UPS - Line Interactive

[ianhnz]

Hi guys.
At home we have fibre and looking to get a UPS for when power is off.
I have an almost new laptop, about 6 months.
So be needing enough for power backup on laptop, modem & if possible our 42' smart TV.
Any ideas?

Ian

[1101]

No no nope
A UPS is NOT backup power . Its intended to only run long enough for you to safely shut everything down. (exceptions if you spend $$$ for something designed for backup power )
It would be OK for low power devices , perhaps the internet router, for a short time.
Certainly not to run your TV
You would run you laptop off its own batt in a power outage.

Chances are after a few years the UPS batt would have degraded, so would have even less time running off the UPS batt.
Often the UPS batts are effectively dead when needed , and some older UPS's seem to die after a power outage .

Look at a generator of some sort.

[wainuitech]

Its do-able, but as 1101 posted --Got a few Thousand $$$$$ ( 8K plus) Most regular basic UPS's even in good condition will run a Std PC doing basically nothing for about 3-5 minutes.

Example, a more heavy duty the Liebert UPS GXT5-10kIRT On Line UPS Rack/Tower 10000VA/10000W Approx. 9 -11 K

Some Specs:

10% Load Capacity: 59 mins
20% Load Capacity: 25 mins
30% Load Capacity: 14.5 mins
40% Load Capacity: 9.5 mins
50% Load Capacity: 7.0 mins
60% Load Capacity: 5.5 mins
70% Load Capacity: 4 mins
80% Load Capacity: 3.5 mins
90% Load Capacity: 2.5 mins
100% Load Capacity: 2.0 mins

[1101]

Some of the better UPS's , you can add extra external batt packs, to give more time.
You can also get something specifically designed as backup power for for internet routers .


Some guys hack something together with car batts & an old UPS .
Or just buy a cheap generator & hope it doesnt fry delicate electronics
One of the clubs I'm in use a generator to run a PC & large TV , in a shed with no power.

https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/t...0w/553027.html

[tweak'e]

i used to have a ups that would run the pc for 10-20 minutes (double battery pack).
the problem is that after a few years the batteries where shot. the lead acid batteries don't last long.
not sure if new ones have lithium etc.
edit: big downside was the ups beeps when the power is off which drive you nuts.

a mate used to have huge big batteries connected to an inverter, basically a whole house ups. wired up to run the lights and a few outlets.
ran everything for 3-4 hours. again replacing batteries was the big issue and cost.

[zqwerty]

There will be plenty of big and still functional battery packs around to do this job once the EV's have been around for a few years and the battery packs start losing performance.

You'll probably be able to find chassis's where the body has been damaged but the under-carriage can still been wheeled around with the batteries and charge system still intact. lol.

[CliveM]

A standard UPS will keep your ONT and your router running for several hours during a power outage. I have one dedicated to that task and it has worked just fine for me. It enables us to continue to use our small wireless devices and see what is going on in the world.
I have separate UPS devices that are used to enable my PC to be shut down gracefully as described above by others and what they have said is 100% correct. The beeping that tweek'e mentioned is annoying but can be disabled on my ones.

[decibel]

Agree with all above - my UPS is only good for about 10 minutes in my computer cabinet. It has pathetic little motorbike batteries.

If it ever packs up, (which it will one day) I MIGHT buy something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3285...27424c4d5noGo2
and I can attach as big a battery as I like to it.

[chiefnz]

A UPS and a backup/alternate power supply are 2 different things in form and function...

A UPS is purely for the purpose of preventing damage to equipment due to unexpected power loss... it is not intended to keep your devices running for an extended period that would be a backup power source.

Having said that it's isn't impossible to implement a UPS solution that will provide power for a reasonably short period, as per previous posts, a UPS will do in a pinch and if the devices requiring power do not have high power draw requirements...but these can be pricey even if well planned.