Survive blackouts with $40 battery backup
No power? No problem. The APC 550VA battery backup will keep you running for up to an hour.
(Credit: APC)If you're using a notebook and there's a sudden power outage, no problem: The battery will let you keep on workin'.
Desktop users aren't so lucky, which is why it's essential to plug everything into a battery backup (aka uninterruptible power supply). If the lights go out, you'll still have a few minutes in which to save your work and safely power down the machine.
Best Buy has an APC 550VA Battery Backup System for $39.99 shipped. It includes a total of eight outlets, all of them surge-protected and four powered by the 330-watt battery.
The 550VA promises up to 65 minutes of runtime, depending on the power demands of your hardware. It also has phone/fax/modem and USB ports to keep that gear from getting fried.
APC offers a $75,000 equipment-protection policy, meaning if your gear does get zapped while plugged into the 550VA, the company will reimburse you.
As someone who works at a desktop nearly every day, and who has lost work due to sudden power outages, I consider a battery backup essential equipment. Normally they're a lot pricier, so I'm liking this deal a lot.
Rick Broida, a technology writer for nearly 20 years, is the author of more than a dozen books. In addition to writing CNET's The Cheapskate blog, he oversees BNET's Business Hacks. Rick is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. Disclosure. Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers. Follow Rick on Twitter at cheapskateblog. 
It works - but I'm sure I entirely trust the estimated battery life (seems to vary between 11 and 28 mins).
Anyone with a powerful PC and/or big monitor will probably want the 750VA version.
My company got rid of the old version of this backup for nicer ones, so I took home the batteries from about a dozen of them. Made a little wiring harness to clip them all up and I now have 13-14x the battery life sitting under my desk.
If you're regularly running them down then sure a deep cycle can discharge a bit further with less damage. But you shouldn't be running them down almost ever, so you'd be paying extra for something that doesn't see enough use to matter.
My point was that for very little money you can get some serious runtime. The cheapest offbrand auto battery is still 10x or more the capacity of a little UPS battery.
With that said, these can be a life saver if your working on something important when the electric blinks.
Haven't had a problem with it so far, and its been 6 months.
In Michigan we have power failures that last days, not hours...
EVEN THE TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED CAN PLUG A LAMP WITH A 13 W CFL BULB INTO ONE OF THESE AND HAVE REAL LIGHTING FOR SEVERAL HOURS- NO CANDLES OR CAMP LITES NEEDED.
Ditto radios, TV, (and- dare I mention DVRs in the middle of recording),
Now I'm going to get 3 of these for home. Our big HDTV needs fan power for a minute or so after shutting it off so abrupt power outages could wreak havoc. So I'm going to get one for the media center stuff, one for my home Linux server/router infrastructure, and one for the kids computer work area.
I'm holding out for fuel cells for the whole house power backup system and off the grid freedom.
Might want to be sure that will be enough for your "big HDTV".
50" Plasmas pull between 200 and 600 watts, with most in the 300-400 watt range, depending on age, power settings, and manufacturer.
Typical Backup Time at Half Load 13.4 minutes (165 Watts)
Typical Backup Time at Full Load 3.2 minutes (330 Watts)
Where does the author get 65 minutes?
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550G&total_watts=200
550VA (330W) capacity with up to 65 minutes of battery backup time
For safe system shutdown when power is lost.
A little optimistic to say the least.
Their stated 65 minutes would mean a draw of a mere 30 W. The only PC's I know that draw that are thin clients WITHOUT THE MONITOR. What good is the box without a monitor, and who cares if your thin client goes down ... it's just a terminal?
Alt-Ctrl-Del this article.
The only fool bigger than a blogger is the reader that blindly trusts blogs.
Do your homework.
Be skeptical.
Kudos to "camainc."
Second, the 550VA doesn't protect from lightening strikes to the cable...it didn't even protect my equipment from a lightening strike when my system was turned off.
When the time came to finally replace my 550VA, I upgraded to the APC Back-UPS ES 750. It's more money than the 550VA but this model has cable protection.
- by kerryhiggins August 12, 2009 1:16 PM PDT
- just make sure you don't buy it from best buy ....best buy hates it when you return things.....or even bring them
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (29 Comments)in for repairs....more so if there under warranty.....and if you do bring it in for repair and they like it be sure to
not forget about it other wise you will never see it again......they will take up to 6 months to a yr at times hoping
you will forget about it up to the point where you have to complain to the credit card company ....other than that
yes it sounds great.........
best buy reminds me of the company lexmark which is also another bad company as well since they also
do not stand behind there products or there contracts that they them selfs agree too there customers don't
mean a thing to them either if you have a problem with there product or if somthings missing from the box
they always tell you to either open your eyes and look again or they say well how do we know you did'nt
do somthing to it to void the warranty then get you irrited then hang up on you.....best buy is the same way
thats why i will never ever buy from either company ever again in my life time and i hope no one else does either