Totally silent UPS?

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rem451

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May 11, 2012
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any ideas?
my psu is X-660 Seasonic, i have also 2 routers and one 24 Eizo ,
thanks
 
What do you mean by totally silent UPS? IIRC, most all of them will make some kind of beep/alert when it's running on the backup supply to let warn you. Are you referring to quiet as in no fan noise?
 
Skillz said:
What do you mean by totally silent UPS? IIRC, most all of them will make some kind of beep/alert when it's running on the backup supply to let warn you. Are you referring to quiet as in no fan noise?
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yes of course i need a fanless ups with no any buzz noise from the batteries too
 
Just about any UPS unit over a certain rating is going to need a fan to keep the inverter cool. I don't know of any brand that have made a Seasonic-like UPS yet (over engineered components and an intelligent near silent fan that can shut off).

How long do you need your system to survive on battery power, and how much does it really draw?

APC's Back-UPS ES 750 (450w, 750 VA) is probably largest common UPS that is fanless. In normal operation it is completely silent though there is a definite electrical whine when it is in battery mode or recoverying after an outage (or when you first plug it in). You also need black electrical tape if you don't want to go blind from the LED.

Once you move into 1000VA+ units you're getting those 40mm whiny fans - APC has even started putting them into some of the smaller units (the old Back-UPS 650VA model was fanless and it didn't ever whine, not so much with its replacement). I think the issue is one of market - 99.9% of the market for UPS devices is divided between budget priced, low wattage units to give Grandma time to shutdown her Dell in a power outage, and big expensive server room backups that can be as loud as they want. No one seems to target that 0.1% who need a household quiet UPS for an 800-1200w SLI setup.
 
thedge said:
My APC Back-UPS XS 1300 is silent unless there is a power outage.
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There is a fan in that one, but it is temperature controlled. How much wattage are you pulling? If the unit is staying cool enough while under a reasonable load it could be interesting. I wonder if APC would cover it under warranty if it became noisy (either because wear and tear raised the regular operating temperature or degraded the fan bearings).
 
David_CAN said:
There is a fan in that one, but it is temperature controlled. How much wattage are you pulling? If the unit is staying cool enough while under a reasonable load it could be interesting. I wonder if APC would cover it under warranty if it became noisy (either because wear and tear raised the regular operating temperature or degraded the fan bearings).
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Ive never heard the fan honestly, and it sits by my feet. Currently I am pulling about 300-320 watts from it (Dell E6420 laptop, Dell 24" monitor, i7-2600/32GB/Intel board vSphere server, and my NAS with 8x 3.5" drives, 12x 2.5" drives, some SSDs and a i3-2100 CPU). My previous vSphere server (before the one above) ran on it as well, that was a dual Opteron in a Tyan server board with U320 SCSI drives. That would drive the usage up north of 400 watts and still no noise or fan.
 
Most of my UPS had a small fan, but this may vary on the strength of the UPS
 
My apc rs1200 is not too loud when it switches to batteries.
Do you often have power outages late at night when you are sleeping?
 
Most will make a small 60hz hum when operating, sometimes even when charging, but you wont be able to hear this over the fans of the computer or any other ambient noise. As for the beeper, they are fairly easy to identify, you can probably desolder it if the ups does not have an option to turn it off.

I recently bought a tripp lite inverter-charger (basically a UPS but designed for long run time) and even that is fairly quiet. I can hear the fan kick in once in a while if it's working but that's about it.
 
I too am in the market for a UPS since mine died last month and i cant seem to find any batteries for it. I recently purchased a Nilox Business 850VA ups just this week but as soon as i powered it up, it produced an ubearable hiss, a high pitched noise that i could not stand. I had nothing connected on it mind you, so it was not a matter of load. My previous one (a Mustek PowerMust pro) also produced a slight buzz though far less annoying that this. Anyway i took it back, and i am now looking for a replacement. I want to run a 250W psu and a 27" lcd on it.

Just to be clear i dont mind the noise of battery backup during a power failure but the normal operating (standby) noise/buzz that i will be hearing all the time. From a small research i have done, it looks like larger models have a better chance of being quiet because of the supposed higher quality of the internal parts (transformer, pcb design etc). However, a 1000+VA model is a lot more than i will ever need so i wouldnt want to spend big bucks on something that i will never fully use.
 
I'm resurrecting this ridiculously old thread because it has the right subject line and comes up high in a Google search when looking for "Silent Online UPS."

My requirements were for an online (aka double-conversion) UPS that could give me serious power-drop run time and run absolutely silently. I have a home office and I run client webinars/webcasts. So I can't have any fan noise or hum in the background. My home wiring and power reliability is terrible. My standard UPS's (I tried Tripp-Lite, APC, and CyberPower) were letting small power transients through that weren't enough to trigger backup power, but were enough to put my modem into a reset. Very nasty for my business!

I read threads about people jury-rigging larger, quieter fans into non-standard connectors for online UPS units, but that didn't sound like my cup of tea. I finally went with a product designed for the home theater market. It is ridiculously expensive compared to other home UPS units and would be crazy overkill unless you are in my position where the need for the double-conversion and silence justifies the high price.

I bought a PurePower+ 1500 with a piggybacked external battery unit. I am delighted to report that it is 100% silent. The unit has 10 outlets and I am running two desktop PCs, three monitors, external speakers, telephone, and modem all plugged in. The unit shows that I am not even hitting 50% load capacity. With the external battery, the estimate is for 110 minutes of power-off run time for my entire setup at full power output. If I wanted more, I could add another battery.

The units are built like big home theater amps. Large, metal, and heavy as hell. You can floor stand them horizontally or vertically or rack-mount them. These are physically quite different from consumer UPS units.

I am quite pleased. I don't want to violate any rules about promoting external vendors, so I won't put their website or pricing here (you'll gulp... I'm telling you, it ain't cheap!). But you can find it in an online search easily enough. It's the only product that fit my requirements and I'm delighted to have found it. If this helps someone else in a similar situation, it's worth updating the thread.
 
thedge said:
My APC Back-UPS XS 1300 is silent unless there is a power outage.
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I have the same one.... dead silent when at idle. My system pulls 200-300W at idle and with my old 6970 CF setup I used to go beyond the 780W max with certain games. Drove me nuts sometimes. Then it could be heard. With my current system I draw 600-700W when maxed out for gaming and I can't really hear it. The fan will kick in sometimes but hardly ever.
 
klmonline said:
My requirements were for an online (aka double-conversion) UPS that could give me serious power-drop run time and run absolutely silently. I have a home office and I run client webinars/webcasts. So I can't have any fan noise or hum in the background. My home wiring and power reliability is terrible. My standard UPS's (I tried Tripp-Lite, APC, and CyberPower) were letting small power transients through that weren't enough to trigger backup power, but were enough to put my modem into a reset. Very nasty for my business!.
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Why don't you contact APC or Cyberpower and see what they will propose?
That's what i've done in the past.
Specifically i had asked Cyberpower the following:
Hello.
I want you to reccomend me the best from the following UPS, according protection from electrical spikes and other possible electrical anomalies.
1) http://eu.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups_systems/pfc-sinewave/cp1300epfclcd.htm
2) http://eu.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups_systems/intelligent/cp1350eavrlcd.htm
3) http://eu.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups_systems/pr/pr1500elcd.htm
4) http://eu.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups_systems/ols/ols1000exl.htm

Also, can you rank these 4 UPS, with the same criteria, from 1 to 4, which one provides the best protection from electrical anomalies? (1 - the best protection- to 4 -worst protection- ) Thank you.
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This was their answer:
Dear Sir,

I hope you are fine and happy and many thanks for your email inquiry.
I will have to say that in principle online UPS systems provide the best possible power regulation as they can achieve a constant power output.
As such, the OLS1000E is the #1 choice using the critecria you mentioned. By the way, there is no XL model stocked in Europe.
However, there are drawbacks in comparison to the Line Interactive technologies that the other UPS systems you selected are based... For example, higher power consumtion and higher noise level as fans run continously.

Second choice (or first depending on how you look at it), is the PR1500ELCD. This is a GREAT system with low power consumption (less than 10W), great business features, ergonomics, easy battery service, low noise level (fans work only in some cases), etc. However this is Line Interactive technology, meaning at least a +/-5% variance in power regulation. Filtering is great on all models. An alternative to this model with the best price/performance is the PR1000ELCD. A great choice!

Third comes the CP1300EPFCLCD. A nice SOHO system with USB chargers, pure sinewave output, low power consumption (less that 5W), very low noise, but +/-7% on power output regulation as variance. Also can not buck the high currents.

Last is the CP1350... Similar to the CP1300EPFCLCD, but simulated sinewave output, and no USB chargers. This model actually is no longer stocked in Europe.

Again many thanks for your inquiry and always at your service.
Very Kind Regards,
George K.
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P.S. At this moment i use APC's Smart series UPSs for me and my brother ( http://www.amazon.com/APC-Smart-UPS...UTF8&qid=1453395882&sr=8-2&keywords=apc+smart / http://www.amazon.com/APC-Smart-UPS...UTF8&qid=1453395882&sr=8-7&keywords=apc+smart ) and i'm very pleased noise-wise, but i never cared for complete silence as my 1st priority to be honest.
 
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My APC SmartUPS 1500 is mostly silent for the majority of the time. The only time I have ever heard it is while it is doing it's testing and recharge cycles and even then I would not describe it as noisy but it is audible ie not silent.
 
I have three cyberpower UPS, including one rackmountable model, and they are all silent. The only time you hear any noise is when on battery. If you go on battery you have bigger problems than a little fan noise.
 
A lot of the APC 1000+ units have fans that are only on while recovering from an outage and charging at high rate, or while running on battery.

On some models the charging circuit will make a high pitched whine when charging at high power/current, but thats rare if your power has been clean from the wall.

I have 6 APC ups's and plenty of experience managing them(lots of different models)
 
Yeah my Trippe Lite inverter charger is same way, the fan only really goes on when recovering from an outage.

One thing I wish I could do though is force it to stay in float mode, with a weekly equalize. I find most UPS/chargers are too aggressive with voltage and it lowers the battery life.
 
omegatotal said:
A lot of the APC 1000+ units have fans that are only on while recovering from an outage and charging at high rate, or while running on battery.

On some models the charging circuit will make a high pitched whine when charging at high power/current, but thats rare if your power has been clean from the wall.

I have 6 APC ups's and plenty of experience managing them(lots of different models)
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Older models
apc
sua1500
sua1000
sua100xl
Only run the fan when charging, on battery or when power conditioning.

The new models:
SMT1500
SMT1000
SMT*
Run the fan all the time.
 
Depending on how bad your power is, there might still be audible clicking of the mechanical relays. And AVR kicking in.
Most noise I hear is the beeper, which as RedSquirrel said can be modified - if not removed than just cover the top hole with a dab of hot glue.
Sadly I can't point you to any specific solid state relay UPS units as I use local ones and they're not available in the USA.
 
stormy1 said:
Older models
apc
sua1500
sua1000
sua100xl
Only run the fan when charging, on battery or when power conditioning.

The new models:
SMT1500
SMT1000
SMT*
Run the fan all the time.
Click to expand...
Dont get a smart-ups get a regular back-ups, for example BR1500G

While some Smart-UPS have a better run time, potentially better modified wave(or optional full sinewave) output, phase-lock/matched always online mode(costly for input/conversion efficiency and heat output, but no switching delay), or more connectivity options to the PC (serial and network cards for example) they are not meant for home office or home/personal workstations. As such, they are more noisy and larger/heavier/most costly...
 
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If you are looking for totally silent you could go old fashioned - a 12v, a fan less full sine inverter, and a fan less psu or dc charger to charge it That would be totally silent. It's not optimal, but fan less isn't going to really get you optimal, and hey, by running on the inverter 24/7 you will always get clean power. Your just going to pay for the loss of effiency all the time too - if it's a webinar system, that probably wouldn't be a big hit.

That being said, I've used a lot of APC, and their prosumer stuff is definitely not unreasonable. Yeah the fan will kick on when it charges/discharges, but it's not crazy loud, and if it's under a desk or something a properly positioned quality mic probably wouldn't pick it up.
 
omegatotal said:
Dont get a smart-ups get a regular back-ups, for example BR1500G

While some Smart-UPS have a better run time, potentially better modified wave(or optional full sinewave) output, phase-lock/matched always online mode(costly for input/conversion efficiency and heat output, but no switching delay), or more connectivity options to the PC (serial and network cards for example) they are not meant for home office or home/personal workstations. As such, they are more noisy and larger/heavier/most costly...
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I disagree and think the sua1500 or sua1000 is near perfect for a home ups.
Used ones can be had fairly cheap then spend $100 on new batteries.
 
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