Aware me on UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)
 

Thinking about buying one or two.

Mostly for my PS4, I leave it in standby most of the time and there's been a few times over the year where power has gone out. Might also use it for a PC/TV/Modem/Router setup.

Where's the best place to buy one? What should I look out for?

Why? Is your PS4 a critical appliance that needs to power down gracefully? Do you have business stuff on your PC that you cannot absolutely have interrupted mid-edit? Will you put a UPS on your modem and the splitter box (the big box from Shaw/Telus) as well? Are you prepared to replace them every 3-5 years once the battery goes? It's a lead-acid unit most of the time, so heavy as hell. And they're not cheap, starting at $50-150 for a basic unit.

Most UPSes give you 5-10 minutes on a regular PC, less for TV/etc with higher power draw. The more devices you plug into it the less time you have. Once power goes out start saving and shutting down all equipment. It is not meant to power equipment through an outage, just to give you time to shut it down.

Or are you talking about a power filter/surge protector?

1. Yes, absolutely, it is a critical appliance that needs to power down gracefully, least i do leave it on standby all the time, if it was on a UPS and power dies, i'm assuming a UPS can keep it on standby all day or at least a few hours as it's barely drawing any power at standby.
2. Wouldn't say it's life-threatening stuff but would be nice if I got time to save stuff and shut down safely when I actually am working on something on the PC. I have lost a few things from a couple of random outages the last year.
3. Likely not the modem and splitter box.
4. Sure, 3-5 years is easy enough.
5. $50-$150 doesn't sound too bad

How heavy are we talking about? I've looked at amazon and they don't seem that heavy.
Enough time to shut down would be great, I'd be asking about a generator if I wanted power through an outage.
No, not asking about power filters/surge protectors.

Depends on the size. 10lbs seems to be a fair average for a UPS.

APC BACK-UPS BE850M2 850VA 2 USB Charging Ports 120V - BE850M2 - NCIX - 450W unit
Cyberpower CP1000AVRLCD 1000VA 600W UPS 9 Outlet 1080 Joules AVR LCD RJ11/RJ45 & 1 USB Serial Black - CP1000AVRLCD - NCIX - 600W unit.

Again, runtime depends on load. The Cyberpower unit is nicer as it had readouts and a screen to display power/time remaining. We use APC units at work but they're mostly for the servers.

:fulloffuck: for a game console? i guess if you walked away before an autosave point and the power cuts out haha
i think it's important to have one if your livelihood depends on it
but i guess for $100ish it's alright for a peace of mind

i got this unit for my computer

https://www.amazon.ca/APC-Back-UPS-B...ds=apc+backups

has a LCD readout of the wattage being used and an estimated run time on battery with the current load.

https://m.costco.ca/APC®-Back-UPS-Pr....10353656.html

Cheaper in store too

I have 2 of these and would reccommend. One for the PC, and one for the TV/receiver. Worked well.

At the time I had a Sony SXRD projector, on power down, it would keep the fan on for a couple minutes to cool the bulb. The manual even warns that bulb damage is likely if there's a power interruption on shutdown.

Saved my PC and TV one time during an outage. There was also a surge when Hydro got the power back up. Unfortunately the surge blew out my house furnace control board though. Two days without heat in the winter. Brr.

I use APC UPS for years now and they are great. Like every lead-acid battery products, you will need to replace the battery 3 years or so. The UPS will give you a warning when a replacement is required.

Remember to spec out the UPS capacity properly. Whatever you are planning on plugging into the UPS, measure their power draw, and then double it. At full-load, a UPS will only give you minutes of battery power. At half-load, it will give you about 10 minutes.

For comparison, my high-end gaming PC, at full-load draws ~650w and spikes to ~800w at times.