It has taken a while to make this decision but there seems little alternative which we can afford. Due to the disappointingly unreliable electricity supply in our area we are plagued by power cuts and ´brown-outs´, some last only fractions of a second but on occasion can last an hour or more.
This play havoc with our internet connection, the WiFi and the file server which, although being Linux based, is still susceptible to file corruption and data loss when suddenly powered off. Also, as our websites are hosted on the server it is embarrassing to have the site switch off at any moment.
The power outages usually coincide with bad weather so with Winter approaching it seems sensible to take precautions.
At this stage of our renovation plan installing a solar array and battery storage for the whole house is well out of our budget so the next best thing is a small UPS to keep the IT equipment alive when the power drops out. I scoured eBay and found a used APC device with new batteries and a guarantee. It took only a few days to arrive safely from Manchester.
After fashioning a suitable extension cable to plug in the array of power transformers and then tracking down the type 'B' USB cable (which I knew I would need one day) its is now all up and running.
It has been just a few days but the unit has already prevented at least 3 system shutdowns.