UPS with long battery life

[Stereodude]

Anyone have suggestions for a 700VA (or more) UPS with pure sine wave output that has long battery life (>90 minutes) under a ~100W load?

The most cost effective option I could find is the APC Smart-UPS XL 750VA which is rated to run a 100W load for 2h 52m.

 

[Stereodude]

Oh, and one more thing would you have a problem with buying a refurbished UPS?

 

[ddrueding]

The first thing I thought of was the XLs, or running them in series.

 

[Stereodude]

It looks like my server uses about 130W at idle (which it mostly is) and my switch, cable modem, and two HD Homerun tuners together use about 40W per my P3 Kill A Watt. I had all 170W worth of load together on a single APC Back-UPS Pro 1100, but the battery life was rather dismal (~20 minutes). After I put in the rack I split the load between a pair of APC Back-UPS Pro 1100's. I haven't have a power failure since, but obviously it's not going to improve a lot.

 

[mubs]

Some APC UPSes support an external battery pack. I have a BackUPS 1500 with a BR24BP external battery pack; great way to extend run time. The battery pack looks like a smaller UPS, stands next to it, and plugs into the back of the UPS. Have had no issues with either.

 

[Stereodude]

Some APC UPSes support an external battery pack. I have a BackUPS 1500 with a BR24BP external battery pack; great way to extend run time. The battery pack looks like a smaller UPS, stands next to it, and plugs into the back of the UPS. Have had no issues with either.

It looks like that's what I will end up doing. Currently my plan is to buy an APC Smart-UPS XL 750VA + 1 SUA24XLBP Battery Unit. The APC calculator says that combo will last for 369 minutes with a 170W load which is well over my 2 hour target, but it's the cheapest option I've found (MSRP of ~$800).

 

[ddrueding]

You really have power outages where that would help? Here we have two kinds:

<30 minutes, >6 hours. But that is what the generator and massive underground fuel tank is for

 

[Stereodude]

You really have power outages where that would help? Here we have two kinds:

<30 minutes, >6 hours. But that is what the generator and massive underground fuel tank is for

The last power outage we had was ~105 minutes. Besides, can't I buy stuff without having a super solid, well argued reason for doing so? :mrgrn:

 

[ddrueding]

Besides, can't I buy stuff without having a super solid, well argued reason for doing so? :mrgrn:

I would be the last person to get in your way

 

[mubs]

Besides, can't I buy stuff without having a super solid, well argued reason for doing so? :mrgrn:

Sure you can. DD does it all the time.

 

[Stereodude]

Sure you can. DD does it all the time.

Exactly my point. :compress:

 

[Pradeep]

You really have power outages where that would help? Here we have two kinds:

<30 minutes, >6 hours. But that is what the generator and massive underground fuel tank is for

APC make a nice device that wires into your panel box, that transfers loads from mains to UPS/generator based on conditions. The nice part is you can define which circuits get UPS support, and which loads to shed first etc. Obviously nothing unheard of in commercial gear but the first I've seen for the home.

 

[Stereodude]

APC make a nice device that wires into your panel box, that transfers loads from mains to UPS/generator based on conditions. The nice part is you can define which circuits get UPS support, and which loads to shed first etc. Obviously nothing unheard of in commercial gear but the first I've seen for the home.

They're surprisingly cheaper than I would have thought for an APC product. link

The UPS inlet looks a little weak though. It's clearly not intended to connect to a 3000VA UPS.

 

[Stereodude]

Any chance someone has the installer for APC's PowerChute Business Edition Single Node Agent v8.0.1 for Windows saved by any chance?

APC's website is garbage, and if you mange to actually to get through it you quickly find out that the URL to the download leads to a FTP site that doesn't actually have the file.

 

[Stereodude]

Well, I managed to do a pile of FTP searches and eventually find it. The software and amount of control is pretty impressive. It certainly blows away the nearly useless functionality the older Back-UPS 1100 had.