Suggestions wanted for a good UPS

How many watts do you need?

Pure sinewave is best, as is line interactive and bypassing the battery when on AC. Cyberpower calls this "Greenpower." Reduces total used wattage.

Cyberpower CPxxxxPFCLCD (xxxx=VA rating) is my go to. Have some 1500s (900W, highest you can get for 110V).
 
Cyberpower use the 'yellow glue of death' for components on their PCBs, which can become conductive over time. When this occurs and if unlucky with the glob placement it can lead to shorts, which has resulted in some fires.

I have a CP1500PFCLCD and removed that stuff following the awareness of reports a couple years ago with these Cyberpower units (office burning down, user videos of it both sparking and one smoking as a user raced outside holding it). This shouldn't be something users have to do to mitigate risk when there are high voltage capacitors (I used a halogen bulb to discharge them then read their value to double-check before doing anything). Tip: use freeze spray to make the stuff more brittle (if it isn't already) which allows easier removal.

Otherwise it's clear why they're so popular given the features for the price. I've heard better things about APC and Eaton for their server grade offerings though.

Line interactive type is said to put more stress on the battery which can lead to a chance of battery swelling (fwiw hasn't happened to mine in 10 years over two battery swaps but have seen others show this), but OTOH double conversion UPS type (filtering all power twice for cleaner output and less battery stress) are more expensive.

Another thing is if you have multiple systems and want them all to gracefully shutdown/wake-up it's useful if NUT supports the UPS model. NUT is an open source UPS manager server/client which allows for handling multiple systems based on whatever conditions you set when it detects info from the UPS. Various Cyberpower models are among those supported, just keep in mind to use NUT v2.8+ to have better mitigation for occasional USB driver disconnections (a known issue with Cyberpower models for NUT).
 
Okatis said:
just keep in mind to use NUT v2.8+ to have better mitigation for occasional USB driver disconnections (a known issue with Cyberpower models for NUT).
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Thanks for the tip, I have several of these UPSes and have had to fight with disconnections ocassionally. I'll make sure I'm up to date if it flares up again.
 
I have APC BRxxxxMS in a couple different VA ratings, works fine for me as did a few older APC units in the past.
 
No experience with cyberpower but that might be a concern. APC is our go to at work and for many, every Home Despot in Canuckistan is on APC....
 
APC or Tripp-Lite. Pure Sine isn't required for most PSUs made in the last 15 years, but APC has very affordable pure sine units.
 
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Sine wave should be your baseline.
Even better for zero transfer time and output quality is double conversion.
It really boils down to your needs and power line quality. Obviously budget too!
Also if you have a standby generator, many cheaper ones will keep switching to battery and just shut down when the battery runs out.
Better ones allow to tune/adjust to keep from switching but beware the fluctuations will get passed to your protected loads UNLESS your UPS is double conversion or using a ferroresonant transformer design.
 
I went back to Cyberpower after a disappointment long ago.

Currently running "CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS System, 1500VA/1000W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini Tower,Black".

No problems.
 
Grebuloner said:
How many watts do you need?

Pure sinewave is best, as is line interactive and bypassing the battery when on AC. Cyberpower calls this "Greenpower." Reduces total used wattage.

Cyberpower CPxxxxPFCLCD (xxxx=VA rating) is my go to. Have some 1500s (900W, highest you can get for 110V).
Click to expand...
Not sure, imwill be using a 1200w PSU in my computer, and it would also be plugging in my TV and a few external drives
 
peppergomez said:
Not sure, imwill be using a 1200w PSU in my computer, and it would also be plugging in my TV and a few external drives
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Get a 1500VA, that's the most you can have on 110V. It gives you 900-1000W to play with "from the wall" (i.e. before efficiency losses at the PSU) and the longest battery run time. If you get the good models that bypass the battery when on AC, you can more than 900W, (silence the alarms, though), but if the power trips, it will just shut down. I'd put just the PC and drives on the UPS and the TV on a surge protector, and then make sure your PC is drawing less than 800W. Short or long power outage, you really don't care about still being able to game or work or whatever, so let the TV/accessories go out, and the PC can either wait it out if it's short, or when your battery target is reached, gracefully shut down and finish any writes to the externals. I use 80% as my target (allows me to use the rest of the UPS for charging phone and flashlight) and have my Windows power plan set to minimum power usage "when on battery" (and BOINC set to suspend on battery since I DC). It's all automatic and handles itself without me. Even important work is regularly autosaved, so no worries about not being able to do that, either.
 
Thanks all

One other question is there a simple or reliable way to measure the maximum outlets in a room?
I live in an older building and notice that when I plug in a fifteen hundred watt space heater and run it at maximum power with the room lights on it trips the circuit breaker.

This is not the room.I will have my p c or u p s plug into but it makes me wonder about maximum wall outlet output
 
As it seems a few others are, very happy with my CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD.
 
peppergomez said:
One other question is there a simple or reliable way to measure the maximum outlets in a room?
I live in an older building and notice that when I plug in a fifteen hundred watt space heater and run it at maximum power with the room lights on it trips the circuit breaker.
Click to expand...

You gotta figure out which outlets (and ceiling lights, if any) are on which circuit breakers, and then run each circuit at less than the breaker amps. Plus a factor for continuous loads, something something.

If the breakers have triggered a lot, sometimes they trigger way below their rating, so that can be an issue, but 1500W is going to use most of a 15A breaker, and 15A is a common breaker size for outlets. (Modern wiring usually does 20A for a circuit with a few outlets, and modern wiring usually has way more circuits, too)
 
peppergomez said:
Thanks all

One other question is there a simple or reliable way to measure the maximum outlets in a room?
I live in an older building and notice that when I plug in a fifteen hundred watt space heater and run it at maximum power with the room lights on it trips the circuit breaker.

This is not the room.I will have my p c or u p s plug into but it makes me wonder about maximum wall outlet output
Click to expand...

You just discovered the testing method :)
 
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