Uninterruptible power supply

[csearle]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a UPS because one out of every five weeks I do my "paper"work in a Cornish village, which often has power outages (because it is so windy on the coast).

Could anyone help me with any insights they might have? There seem to be many from which to choose, which is good, but I'd like to avoid buying one with known (but not to me) shortcoming(s). Maybe if anyone actually uses one and has a good experience with it they could perhaps recommend it?

The price isn't necessarily the key issue but please bear in mind I'm scraping-by rather than awash with cash.

Regards,
Chris

[rgifford]

Back in the mists of time I lived in very rural west Wales and the power supply wasn't the best. Brown outs were common, black outs less so.

I bought a UPS to protect against brown outs and to shutdown in an orderly fashion (if I happened to be there) when the power went completely. It didn't allow me to carry on working with no power and wasn't intended to do that. Had I wanted to work during black out periods, I would have bought a generator as well.

[csearle]

I bought a UPS to protect against brown outs and to shutdown in an orderly fashion (if I happened to be there) when the power went completely. It didn't allow me to carry on working with no power and wasn't intended to do that.

Good point. Yes I too was thinking more about not losing work rather than expecting to work through the outage. I would expect the UPS to be able to signal my (desktop) computer to sleep-hibernate.

Regards,
Chris

[rgifford]

I would expect the UPS to be able to signal my (desktop) computer to sleep-hibernate.

Doesn't sleep require you to keep the power connected for it to work? Hibernate would certainly be safer.

[NomoneyNohoney]

Just use a laptop. Simple.

[Slarti]

I've got an APC ups with a built in battery.

The mains charges the battery, the battery is converted to mains and fed to the computer and monitor. This means that any wibbles in the power supply do not affect the PC.

It also means that if the power goes out there is not hesitation in supply.

If the power does go out a clean hibernate is triggered, meaning that anything open is saved and I am not worried about the ups battery running out.
It came with software that you have to install on the machine(s) to be protected so that they can communicate.

I won't recommend the model I have as it is no longer on the market, being over 25 years old. It is on its 3rd battery.


APC were always the market leaders for small ups devices.

[Dorn1]

I second the idea of a laptop. Problem with most desk tops is that they take quite a bit of power (cooling fans, screens etc) and haven't been designed or optimised to reduce power. Most UPS only have a relatively small battery and by the time that energy has been up-converted to 230v, down-converted to your machines internals etc, it will only last 15-20 minutes. But I know you have the knowledge to do the sums!

Cheers
Chris
(1st post on Lemon!)

[csearle]

Just use a laptop. Simple.

I suppose there is some merit in this, yes. I'm a bit old-fashioned though and change is hard. I do have a notebook computer with lots of work-related stuff on it so that I'm not totally b... ..d if the main computer packs up. I will give it some thought, thanks.

Chris

[Infrasonic]

http://www.howtogeek.com/161479/how-to- ... -computer/

[csearle]

I've got an APC ups with a built in battery.

The mains charges the battery, the battery is converted to mains and fed to the computer and monitor. This means that any wibbles in the power supply do not affect the PC.

It also means that if the power goes out there is not hesitation in supply.

Thanks Slarti, the little but I've read so far has also flagged up APC in my brain. Apparently the cheaper ones (not necessarily APC) don't always work the way you describe. Apparently the cheaper ones often supply the load directly from the mains (possibly with a surge supressor) but monitor the line for failure. They have a kind of fast-start inverter that switches in within 25ms if anything untoward is detected. 25ms is short enough I read to be handled by the PC's PSU without a problem (I find this quite plausible).

Thanks for your (almost a) rec.

Regards,
Chris

[csearle]

I would expect the UPS to be able to signal my (desktop) computer to sleep-hibernate.

Doesn't sleep require you to keep the power connected for it to work? Hibernate would certainly be safer.

A similar thought occured to me when I reached the bit in my post where I was to write Sleep or Hibernate so I looked it up to find out the difference. I learned, as you say, that Sleep requires some power and hibernate requires none as stuff is saved to disk. I also read though that with desktop computers the "Sleep" referred to in Windows (which happens to be what I use - please don't convulse) when on a desktop computer is interpreted as Hybrid Sleep where the stuff is stored both on RAM and on disk. For some reason I opted for the term sleep-hibernate.

The thing I was reading about Hybrid Sleep is here.

Regards,
Chris

[csearle]

(1st post on Lemon!)[/i]

Thanks Chris. Welcome to the new reality!

Chris

[Breelander]

The thing I was reading about Hybrid Sleep is here.

Regards,
Chris

Yes, 'How-To Geek' is always worth reading. Windows 10 users should note that the default behaviour of 'Shut down' is actually a form of Hybrid Sleep - more from 'How-To Geek' on Fast Startup here.

[swill453]

Windows 10 users should note that the default behaviour of 'Shut down' is actually a form of Hybrid Sleep

Thanks. Interesting to note that Shutdown followed by Startup is not (necessarily) that same as Restart.

Scott.

[Breelander]

Thanks. Interesting to note that Shutdown followed by Startup is not (necessarily) that same as Restart.

Quite - to reset all drivers to their initial state (say, to fix a mouse that's stopped working correctly) then a Restart is the only way. That is unless (like me) you have turned off Fast startup. My preferred 'shutdown' is to close the lid of my laptop and Hibernate. The few times I actually shut down I want it to do a full shut down.

[swill453]

Starting to remind of of my Solaris (or rather SunOS) days, where the "fastboot" command didn't do a fast boot at all, it did a fast halt followed by a full reboot.

Scott.

[quelquod]

This thread brings to mind a time when I ran a design department using a Sun distributed network. I bought a pile of APC UPSs, 1 for each machine including the servers, and rested confident that we were proof against power outages. Some time later an enthusiastic JCB driver caused a blackout and all of the machines frantically tried to do a clean shutdown, failing miserably and finally crashing because I'd forgotten to support the network switches and they couldn't reach their files. Ah well!

BTW I think that the UPSs referred to earlier are 'double conversion' types where power is normally routed through a battery charger/inverter combination. Best for clean power and no changeover glitches though on the top side for costs and losses.

[stewamax]

A specific recommendation: APC Back-UPS BE700G-UK
I have used these and its rectangular predecessor for nearly 20 years for typical desktop loads.
There is lightning protection for your phone line as well.

They are 'standby' UPSs, but they switch over far faster than the connected devices ever notice.
The various types on 'online' UPS (ones that are always driven by the battery, with the mains power supply charging the battery) are a lot more expensive.

APC have an interesting summary of the the various types of UPS here: http://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA157448/

Usual disclaimers - I am just a satisfied customer!