Buying advice for a UPS

spudbynight · 9 Jul 2022 at 08:53

I've moved recently to a lovely house on a lake. It is nice, I even get FTTP!

Unfortunately, I get regular power outages when a tree falls and takes out a powerline somewhere locally. I want to buy a UPS for myself. I also don't want to spend a fortune on this.

I want to be able to do the following :

-Power a NAS long enough for it to shutdown safely
-Power my router for as long as possible. When the power goes then even mobile connectivity dies. Is powering a router for several hours feasible/practical?
-Maybe power my main PC for long enough for it to shutdown but I'm more inclined to sacrifice this in order to keep the router up longer

I've seen loads of UPC devices but I really just haven't a clue what I should be looking for.

EsaT · 9 Jul 2022 at 11:18

NASes don't have much power draw, unless it has way more than couple drives.

Same for router.
It's power adapter's output power would give good idea of power draw.

Monitor would draw about combined draw of both, unless it's bigger one and you're blasting backlight at need welder's mask to avoid face burn brightness.

Way biggest factor is PC.
If it's high end gaming PC, it could need allowance of way over 500 watts to avoid tripping UPS in case of blackout happening during gaming.

So what kind PC you have?
And what's the possible budget?

spudbynight · 9 Jul 2022 at 16:01

My PC is a mid range gaming PC. I've got a 650W PSU in it and no silly components on it. For example just a Geforce 1660 Super. I've had power cuts before and it has survived the experience. My gut feeling is that surge protection is fine on the main PC. It is the NAS I really want to protect as a power outage can really mess things up there.

I would like to spend under £150. Could I get something that will shutdown the NAS and also power the router for a few hours for that price?

EsaT · 10 Jul 2022 at 09:16

spudbynight said:
For example just a Geforce 1660 Super.

That means 250W should be plenty enough for both PC+monitor.

So from power output aspect there's no need for more expensive big UPS.
(VAs don't matter not being same thing as W when talking about AC)

But the cheapest and the smallest UPSes also have very small battery capacity.
Even if router would draw something like only 5W, UPS itself has it's own power draw to stay running...
Leading to efficiency dropping at lowest loads and runtime not increasing anymore much with decrease of load's power draw.
That still sets some limit for how cheap it's possible to go.

Also you likely want UPS to have standard UK power sockets/outlets instead of IEC sockets, right?

Don't really know others than APC and CyberPower having such models.
(Eaton has two, but those are solid boxes without any cooling)
Would rate CyberPower as better than APC with some slots for airflow also on top and own LCD display showing also estimated remaining runtime.
Models are BR1000ELCD-UK and BR1200ELCD-UK
Lowest model has smaller battery capacity. (precisely half of 1200VA model)

Not sure if any NAS supports direct connection to UPS and anyway there's only one USB communication port in UPSes.
(more expensive UPSes have LAN connectivity at least as option)
Though if NAS has some PC software that might be capable to telling NAS to shutdown.

Rroff · 10 Jul 2022 at 09:28

EsaT said:
Not sure if any NAS supports direct connection to UPS and anyway there's only one USB communication port in UPSes.
(more expensive UPSes have LAN connectivity at least as option)
Though if NAS has some PC software that might be capable to telling NAS to shutdown.

AFAIK all QNAP and Synology devices can communicate with a UPS via USB and have USB shutdown features as long as the UPS uses industry standards for the feature and not their own bespoke software. Some models also support network shutdown via Powerchute, etc. Other brands of NAS mileage will vary. That would negate the PC being able to use the shutdown unless using some form of network option though.

spudbynight · 11 Jul 2022 at 18:19

Thanks for this guys....some pondering for me

Raiden85 · 11 Jul 2022 at 23:04

Never used an UPS until recently but I've been having more power cuts than usual in the last two years or the odd ones that's quick enough to just about cut the power to the PC which got really annoying so decided to try one.

Ended up going for the Cyberpower CP1500EPFCLCD-UK 960w model as I needed something with a good enough wattage that didn't cost a small fortune. This model always seems to be going for under £300, I have had it running since November last year and it's worked great, had 2x 30min power cuts in that time an 1 that lasted 2 secs and the UPS kicked in without issues each time. With a 330w load I get roughly 24mins of battery power and that's powering the PC when idle, 2x 4k monitors, router, VM hub and an LED lamp. As I use a 5950x and 3090 I'm using about 750w/800w with all those devices running while gaming and I'll get about 4mins to 8mins so plenty of time to shut things off.

Does come with a simple piece of software that will show you the current power draw, voltages, remaining runtime and estimated battery level in Windows. You can also let it shutdown/hibernate the PC after a certain time. I can also monitor the UPS remotely on my iPhone with their app which is really handy but the Windows software will need to remain running in the background for that to work, so if I'm out and the UPS switches to the battery I get an instant app notification as well as an email as I set that up in the software, both type of alerts come though instantly.

Been so happy I bought the smaller 390w one for my Synology NAS. Works great with Synology and shows up ok when connected via USB.

Phil2008 · 13 Jul 2022 at 01:33

I have 2 forms of backup power a 1800watt Online UPS powering my mancave as you guys call it and than a petrol generator to take over from the UPS before the batteries die... Having both the generator and UPS backup power is a godsend if you do things like 3d printing where if you have a powercut during a print, the print will be ruined and will need to start the print again from scratch.

I have 2 tips,,
1 Buy the highest wattage UPS that you can afford if you want the batteries to last quite a while during a powercut. I only use about 300-400watts out of 1800watts with my UPS, but it will keep things powered for 1-2hrs during a powercut
2 If you want a UPS to run on a generator, either buy a "inverter generator" or a "generator friendly UPS/Online UPS".... Because a UPS is all about providing clean constant power to your devices, and as we know a standard 230v generator with AVR can't keep the voltage steady enough for a UPS to use the power. So my UPS uses its inverter when connected to the generator to keep the voltage constantly at 230v, but its doesnt use its batteries to achieve this.

Phil2008 · 13 Jul 2022 at 13:10

Also a lot of people will say you must not plug the UPS into a surge protector, just because if something goes wrong and your devices get fried, the manufactures wont pay out because the fault could be caused from the surge protector.... I have had a few live chats with the manufacture of my UPS (PowerWalker) and I was advised to use a surge protector with my UPS, so to protected the surge protector in the UPS.. Because all surge protectors wear out after a few years and its a lot cheaper replacing a surge protector than it is a UPS.. But my UPS doesnt have a joule rating in the specs, but it has some kind of surge protection as its got MOV's dotted around the circuit board... Not bad spec for £350 hey, but the only problem are the batteries are not easily replacable, so you need to be careful you dont short circuit the UPS when replacing the batteries. And the UPS takes 4x 12v batteries, so not cheap either when the time comes to replace the batteries.

hornetstinger · 21 Jul 2022 at 20:05

Also be aware if you buy a big UPS, then looking at expensive replacements. My old 1500VA UPS was £100-£200 on batteries, so not cheap.

Phil2008 · 21 Jul 2022 at 23:01

hornetstinger said:
Also be aware if you buy a big UPS, then looking at expensive replacements. My old 1500VA UPS was £100-£200 on batteries, so not cheap.

The batteries will cost me roughly £90 to replace when the time comes and the batteries last 3-5 years apparently.. And some Online UPS where power is critical to your devices you can replace the batteries without killing the power to the UPS by running the UPS in "Bypass" mode, basically bypassing the batteries all together with mains power only. My UPS has Bypass mode but I wouldn't like to change the batteries while it was on the mains. Bypass mode comes in handy though as I cant change any settings with the UPS on, so I keep the bypass mode turned on so I dont have to switch everything off when I want to change a setting on the UPS, as my devices will stay powered with the UPS so called powered off..