Strengths:Can save electricity; auto-shutdown feature
Weaknesses:Big footprint - can\'t stack on side
Summary:We have multiple computers in our house, and most of them go into standby when not in use. While this does save electricity versus leaving them on all the time, it\'s still not zero. I have UPS\'s on all the computers to prevent any issues with surges on our power, which happens alot in southern California. This particular UPS advertises itself as being \"green\", in that it saves electricity. It does this in two ways, and it\'s not particulary clear how on the product package. They advertise as saving a bunch of money, but this is truly YMMV, as it depends upon your configuration. The one feature is that the unit has been designed from the ground up to be more energy efficient. They don\'t say how much savings this alone is versus their previous 750VA model, but I\'d say it\'s probably minor. The big potential savings comes from having a computer plugged into the master outlet, and other devices plugged into the slave outlets. When your computer is turned off or goes into standby, the USB connection from the computer to the UPS tells it that it can now turn off the slave outlets. Most computer peripherals go into a standby mode when not in use, but they still consume power. Being on a slave outlet now means that they are truly turned off. I have my speakers, monitor, usb hub and external hard-drive plugged into these slaves outlets. When I turn the computer back on, the slave outlets now power-up, and my monitor turns back on. It works very nice! You just have to be careful as to what you plug into the slave outlets, as you may *not* want them to power-down! For instance, I have a networked printer, an ethernet switch, wireless router and cell-phone charger that I don\'t want to be turned off. For these, I plug them into the normal battery-backup outlets. Note that you cannot master-control any of the battery-backup ports, just the surge protected outlets.
