SOHO UPS... (Was Re: [plug] Weird power glitch)

[Bret Busby]

On Thu, 17 Oct 2002, Trevor Phillips wrote:

> 
> Anyway, this leads me to: What would people recommend as a UPS for a 
> Small/Home office situation? Perhaps to support 2-3 PCs?
> 
> Having had experience with APCs, I had a look, and there's a few 500KVa ones 
> for $200->$300 - and they support USB now Wooh!
> 
> So, not only what brands do people recommend, but could you tell me how well 
> Linux is supported as far as monitoring such things? It'd be nice if a server 
> could shut itself down gracefully if the power went out, and no-one was 
> around...
> 
> 

We have a Sola UPS 325/750. It cost us about $600-$700 (from memory) a 
couple of years ago. We got it from  man in Welshpool; Peter Duits at 
Ampel UPS; website http://www.ampelups.com.au . The price for the UPS, 
appears to be still about the same.

The software provided with the UPS, included Windows and UNIX drivers. 
We have not yet got around to installing the drivers; we just shutdown 
manually, so far, when needed. The UNIX software should work with Linux.

About 5 minutes backup is provided, and that lasts for three computers. 
We have had four computers and up to three 14-15 inch, or three 
computers and one 15 inch and one 17 inch monitors, running off the UPS, 
without any noticeable problems. The main power draw is in the monitors, 
but having the monitors running off the UPS, assists in shutdowns, both 
in providing light to do the shutdowns, and, in seeing what is being 
typed (minimising typo's). All of our LAN, runs off the UPS (except 
peripherals like printers and scanner). The LAN includes (at present) 
five computers (2x Cyrix 6x86, 1x Pentium, 1x AMD K62, 1x AMD Duron), 
and four monitors; one being a 17 inch. The server has two small 
HDD's. We generally run only three computers at a time, and no more than 
two monitors at a time, (and the faxtam, etc), to avoid overloading the 
UPS.

We also run a faxtam, and a clock-radio or three, off the UPS. Without 
the computers (after they have been shutdown), the faxtam and the 
clock-radios, run for about an hour to an hour andf a half, from the 
backup battery in the UPS.

It may be a few years that we have had the UPS. We have had no problems 
with the UPS; it has done well, and, given the massive instability of 
the electricity supply that we have experienced in Armadale, the UPS has 
been worth much more to us, than what we paid for it.

The only hardware failures that we have had, appear to be due to old 
age; my old computer (Cyrix 6x86) has a power supply fan that sometimes 
makes weird noises and doesn't want to work; and the other Cyrix 
computer's CPU fan appears to be dead, or close to dead. Some of the 
hardware is quite old (one of the HDD's in the server, is a Seagate that 
is over 10 years old (about 450MB) ), and it seems to be working okay.

While it may be a bit more than the $200-$300 price range that you 
mentioned, I recommend this model of UPS. We are quite happy with it.

Oh, and the UPS breezed through the on-again-off-again power 
fluctuations and brownouts, yesterday, no problems, and I did not lose 
my Internet connection.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Douglas Adams, 1988
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