Ups

eitai2001 said:
Please can anyone make a suggestion to me of which UPS available from computer suppliers will endure 1 - 3 hours on a standard PC of about 450W so that I can quote my customer ... so that would be a bigger battery then ... I would appreciate a product name ... thanks
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All you need is an inverter and a few batteries wired in parallel.
The system I have will cost around R3000 to build and will run your customers PC for a good 4-5 hours. I see there are a few local companies that are advertising the same setup as I have but for way more than you can build them for.

You can head over to Icrontic and read the article I wrote for the site. It should give you a fair idea of what to look for.
 
Winga said:
All you need is an inverter and a few batteries wired in parallel.
The system I have will cost around R3000 to build and will run your customers PC for a good 4-5 hours. I see there are a few local companies that are advertising the same setup as I have but for way more than you can build them for.

You can head over to Icrontic and read the article I wrote for the site. It should give you a fair idea of what to look for.
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Hey Mike thanks to your article I stumbled across 2 weeks ago whilst searching for a long lasting UPS, I now have one myself. The only difference is I am running two 102AH batteries instead of the two 45AH ones, and the batteries are now in a more attractive steel housing. I paid just over 5 grand for mine as obviously everyone is inflating their prices but some of the cost comes from the bigger batteries and better housing. Thanks again :)
 
Either way, i believe you need a UPS -anyway- if you want to put a generator in place (so it's not really the one or the other) .

It's not recommended to put your PC straight on the gennie, the UPS cleans/stabilize the power.

So from that, i guess you might as well dish out on a good UPS , especially if you're only without power for 1-2 hrs per session .
 
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Spark said:
Hey Mike thanks to your article I stumbled across 2 weeks ago whilst searching for a long lasting UPS, I now have one myself. The only difference is I am running two 102AH batteries instead of the two 45AH ones, and the batteries are now in a more attractive steel housing. I paid just over 5 grand for mine as obviously everyone is inflating their prices but some of the cost comes from the bigger batteries and better housing. Thanks again :)
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Spark, have you tested how long you can run your PC off those two 102Ah batteries?
 
diabolus said:
Either way, i believe you need a UPS -anyway- if you want to put a generator in place (so it's not really the one or the other) .

It's not recommended to put your PC straight on the gennie, the UPS cleans/stabilize the power.

So from that, i guess you might as well dish out on a good UPS , especially if you're only without power for 1-2 hrs per session .
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From what I can gather only the expensive online ups will give you the kind of filtering you would need from a genny as it converts the AC to DC which is stored in the battery and then converted back to AC again. The cheaper UPS which is the one almost everyone buys is offline and will only kick in if there is a fault in the electricity supply so I don't think it is really the answer.

The UPS I got using the inverter and bank of batteries as Winga suggested is the best way to go IMO, I could easily run my computer for a few hours on end with no problems. I have never run the batteries flat so I don't know exactly how long it would last but Winga got 2 hrs with 2 computers on full load with HALF the size batteries I have. Much better than a genny for this kind of application IMO.
 
StrongTurd said:
Spark, have you tested how long you can run your PC off those two 102Ah batteries?
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Nah I havent tested but this UPS means business, it weighs just over 50kg with the batteries. Using Wingas testing as a reference and taking into account that I have double the battery size and only one gaming pc, plus 19" crt I should get around 7hrs. But I mainly bought it for the fact that I have an unlimited internet connection and it really grates me when I come home and the whole day I have downloaded nothing as there was a power failure just as I left for work in the morning... Problem solved now ;)
 
I use a Mecer 1400W UPS. The UPS comes standard with 12V 9Ah batteries x 2 thus making it a 24V unit. I managed to get about 35 min with a 15% load (210W: 2xPC's, 1x17" LCD, ADSL router and modem and networkdrive)

I installed 2x 28 Ah batteries onto the UPS (37Ah in total). I now get about 3 hours of backup at the same load. Only drawback is the fact that the batteries now take 24 hours to obtain a full charge.

Hope this helps to determine a UPS size.

The Mecer UPS also has an AVR mode (Automatic voltage regualtion mode) that maintains the voltage and frequency to the PC's when the input voltage drops below 215V. This is very important when running from the Generator. SOmetimes the voltage will dip (and the frequency will fall below 48Hz) for a short period (1s) due to a fridge or light being switched on and the genny only catches up after a short period.
 
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Spark said:
But I mainly bought it for the fact that I have an unlimited internet connection and it really grates me when I come home and the whole day I have downloaded nothing as there was a power failure just as I left for work in the morning... Problem solved now ;)
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lol this is funny :D
 
i have one, pretty good, spent quite a bit for a serial to USB adapter from incredible corruption...havent yet tested how long it lasts etc though.

with a AMD x2 4400, 7900gt, 2hdds, 700w PSU, 19" lcd, cordless phone, router, multifunction inkjet printer connected, monitoring software says usage is around 22%


heres a review of it: http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=68106&cat_id=641
 
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Thanks Hansa for the comment and the review link. Why did you need a USB adapter, why not just use the serial cable? Your PC is better than what im running and I dont have a printer so that UPS should be more than enough for my needs.
 
Hey guys thanks for the kind words 'bout my article. I'm really pleased it was able to help some buying decisions. Even if you use my tests as a benchmark I think it has served a purpose. I did a test a few weeks ago where I ran only 1 PC until the batteries died on me. I did a bit of gaming on it but mostly it sat idle. I got 4 hours 47 minutes from it.
 
grubsner said:
I use a Mecer 1400W UPS. The UPS comes standard with 12V 9Ah batteries x 2 thus making it a 24V unit. I managed to get about 35 min with a 15% load (210W: 2xPC's, 1x17" LCD, ADSL router and modem and networkdrive)

I installed 2x 28 Ah batteries onto the UPS (37Ah in total). I now get about 3 hours of backup at the same load. Only drawback is the fact that the batteries now take 24 hours to obtain a full charge.
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The problem with adding bigger batteries to these off the shelf UPS's is the fact that they only have 0.5 - 1 amp chargers. It is going to take forever to charge a big battery at that rate. By that time the next power cut kicks in so you will never fully charge your UPS. It's never a good idea to put more batteries on a small VA rated UPS. The circuits are probably running at maximum all the time.
 
BrianB said:
Thanks Hansa for the comment and the review link. Why did you need a USB adapter, why not just use the serial cable? Your PC is better than what im running and I dont have a printer so that UPS should be more than enough for my needs.
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my motherboard doesnt have a serial port, so had to use USB instead
 
@hansa,

i have a powercom ups too. and i also had to buy a usb-to-serial converter. even with everything connected fine i get errors. i also tried getting latest uspmon software from powercom. (btw it's teh blackknight pro 600va).

how did you get your monitoring software working with usb??
 
1. If you add large capacity battery to your ups and the charger is not also high power, your battery will probably not charge to its full capacity.

2. FYI: The APC SUA750XLI and the SUA1000XLI can configure up to 10 external battery packs.
 
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