Originally Posted by
ClueByFour
And in a well designed one that's not either intentionally subject to massive amounts of power problems (notably of the 2-5 variety--sags, spikes, undervolts, or overvolts), the actual unit should last forever. If it's treated right (see below).
Here in Thailand we have pretty awful power too. When going down the UPS route I was advised by people here to also use a tap-change AVR to feed the UPS. Cleans most of the power problems before it gets to the UPS thus meaning that the UPS itself has less to do (and means that it switches to battery less often). Nominal AC power here is 220V - the UPS monitor showed only 64V input even after being boosted by the AVR during a big storm here recently! I do notice from the LEDs on the AVR that it's constantly (well maybe once or twice an hour) boosting or throttling the voltage to produce a clean 220V.
Can you explain about not using surge-suppressing power strips please? Hadn't heard that one before - mine aren't, but purely by luck rather than judgement. Thanks.