How to Buy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply

Shop for a uninterruptible power supply. Look in office supply stores, big box electronic stores, specialty computer stores, or on the internet.Buy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 1Bullet1.jpg For a desktop PC, what you're looking for is enough power to supply your computer (the beige or black box), the monitor, and whatever critical IO devices are connected to it.Buy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 1Bullet2.jpg Most UPS packaging has a list of what the UPS 'should' back up, and for how long. 15 minutes should be plenty long enough to close your documents and shut down safely. An hour will let you 'finish' whatever it was you were doing, and possibly A printer is not critical, and laser printers eat too much power to plug into a UPS. Amplified speakers are not critical. A MODEM or ROUTER that supplies the computer may be critical For a router/phone internet connection (presumably with a notebook), you only need a smaller UPS to keep it running for hours.Buy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 1Bullet3.jpg

Get the UPS out of its box

Follow the directions for it. Plug the UPS inBuy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 3Bullet1.jpg Plug the monitor, computer and any ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL devices that require power to keep the computer from crashing into the 'Battery protected' plugsBuy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 3Bullet2.jpg Most UPSs have surge protected plugs that don't offer battery back-up.Buy and Use an Uninterruptible Power Supply Step 3Bullet3.jpg

Even if you don't use a phone line MODEM, if you have a phone on the desk, use the phone filter. You could save yourself an electrocution in the event of a lightning strike.

Plug in the monitoring cable (usually USB nowadays) and install the software (or install the software and plug in the cable, as is sometimes called for in the instructions).

Configure the software to safely shut down or hibernate the computer if the power goes out and you're asleep or otherwise disposed.

After a few hours, the UPS battery will be fully charged and the system will stay up through short black-outs, or at least shut the system down normally when power is interrupted.