by B. L. Babb

Created on: January 11, 2009   Last Updated: November 28, 2009

With between hundreds and thousands of dollars tied up in your home office equipment, it is important to protect this business investment from detrimental power surges and outages. An untimely outage could scramble a hard drive resulting in not only a crashed system but loss of valuable business data (also a good reason for frequent backups).

There are many devices sold on the market today for protection from power surges and outages.

Research your needs before shopping to know your power requirements and help make the proper selections best suited to protect you.

Power surges can be caused by many things, including lightning. Quality surge protectors are not typically available in the $20-$30 price range. Some may offer "warranties" that claim to reimburse you hundreds of dollars in the event your devices are damaged by a surge.

Read these warranties thoroughly upon purchase. Some may want receipts for your damaged electronics, others may want proof your system was correctly connected (this means no using a ground plug adapter to fit a three-prong plug into a two-prong outlet.) However, payment may not be quick and losses due to the equipment's failure most likely will not be covered.

Do not "modify" the surge protector in any way. Cutting off the ground plug will void the warranty and turns your surge protector into a fancy extension cord with no protective value at all.

While two-prong outlets are disappearing today, there are many older houses that may still have them.

An even better investment, although more costly, is the UPS (pronounced as in plural of up) or Uninterrupted Power Supply. These contain a battery power source inside making these heavy to carry and move.

There are also a wide range of these available. To know which will work for you, calculate the typical power draw that may be connected and powered on at a given time. Calculate a buffer in to allow for small expansions and purchase in that range. In addition, search for one with replacement batteries readily available from multiple sources.

One type uses small motorcycle sized batteries as the backup power source. There are available in a variety of places allowing you to search for a replacement battery without being forced to pay high prices for it from a sole distributor.

Some units have eight outlets. Four are battery and surge protected and four are only surge protected. For the four with battery protection, the battery also "grooms" the incoming power to provide a steady output regardless

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