Coping With Power Outages
By Sash Munjal
You may have heard on the news this past summer that various hydro utilities across North America including our own OPG had a peak demand for electricity that broke earlier records. Interestingly enough, we heard the same thing last year. And in 2004. And in 2003. It’s as if each successive year, electricity consumption exceeds previously established records for peak consumption.
So what all this means is that you should be ready to experience more power outages in coming years. At the consumer level the effects of power loss can range from insignificant to critical. For example, if you are working on your computer, sudden loss of power means that any work that wasn’t saved has now been lost. In certain cases a computer may be monitoring alarms and medical equipment. The bottom line is that losing power can range from a slight nuisance to a critical emergency and you may wish to consider buying an Uninterruptible Power Supply as a possible solution.
An Uninterruptible Power Supply is also known as a UPS power backup unit or battery backup unit. The word “uninterruptible” is the key. It means that in the event of loss of electrical power, any equipment connected to the UPS continues to work without interruption. That’s because a UPS’s key feature is its ability to switch over to its’ internal batteries and produce power so quickly that the connected equipment never knows that power was ever lost.
The starting price of a small consumer level UPS, suitable for a single computer, is around $80 and they can be purchased from almost any electronics or office supply store. For larger or more specialized requirements you may need to find a UPS dealer in your area.
Sash Munjal is Vice-President Sales for UPSforLESS, a Markham company specializing in power backup and power protection equipment. He can be contacted at sash@upsforless.com
2600 John Street, Unit 207, Markham, ON L3R 3W3 T: 905.475.5222 F: 905.475.6369
