Battery UPS

My son in law is a comtec and is in charge of one of the field offices and they replaced all their battery UPS's.

Well, he brought 6 of the old ones home, since they were to be destroyed, except for the batteries.

Well, I got 3 of them, they are APC Pro 1350VA/800 watts, don't know how well these ones work, but the price was right.

I hooked one to the computer and one to the entertainment center and have a spare, which I plan on using in conjunction with my solar system.

Does anybody use USP for anything else.

I have UPS units attached to my entertainment systems, telephone answering machine (yes I still have a landline), my cable modem/router setup, and the microwave in the kitchen. Since I have an automatic standby generator in most cases the UPS units only have to provide a minute or so of power to bridge the gap between utility loss and generator stability. The UPS units also are very good surge suppressors in case of a spike or even dirty power as the generator is stabilizing....

But if you're counting on the UPS to hold up your devices for more than a couple of minutes, make sure you replace the batteries in them - third party replacements are a LOT cheaper than APC OEM batteries..so it's worthwhile finding other sources for the batteries than the manufacturer.

Thanks DMWalsh568, no I don't plan on them for a backup, only for the surge protection. I never thought about running my generator through them, that's where the third one will be used.

What is a battery UPS?

ReadyMom wrote:What is a battery UPS?

Here ya go RM, battery uninterrupted power supply (UPS). They are used on computer systems to allow the system to run on a battery power whenever the power shuts down, put usually only for a short period of time. Time enough for you to backup your system, so you don't lose your information:


https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-battery-backup-2618164

Thanks! I never heard of these, before. How necessary are they? If you are plugged in, if the power goes out, won't your computer already have enough power to keep going? (Unless you just plugged it in on empty).

ReadyMom wrote:Thanks! I never heard of these, before. How necessary are they? If you are plugged in, if the power goes out, won't your computer already have enough power to keep going? (Unless you just plugged it in on empty).

Laptops and tablets have internal batteries so they don't care if the lights flicker, but desktop computers, TVs, microwaves, etc will all power down when the utility power goes off. A UPS or a battery backup will give you a few minutes to save your work before the machine shuts down. Or on a microwave it can prevent the clock from resetting or if you're lucky you can finish popping that bag of popcorn.

As to how necessary they are it depends totally on how much you use your computer and how bad the power is in your area. If you are in an area where you get frequent power flickers or brownouts, then a UPS can save you from losing data or even from equipment damage in some cases (good quality UPS units are better than surge protectors for preventing damage from electrical surges.)

There are a bunch of online calculators for sizing a UPS to your computer, but here is one from APC:

https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/tools/ups_selector/

I have also have a UPS on my cable modem and the wireless access point, so when the lights go out I don't immediately lose wireless signal. Since even if the battery on my laptop or tablet is topped up, if the wifi goes away then they aren't very useful for anything not already stored on the device.

Hope this helps.

I'm probably good without, then.