Esther & Fester Bestertester wrote:
Your claim is true, if and only if, you are talking about a double
conversion UPS. The normal line interactive backup UPS (the type you
were referring to) has no more surge protection in it than one of
those cheap power boards.

Hogwash, of course the UPS I am talking about is part of a power system.
Hence you are the one who is wrong. Using a power strip alone, will barely
protect equipment from line surges. Using a UPS will protect from line
surges as well as more importantly keep your equipment running during a line
outage. No power strip will provide power during a line outage.

It might just be me, but does it sound like these two are arguing the same
point...?

FBt

No, the "hogwash" fellow doesn't understand that the UPS units that cost under $200 are basically a surge strip followed by a solid state switch that switches to battery power when the source gets too bad. And that many "good" surge strips are better at surge protection than what is built into low end UPS units.

His comment that a UPS is better than a power strip is true only if the UPS is designed with better surge protection than the power strip and that you can about voltage outages. As a blanket statement it doesn't hold water.

And since (as I think Tom pointed out) the joule rating is a measure of how much surge energy a surge protection device can absorb before it wears out, you have to think about how much surge protection that 3 year old UPS is really providing.

Measuring the surge protection remaining is expensive and really not worth it. I tell folks to buy 2000 joule or higher units and treat them as power strips after 3 years, less if you know of any nearby strikes. Actually if you have a nearby strike, just assume it's a power strip and replace it. I'm in an area with regular thunder storms. Not like Kansas but enough. If I lived in Kansas I'd likely switch to a 1 or 2 year cycle.

David