When an office loses power for even a moment, the damage is rarely the outage itself. It is the unsaved invoice, the corrupted file, the phone system that will not restart, or the router that never comes back on its own. Power problems also include things you do not see: a surge from a storm, or a brownout that dims the lights and resets equipment. A few inexpensive devices, placed correctly, cover the common cases. Here is how I think about them for a small office.
A surge protector and a battery backup are different things
A surge protector limits a sudden spike in voltage so it does not reach your equipment. It does nothing when the power goes out. A battery backup, often called a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), keeps equipment running on a battery for a short time after the power drops, and many models also protect against surges. The battery gives you minutes, not hours. The goal is enough time to save your work and shut down cleanly, or to ride out a flicker that would otherwise restart everything.
Many people assume the long, cheap power strip under the desk is protecting them. A strip with no surge protection is just extra outlets. Check the label for a joule rating and a statement that it is a surge protector. If it only says "power strip," treat it as extra outlets and nothing more.
Surge protectors wear out
The parts inside a surge protector absorb spikes, and each spike uses up some of that protection. A unit that has been through several storms may still power your equipment while no longer protecting it. Many models have an indicator light that shows whether the protection is still working. If yours has one and it is off, replace the unit. If it has no indicator and has been in service for years, replacing it is inexpensive insurance. Write the install date on the unit with a marker so you can see how old it is at a glance.
What belongs on a battery backup
Put the equipment whose sudden loss causes real trouble on a battery backup:
The network equipment. The router, firewall and switch. If these stay up, your internet phone system and cloud applications recover faster after a brief flicker. My article on what to do before your internet goes down covers the rest of that preparation.
The phone system. A cloud phone system still depends on local network gear, and desk phones powered over the network lose power when the switch does.
Any server or storage device. A shared drive or backup device that loses power mid-write can corrupt files.
The front desk computer. This is the machine where a customer is waiting while you try to save a payment record.
Leave large laser printers and copiers off the backup. They draw a lot of power when they warm up and can overload a small unit. Plug them into a surge protector instead.
Size the unit by watts, not by the big number on the box
Battery backups list two ratings: volt-amps (VA) and watts. The watt rating is the one that matters for what you can plug in. Add up the wattage of the devices you plan to connect, which is usually printed on each device's label or power adapter, and choose a unit whose watt rating is comfortably above the total. Then check the runtime chart on the manufacturer's page for your load. For network gear, the chart often shows a long runtime, because those devices draw little power. For a desktop computer and monitor, expect far less. Buying a unit that is too small is the common mistake, and a unit running near its limit will not hold up well in a real outage.
Know what the unit does when it is working
Backups usually beep when they switch to battery. Tell your team what that beep means and what to do: save work, close programs and shut down if the power does not return within a few minutes. If your backup connects to a computer by USB, many can be set to shut the computer down automatically when the battery runs low. Ask your IT provider whether that is worth setting up on your server or storage device, where an abrupt power loss does the greatest harm.
Batteries age, so test them
The battery inside a backup does not last forever, and the manufacturer lists how long it expects the battery to last under normal use. Nearly all units have a self-test button or a test option in their software, and many show a warning light when the battery needs replacement. Run the self-test every few months, and replace the battery when the unit tells you to or when the manufacturer's expected life is up. A backup with a dead battery looks fine until the day you need it. I add a line for this to the office's quarterly technology check-in so it does not depend on anyone remembering.
Do not forget the plug-in details
Do not plug a surge protector into another surge protector or into a backup, and do not chain power strips together. Both can overload a circuit and void a manufacturer's protection. Give each backup its own wall outlet when you can. Keep units in open air, off the carpet and away from heat, since batteries and fans work harder when they are covered in dust or boxed in under a desk.
Power protection is not a backup of your data
A battery backup protects equipment for a few minutes. It does not protect your files if a drive fails or a device is lost. Keep a separate copy of your data, as described in my article on small business backups, and test that you can restore from it.
Where to start
Walk the office with a notepad. List what is plugged into what, note which strips are only strips, and mark the equipment you could not afford to lose mid-task. Start by putting the network gear and the front desk computer on a properly sized battery backup, then replace any old surge protectors. DirecTech Connect helps Middle Tennessee businesses plan and install power protection alongside network, phone and backup work.
Danielle Lemons is Vice President of Operations at DirecTech Connect, a Nashville provider of business phone systems, managed IT services, websites and digital marketing. More about Danielle.
Read more of Danielle’s writing, or see her profile at DirecTech Connect.
