Topic: UPS System Recommendation Request

[WeatherHost]

You want more capacity than you think you need.  Allows for longer run times.

You also want more UPSs than you think you need.  Really no more than one or two 'key' devices on each one.  Why?  Redundancy.  If your only one fails, you lose everything, just like you never had one to begin with.  If you have five or six, it's unlikely (but not impossible) that two or more will fail at the same time short of a major power hit. (Don't ask me how I know.)

 

[Bushman]

You can extend the life of the LA batteries by cycling them  on a good charger.

[W3DRM]

Wow, I was not expecting this kind of response but considering that there have been 26 responses so far, it tells me this is a hot topic and one with lots of interest by many of you. Thanks for the quick inputs - much appreciated!

I have another question that may result in even more discussion on this topic. Somewhere, I read that some equipment won't run reliably unless you have a pure sinewave power source. Now that I have looked at many of the suggestions in this thread, I notice that no one has mentioned that fact. I am wondering if I was just dreaming this little tidbit or if, in fact, it does have a factor in selecting UPS units. I see that many of them are described as having "stepping approximate sinewave" output and not a true pure sinewave output. This, of course, begs the questions - Does it really matter? and, Does it effect our numerous wall-warts that are so prolific in our add-ons for Blitzortung, FlightRadar24 and the many more "items" we have to submit data all over the Internet?

BTW, I was looking at the APC BR1500G but noticed does not have a pure sinewave output.

[nincehelser]

Wow, I was not expecting this kind of response but considering that there have been 26 responses so far, it tells me this is a hot topic and one with lots of interest by many of you. Thanks for the quick inputs - much appreciated!

I have another question that may result in even more discussion on this topic. Somewhere, I read that some equipment won't run reliably unless you have a pure sinewave power source. Now that I have looked at many of the suggestions in this thread, I notice that no one has mentioned that fact. I am wondering if I was just dreaming this little tidbit or if, in fact, it does have a factor in selecting UPS units. I see that many of them are described as having "stepping approximate sinewave" output and not a true pure sinewave output. This, of course, begs the questions - Does it really matter? and, Does it effect our numerous wall-warts that are so prolific in our add-ons for Blitzortung, FlightRadar24 and the many more "items" we have to submit data all over the Internet?

BTW, I was looking at the APC BR1500G but noticed does not have a pure sinewave output.

I wouldn't worry about it for computing and network gear.  That sounds more like a concern for audiophiles protecting AV stuff.

[hankster]

Most UPS output a pretty clean sinewave. I did have problems with a computer in my RV when it had a cheap inverter. I used a UPS to clean up the dirty power that inverter was outputting. Not the most efficient way to do it but it was much cheaper than putting a pure sinewave inverter in the RV.

[W3DRM]

I've used Cyberpower, Ultra, Belkin and a few others including APC.

The only brand I will never buy again is APC.

With any UPS, be prepared to change batteries every two to three years.  You might get by a little longer, but the run time will be diminished.

Since many others have indicated they had APC units and haven't (so far) indicated they had any issues with APC, do you care to elaborate on this comment?

[Mattk]

Was using Eaton for some time in the 2000VA/1800W range but found them noisy and not all that reliable. I will say that once those failed a replacement unit was simply sent in lieu of costs transporting the unit back and forward, they are quite heavy. The Eaton network cards are also quite expensive. Now using CyberPower starting from the 1000VA units which are Pure Sine Wave (a must in my book), reasonably priced including the network cards.   

[C5250]

Wow, I was not expecting this kind of response but considering that there have been 26 responses so far, it tells me this is a hot topic and one with lots of interest by many of you. Thanks for the quick inputs - much appreciated!

That is because most have no idea of what the proper use a of a UPS is. A UPS should only be used for long enough to allow the system to shutdown properly, anyone that talks about longer runtime has no clue. The proper use of a UPS is to get the system(s) properly shutdown and avoid corruption of the OS, etc. Trying to get the maximum runtime after a power failure will just kill the UPS battery/ies and just result in you have to replace them afterward.

5 APC UPSs here.

[nincehelser]

Wow, I was not expecting this kind of response but considering that there have been 26 responses so far, it tells me this is a hot topic and one with lots of interest by many of you. Thanks for the quick inputs - much appreciated!

That is because most have no idea of what the proper use a of a UPS is. A UPS should only be used for long enough to allow the system to shutdown properly, anyone that talks about longer runtime has no clue. The proper use of a UPS is to get the system(s) properly shutdown and avoid corruption of the OS, etc. Trying to get the maximum runtime after a power failure will just kill the UPS battery/ies and just result in you have to replace them afterward.

5 APC UPSs here.

That's quite a pronouncement.

There are many applications where actually shutting down the systems is NOT desirable at all.  You've got to keep things running until either normal power is restored or auxiliary generators can kick in.

 

[pfletch101]

There are many applications where actually shutting down the systems is NOT desirable at all.  You've got to keep things running until either normal power is restored or auxiliary generators can kick in.

Indeed! There are a lot of reasons to use UPSes. If you are running a server farm requiring 99.999% uptime, you want to keep it up without any glitches until your secondary power source (likely a generator) kicks in, so you will need a lot of power for a relatively short time, and you may well not need to protect non-essential equipment (e.g. monitors) during that transition. If you are running a regular business and can tolerate a certain amount of down time, you want to be able to shut down the systems that you are working on/with in such a way as to enable a rapid restart when the power comes back. This requires a reasonable amount of power for what may be a somewhat longer time. If you are a home or smaller business user, you generally just want to finish what you are doing before deciding whether you need to shut your computer down, but you may want to keep other lower-power-draw equipment (e.g. routers) up as long as possible to serve devices with their own internal or external backup power. If you have a weather station which you want to keep connected to the internet, you need enough power to do this for a potentially much longer time. One single approach to what is protected and/or how much and what type of protection is enough does not suit all circumstances.

[Scalphunter]

For what it is worth have an app for computer and one also for pellet stove so can keep it running till I get inverter in place. Of which takes only few minutes to bring battery in from charging rack.

John

[Aardvark]

On my UPS (I posted earlier)  I have my imac, the modem, my airport modem,  Weather radio, my Davis console and Envoy and I am far from capacity and that is fine.
  If I was smarter than the average bear,  I would get one for the satellite dish and TV.

The purpose is for surge protection and to give a person a bit of a time to save things before it shuts down.  Definitely something you want to have .

[Bushman]

Davis console has batteries - why would you UPS it??

[Aardvark]

Davis console has batteries - why would you UPS it??

Probably Anal ..  Oh  why not?   I do have the weatherlink IP   that doesn't run off batteries, it has to have a connection to the internet.  Now assuming that the source to the DSL server that provides access from my router hasn't also gone down,  by having some nasty weather out there, and that everything is working fine, I can still send data over the internet.

[Mattk]

The critical part of any weather system is the data and as long as the data is being received and stored then in most cases that is all that matters. The WeatherLink IP is not the best thing to run on batteries and does require a separate source of power but even a WeatherLink IP must have a battery backup in the advent of a mains power outage as the system will continue to receive & log during power outages then can upload data when power comes back without any loss of data. Sometimes during bad weather events even if you have power generally the downstream systems also have no power as well as other related issues which are beyond your control.

 

[C5250]

That's quite a pronouncement.

There are many applications where actually shutting down the systems is NOT desirable at all.  You've got to keep things running until either normal power is restored or auxiliary generators can kick in.
[/quote]

Irregardless of whether you have a system that would be inconvenient to shut down, if you don't have power after about five minutes, be it from a generator or otherwise, you will trash the UPS batteries if you insist on trying to run off the UPS for as long as it lasts. Then you have no one else but yourself to blame when you complain about having to replace the batteries.

[Bushman]

If your UPS lead acid batteries don't last more than 5 minutes you sized it wrong.

[nincehelser]

Irregardless of whether you have a system that would be inconvenient to shut down, if you don't have power after about five minutes, be it from a generator or otherwise, you will trash the UPS batteries if you insist on trying to run off the UPS for as long as it lasts. Then you have no one else but yourself to blame when you complain about having to replace the batteries.

That would depend on the type of battery in your UPS.

In any case, if you size your battery properly, you can run for quite a while without worrying about battery damage.

[W9LRT]

Our UPS's only run for about 60 seconds...  Just long enough for the natural gas generator to start and stabilize.  We do power the LCD displays during the whole process since we have the capacity.  It makes it easier if we manually want to shut something down.  Returning to shore power is however long the transfer switch takes to kick over (milliseconds)...


If we don't have generator or shore power within 5 minutes (generator fails), we force a normal shutdown of the servers.  Better to be offline for the duration of the failure, than spending the next week rebuilding arrays or restoring backups because the power just dropped when the batteries expired.  At our current loading, we should have about an hour of available UPS runtime.


We have had no issues with the waveform (sine wave, modified sine, etc.).

[SpringHillWeather]

I guess we all can agree that UPS's serve a very important part in our computer/weather systems.

Depending on our Applications and setup some want long run time after Power Outage and some want protection from any data loss/corruption.

More Taste?? Less Filling?? 
                 

[W3DRM]

For myself, I simply want to have a UPS that will isolate me from the local grid and give me a fighting chance to survive some power spikes and/or brownouts. We have pretty decent power here in northern Nevada and only rarely lose power. I just want to be able to gracefully cycle-down my equipment if there is a total loss of power. I am hoping that this strategy will prevent any equipment damage due to surges during the shutdown. I really don't care about long-term outages that last more than a few minutes.

Thanks again for all the responses!

[BigOkie]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Tripp Lite..or maybe I missed it in the thread.  I have one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009TZTGWK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

...and love it.  Works great.