UPS Back-up Recommendations

[Maitre]

Small, but relevant, tangent :)

How often does your (and everyone else's here) power flicker and undervolt, out of curiosity? Is this because of a generation/supply shortage, or transmission problems?

I ask because here in Ontario we've traditionally had an excess of power, even exporting down to the NE states. Yet with recent governmental pledges to chop back on coal generation, and the age of some of our nukes, combined with a (relatively, for Canada) large population boom I think we're going to be encountering problems soon. But I can count on one hand the number of outages in the past year (2), and those were both weather-related line downages. Am I simply spoiled with a good grid?

Do they have to brown you out during peak supply periods?

Just interested:)

The issue in my house is poor wiring / poor selection of AC equipment. The draw of our central air unit and the accompanying compressor unit at startup causes the lights to dim, etc. We in Virginia haven't been subjected to shortage as yet, but I've heard some Maryland residents complaining of shortages.

Seperate question: Both my wife and I have laptops as primary PCs and I'm wondering, should I be using a UPS system to firewall the laptops' AC adaptors from the house, or are we okay with the AC adapters alone? Also, how much damage am I doing to my laptop using the power outlets while traveling on the Acela (Amtrak's business service serving DC, Boston and major cities between) with the power supply going in and out once an hour or more?