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Here is something I just wrote up for my facebook business page. Share it if you wish.

 

Let?s talk a UPS for a moment ( No, not the shipping company.) A UPS stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply. It?s a battery backup for your computer(s) (or any electronic device). What does that mean?

 

It means that if your computer is plugged into a UPS and the power goes off, or blinks for a second, the UPS will kick on and keep your computer running thus protecting you from any potential loss of data or damage to your electronic device.

 

You would be surprised (or not) how many computer hard drive related issues are caused by a sudden lack of power when the hard drive is writing data to the disk.

 

Everybody has always been told to buy a surge protector to protect your computer against the almighty power surge. Which is very good advice. But another common silent killer is the "Brown out", where the power dips and electronics are not getting enough power .

 

A Surge protector does not protect against this but a UPS protects against a Power surge, Power spike and a brownout. When a brownout occurs the UPS will kick on and kick off, keeping the power constant. This will generally be indicated by an audible clicking sound.

 

They just aren?t for Computers; they are for anything electronic, including your big screen TV.

 

Back in 2006 when I was living in my old place down on 2nd Ave, it was the first hot day of spring when everyone would probably be turning on their AC.

 

Back then I had 2 UPS?s, one for my main system and server and the other one for my media center. Then all of the sudden both UPS?s started to click on and off and they continued to do so for the next few hours.

 

My guess is I was currently experiencing a brownout where there wasn?t enough power going to my devices, enough to keep them on but less than what they should normally get (From everyone turning on their AC maybe?). The UPS would click on and off providing the extra power these devices were lacking.

 

When buying a UPS it's best to make sure it has "AVR" in the name If you are buying a Cyberpower brand UPS or "Smart UPS's" if you are buying an APC. Each company calls it buy a different name.

If it has that feature it means the UPS will automatically compensates for under and over voltage levels.

 

Below are some models I have purchased

 

The first one listed is probably over kill for most people. But if you have a computer (maybe 2) you wish to power as well as multiple monitors this should run about 15 mins without power or more depending on how much you have plugged into it. If all you had plugged into it was a router, it would probably power that for HOURS!

 

I have 1 plugged into my 70 inch TV, 1 router, 1 switch, 1 modem and my sound system. Would run about 25 minutes without power

 

The other one I have plugged into my main system powers 4 screens (though it doesn't need to) one i7 920 computer, 1 router, 1 switch and probably some other things it would run 11 minutes without power

 

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD UPS 1500VA 900W AVR Mini-Tower $140


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBK3QK/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

This next one is smaller and less expensive. $99.

 

I currently have 2 of these, 1 powering my sever (18 minutes without power) and one powering my security 3 security cameras, 2 network switches a 42 port ip KMV switch, a user console and a low powered NUC computer I use for quickbooks it says LCD panel that it would run about 75 minutes without power.

 

The reason that second one powers all of those things for 75 mins is that all of the devices plugged into it are are very low power devices.

 

CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD Intelligent LCD Series UPS 1000VA 600W AVR Mini-Tower $99

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QZ3UG0/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

You can definitely find cheaper ones at walmart. Which for one tower might be good enough. Just remember not to go super cheap,

 

Any UPS is better than not having one at all.

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It might be helpful for users if you explained how to pick the correct UPS size for their needs.

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Good writeup, an essential piece of hardware that a lot of people overlook.  Got burned once by an outage back around the turn of century that cost me hours of work.. never again. Every system (that aren't test machines/junkers) has one.

 

And I agree with LogicalApex above.. it's very important to make sure you get one that's big enough.  Don't go super-cheap on a system that draws a crapton of power... won't do you much good.  Couldn't hurt to expand on that a bit.  For me, I get a lot of fluctuations due to weather (tornado alley and all that), just needs to survive a few seconds.. if it goes longer than that it gives me enough time to shut down.  Don't need an hour of battery time.  Well, the desktops anyway, got a couple servers running on something quite bigger.

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avr is a cyber power model specific.  APC does not have avr, but their smart ups's do the same.

 

Thanks! Fixed!

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It might be helpful for users if you explained how to pick the correct UPS size for their needs.

 

Don't get Watts and VA confused. For some reason they don't equal out in the APC world. Heres a handy chart, as well as expected runtimes for a 1000VA system. http://www.excessups.com/ebay/Sept08/runtime.jpg and heres APC's interactive interface for the same UPS. https://www.apc.com/products/configure/index.cfm?base_sku=SUA1000XL&totalwatts=50

 

Add up all your wattages you'll be plugging into it, multiply by 1.25, and find one that has a suitable runtime for you at that draw. It should be on the packaging or listed like this one http://www.suntekpc.com/htm-2/ups-apc-sc620-american-power-conversion-smart-ups-battery-backup-systems.htm

 

UPS users should also check their UPS every 6 months for functionality and ensure no battery leakage. It may also be a good time to cycle it if possible as well. If you got bad batteries the whole thing is just a fancy surge bar.

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Also get into detail on a UPS vs Battery Backup. 

 

A True UPS is providing power via the batteries at all times and utility power is charging those batteries. Battery Backups are different, in that utility is providing power to the devices and only senses an outage and switches to battery power.

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Don't forget overvoltage.

 

About 2 months ago my UPS woke me up at about 4:30am...its front display was showing the input voltage being received fluctuating between 136 and 145V (normal is 120 here in Canada).  Every outlet in the house was showing the same thing.  A few hours later I brought it over to the neighbor's, with the same results.

 

I phoned the power company...saw one of their trucks go by a few minutes later...(the power distribution center, or whatever it's called, is just down the road from me)...followed shortly by 3 fire trucks.  The power was down for the rest of the day.

 

What I'm wondering to this day is, why did it take a cheap consumer UPS to detect this state?  This could've ended up with burning down the whole freakin' neighborhood.

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What I'm wondering to this day is, why did it take a cheap consumer UPS to detect this state?

 

What else did you have with an LCD screen that would have told you?

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What else did you have with an LCD screen that would have told you?

 

My dad has a voltmeter in the garage.  It displayed the same thing.

 

Ultimately, what I meant is why doesn't the power company have the equipment in place to monitor this itself?  Who knows what might've happened had I not called them?

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Don't forget overvoltage.

 

About 2 months ago my UPS woke me up at about 4:30am...its front display was showing the input voltage being received fluctuating between 136 and 145V (normal is 120 here in Canada).  Every outlet in the house was showing the same thing.  A few hours later I brought it over to the neighbor's, with the same results.

 

I phoned the power company...saw one of their trucks go by a few minutes later...(the power distribution center, or whatever it's called, is just down the road from me)...followed shortly by 3 fire trucks.  The power was down for the rest of the day.

 

What I'm wondering to this day is, why did it take a cheap consumer UPS to detect this state?  This could've ended up with burning down the whole freakin' neighborhood.

 

145V should be within tolerance of modern electronics, so nothing would have burnt. as for why they didn't detect it, power companies have little ability to detect faults on power going out of distributor boxes or transformers. on larger faults they'll detect it and your fusebox will shut off unless it's really old and don't have surge protection. 

 

 

Also yeah, computers today will have no problem with at least 20% over or under voltage and most PSU's will even keep the computer on if the power drops for 1-2 seconds. 

My dad has a voltmeter in the garage.  It displayed the same thing.

 

Ultimately, what I meant is why doesn't the power company have the equipment in place to monitor this itself?  Who knows what might've happened had I not called them?

 

Same thing, there would have been a fire in the distributor box. no more no less. at worst some electronics that wheren't up to their standards would have broke and the electric company would have had to pay.

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It might be helpful for users if you explained how to pick the correct UPS size for their needs.

 

Correct, but most power supplies that come with most computers that I see are 300 Watt if that, sometimes 250 watt. So I think what ever they buy will be good enough.

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Correct, but most power supplies that come with most computers that I see are 300 Watt if that, sometimes 250 watt. So I think what ever they buy will be good enough.

For the average user this is likely true. But as a guide shared with the community here I think the extra detail can prove very useful.

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Thanks for the write up.  A couple of months ago there was a thread about surge protectors, battery backups, UPS, etc & a couple people were saying all of these "low end" units were nonsense, if the UPS/batt/surge protector doesnt have a ground (actually connected to the earth) its useless....

I will admit, I know nothing about electricity.  I never know when its good to be grounded, when its bad, how to spot a "hot" wire, etc.

I just blindly go to the electronics store pick up an APC for about $150 and think Im good to go :/

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  • 3 months later...

 

 UPS stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply.

 

No, it stands for "Uninterruptible Power Supply".

 

My first UPS went up in smoke when there was a lightning strike in the village. It did NOT protect everything it was powering. Thankfully, my two Apple Macs protected themselves but my phone charger (plugged into the UPS for safety (!) went up in smoke.

 

The moral to this story is: don't trust a UPS, alone, to protect against mains voltage surges!

 

My solution was to buy an "Automatic Voltage Regulator" (AVR) and a mains surge protector. The surge protector plugs into the mains socket; the AVR plugs into the surge protector; the UPS plugs into the AVR.

 

MSP -> AVR -> UPS -> computer(s)

 

In addition, I bought a phone line surge protector. This plugs into a mains power socket and it has two phone sockets. The phone wall plate outlet is connected to the inlet socket on this protector and the broadband DSL filter/splitter is connected to the outlet on the protector.

 

Without spending a huge amount of cash, this combination represents the best protection available.

 

Note: some UPS models incorporate a phone line surge protector. I don't trust them. Keep the phone line away from the UPS. If a mains spike whacks the UPS it could also whack the phone line connected to it.

 

Note: my UPS incorporated "mains surge protection". Well, it didn't work. It burned out. That's why I recommend having a separate mains surge protector.

 

Note: equipment that doesn't require a UPS (e.g. TV) can be protected by plugging it directly into the AVR. Make sure the AVR has a high enough AV rating. Mine is rated at 1000 AV.

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