1. Make a list of all equipment that requires protecting.

Remember to include monitors, terminals, external hard drives, and any other critical equipment.

2. Determine Load

VA Ratings will help you determine what size UPS you need to protect your equipment. To find VA(VOLT-AMPS), find the Voltage and Amperage requirements for each piece of equipment. These numbers should be on a sticker on the back or bottom of the equipment. Multiply these numbers together:

If your components are measured in Watts, then multiply the number of Watts by 1.4:

3. Total VA Requirements

Add the VAs of each piece of equipment to find the Total VA. If you cannot determine the VA for your equipment, try our Size-UPS, which has VA ratings for many brands of computing equipment. Once you have a total VA, find it within the following runtime chart.

4. Size Your UPS

Take your total and find it below in the Back-UPS runtime charts. Choose the proper amount of runtime for your specific need. You may wish to oversize the UPS to take into consideration any future expansion needs.