS for your specific requirements, the power factor matters most. Generally, your UPS should have an Output Watt Capacity 20 – 25% higher than the total power drawn by any attached equipment.

5. What Can I Run On An APC Battery Backup System?

That depends on what you intend to back up with your UPS. Runtime refers to the amount of time a UPS will be able to power its attached equipment in the event of a power disruption. The more equipment you have plugged into your UPS, the less runtime you will have, so it’s important to make sure your UPS is only providing backup power to your most critical equipment.