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A UPS is an Uninterrupted Power Supply. Basically, its a power strip with a big, chunky battery on it. This allows it to continue to supply power to a small number of devices in the event of a power outage.
An important thing to know is that a UPS is not a generator, and isn't intended to replace one. A generator is intended to power an entire building for extended periods of time, and usually runs on generator fuel. A UPS is intended to provide power to a small number of devices, usually a computer setup, for about 2-3 hours. It gives you time to continue working and safely save everything in the event of a power outage, instead of losing all unsaved work. Additionally, a UPS will let you know that it's on battery power by continuing to beep every ~30 seconds, with beeping becoming more frantic the closer the UPs battery is to dying.
A lot of businesses already use a UPS for most computers. Even fast food places such as McDonald's have one, which is really funny to think about. Yeah, we can take your order, but we can't actually make it.
Why am I Writing This?
You may (or may not) be wondering why I'm writing an article that feels like something you would be forced to write for school. Well, last night my power went out, and having a UPS connected to my router saved me.
Thanks to having below ground powerlines, the power doesn't frequently go out at my house. In fact, the only times the power has gone out is when power was cut for maintenance work. But last night, the power suddenly went out, this time entirely unannounced. This sounds dumb, but I was playing Splatoon 3 when it happened, and thanks to the UPS, I was never disconnected. And although that was a small incident where nothing would be lost if I had no UPS except my B rank, it made me think about how important a UPS is. If I used a desktop instead of a laptop dock, I likely would've lost everything I was working on.