I don't have any intention of trying to run the equipment during a power outage. What I am after is a way to properly take the equipment down and prevent rapid on/off's from getting to the equipment. I had a really nice Maganavox VCR that I bought in the very early 90's before the units had the copy protect chip. About five years go I watched the power cycle on and off a couple of times before it finally went out. The VCR light got dimmer with each cycle and finally went out completely. The unit was dead when the power finally came back on, and it was plugged into an APC surge suppressor. My intention is to keep this from happening to my new equipment and I thought the UPS was the best way to go.