In article ZsAHc.14750$oh.13125@lakeread05,
"someone" writes:

A brownout is generally recognized as planned voltage cuts - or
undervoltage.
My utility in the US routinely implements 3% and 5% voltage cuts to shave or
reduce peaks (and thereby save $' when buying power).

There is also the issue of spikes and harmonics.

Given a current laptop/desktop will be ~ $800USD to ~$4000 for a high
performance system and a UPS sells for $40 - why subject a computer
to unexpected power events? What is the value of the data on the hdd(s)?

This just isn't an issue in the UK, about which the original question
was asked. Maybe it's more of a problem in the US for some reason?

--
Andrew Gabriel