uninterruptible power supplies

ShiWarrior · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:25

Is it worth getting a UPS for my bedroom ?

I can see they are around £40 + so not too bad
or should I spend a little less and just get a surge protector?

I will have the following connected to it :

Computer
Monitor
Router
External hard drive
Paper shredder
Printer
TV
DVD players x3
games consoles

Thanks

Diddums · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:27

I've never used a UPS or a surge protector and have never suffered a failure of any component or device ever.

A mate of mine works in India a lot so has quite a beefy one as their power is as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

Yaayuh! · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:28

Which do you need? A surge protector (which may be useless if you have a fairly new circuit) or a UPS?

A surge protector isn't going to keep your equipment up and running or shut down your PC safely in a power cut or provide a more stable voltage.
Also, a UPS for that amount of equipment should cost a lot more than £40.

ShiWarrior · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:29

I thought UPS's have very good surge protection built in too?

Westyfield2 · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:38

I wouldn't want a £40 UPS.

Col_M · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:38

When gaming my 500VA UPS complains that it's overloaded, I only have my computer plugged in and not the monitor or anything else.

If you want a UPS to power all that you listed you're going to need a good size unit 2000VA+ which will be a LOT more than £40.

ShiWarrior said:
I thought UPS's have very good surge protection built in too?

They do.

Westyfield2 said:
I wouldn't want a £40 UPS.

This! I wouldn't get anything other than APC, which will cost you.

Gammawolf · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:43

Wouldn't touch a £40 UPS with a bargepole personally, but imo if you need to ask if you need it then you don't need it. I'd have thought if it were an issue it would have flagged up already and you'd have one. Most places in the UK have rock solid power, I run servers at my home that have months of up time. I only had an issue with power once when the local sub station blew.

DJMK4 · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:45

UPS are only useful (depending on what you have connected to it) for a short term power supply, mainly to give you an extra 30 minutes before backup generators kick in to keep stuff ticking over or you shut your equipment down in a controlled manor until the power is restored

Why would you bother at home? unless your running a business critical rack at home with servers or network kit

Why would you want a paper shredder on a UPS

£40 is low, bearing in mind, it runs on batteries, which will run out as I mentioned before

aardvark · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:46

i just bought one in the last few days - from my research its not worth getting anything other than an APC one - i got a BE700g-UK. 400w, 700VA.
this only has 4 ups sockets and another 4 that are surge protected.
cost about £85.

Mynight · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:53

DJMK4 said:
Why would you want a paper shredder on a UPS

To shred the evidence when the pigs cut the power before the raid

.

ShiWarrior · 4 Feb 2015 at 13:59

thanks guys

so should I get a quite a decent Surge protector then?

DJMK4 · 4 Feb 2015 at 14:17

ShiWarrior said:
thanks guys

so should I get a quite a decent Surge protector then?

Surge protector yes, if you dont want your stuff frying during a storm or a surge

IMO UPS is pointless unless your running business critical or other critical stuff, and will only last a short while whilst you flick over to a permenant standby source (IE a backup generator) or wait until the power comes back on

Just sit out the power cuts which happen hardly ever, and go and roll a hoop down the street with a stick whilst you wait

ShiWarrior · 4 Feb 2015 at 14:22

thanks so much all

Flukester · 4 Feb 2015 at 14:34

haha op, need a UPS, for my paper shredder

edit: scissors might be a simpler backup plan

stoofa · 4 Feb 2015 at 15:26

I have an APC UPS and I only have the "essential" items attached to it - so PC, Display, Fibre Modem & Router.
Means in the event of a power outage I can safely save any work I've got open or safely log-out of any games I happen to be playing, even online etc.

Mine's a 700va unit and does it's job well. In an evening I can sometimes here the UPS kicking in as it watches for low current, brown-out's etc.

J.T · 4 Feb 2015 at 15:27

I have a UPS and Surge protector, comes in handy round my way which seems to suffer more than its fare share of power cuts!

Howard · 4 Feb 2015 at 15:36

ShiWarrior said:
I will have the following connected to it :

Computer
Monitor
Router
External hard drive
Paper shredder
Printer
TV
DVD players x3
games consoles

Thanks

Whilst a £40 UPS won't be brilliant, it will afford you enough time to safely shut down your computer in the event of a power failure. The UPS should have some sort of interface to the computer so that it can be automated if you're not there.

You don't need any of the crap above plugged in to it though, just the computer and external hard drive (even a £40 UPS should run one of these for a few hours).

Glanza · 4 Feb 2015 at 15:38

I've got one to help when we get the dreaded one second power blip which would sometimes knock the pc off. Also it's useful plugging everything into one UPS then having plugs everywhere.

Redgie · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:08

aardvark said:
i just bought one in the last few days - from my research its not worth getting anything other than an APC one - i got a BE700g-UK. 400w, 700VA.
this only has 4 ups sockets and another 4 that are surge protected.
cost about £85.

I got the same one around Christmas time for a little cheaper as it was on offer. I'm currently only using it for my home server (originally got it to use solely during RAID rebuilds but have left it connected). It's a good piece of kit, relatively cheap, seems to work great

Lasts around 20 minutes according to the preview thingy.

Redgie · 4 Feb 2015 at 16:09

Diddums said:
their power is as reliable as a chocolate teapot.

Fairly certain that a chocolate teapot's reliability is rarely called into question. Their usefulness on the other hand...