Another UPS thread - help for noob?

[CathJ]

Let me start by saying I know nothing about UPSs, and not much about electricity either

I'm thinking it would be useful to have a UPS that would just power a standing lamp for a couple of hours while the power is off. I have no idea what I should look at, or how to calculate what size UPS I'd need. Is there a basic reference anywhere for how to work this out? I.e. if I want to run a 60W bulb for 2 hours I need a 2000VA ups, and if I want to run the microwave for 2 minutes as well it'd need to be a xxxVA one.

 

[scienide]

I personally would not run a microwave on it

 

[CathJ]

Hmm, okay. Was just reading a thread on Ars about requiring battery backup for VOIP solutions to make it reliable during power outages likes POTS, and a lot of the comments were along the lines of "But a UPS is so cheap, I power my whole house/network/entertainment system/kitchen off a UPS for hours and hours when power is out", so I got a bit overly optimistic

 

[lupedelupe]

Replace the 60 W light bulb with a 4 W LED globe. I'd venture that even a relatively small UPS (650?) will power that for 2,5 hours.


(I only know enough about electricity to avoid sticking a screwdriver into a wall socket, but for what its worth my wife managed to get 1,5 hours of power for her iMac out of a 2 KVA UPS, and she shut it down before it started bleating warnings – the iMac chews up around 110 W).

 

[The_Traveller]

Let me start by saying I know nothing about UPSs, and not much about electricity either

I'm thinking it would be useful to have a UPS that would just power a standing lamp for a couple of hours while the power is off. I have no idea what I should look at, or how to calculate what size UPS I'd need. Is there a basic reference anywhere for how to work this out? I.e. if I want to run a 60W bulb for 2 hours I need a 2000VA ups, and if I want to run the microwave for 2 minutes as well it'd need to be a xxxVA one.

Yes change the light to LED. Buy a 4kw 24v UPS/Inverter with 2 x 100Ah batteries and you can easily run your microwave and other low power gadgets for at least 2 hours. If it wasn't for your microwave, you wouldn't need such a big system , even a 1kw unit would easily work but rather invest in a big one, one time so that you may use your micro's/kettles ( not at the same time) etc. for those few minutes.