It always surprises me why people don’t notice the Warning Signs of problems, and then act surprised when something goes wrong.

I’ll give you an example from my own life. I have had power issues at my Apartment since I moved in. Since my landlord is worthless, and his repair department clueless, I don’t expect anything to get truly fixed. I just accepted that I would have surges of power, brownouts of lack of power, and no power at times.

However last week it occurred to me that perhaps I wasn’t taking a reasonable risk. I mean, I had $500 worth of electronics a TV/PS4 that would be ruined if the power problems kept continuing. So I broke down and bought a $50 UPS.

The next day while I am playing video games, the worst power problems happened since being here. The apartment lost power, it had a brownout, then surge. A trifecta of power problems. I heard the UPS clicking wildly on and off while I was dealing with these various issues. Guess what? Everything survived ok.

Was I lucky? Yes of course. However it is also fair to say that I watched the Warning signs of power problems at my apartment and then took action. Many people notice a problem, but few bother to take action to correct it.

Would my electronics been ok without the UPS? I don’t know. I have seen as an IT person power problems destroy many electronics. Perhaps I am more sensitive to power issues than the average person, but then again I am more sensitive to many things than most people I seem to encounter.

Could I be overpaying to fix a problem that doesn’t matter? After all TV’s can fail without power issues and if the TV failed I would still have to spend money to replace it. For that matter, the damage may already be done to the TV/PS4. Maybe it was too late for me to put in a UPS to prevent early failure?

All those may be true. However I will hedge my bet and hope that spending $50 will give me another year or two of life that I wouldn’t have had. I think that will make it pay for itself. If not, at the very least I have this story to share.

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