Small UPS Brand name ?

[Buck Parrish]

Is their a small UPS (Uninterupted Power Supply - for those of you in Rio Linda) brand that would be prefered over another.

I have two lap tops, copier and fax I would like to run. I'm thinking about 1000- 1500. Also does one use alot more power then another. Does it have a built in cut off inside them. So when it is fully charged it would cut off the charger portion of the UPS... Like my boat motor charger.

I guess what I'm asking is. Is their a UPS that is superior?
Like I wouldn't buy a pair of side cutters made by Wiss. And I wouldn't buy a pair of tin snips made by Klien. You see what I mean?

 

[Nom Deplume]

APC http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13

 

[cornbread]

A lot depends on your load. I look at UPS in two catagories... online and standby. Most of your cheap units are standby... meaning they will send house power unfiltered to your load with a small charge going to your batties... when power loss is detected the batteries will kick in and supply your load... this transition can be ugly. If your equipment needs clean power avoid these init. A online UPS filters the power by converting it to DC, then back to AC...so the output power is always clean. The transition to batteries is seemless and that is why I prefer the Lieberts.

http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-US/Products/ACPower/Pages/default.aspx

 

[zbang]

I second the Lieberts; get a used one, replace the batteries, and it'll last for a good long time. (Don't bother putting the laptops on the UPS, most of them have one built-in.)

 

[Buck Parrish]

Thanks, I see their are alot of difference in prices.
I'm thinking It's likey the modem that is giving the girls in the office a problem when we have a second or two power outage. So the 500 watt should be fine, what say you?
This is in rual Indiana. Our closest neighbors are Amish. So you can understand electricity is not a high priority in that area.

 

[tallgirl]

+1 for checking out APC.

One thing about UPSes is that the wattage rating is pointless. What you want is the watt-hour capacity before the thing just plain drops dead from low battery voltage. You may have to get a UPS capable of providing several times the peak power output just to get one with large enough batteries.

 

[GoldDigger]

Is their a small UPS (Uninterupted Power Supply - for those of you in Rio Linda) brand that would be prefered over another.

I have two lap tops, copier and fax I would like to run. I'm thinking about 1000- 1500. Also does one use alot more power then another. Does it have a built in cut off inside them. So when it is fully charged it would cut off the charger portion of the UPS... Like my boat motor charger.

I guess what I'm asking is. Is their a UPS that is superior?
Like I wouldn't buy a pair of side cutters made by Wiss. And I wouldn't buy a pair of tin snips made by Klien. You see what I mean?

If the copier is the xerographic type (electrostatic with a fuser for the powdered toner) it takes a lot of power for heating. Some keep the fuser hot full time.
An ink jet printer-copier will be better suited to operate off a UPS.

 

[augie47]

Used APCs for a long while. No problems.

 

[Besoeker]

+1 for checking out APC.

One thing about UPSes is that the wattage rating is pointless. What you want is the watt-hour capacity before the thing just plain drops dead from low battery voltage. You may have to get a UPS capable of providing several times the peak power output just to get one with large enough batteries.

You can add additional batteries.

 

[tallgirl]

You can add additional batteries.

Depends on the UPS. Smaller "consumer grade" UPSes designed to maintain workstations tend to have no internal room for additional batteries. Buck is looking for a UPS in the 500 watt range, which almost certainly wouldn't have space for additional batteries. That leaves up-sizing the power output. The BackUPS 750 (the smallest "small business" UPS larger than 500 watts) has no additional room. It also has a 14 minute estimated runtime at 200 volt-amps, compared to the BackUPS Pro 1300 with a 33 minute estimated runtime at the same power output. That model also doesn't have space for additional batteries.

 

[Besoeker]

Depends on the UPS. Smaller "consumer grade" UPSes designed to maintain workstations tend to have no internal room for additional batteries.

They don't have to be internal.
Most I have dealt with have provision for adding external matching battery packs to extend autonomy.

 

[dereckbc]

UPS comes in three basic flavors of Standby, Line Inter Active, and Dual Conversion.

Stand By units are the inexpensive ones you find at box stores, have small batteries, usually a cheap Modified Sine Wave Inverter or even a Vibrator inverter, little or most often no line filtering, and only designed to operate a small desktop just long enough to shut it down during a power failure.

Line Interactive is a step up and mostly used for small to medium sized office applications or even a work station. They are one of the two forms of Static UPS, the other being Dual Conversion. In Line Interactive (Single Conversion) utility power is not directly converted to DC but is fed directly to the load through a Magnetic Transformer. Regulation, filtering, and conditioning are done through electronic inverter that interacts with with AC Line to Buck/Boost, or replace incoming AC power as needed. Line Interactive units range in size for 1 Kw up to 10, 15, or 20 Kw wiht optional battery packages to determine emergency run times. Thes type of UPS are going to be your medium priced lines from companies like APC or Liebert.

Dual Conversion units are the Cadillac of UPS systems usually for larger applications like data centers and critical applications where outages cannot be tolerated. As the name implies they AC to DC to AC. AC line is fed directly to the rectifiers. The rectifiers charge the batteries and supply power to the Inverters under normal operations. When AC power fails the batteries are already on line and take over. Like Line Interactive they have Static Bypass switched so they can be taken off line and loads placed on AC Line for maintenance. Sizes range from 10 Kw up to several MW.

OK rather than list a whole bunch of models and features, you can walk yourself through it. HERE IS APC UPS SELECTOR TOOL. Just enter in Max load in Watts, VA, line voltage, run time, and country electrical topology. Bingo you got it.

 

[Little Bill]

I agree with the UPC brand. However there are some other good ones.
If you want total protection get one that has the "brown out" feature.
That is just a voltage filter that keeps the voltage at the proper level.
If it senses a surge or a drop in voltage, it will go to battery power and maintain the nominal voltage.

The main reason to use a battery backup/surge protector on a computer is to give you a chance to save your work and shut it down properly. Some even have software that you put on your computer that will shut the computer down (the proper way) automatically. It's not really so you can keep using it in a power outage. If that's what you want, you would need to get a larger unit with longer run time. Also, most suggest you don't use them for a laser printer.

 

[K8MHZ]

Depends on the UPS. Smaller "consumer grade" UPSes designed to maintain workstations tend to have no internal room for additional batteries. Buck is looking for a UPS in the 500 watt range, which almost certainly wouldn't have space for additional batteries. That leaves up-sizing the power output. The BackUPS 750 (the smallest "small business" UPS larger than 500 watts) has no additional room. It also has a 14 minute estimated runtime at 200 volt-amps, compared to the BackUPS Pro 1300 with a 33 minute estimated runtime at the same power output. That model also doesn't have space for additional batteries.

I am using an APC 400 watt unit with an external 100 Ah battery. Home modified, of course, but I am pretty sure I can get 10 or more hours run time for my computer and VOIP phone.

One thing I have to re-wire is the blasted alarm. I want to be able to silence it while using it on back up.

Another thing I don't like is if you turn the unit off, it won't turn back on, full battery or not, unless it sees AC line power has been restored.

 

[GoldDigger]

I am using an APC 400 watt unit with an external 100 Ah battery. Home modified, of course, but I am pretty sure I can get 10 or more hours run time for my computer and VOIP phone.

One thing I have to re-wire is the blasted alarm. I want to be able to silence it while using it on back up.

Another thing I don't like is if you turn the unit off, it won't turn back on, full battery or not, unless it sees AC line power has been restored.

I agree that that behavior is just plain unacceptable.

 

[tallgirl]

I agree that that behavior is just plain unacceptable.

I have a Belkin, I think it is, that has a "SHUT UP YOU STUPID BUZZER!" feature, which is completely annoying and unacceptable. I don't think any of mine will refuse to power on with no AC at all. When I was pulling out all the UPSes after installing the solar gear 6 years ago I daisy-chained them all, one after the other. None of them recognized power from the one before as "AC Power", but they did turn on when the button was pressed.

 

[hurk27]

Personally I have always stuck with Tripp Lite UPS's which offer a great line of total surge and filtered UPS's and even offer dual conversion units in the lower 2200 watt range with expandable run time by adding battery pack's, their surge protection in my opinion is second to none as they have been in the business a long time, they also offer full sine wave output in most of their lines.

Take a look at some of their UPS systems the offer here: Tripp Lite

Oh and yes most of their UPS's have an alarm silence and can even be run in total silence mode.