01-12-2013, 06:15 PM
First thing is to decide which items should be on the UPS, the rest can stay on surge protectors. At least part of your list I would leave off a UPS, for instance the printer and scanner. Also, given your statement:
With that in mind, if files are going to be saved over a network connection, that equipment should be on an UPS. The computer having its own battery might not need to be connected, but the external drives should be. As for capacity, most UPS's are listed by VA and may list the maximum wattage that can be drawn separately in the full specs. If that is not listed, you can estimate the wattage as being about 60-70% of the VA number. Normally you would want to keep the actual load to about half the maximum for a reasonable run time, but can go higher if all you want is a few minutes to shut down the connected equipment.
i'm not nearly as concerned with saving work in process at the time of a failure or surge as i am about protecting our equipment from damage from such an event.that goal could be almost entirely met with just surge protectors. The reason for using an UPS is to allow enough time to either ride out a short power loss or shutdown systems gracefully and save work.
With that in mind, if files are going to be saved over a network connection, that equipment should be on an UPS. The computer having its own battery might not need to be connected, but the external drives should be. As for capacity, most UPS's are listed by VA and may list the maximum wattage that can be drawn separately in the full specs. If that is not listed, you can estimate the wattage as being about 60-70% of the VA number. Normally you would want to keep the actual load to about half the maximum for a reasonable run time, but can go higher if all you want is a few minutes to shut down the connected equipment.