It’s a must to ensure the protection of your electronic gadgets if you live in an erratic power surge or repeated thunderstorm-prone region. You can use a surge protector to save your regular devices while using a UPS to protect the heavier electric machines.
Interestingly, some even try to combine Surge protector with the UPS, thinking it will double up the safety. But is it really possible? Does it work, and how safe is it?
If you are also wondering so, stay tuned. Through this article, I will give you the logical answer to your question and all the related information you need to know.
So, let’s clear out your confusion.
What is a Surge Protector?
A surge protector is a safety device to protect your electronics from any damage due to overvoltage flow. Attaching a surge protector to your electronic devices restrains the voltage to a safety limit, ensuring the proper amount of flow in your machines.
If you somehow face a sudden power surge, the surge protector will absorb the excess power and send any extra voltage directly to the ground.
Additionally, you can plug multiple components into one single power outlet through a surge protector. It will ensure all of its connected devices have equal safety during a voltage spike. 
Usually, our regular electronics require only 120volts. But due to thunderstorms and lightning, the voltage can easily rise up to 300volts that can durn down all our necessary electric equipment. So, it’s a must to have a surge protector to avoid such unwanted situations.
Can You Plug a Surge Protector into a UPS?
Yes, you can plug a surge protector into a UPS, but it’s not necessary actually. A UPS has a built-in surge protection system inside them. So, it’s redundant to use another surge protector with it. Moreover, it violates the safety instructions of UPS manufacturers and voids the UPS warranty.
Installing a surge protector into your UPS outlet can increase the number of outlets to let you connect more electronics to your UPS. You can also think that it will better the protection against voltage overflow as it adds a breaking layer to the circuit before any risky current reaches the UPS.
But in reality, your UPS is single-handedly capable of delivering the necessary safeguard for your day-to-day devices. Also, a UPS works best when you connect it directly to the wall outlets. Confused? Let me clear it out.
When you connect a surge protector with your UPS, it’s noise filtration circuit will take some load off from UPS. As a consequence, your UPS fails to show the original attached load and reports a lower percentage.
Since you don’t get the actual value, you may start using more devices, ultimately overloading your power supply. When the UPS runs on battery, it can not support the increased number of devices and cause a load drop. That why, using the wall socket to connect your power supply is the wisest option.
Furthermore, your power supply unit can handle only a fixed number of devices and a specific load limit at a time. But when you plug a surge strip into it, you increase the number of receptacles and the devices plugged into it. Thus, it triggers an overload.
Finally, your UPS acts like a surge protector. Therefore, when you add an extra surge protector to its system, it creates a daisy-chain effect. Meaning you are connecting one surge protector with another.
As a result, both will draw more than the required current and generate more heat. If things go southside, this can ignite a fire and damage your valuable machines.
So, UPS manufacturers always recommend not to use a surge protector with UPS and strictly mentions it in the safety instruction. If you fail to follow this guideline, your UPS warranty will become invalid. Hence, you will get no compensation in case you damage your USP due to a surge protector.
For these reasons, I recommend you not to connect a surge protector with your uninterruptible power supply. In case you badly need additional receptacles on the output of your UPS, just use a power distribution unit (PDU).
Continue reading to know more about it.
Can I Plug a UPS into a Surge Protector?
Yes, you can plug a UPS into a surge protector. But if you plug more devices into that same surge strip, power-hungry units will draw more energy. So, your UPS will not get the power it needs. So, you should always connect your UPS with the wall socket to get the proper power supply.
People assume that plugging a UPS into a surge strip increases the safety layer for the electric equipment. It’s true somewhat, but still not recommended. Here’s the explanation.
Ground protection is a must for UPS to provide its in-built voltage overflow protection. But when you plug your UPS with surge protection, the ground connection of your UPS gets disrupted. So your UPS will fail to secure your devices efficiently.
When you connect more devices along with your USP in a single surge strip, it can badly affect the battery life of your UPS. The UPS battery won’t receive proper power to remain online, thus wearing out soon.
Some may suggest using a power strip instead of a surge protector to plug your UPS into it. Regular power strips do not provide any voltage protection, so the voltage level is not limited here.
But still, when you overload the power strip with other heavy devices, your UPS will not get the required power supply.
It can only help when your UPS is located far from the wall socket. In such a case, you can use the power strip as an extender of the wall socket to connect your UPS with electricity.
Just dont overload the power strip with other useless devices or try to use only the UPS on it for the best outcome.
Can You Plug a PDU/Power Strip into UPS?
If you really need to increase the receptacle of your UPS, you can go for a PDU (power distribution unit).
Surge protectors filter out any overflow in the current, but they can’t allocate the power efficiently. This can cause some of your devices to malfunction when they don’t get enough power.
However, if you use a power distribution unit, current is equally spread to all your running machines. Plus, installing a UPS with it can make the PDU work like a surge protection unit.
Simply install the PDU plug in the socket back of your UPS, and then you can get the same UPS safety through receptacles from the installed PDU.
Even so, each UPS has a limited capability to take the voltage load. Therefore, keep in mind that the load placed on the UPS extended outlets must not exceed 80% of the unit’s capacity to avoid any risk and get the best-optimized result.
Alternatively, you can also go for a power strip with an extension cord. A power strip and PSU serve the same purpose and don’t use any cap for over-voltage flow. So you can easily use a power strip to increase your regular UPS outlet connection.
Furthermore, you can use a strong extension cord with the power strip to avoid any potential electricity leakage. Low-quality power strip cords can melt down due to the overflow of electricity.
So, power strips with a strong extension cord are recommended when you try to install an uninterruptible power supply with it.
FAQs
What happens if you plug a surge protector into a UPS?
You can plug a surge protector into a UPS, as it does not damage your machines. But you don’t need to, since UPS can provide essential surge protection by itself alone.
Is it safe to plug a power strip into UPS?
Yes, it is safe to plug a power strip into UPS. Just use the right connectors and maintain a stable voltage load in the UPS to safely plug a power strip into it.
Do I need a surge protector if I have a UPS?
Yes, you should use a surge protector for light components like printers, routers whereas you’ll need UPS for heavy devices like PC, inverter AC and many more.
Conclusion
UPS and Surge protectors are both great safety tools. But when you try to use one with another, the result is never beneficial.
Instead, I’ll suggest you to use a UPS for more critical, sensitive equipment such as your PC, Smart TV or AC and plug other smaller devices into a surge protector to effectively deal with power surges.
Hopefully, this article has helped you to clear out your question and given you necessary information regarding UPS and surge protector usability.
Need more clarification? Do let me know in the comment section below.
