Backup power supplies

[Phineus]

What is everybody doing for backup power? I think I've endured all the power spikes, surges and line drops I want to in this life time. Any recommendatons? Any stories of good or bad power units?

Thanks.

[Woody]

I have been using a belkin UPS/surge protector for a couple of months now but just my luck there has been no power outages so I dont know how long the battery holds up. The propaganda that came with it claims an 80 minute battery life.

http://catalog.belkin.com/

I have never been without a good surge protector but this is the first backup power supply I have tried.

[Phineus]

No power outages for months? I'm lucky if I can say for days.

• 1-In 1-Out RJ45 Surge Protection

Do you run your cable/dsl line thought it? Does it affect throughput?

• 6 surge protected outlets, 4 with battery backup

So: modem, router, monitor and comp. In theory, that should stop shutdowns and reboots from interupted power, no? And continue file transfers without a break?

I've never bought one because I have a hard time justifying that much dough for something that, all things being equal, should never get used. But I lost a boat load tonight so enough is enough. It's time to do something about it.

[Malibu350]

I don't have the model number handy right now but I use a belkin also. Just last weekend someone slammed into a power pole down the street cutting my power for a few seconds but it kicked in like it should so I didn't loose any work.

[Woody]

No power outages for months? I'm lucky if I can say for days.

One of the few advantages of living in a small town, we still have our own power generation plant. Last I heard we had something like 98.9% up time.

• 1-In 1-Out RJ45 Surge Protection

Do you run your cable/dsl line thought it? Does it affect throughput?

I havent ran the dsl line through it simply because I have been too lazy to pick up another RJ45 cable that I would need to complete all the connections, but I have no reason to think it wouldnt work as advertised. I do run my normal phone/fax line through it so my phone and fax are protected from surges. BTW two sepearte types of connections.

• 6 surge protected outlets, 4 with battery backup

So: modem, router, monitor and comp. In theory, that should stop shutdowns and reboots from interupted power, no? And continue file transfers without a break?

Should work that way, I have the comp, monitor, modem, and speakers plugged into mine.

[Phineus]

> One of the few advantages of living in a small town

I think the entire city here is hooked to the light switch beside the mens room, and everybody keeps hitting it by mistake then immediately turns it back on when they realize what they've done.


Anyway, thanks both. I'll have to get out this weekend and see what I can find.

[SLO_SCATTER]

I'm using an APC Back-UPS ES500.
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm

[Phineus]

This one ?

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=270

[Woody]

This one ?

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=270

Way to small, that one is only 200 watts and only has 7 minutes of backup time.

I would look at something like this if you go APC

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/tec ... sku=BR1000

600 watts and longer backup time

[Phineus]

Okay, here goes. First, I think this is scat's rather than my first link. This one matches the part number more exactly.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/tec ... sku=BE500U

Now, at first, I thought to go down to a few of my routine comp shops and see what they had. But that's usually a bit of an outing and after yesterday I really didn't want to wait any longer. Reasoning that I would probably have to settle for whatever they had regardless of what I intended to pick up, this morning I stopped in at one of those big, what do you call them, the places that have a thousand compaqs and ten thousand tv sets on display. They didn't have much to choose from. No belkin at all, a couple no name brands, something called energizer that had no relation to the rabbit, and some apc. So, I'm glad scatter stopped in with that model because I probably wouldn't have picked up anything otherwise.

For my purposes, seven minutes would probably be fine since the trouble is very brief but very frequent interuptions. However, given that I'm not glued to the keyboard and that it does on occasion go out for longer periods, I thought to get the next step or so up. They had a 350VA model, as well as something close to scat's - tho not the same model number. The one I got isn't listed on the web site but a google search found it listed here.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3967113
http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... pfp=BROWSE

I don't plan to work on battery power. If the hydro goes out, I'll probably just save my work and shut down. But it'll be nice to be rid of those spikes and reboots... I hope, once and for all.


Thanks all. You helped narrow the field and showed me what to look for, which made this much easier than it would have been if I was working blind. I don't like needing it, I didn't like spending money on it, but I have it now so let's hope that's the end of it.

[Woody]

I think you will be fine with the one you picked up, 540 watts should be ok. One thing I hadnt mentioned is that with these units you actually run on battery all the time so you have to get one with enough watts to run the equipment plugged into it. If the power is on the battery charges as you use it but since its always on there is no delay for it to "kick" in. I actually bought one rated at 320 watts at first but it didnt have enough power when I turned on my monitor and system at the same time, it kicked off from overload. If I turned the monitor and system on staggered it worked ok but was at 85% power usage and it would hit 100% when running some games when the vid card starting sucking power. The 640 watt unit I have now runs at about 40% -50% load. Also that unit should come with software that you can configure to shut down automatticlly if the battery gets low enough so you dont even have to be there to shutdown safely.

[SLO_SCATTER]

You're right Phin, that's the one I use. Glad we could help.

As for running on battery all the time Woody, my understanding of mine is that it runs off of the house current unless there is an outage and it needs the battery until it safely shuts down.

[Woody]

As for running on battery all the time Woody, my understanding of mine is that it runs off of the house current unless there is an outage and it needs the battery until it safely shuts down.

Well different units operate in different ways but I know mine runs on the battery all the time but is constantly recharged. From what I have read onlly the cheaper units run on house current all the time and then switch to battery when needed. The delay in that switch time can cause problems with some fancy equipment(Your average home pc will be fine).

If you really want to know how UPS systems differ there is a nice PDF file at APC

The different types of UPS systems

ftp://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/SADE-5TNM3Y_R5_EN.pdf

[SLO_SCATTER]

Thanks for the .pdf link Woody. I thought they all worked pretty much the same way. My mistake.

[Woody]

How about an upate Phin, is it doing its job?

[Phineus]

I had to power it up for twelve hours before using it. So, I did. I'm running off of it now but so far, no outages, lol. I still have to read the paperwork in order to figure out if I want to install that usb hook up software... and if plugging a power bar into each power outlet will let me run half the home office off of it... tho something tells me I shouldn't. Total uptime, about two and a half days... or whatever it is from late saturday afternoon to now. I think I'll have a party the first time the power goes down and my comp doesn't.

[ZOtm_BigDOGGe]

Couldn't you pull the AC outlet plug to test it?

I would think you'd want to hook up the USB software to shut everything down automatically, just in case you are not around the PC when the power goes.

I'd like to get one myself someday, but finances won't allow it at this time.

[Woody]

I still have to read the paperwork in order to figure out if I want to install that usb hook up software

The software that I have with my unit has a test function that tells the unit to run on battery power only. You should install yours and see if it has something like that. It also has alarms and etc to tell you if your battery is getting low.

and if plugging a power bar into each power outlet will let me run half the home office off of it... tho something tells me I shouldn't

Everything I read said dont do this, if the power bar has its own surge protector it might think that the output from the UPS is "dirty" and might kick off or damge somehting plugged into it. It also voids any guarentee that you get with the UPS

[Phineus]

> Couldn't you pull the AC outlet plug to test it?

Probably. But it goes out often enough around here I shouldn't have to wait long. And there's something about deliberately doing what I'm trying to avoid that just doesn't sit right with me. But wouldn't it be my luck if the hydro suddenly and miraculously delivered proper power... but I'm not holding my breath on it.


> Everything I read said dont do this

I think I was only kidding. I knew a, um, person who plugged a space heater into one and set the house on fire. lol.

[SLO_SCATTER]

Like they said, I would install the software. The computer won't save anything before shut-down if you don't.

The paperwork for my UPS said not to use surge protectors or power strips. I found some info about it at APC.