Re: OT: surge protectors

Good point about laser printers. Manufacturers warn against plugging a laser
printer into the usual UPS. When a laser printer's laser warms up prior to
printing, it draws a serious amount of current causing a momentary drop in line
voltage to other devices. The maximum rated wattage of a laser printer is
pretty high, too, often exceeding the capacity of a typical UPS.

Until I reworked the electricity in my home office and got a laser printer with
lower power consumption, every time I would print something, the UPS would beep
as the laser warmed up. At the time, the UPS and the laser printer shared the
same circuit, but the printer was not plugged into the UPS... Ben Myers

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:04:01 -0800 (PST), w_tom <w_tom1@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Feb 22, 11:51 pm, Journey <jour...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Also, what components should be plugged into a UPS -- mainly the CPU?

Typical UPS is 'computer grade'. Output of a 120 volt computer
grade UPS when in battery backup mode: two 200 volt square waves with
a spike of up to 270 volts between those square waves. Electricity so
'dirty' as to even damage some small electric motors. Since computers
are so robust, then dirty 'computer grade' electricity is not harmful.

Do not power 'at risk' appliances such as a laser printer via UPS.
The 'modified sine wave' described above can be harmful to some
motors. Do not plug a power strip protector into that UPS output.
Computer grade power may degrade that protector or UPS output harmed
by the protector.
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: OT: surge protectors
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