Recommend a UPS for home PC

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atomcrusher

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The small town we live in does not have a stable electricity supply, and we get a lot of 'brown-out' power dips, as well as frequent power outages over and above the Eskom load-shedding outages.

I have recently had my Bosch fridge/freezer electronics damaged, which resulted in it needing a new PC control board and a new compressor.

Over R3,000 later for fridge repairs, and having just bought a new Desktop PC, it's time to invest in UPS equipment that will protect my PC, and Laptop. (... I am guessing that the laptop does not really need protection from electricity brown-outs, power surges, and total power outages (...thanks Eishkom), as it runs from the supplied power adapter?)

But the new Desktop PC, & new 23" LED screen, I would like to protect from Eskom's inability to provide a stable & constant electrical supply to our town.

We do not need a UPS that will allow us to keep the PC running for any length of time, we would just like to be able to perform an orderly shut-down of the PC

Can those who know about UPS's recommend a suitably-specced UPS from a SA supplier who could supply & courier a UPS to us?
I would prefer a UPS that allows me, the user, to replace the UPS batteries if that becomes necessary after a couple of years use.
 
I have used APC for years: highly recommended.

Batteries are (a) available and (b) easily replaced.

Auto-shutdown software available for most models.
 
If you can afford it buy a APC. You pay a hefty premium yes but I've done the cheap UPS thing and its just not worth it.

No you should put the laptop on the UPS as well - it'll give it an additional layer of protection.

Don't put the fridge, printers or any other funny stuff on the UPS.

Just take care with the battery replacements....there is enough juice in a UPS to kill an oke so its better to be wide awake when doing so.
 
Have had about three years of good service from an APC.
 
Thanks for the input from all ... Looks like APC is the way to go.

Two more questions ...

(1) best place to purchase online and have it couriered to me? .. and

(2) the size / capacity of the UPS, bearing in mind that I only need to perform an orderly shut-down ...

(I guess most UPS systems will come with software that would perform an orderly shut-down automatically in the even of a power outage?)
 
HavocXphere said:
If you can afford it buy a APC. You pay a hefty premium yes but I've done the cheap UPS thing and its just not worth it.

No you should put the laptop on the UPS as well - it'll give it an additional layer of protection. Don't put the fridge, printers or any other funny stuff on the UPS.
Click to expand...
Noted, thanks for the heads-up
 
Just take note that the UPS's are usually rated in VA (Volt-Ampere), and has thus a much lower (~35%) Watt rating.

The easiest (and roughly estimated) way to calculate what size UPS you need, is to add up the wattage of all your components' power supplies (eg. 350W PC PSU + 60W screen + 90W laptop => 500W [or 750VA] UPS) and then you basically have the minimum size of the UPS in Watts.

For home equipment, Line Interactive UPS's (which are cheaper than On-line) should suffice. You may need to go for an UPS with power conditioning if you're experiencing more than just power failures - eg. spikes or brownouts.

To connect your laptop to the UPS, you'll either need to get an IEC-320 C14 cable for your laptop power supply or buy/modify a dedicated multiplug (so that you cannot plug in a normal kettle cable) with an IEC-320 C14 lead.

Never plug in a laser printer in a UPS, because of the startup power that it require is immense!

For your fridge and other electric equipment, simply get decent surge protection adapters.
 
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