OT: Battery backup

[Richard Kreiss]

Last night at about midnight the lights in the house went on and off several
time for about 1 to 2 minutes and then at 12:15 the power went off in the
whole community.

I surmised that someone had hit a pole outside the community and this
morning I found out I was correct.

Now all of my UPS' started to beep in my office as they should.  

The more interesting thing is I have been using 2 spare ups'  for my flat
panel  TV's and cable boxes.  When the power went off, my wife was watching
some programs she had recorded on the DVR.  She never though anything about
the fact that she was watching her programs when all of the power was off in
the house.  The system stayed up for 1/2 hour - that's when the power
returned.  This was a 720Va APC SmartUPS which one of my clients had
replaced with a new larger model and gave me.  

I strongly recommend using a UPS with your video equipment if you are not
already doing so.  I think we all realize that all of the audio/visual
equipment most of us use are computers and any power surges and/or outages
will effect on these electronic boxes.

Besides, who wants to sit in a dark room when one can watch TV without a
generator? :)

Richard Kreiss