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I too live in the lightning capital of the US. In an area with periodic short
term power outages (20 seconds here - a minute there). When you look at this
situation - you have to keep in mind that there are 2 separate issues -
protecting your equipment from lightning - and running your system when the
power goes down.
I use several levels of protection. The first is a "whole house" protector.
It's commercial quality - and manufactured by Ditek. It's designed to prevent
everything from getting "zapped" if your house is hit by lightning. You need
an electrician to install one - and it cost us about $350 (including
installation). Note that there are various models. The one you'll need
depends on the size of your house - and your electrical requirements.
A traditional lightning rod is an alternative to this kind of system. But I
don't know anything about them because our architectural review board doesn't
allow them. They're probably worth a look.
Our second level of protection is Back-UPS systems manufactured by APC
(www.apcc.com). They come in different battery sizes. You'll need about a 200
minimum for a computer and monitor (depending on your system). The larger the
unit you get - the longer it will run your system. I believe the boxes for the
APC units have charts on the back of the boxes showing the power draws/running
times. The prices vary (a little less than $100 and up - depending on the size
of the UPS) - but I've found that CompUSA and Office Depot have competitive
prices.
Note that the Ditek unit and the UPS do not protect your system from damage
caused by lightning which hits the telephone lines (I'm assuming your unit is
connected to a modem). You'll need a separate surge protector for that. Since
I have a cable modem - which has both a cable connection and a modem connection
- I bought a surge protector at Sound Advice which is designed to protect TV
systems (but it will also take care of a cable modem).
If you have anything else connected to your computer (I don't know how RT data
feeds work) - you may need protection for that connection too. Also - if
you're using a RT data feed and you want protection from power outages that
last more than a relatively short period of time - you'll probably have to look
into more sophisticated UPS systems than we have (ours are designed to give us
time to shut down our systems and save our work - or to run our systems for a
short period of time during a minor outage - not to run our systems for a few
hours if the power goes down).
In case you haven't thought about it - besides all the electrical gizmos - make
sure that you do what you can to minimize the possibility of lightning strikes
(like cut down tall pines within 30 feet of the house, forget about the
decorative metal wind vane on the roof, etc.).
There are a lot of great things about living in Florida - but lightning isn't
one of them. Robyn
Donald Mawhinney wrote:
> At the risk of starting up the great UPS powered bass boat debate.....
>
> I'm starting to shop around for a UPS. I've decided on a zero-surge surge
> protector as recommended by Fred Polk...a necessity as I live in lightning
> alley in Florida.
>
> I know nothing about UPS's. How long can they run one's system in the
> advent of a power outage? 10mins? 60mins? Are there better brands, or are
> they all the same? Costs?
>
> Thanks in advance, Donald
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