Home Power Protection

A small desktop UPS sits under or beside a desk, protecting a computer, monitor and often a router, and provides enough runtime to save work and shut down cleanly during a sag or short outage. It is a modest investment compared with the cost of a damaged desktop or lost unsaved work.

A laptop's internal battery protects the laptop itself during a power cut, but it does nothing for the external monitor, docking station, network switch or router the laptop depends on. When the router loses power, the laptop stays on but loses connectivity to Microsoft 365, email and any cloud application. A small UPS on the router and modem keeps a home or remote office connected through short outages even though the laptop was never at risk itself.

• Home office power is often less consistently protected than a commercial building's electrical supply.
• A UPS on the router and modem keeps remote workers connected to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams through short outages.
• Surge protection on desktop equipment reduces damage from the same lightning and switching transients that affect the main office.
• Staff should know how to shut down cleanly when a UPS signals low battery, rather than simply waiting for the power to fail.

• Fit a small UPS to the router and modem in home offices, not only to the computer.
• Use a genuine UPS rather than a surge strip for any desk doing business-critical work.
• Replace desktop UPS batteries every few years; they degrade faster in warm environments.
• Train staff to save and shut down when a UPS signals low battery rather than ignoring the alert.

• Power protection overviewHow workstation protection fits into a complete power protection scheme.Read more
• Surge protectionTransient protection principles that apply equally at the desk.Read more
• Network and server protectionComms room protection for the equipment remote workers depend on.Read more
• Managed IT servicesSupport that covers remote and office-based staff alike.Read more