By William LaMartin, Editor, Tampa PC Users Group
lamartin@tampabay.rr.com

All these many years of personal computing, since 1983 with an Apple and since 1991 when I changed to a PC, I have been running without a battery backup. And believe it or not, I have rarely lost any work to a power interruption or outage. Furthermore, we didn’t even lose power during the recent siege of hurricanes.

But about a week after the last hurricane to pass near Tampa, the power flickered off twice in two days, and on the last one, I lost about one-half-hour of work. After a little research, I went out and purchased an APC Back-UPS 1500, the best UPS that I could find easily, for $200. The 1500 stands for 1500 VA. I always thought volts x amps = watts, but I am confused now since the maximum wattage supplied is 865 watts.

This device provides six outlets that are both battery backed-up and surge protected and two additional outlets that are only surge protected. Additionally there is a phone line pass-through that provides surge protection for a phone line. There is no protection provided for a cable or DSL line. See the photos at right. Although the photo of the front of the unit has RS in the name, it looks exactly like what I purchased with XS in the name.

The device when positioned vertically resembles a small thin computer. You may also position it horizontally. But be warned, when positioned horizontally, there is a only one correct side to be the down side.

What is of particular interest is the software that comes with the unit. It is called PowerChute Personal Edition. With this software you can monitor the status of the backup unit and configure how it functions. Below is a screen shot of my current status. As indicated, 234 watts of power are being consumed. This is for two computers, two flat panel 15” monitors, a cable modem, router and wireless access point. If I bring the flatbed scanner to life, it would add at most another 30 watts. The APC unit communicates with the software via a USB connection to the computer.

What you cannot add to the backup is a laser printer. I plugged my old HP LaserJet 4 Plus printer into the backup, turned it on and watched the APC unit’s PowerChute software go berserk with warnings about excessive power use. So if you want to be able to print during a power outage with a laser printer, get a bigger unit.

As indicated in the above picture, the estimated time that I could run the two computers on the battery is 31 minutes. As the backup is configured at present, when five minutes of time remains on the battery, the software will initiate an orderly shutdown of the computer (only the one connected to the USB cable). The shutdown point is adjustable in the configuration tab of PowerChute. You may also adjust how sensitive the unit is to power fluctuations. This determines under what circumstances the unit will switch to battery backup due to electrical noise. You may also adjust when the battery backup kicks in if the AC voltage goes above or below certain voltages. My unit is set to kick in above 138 volts and below 97 volts. u