don't forget your UPS!

[Ernest Burden III]

With the entire North East US blacked out yesterday, I was a little concerned about my computers. I usually leave two on, and these are the ones I work on, so they are important, especially the hard-drives. Randomly pulling the plug on a computer is a bad thing. But that's what blackouts do.

 

But for each computer I have invested in APC Uninteruptable Power Supplies--battery backups. I buy the server versions because on the high current draw of the PCs I use (450W power supplies in each). These UPS's cost about $500 each.

 

I got home about 45 minutes after the power went down. I expected the computers would be off, but they were still running, no problems at all. And I had even left the monitor on on one of them. So I was able to shut them down normally.

 

The UPS's come with software to do an automatic shutdown when power gets low on the batteries, but I never installed it. Greg, do you have an opinion on the software? I didn't want any more 'background' software running. Maybe I should use it?

 

Anyway, as you can see--the $500 investment in a really good UPS pays off.

[Jeff Mottle]

I'd been considering getting one of those, but just have not dropped the coin to do it. I do have a really old APC 200 that has just enough juice to power my fish tank heaters and pumps. It my fishy life support system. It's funny, becuase they beep when they are being used and it sounds just like a heart monitor in a ICU. I'm sure my fish appreciate it. Which unit do you have Ernest? I get a newsletter from APC every so often and they had some good deals on some of their top line stuff a while back.

 

As an aside, I really had not heard too much about the power outages (did not watch the news) so I was reading about it on CNN. Damn, all of NE North America was out. Pretty damn impressive that no riots and looting went on like the last time the power went out in NY and the other major US and Canadian cities. Wasn't that like in the 70 or 80s? I guess APC will see a major hike in share values this quarter. I'm sure a lot of people will be running out to buy one.

[quizzy]

funny, i was 24 hours earlier in New York..

 

maybe it was because of me recharging my cell phone at the airport...

[ingo]

Thats the big advantage of working with a Powerbook, at least the first three hours That brings back my idea of using solarpowered batteries for powering my computers.

 

Otherwise i hope everyone in the NE is doing well, and glad we had no Enron here in Europe.....since now.

[Chad Warner]

We seem to lose power on a semi-regular basis here, so the $500 battery backup is worth it's wait in gold when I forget to save a file I have been working on and the power suddenly goes out.

 

As far as the software that comes with it is concerned, I don't have it installed on my personal computer, but it is on the server, mainly so the raid doesnt get screwed up. I'ts pretty cool though..just powers the computer down as soon as it knows it can't keep it juiced. Looking at the taskmanager, it uses 0 cpu and 1420k of memory.

 

-Chad

[Greg Hess]

My UPS has saved my machine so many countless times...its not even funny.

 

They serve a wide variety of purposes.

 

1) They prevent total power loss to the machine.

2) They prevent voltage spikes/brownouts.

3) They maintain a consistent and low variance voltage supply to the machine. (A big problem in some areas)

 

Think of a UPS as insurance for that nice expensive workstation.

 

As to your question ernest...

 

I've never used the software myself. I think I tried it before and found it "neat" but not entirely useful.

 

As you know, max/viz usually won't allow windows to shut down if a scene is open...which prevents the UPS from shutting down the system in the event of a power failure anyway.

 

I usually just use the UPS's to catch normal voltage fluxation, and to give myself time to shutdown the computer in case of total power failure.

[TAKA]

hey guys....after u hear this u can go kill urselves.

I live in a country where black outs is a common trend, mostly in summers. Here, every 4 hours we have a 4 hour black out until power gets back, so naturally i couldn't ever live with no UPS.

so i got a 4 KVA UPS with 4 x 12 V batteries (200 A each), that give me enough juice to keep my whole office running 24 H in a row in case of a black out!!

Investment?? well, 90$ for each battery and 500$ for the UPS, totals 860$, which is a perfect investment couting the number of black outs!!

 

PS: i am running on this UPS

1 server, 4 Desktop PCs, 1 Large format printer (HP Designjet 500), 1 A3 printer, and a workstation.

 

Just great.

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by Jeff Mottle:

I'd been considering getting one of those,

Stop considering and buy it (them, really, unless you get one megga-unit).

 

Where I work the power WAS fairly reliable (oh, whats ONE little 50 million customer two-day blackout among friends) but it does sometimes kick off for 15 seconds and then come back up for no apparent reason. My computers just laugh at this.

 

As for which ones: APC is the only brand to get. Greg outlined the major reasons, but there is one more--they aren't just 'like' insurance, they come with insurance. If a power-related problem destroys your computer (think 'lightning strike') they will replace it (terms and conditions apply, I'm sure, read fine print). I buy the server-class UPS's and they have perfect sine-wave AC output, which should help your computer last longer. The lower models have a square-stepping approximation of a sine wave which is fine.

 

The models I use are APC Smart-UPS 700XL and 750XL I don't think there is a difference. These supply 750VA (1 watt = 1 volt x 1 amp) so they will carry, obviously, about 700W. My computer can draw 450w, the monitor another 120w plus a few other smaller devices with wall-wart transformers. When your system is drawing under the max you get longer run-times in an outage.

 

No-one who makes a living from their computers should work without a quality UPS.