Summer has barely arrived, and we have already had a few electrical storms that have caused IT equipment to need repairs or replacement. Did you know that, if lightning strikes, the only guaranteed protection is for your devices to not be plugged in? However, there are some preventative measures that can be taken to protect against power surges and failures coming from the power grid.
Standard power boards protect your house from a faulty device, which helps to minimise the risk of electrical fires. However, they are not an effective protection for your devices from faulty power – like black outs and surges. Better alternatives are individual power socket surge protectors and surge protecting power boards, both of which are available from your local electrical store.
However, the best alternative, and the one currently recommended for use with the NBN, is an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The advantage of a UPS is that it also contains batteries to maintain power to your modem, phone, computers and servers, which then prevent data loss and corruption during power loss events, and enable communication to be maintained.
We strongly recommend periodically testing your UPS to ensure that it hasn’t become faulty since it was last needed. This test is a simple and quick process, most easily accomplished by turning it off at the wall to check that the battery kicks in.
There are many different options on the market, so if you would like to get the best devices for your particular setup, feel free to contact us to discuss the options.