Question Recommendations for an uninterruptible power supply?

[MrYossu]

https://tripplite.eaton.com/700va-3...s-avr-120v-50-60-hz-lcd-usb-tower~OMNI700LCDT

Eaton is generally considered to be the best brand of UPS without going into multiple thousand dollar industrial units. This model here supports up to 10 minutes of runtime at half load and 3 minutes at full load, which should be more than enough to save everything. Runs off of your wall outlet too (115V) so no special power connectors needed.

Sadly, when I click that link, it tells me "Model Number OMNI700LCDT is not available in your country"

However, it looks like this is the same but for the UK. However, there is also this one, which looks identical, except that the product name has "-UK" at the end. However, both claim to have UK plugs, so I'm not sure why one is £30 more than the other.

Any comments?

That link by General_Cool shows a good unit with proper info on its ability. One small point to consider. At 200 W (your claimed max) this unit can keep you running for 7.5 min. That certainly is enough time for an orderly shut-down IF you are then when power fails. Are you confident you or someone competent WILL be present when power fails?

No, I'm not at all sure, but I'm not sure what else I can do.

As it happens, when I leave the PC, I generally make sure to save all docs and so on, so if it did go down then, I wouldn't lose data, I'd only have the concern of what a sudden power loss might do to the PC.

Don't know if you have any other suggestions, as even the more expensive UPSs (without going into silly prices) only seem to supply power for a few minutes.

Thanks again

 

[Paperdoc]

You are right. The only way to get more time to shut-down is a larger and more expensive UPS. To get 20 or 30 min instead of 7 can be VERY expensive. In your case also, 7 min is an underestimate. That would happen if your machine were running at what you describe as its max workload. As you tell us now, when the system unattended it is NOT doing anything significant and will be drawing less power. Your habit of leaving nothing open and active is a good one and should be sufficient. The few background activities that might involve disk write access when there really are no applications running are very likely to take little time to complete, and most would be completed in the few seconds of failing power as the PSU output fades. Even if there were small glitches as a result, Windows these days is remarkably good at recovering from that during the next boot process.

 

[punkncat]

A bit late to the thread but....

I use APC branded UPS for both applications here for the home office. APC has had a calculator to use on their selector that you enter information into, and it spits out recommendations. I have a large one running the three PC and peripherals in the office itself and one smaller unit on the modem.

One thing I would recommend is looking into what battery the unit uses. Some of these come with strange batteries that are expensive beyond what they are. Both of the units I use are on standard SLA batteries. The larger unit does have a 'pack' that is specific, but it comes apart easily and all you actually need is the spacer/plug from the center and buying your own batteries to install are significantly less expensive over time.

 

[General_Cool]

However, it looks like this is the same but for the UK. However, there is also this one, which looks identical, except that the product name has "-UK" at the end.

Those are the not the same brand, that is Cyberpower. Cyberpower is considered to be the worst UPS brand. Stick to an Eaton, such as this one.

 

[MrYossu]

Those are the not the same brand, that is Cyberpower. Cyberpower is considered to be the worst UPS brand. Stick to an Eaton, such as this one.

Thanks, my mistake.

Looks like you need a special cable to use that one though, something like the female version of a kettle cable. Most of the UPSs I looked had had regular 3-pin UK sockets on, so you just plug your regular power cable into them.

Thanks again

 

[slightnitpick]

Looks like you need a special cable to use that one though

Here's the Eaton page for UK specific UPSes. They have a list of buttons to select your use case.

https://www.eaton.com/gb/en-gb/prod...ckup-power-ups/ups-applications/ups-home.html

 

[MrYossu]

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

I bought the Eaton E3 850 (figured the extra £25 was worth it in the long run). The app that comes with it seems to think I'd get between 16 and 20 minutes from the battery, which is better than I expected.

Let's hope I never need to find out!

Thanks again

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for the update. Enjoy!