It’s a fact that we must prepare for more frequent power outages and brown-outs in the immediate future because of aging utility company cables, fluctuating power supply sources, and more lenient regulations for providing power service. These are in addition to the usual causes, such as accidents and storms. A brown-out is a temporary drop in voltage of about ten percent or more. Brown-outs can cause electronic equipment problems and can damage motors.

You can prevent being left in the dark by purchasing inexpensive emergency lights that can be plugged into an ordinary electrical outlet. While the power is on, they are charging, and when the power goes off, they automatically turn on. It is also nice to have a flashlight convenient. Some campus buildings have emergency generators, but they usually take a minute or more to switch over, and in most cases, they power only emergency systems.

A possible serious problem is losing everything we have entered into the computer or other sensitive electronic equipment just previous to an outage. To avoid loss of critical data, make certain that your computers are protected by an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). A UPS provides battery backup for a specified time, depending on the nature of the equipment being protected. Generally, servers are protected by a UPS, which can be programmed to shut the server down properly and also provide protection against power surges and brown-outs. Workstations must have individual protection. UPS come in many various levels of protection and can be purchased from many computer equipment stores.