Hatrack River Forum: Uninterupted Power Supply

This is topic Uninterupted Power Supply in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I've had power dips which caused me to lose my work three times this morning.

I've never dealt with an UPS before. What should I look for?

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :

Mmmmm... brown outs.
We used to have this problem at college in the older dorms. There is a battery pack you can buy for the computer that comes on the instant of the brown out. Most also sound a little buzzer to let you know when they are supplying the power. They can't supply power for very long, but if the brown out seems to be a long one or is actually a black out you have time to save your work. [Smile]

Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :

Typically they're sized by the length of time you think you'll need them to provide power for you. In your case, I think 15 minutes should be plenty (you're trying to just keep things running during temporary outages?).

Try this link. APC makes good stuff, and they'll size it for you better and faster than I could.

Edit: I'd also look for one that features power conditioning, especially if what you're describing is a common occurence.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I don't know much about them, myself - I had network engineers to pick them for me.

You need to decide what you want out of it: a chance to shut down and surviving brownouts, or a chance to work for a small amount of time (30 minutes to an hour).

You might want to get one that will power your router as well, assuming you have broadband. That way you won't lose connectivity. Depending on what I'm doing, losing internet connection can lead to 30-second to 2-minute hangups - not something I want happening when I want to shut down.

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

Yes, you want power conditioning or AVR on it. That is what fixes the 'not quite out but enough to lock my system' power issues, which also cuts down the wear and tear on the UPS itself. A cheap UPS has to switch back and forth to battery everytime you have even a minor power event.

Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :

Technical details aside, you should be in the ballpark of $150. If you're paying more than that, you're likely paying for features you really don't need.

Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :

Yup. I don't know if you have a membership to any of the big Sam's Club type stores, but they usually have the APC RS/XS series fairly cheap.

I supported APC and other UPS mfrs for several years, if anything else comes up, let me know. [Smile]