westom

First understand how surges do damage. For example, a lightning strike far down the street is a direct strike incoming to every household appliance. Why are all not damaged? Because surges are electricity. A surge incoming on one wire without an outgoing path to earth via some other wire typically does no damage. It is electricity. Both incoming and outgoing paths must exist. A classic example is a surge incoming to a PC on AC mains. Often through a motherboard to the NIC. Outgoing from the NIC into a router and modem. Then outgoing to earth via a cable or telephone line. First that current is everywhere (simultaneously) in that path. Much later only one or but a few items fail. In your case, the NIC (the outgoing path) would be one failure. Failures are often on the outgoing path; not always on the incoming path. Phone lines and cable already have a best protection / connection to earth. As even required by code. Surges typically are outgoing to earth via these utility wires - not incoming. AC electric has no earthing on most wires. Therefore AC electric is a most common source of incoming surges. Damage was because some wires are entering the building without first connecting to single point earth ground. Either connected using best protection - a hardwire from cable to earth. Other utility cables that cannot be earthed directly must be connected by another solution - a 'whole house' protector. Protection is always about connecting a surge to earth BEFORE it can enter the building. That connection via a wire or a protector. Once permitted inside, that surge will hunt for and find destructive paths to earth via appliances.

That circuit breaker is not reporting staff mistakes. The circuit that is ghastly overloaded. You are suppose to know how much power is connected to that circuit. Every appliance has a label (where the power cord connects) that says how much power (watts or amps) that appliance consumes. You are expected to add those numbers. Circuit breakers are only emergency safety backups to report when a human has made an addition error. For example, a 20 amp circuit breaker will conduct an overload - 25 amps - for up to two hours before the breaker trips. Your laptops could be drawing more than 30 amps when combined with the power consumptions of the server. That is an overloaded circuit - a human safety threat. Also scary is recommeneding a surge protector plug to cure an overload. Circuit breaker is repeatedly reporting an overloaded circuit. A 16 amp breaker will easily provide 32 amps for 12 or 25 seconds without tripping. The circuit can be overloaded for that long because breakers are only emgerency backup protection. Stop trying to cure symptoms. You need another circuit. The existing circuit is very much overloaded. That simple. That existing overloaded circuit was obviously a potential fire. A mistake started by not summing power numbers from each appliance label. Circuit breaker is reporting a human created failure. Switching off laptops to reduce the still existing overload is another bad solution.

Appreciate how a typical UPS works. Power is connected directly to the computer when not in battery backup mode. So dirty power hit the UPS and computer simultaneously. What is a power supply's job? To convert even dirtiest power into stable and clean DC. Your computer's power supply makes 'dirty' power completely irrelevant. A UPS is often so cheap - have cheapest power supplies - that a replacement battery costs almost as much as the entire UPS. You have assumed the UPS is doing things that even the manufacturer does not claim. It's only function is to provide temporary power during a blackout. Read only its numeric specifications. Claims in sales brochures will be misleading and intentionally incorrect - and that is acceptable. Any facility that has 'mission critical' servers puts the UPS at the service entrance. Only that UPS provides more than temporary power. What is the output of a typical UPS when in battery backup mode? This 120 volt UPS outputs two 200 volt square waves with a spike of up to 270 volts. And yes, that is perfectly ideal power to any computer or electronics. Same power can be harmful to small motors and power strip protectors. Perfectly ideal power because all computer power supplies are required to be so robust - to even make that 270 volt spike irrelevant. This electrical reality is not promoted in advertising; is not known by a majority only educated in advertising. Incandescent bulbs dimmed to 50% - and that voltage is still perfectly acceptable to any computer. Computer power supplies are required to be that robust. The UPS is installed to maintain power when voltage drops even lower - to save unsaved data. Anything else you might want to cure is best performed elsewhere. What do you want to protect from? Then provided can be solutions.