Spec me: UPS

neil_g · 2 Jun 2018 at 13:06

APC all day long, use them all the time in enterprise and beyond the odd battery failure (to be expected after time) they've been solid.

Running a 1500 Smart-UPS at home, got it refurb from "ups-trader" on the auction site (they have a normal shop too iirc). Their batteries are sound too, and after sales support is excellent.

aowc02 · 2 Jun 2018 at 15:58

currently use a 700VA cyberpower - never missed a beat. perfect little unit

ANDARIAL · 25 Jun 2018 at 16:52

Seems one of my UPS is dying,had it about 10 years now and about 3 changes of battery
Currently have a draw at the wall of about 400+ watts according to a meter
Have looked at 3 new ups
CyberPower Value 1500VA Line Interactive UPS @£150

CyberPower VALUE2200EILCD Value Series Uninteruptible Power Supply (1320W/2200VA)@£168

APC Back-UPS 700 Watt / 1400 VA @£120
Am leaning towards the cyberpower as it has a cooling fan and the APC does not
Any others around this price to look at?

EsaT · 25 Jun 2018 at 19:08

ANDARIAL said:
Am leaning towards the cyberpower as it has a cooling fan and the APC does not

On the other hand that fan might not be quietest.
Though as those are clearly consumer UPSes instead of server level models they might have paid attentino to that.
That 2200VA model doesn't seem to have much of battery capacity extra.

That APC again has abysmal 0.5 power factor basically being marketing scam model with artificially bloated useless number.
Volt-amperes mattered only when things lacked PFC and had high reactive current/power component.

Also are IEC sockets enough or would you like normal UK power sockets?
There are few such models.

ANDARIAL · 25 Jun 2018 at 21:56

Either socket is fine.iec or 3 pin uk.Any suggestions to have a look at?

EsaT · 26 Jun 2018 at 09:43

For UK power socket CyberPower BRIC has those:
https://www.cyberpower.com/uk/en/product/series/Backup UPS Systems/BRICs LCD

PFC Sinewave series has mix of two UK sockets and IEC sockets.
https://www.cyberpower.com/uk/en/product/series/Backup UPS Systems/PFC Sinewave
Actual sinewave output instead of modified squarewave makes it more expensive, though for sinewave output it's priced very agressively.

APC has few low power ones on its badly cooled flat box serie, but don't know others with bigger power output.
For example Eaton and Powerwalker have multiple models with German DIN/Schuko sockets and French ones besides IEC, but they stop there
Powerwalker seems to have some of its sinewave models priced similar to CyberPower.
https://powerwalker.com/?page=select&lang=en&cat=lipsw

For above bottom level modified square wave there would be APC Back-UPS Pro serie and Eaton Ellipse Pro, which are slimmer than usual if you don't have that much horizontal space for UPS.
http://www.apc.com/shop/uk/en/categ...omputer-and-peripheral/back-ups-pro/N-1itz49c
http://powerquality.eaton.com/Products-services/Backup-Power-UPS/Ellipse-PRO.aspx?cx=101

Properly done modified square wave really isn't much of problem.
It's just that some bad/old UPSes have had insanely high peak voltages to 400V and even over, which is very risky to components of switch mode PSU's primary.
(240V sinewave has 340V peak voltage)

ANDARIAL · 26 Jun 2018 at 09:54

Thanks for the suggestions

Will be having a read later

ANDARIAL · 26 Jun 2018 at 11:59

@EsaT
Just finished having a look at your rec
Bit more than i am prepared to pay tbh
Thank you for your suggestions though

ANDARIAL · 3 Jul 2018 at 14:58

Ended up getting a refurb Compaq T1000XR UPS
Does the job,fan was way too loud so put in a quieter one
Anyone know what software (Need drivers so W10 or W7 can even see it)i can use with this ups?Supplied discs are useless for me non Windows.Linux etc etc
Had not planned on using the software anyway so bit of a long shot as the ups is a old model

Rroff · 4 Jul 2019 at 19:05

EsaT said:
Yeah, mentioned Back-UPS ES being bad with lack of cooling and cheap crap capacitors.

Bit of a thread bump but I was searching for space heaters today and this in the results gave me a chuckle:

EsaT · 4 Jul 2019 at 19:26

Rroff said:
Bit of a thread bump but I was searching for space heaters today and this in the results gave me a chuckle:

Well, neighbour's Back-UPS ES started running hot after capacitors of control electronics reached their design goal...
And glass fiber PCB should take some heat to start turning darker in shade.

Phil2008 · 4 Jul 2019 at 20:59

I use a portable gas heater as space heaters use too much power and makes your electy bill sky rocket. But gas prices has gone up sooo much since having the gas heater about 15yrs ago. So a few months ago I looked into paraffin heaters as paraffin is well cheap atm, But I haven't took the plunge yet.

The only prob with liquid heaters they can make your room damp if you over use them, but they are so much cheaper to run then electric heaters.

EsaT said:
Well, neighbour's Back-UPS ES started running hot after capacitors of control electronics reached their design goal...
And glass fiber PCB should take some heat to start turning darker in shade.

I have had my 2000VA Online UPS for about 16months now and its going very well, knocking the volts back to 240, when it goes too far off course in a split secound. Also it performs very well on my 2800watt generator that I bought a few months ago, mainly because I have a 3d printer and printouts can take a few days to print. So if I have a powercut while printing, I can connect the UPS to the generator before the battery power dies. Plus a generator its handy to have as a 2nd power source when you have no mains power.