UPS

[rainy]

At the rate we are getting power cuts here, I am gonna have to invest in a UPS, otherwise I will end up with a lot of faulty harddrives. Before I go and get something brand new, I wanted to ask if anyone has got something standing around that would do the job and they don't need it anymore. I don't want it for free, but you know that I am chronically broke, so any saving helps ;)

[sss]

u realise u need a UPS and not a SPS even tho most SPS are advertised as UPS's!

[rainy]

Please explain the difference and how to recognize a SPS.

[sss]

u need one that runs on the battery 100% of the time.. thereby offering you protection agaisnt surges and dips. the ac power runs to the battery and the the pc runs from the battery

conventinal (SPS) ups's do a SWITCH over from AC to battery when the power goes out... therefore you are running off AC 90% of the time..and there is no protection

[Askari]

Im also gonna have to invest in one. The power here has been erratic at best and most days I come home to find my clock radio flashing and my pcs waiting for me to log in again......

Please recommend a good one?

[Alluvium]

yeah SPS - UPS is a stupid marketing thing , grrrr


the labs at UNI in cape town, had to keep shutting down coz of our power issues this year, i believe the stat is somthing like 20% chance a power failure and the resulting surge will fry something in the box, so with like hundreds of pcs running in the Engineering block, and (i dont think having nice protection) the servers took a bit of a bashing.

although props to the IT guys at UCT they kept it up very well, sides from the server down time during periods when there was power(cause they didnt want to turn them back on :p )


...

[GeroW4lll]

Rainy I'm sorry we should already have told you cause me and Para live in the same general area as you. We had so manny power outs last year that in this house we are all running from UPSs. I suppose after that explination by SSS it's really SPSs but we didn't know. Blue tech is evil! anyhows. Last year we lost about a whole pc between the three pcs that's on the yeard. I lost a hardisk, Para lost a motherboard and the other guy Chris lost a screencard. I blame it all on the regular power outs. The power in our area is particularly bad, ever since two years ago there was a lightning strike on a substation. Eskom tried to hotwire a quickfix that bought down the rest of the net in the area. So be warned LOL.

BTW Para might have a small one that you should look into. He got a bigger unit recently

[rainy]

Okay, since I still don't know what to make out of the product descriptions, here's the one I am looking at:

http://dvd365.co.za/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_32&products_id=195

Go, no go?

Wall: Can you ask Para for me, if he still has it and if it is working properly? If it can power 1 PC long enough to shut down peoperly in case of a power failure, that'd be good enough.

[TG]

I've got 4x UPS's... 2x 1000VA's powering mine and my wife's compies, 1x 600VA powering my network / adsl / phones, and 1x 500VA powering my firewall and server (No screens).

[Alluvium]

yeah that looks like a solid buy , not sure on the brand, but if it does what it says , should be fine ?

[stoke]

I used to run mine on APC UPS's ... but over the years i've found that they only last about 9 months so I bought the best powersupplies I could get my hands on instead, and they seem to be coping just fine.
Phew ... my desk is wood :p

[WAJKILLER2]

A UPS can be a bliss or a fire hazard. So be careful on what you buy. There are to types. True online and Line Interactive. The true online version is the best and about 5 times the price. They run permanently and the power feed to it only supplies the battries with power. The lineinteractive type only switches on when there is a power dip or complete power failure. They both provide protection from surges and dips aswell as lightning. The true online type one being the best of the two obviously. There are several makes on the market. I suppose the best is up to the money you are willing to pay. Powercom is a good make and fairly priced. You can find them in most pc shops. Rectron also sells them.

I have a ups i took from the workshop when i was an UPS technitian 7 years ago and it still runs. The cleaner and cooler you keep it the longer it will run.

If you have severe power dips or surges i would suggest going with a true online type. They are expensive but well worth it. The only downside is once the warranty expires and something goes wrong it is rare that it will be fixed. These things have a tendancy to selfdestruct when something goes wrong.

[Agent Green]

living in CPT in got one a few months ago. Best R300+ bucks I spent in a while
;0

[WAJKILLER2]

Jup a small one normally does the trick more than enough. You only need a basic one for the standard PC. The true online types you only use on very delicate servers. I've seen IBM servers literally burn. While i was a UPS technitian i saw the entire mainframe server stack of Continental tires go up in smoke. The wole factory went dead since the factory is comepletely computerised. I packed my tools as fast as i can and hit the road. The CEO of continental tires word wide was hunting my ass the whole weekend. The damage was enstimated in around 21 million just for the damage to servers. One of the things that burnt out was a 2 terabyte hard drive, now think what they looked like 8 years ago. I the end the fault was because a electrician replaced a breaker feeding the ups on our request, but never did so, he sold it to a local dealership, ha ha the magic of technology we traced the serial number. The electrician dissapeared over night never to be seen again. Last they could track he left the country in quick hurry.

If you want to protect your pc just get a simple cheap ups it will dot he trick, no need for expensive kit. You can go the expensive route, but then again theres no point unless you live like right next to a steel mill or some shit like that...

[rainy]

Thanks for the explnations WAJ. I am about to acquire a Powercom 600VA from Paragon. MY wife might be able to brush up somethign else from her workplace, possibly for free, which will hopefully be able to power the ADSL and Fax Machine for a while in case of a power outage.

[Megnut3025]

We've just gotten a bigger UPS made by Schultz... because of all the hassles we've been having with the electiricty surges... and the PC runs through it all the time.. I think its that one like sss said where if there are surges it wont affect your PC.
We have been finding that the electricity is going off quite regularly through the early hours of the morning...when we wake up in the morning everything has reset through the night... very frustrating!!!! :mad:
Rainy... I can ask Punky if the other one we used to have is still working or if thats why we had to get the new one...Umm... you do realise with what they weigh, that it will probably cost a small fortune to post it!! :cry:

[Alluvium]

well myself being mr jnr eng, learnt how to make one the other day, i should give it a bash and trip the power alot , see what happens :p

[slogger_1]

Hey Rainy,

Also be careful of what you put on the UPS. Do NOT put printers, esp. lasers onto a UPS. The inrush (startup) current can be massive, up to 6 times (IIRC) the normal operating current. So IOW, esp. a laser can draw huge amounts of current and cause a UPS to bleed from it's orrifices :eek: So careful of plain paper faxes etc. too.

HTH

[rainy]

Thanks for the advice slogger. Will keep that in mind.

[WAJKILLER2]

LOL slogger you said it well. Lazer printers, fax machines and anything that makes funny noises when in operation or requries heating up a lamp or any such shit is a big no no. Normal inkjet printers is fine though.

[rainy]

So what about an inkjet fax machine? ;)

[sss]

our lovely cleaning lady.... walks into the office here... whips out her polishing machine... plugs it into our ups and starts shining the floors!

eish how how how!

[rainy]

:banghead:

[slogger_1]

That's not bad :)

Had guys in our despatch area plug in a heater during winter (wos blerry cold).

The best tho was some oke doing welding in the stores. We couldn't figure out why the UPS was spiking, and tripping..... :cry: