Losing protection going from APC P10U2 surge protector to APC BN1500M2 UPS

[BillP]

So I completely understand that you are not supposed to plug a surge protector into your UPS or vice versa, what I didn't realize upon buying a $160 UPS is that it would only be 1/4 the protection (1080 Joules) of my $30 APC surge protectors (4320 Joules) that I am currently using. So now I have this dilemma, do I lose 3/4 of my protection going to my devices just to get a couple of min shutdown time when the power drops, do I just say F it and plug my surge strip into my UPS (knowing my devices aren't drawing to much power anyways) and guarantee I have that protection to my devices or do I just return the UPS and not have battery backup? This is all for home use so my server and personal computers are never really doing anything that if the power dropped while doing it would be catastrophic or anything. I'm really kind of disappointed that a product that costs 5x the cost of my surge strips made by the same company is so under spec protection wise. I mean the battery is only $70 on APC's site so that means excluding the battery the device is still 3x the cost of the surge protector and only gives 1/4 of the protection. Where did the extra cost get added because I know that dinky little LCD and controller board aren't costing that much.