Uninterrupted Power Supply

  • Thread starter Thread starter News Reeder
  • Start date Start date
News Reeder said:
Who makes a good brand, and how do you judge what you need?
Click to expand...

you'll get each persons pref so I will add mine.

Been running a Belkin F6C800UKUNV (800VA) for about 4 months and its a nice
product, along with Bulldog software. It's done it's job twice in that
period during power outs. I also carry out regular deep battery tests just
to drain down and carry out a, almost full, charge. I have a desktop and
laptop connected.

No doubt some posters will say you can't (self) change the battery on the
Belkins whereas in actual fact you can.........well certainly this model I
can.

I am not electronically minded so cannot add all that technical stuff, its
just appears to do the job asked of it.

juan
 
News Reeder said:
Who makes a good brand, and how do you judge what you need?
Click to expand...

APC has a lot of advantages.
It's manageable (via USB), different models available for all power needs
and at various prices, battery is easy to replace and...it works fine.
 
Another corner (brand) heard from....Cyberpower.

I live in Alaska, and have power outages frequently. I'm using a Cyberpower
825AVR- have had it for over 3 years. At a little over 2 years it failed. I
emailed the company to order a new battery, and they emailed back asking
that I send in the unit as the battery should not have failed. They repaired
and sent the unit back free of charge. The took my word for date of purchase
and vender- no receipt required. Mine is serial only, but they have newer
units that are serial and USB...
http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/CP800avr.asp .

It's been a good unit, and I couldn't ask for better support.

Fitz
 
News Reeder said:
Who makes a good brand, and how do you judge what you need?
Click to expand...

I forgot to add the main reason why I selected the Belkin was that it was
one of the few that is fitted with UK 3 pin 13 amp sockets alleviating the
need to buy additional cabling.
 
"News Reeder" said:
Who makes a good brand, and how do you judge what you need?
Click to expand...

This page gives a partial explanation of the difference between
watts and VA (volt-amps). The difference between them is
the phase angle. If you had a computer with an active power
factor correction (PFC) feature (like people in Europe get to buy),
then for that computer, watts = VA. The phase angle on that
special kind of ATX power supply is zero degrees. An incandescent
light bulb would also have watts = VA.

For the computers with more ordinary uncorrected power supplies
(which in North America, will be most all of them), you can use
their formula.

http://www.winups.com/techhpapers/papers/planninginstall.html

You size max watts or VA, so the UPS can power the whole load,
when it flips to batteries. You also want to know what the
"run time" will be for a given load, so you'll know how long
the equipment can run, before the battery is exhausted. Some
UPS companies have a web tool, where you enter the info about
the load, and they'll tell you how long it will last.

(You could do the math yourself, if you knew the battery
voltage and the amp-hour rating of the battery. Say the
UPS has a 12V battery that holds 4 A-H. That means you
get 48 watts for 1 hour, or 96 watts for 1/2 hour, or
192 watts for 15 minutes, and so on. The UPS will not
convert all the battery energy with perfect efficiency,
so you don't get to use all the energy in the battery.
Some of it becomes waste heat. Use the tool on the
manufacturer's web site, to get a more accurate answer.)

This page also explains power factor, from the ATX PSU
perspective:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-methodology_8.html

Paul
 
Paul said:
This page gives a partial explanation of the difference between
watts and VA (volt-amps). The difference between them is
the phase angle. If you had a computer with an active power
factor correction (PFC) feature (like people in Europe get to buy),
then for that computer, watts = VA. The phase angle on that
special kind of ATX power supply is zero degrees. An incandescent
light bulb would also have watts = VA.

For the computers with more ordinary uncorrected power supplies
(which in North America, will be most all of them), you can use
their formula.

http://www.winups.com/techhpapers/papers/planninginstall.html

You size max watts or VA, so the UPS can power the whole load,
when it flips to batteries. You also want to know what the
"run time" will be for a given load, so you'll know how long
the equipment can run, before the battery is exhausted. Some
UPS companies have a web tool, where you enter the info about
the load, and they'll tell you how long it will last.

(You could do the math yourself, if you knew the battery
voltage and the amp-hour rating of the battery. Say the
UPS has a 12V battery that holds 4 A-H. That means you
get 48 watts for 1 hour, or 96 watts for 1/2 hour, or
192 watts for 15 minutes, and so on. The UPS will not
convert all the battery energy with perfect efficiency,
so you don't get to use all the energy in the battery.
Some of it becomes waste heat. Use the tool on the
manufacturer's web site, to get a more accurate answer.)

This page also explains power factor, from the ATX PSU
perspective:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-methodology_8.html

Paul
Click to expand...

and all I did was say "I'll 'ave that one"...........it looks good and is in
the high power range.

To think there was so much I missed out on :-(
 
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