APC Back-UPS ES 700VA

Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices were quite popular in the 1980s and 1990s but have since fallen out of fashion.

They’re designed to keep your computer (or any electrical equipment) running when the power fails. Essentially, a UPS is a set of power sockets attached to a large battery. When things are running normally the battery charges itself, and if the power should fail, the battery kicks in so that the devices plugged in can keep going for a while.

There are several categories of UPS, right up to industrial models that cost thousands of pounds and will keep an office going. The ES 700VA, instead, is at the smaller end – in fact it’s one of the smallest you’ll see – and is designed for home use. That being the case it will keep a few devices going for long enough to save your documents and shut down safely, but not much longer.

The device has eight mains sockets on its top panel (it’s sold in several countries, so make sure you buy one with British sockets). All eight of them are surge-protected so that if lightning strikes you should be safe. Only four of them are connected to the UPS part of the device, so only the four devices plugged into them will be protected if the external power goes out. Not just anything can be plugged into it – it’s certified for around 400W of power, which is enough for a computer, monitor and a couple of peripherals.

It’s bulkier than a standard mains extension cable, though not overly so, but it is extremely heavy. It comes with a cable to connect to a spare USB port on your computer, and once you’ve installed the supplied Powerchute software you can use it to check on the device’s battery level, and set how sensitive it should be to power fluctuations and how the PC should shut down when a power cut is detected.

Actual performance will vary depending on your devices but plugging our PC, monitor and speakers into it we got around 10 minutes of use out of the ES-700 after cutting the power. It may be overkill for many users but if your home is susceptible to power cuts, it’s ideal.