[plug] SOHO UPS Suggestions

Kevin Shackleton krshackleton at gmail.com
Wed Jun 6 20:48:49 WST 2012


Powershield make "tin box" UPS' and also "flatpack" ones.  In my experience
all flatpack UPS' are rubbish because they limit battery capacity and
they're made of thin plastic which breaks readily.  I have a Powerware
(also Eaton now) UPS which isn't much different from the APC ones (i.e.
good).  I believe having 2 batteries in series for 24 V "separates the men
from the boys" with UPS'.  I also don't believe there's any advantage in
sinewave inversion when you're driving a switchmode power supplies.  In
fact given that "pure sinewave" inverters (UPS') these days achieve their
waveform by very high speed square wave switching rather than having
ferro-resonant filtering, such inverters are probably worse for transients
within the computer power supply than a nice simple square wave inverter.
Square waves are only bad where they're driving something resonant, like an
AC motor (or when they are badly out of line in volts or Hz which cheap
ones probably are).

95% of "tin box" UPS' that aren't working can be fixed just by replacing
the batteries.

You need to get batteries with 6.35 mm spades, not the 4.5 mm spades that
Altronic/Jaycar batteries have.  These batteries should have better
high-current rating than the ones used to power burglar alarms.  They're
obtainable through Battery World, if anyone knows of a cheaper source ? ?

Kevin.

On 6 June 2012 15:51, Bernd Felsche <bernie at innovative.iinet.net.au> wrote:

> On Wed, 6 Jun 2012 12:07:40 Trevor Phillips wrote:
> > Does anyone have any recommendations for inexpensive SOHO UPSs that are
> > Linux friendly? I'm just after something that will smooth power
> > fluctuations a bit, and give a few minutes to cleanly shut down a home
> > server when there's a power outage. The home server has a 650W PSU, and
> > I've measured it drawing about 80-90W when reasonably idle.
>
> "inexpensive"? Well you probably need a 1000VA UPS to handle the PSU
> surges.
>
> > I've done some Googling, and most of the recommended ones seem to have
> all
> > been bought out by Eaton. So Eaton have several lines of PSUs, but their
> > site only recommends their own line. Eaton at least seem to have great
> > Linux support across all (?) ranges.
>
> Powershield is cool.  http://www.powershield.com.au/
> Powershield are sold by e.g. Altronics.
> With pure sinewave output, I wouldn't go for less than
> http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=D0880
>
> Software support for Linux "works".
> I should spend some time whipping a module into shape for Nagios.
>
> Several of their models support "dirty" generator input as well
> which is useful if you need to "survive" longer power outages
> without a massive bank of external batteries. A small diesel genset
> of say 5kVA can be set up to start shortly after grid power goes off
> and for power to transfer when the generator is running smoothly.
> You then get an indefinite amount of time of backup power. Fuel
> tanks supply for 12+hours at full capacity and, being
> diesel-fuelled, can be topped up without stopping. Cost of a 5kVA
> generator is less than $4000.
>
> That may be "overkill" for your SOHO application but is worth
> keeping in mind ... if you have a place to run a genset, then
> there's little need for more than 20 minutes' of UPS battery
> capacity. A genset can be online from cold in 2 to 3 minutes.
>
> P.S.: Declaration I'm a Powershield reseller for systems hardening,
> automation and integration activities.
>
> --
> /"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
> \ /  ASCII ribbon campaign | For every complex problem there is an
>  X   against HTML mail     | answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
> / \  and postings          |  --HL Mencken
>
>
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