If when using an encrypted home (with eCryptFs) my system has a power failure is it more likely to cause data loss than it would if it wasn't encrypted? At what extent?
Whether or not your home folder is encrypted shouldn't affect your data loss one way or another. However, having an encrypted home directory makes it a lot harder to recover data from a Live CD. If you lose the password that you got after installing Ubuntu that allows you to unencrypt the directory, then your chances of getting data out of the folder are slim to none. So, therefore, it is good to always backup frequently. Ubuntu 11.10 comes with a nice built in backup utility, supporting backup to an Ftp server, external hard drive, Ubuntu One, etc. EcryptFs writes the data directly to disc, and there shouldn't be any data loss problems.
Whether or not your home folder is encrypted shouldn't affect your data loss one way or another. However, having an encrypted home directory makes it a lot harder to recover data from a Live CD. If you lose the password that you got after installing Ubuntu that allows you to unencrypt the directory, then your chances of getting data out of the folder are slim to none. So, therefore, it is good to always backup frequently. Ubuntu 11.10 comes with a nice built in backup utility, supporting backup to an Ftp server, external hard drive, Ubuntu One, etc. EcryptFs writes the data directly to disc, and there shouldn't be any data loss problems.