I’ve had good luck with the APC line, maybe more pricey, but… There are many models, I had one for a while, surpassed at work, that used a deep cycle car battery, but it was too big, way more than I needed, sent it to the recyclers…
Got my new Amazon Basics 600VA/360W UPS. The manual says nothing about a “master outlet”. Just the two types of outlets.
It says to make sure the equipment being plugged in does not exceed 80% of the rated 600VA/360W. How does one know the power usage of ones PC?
I’ve used this same 600 unit for about 6 years so I’m assuming it’s large enough. But I have no idea what power my PC uses.
Also, I didn’t know this before, but it says NOT to plug a laser printer or copier into the battery backup outlets. Can cause an overload. So I won’t do that this time! It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t need the printer to be powered in the few seconds or so that it takes for our whole house generator to take over. I just don’t want the computer to shut down improperly. So I really just need the one plug for the battery backup.
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Yes I once had an Apple LaserWriter IInt, it was actually internally a Xerox printer, used the same toner cartridges, had it many years. When I first got it, it seems our lights are on the same circuit as all the outlets in this part of the house, so when the fuser, the part that melts the toner onto the paper heats up, it dimmed the lights! Oops, so, while it worked OK, it was annoying, so I ran a new circuit & breaker around and into my 'office for that laser printer, no more dimming lights! Way beyond the abilities of a little UPS… And as you note, it’s not as vital anyway… I now have a brother all in one laser printer, on that circuit, but have never noticed as heavy a drain as the old LaserWriter had…
Surge protectors are good to have if the power is sketchy, I had a bunch of Triplet surge protectors, so use them in most electronics, so far so good, but no way to really know how effective they are, price was right, I did an operator position tarot, could just toss 'em, so, router, modem, TV, etc. use them…
Your PC Spec sheet should show the wattage, or look up a similar one with Google… There are inline watt meters, but…
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Wow, dimmed the lights, LOL! Yikes.
So is wattage all that needs to be known or tested? What is the 600VA part of the equation?
Definitely related…
This whole thread really makes me appreciate my switch to a laptop. Though my confidence in my Tesla Powerwalls keeping things on is very high, it is just something I don’t have to think about.
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Laptops, I use for travel, an elderly MB Air, 11" screen… Day to day, I’m hooked on my 32" Dell monitor, a Costco buy years ago… I should fire up the MBA, ee if any updates apply… Before a trip I use ChronoSync to keep various folders updated to current info… Else it sits idle, maybe charge the battery once in a while…
Grandkids used laptops for School. college, so I kept those updated when I got the chance… A couple of the old white ons, as well as an older MBP are around here somewhere… Generally bumped up memory, HD size for them…
Now, a 27" iMac as well as my old 2010 Mac pro are hanging around, work OK, just old, slow, too nice to toss, nobody needs them, should box 'em up…
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(I’ve said all (or at least most) of this before, for regulars who want to skip it.)
I used to do that, using an old laptop when I traveled. Now I have a new one, but I only use it as a laptop when traveling. The rest of the time it is connected to my 34" ultra-wide LG monitor, Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, ethernet, external drives, printers, and speakers (might have missed something) and my user experience is no different than if it had been a box of some kind. There is a single cable connected to the laptop, a Lightning cable. That is connected to a Kensington dock. )I believe there are many suitable alternatives these days.) The dock has the physical connections to the ethernet, monitor, printers, external drives, keyboard, speakers - everything. And it supplies power. All over than single Lightning cable. When I think of the network, video, sound, power, and everything else going over that cable it blows my mind. The power brick that came with the laptop sits in the travel bag. When I want to take it: shut it down, unhook that one cable, put it and the mouse in the bag, and go. Coming home is just as easy.
The LG laptop has 32 GB of memory and a 17" screen. The boot drive is a terabyte, about half full. The processor is some sort if Intel i7, presumably intended for laptops, 2.80 GHz. It seems to be enough as far as I can tell, I don’t push the envelope and think I have years of headroom.
I used to select and buy case, power supply, motherboard, and put it all together. All that is work is obsolete, and I am a happy boy.
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At WeCo/Lucent Installation, eventually they pushed out tech to the field, even as we’d been building systems, for years without the effective communications we needed. Pagers, laptops, bag cell phones. Well the legacy Ma Bell folks went Win PCs, several variations, none unto the last LG in 2001 were ready for the field conditions, rather rough n tumble we needed, some days more time was spent cleaning up the problems on the laptop or it’s software than getting any then done on the project at hand, frustrating, and I was part of the committee that had pushed to get the tech out… No choice in what we got, just input to the process… Some expensive mistakes, we needed robust ports for adjuncts to test various systems, maybe they worked in the Labs, but too soon for field situations… Frustrating… Lots of resistance from old timers, so a few of us occasionally had to bail them out, handle their electronic ‘paperwork’, time marched on…
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No. The watt limit is one thing and the VA limit is another. You will find the manufacturers talk most often about VA, because the number is larger. Everybody knows bigger is better.
It has been a few decades, but I think VA*Sin(45º) for 60 cycle power equal Watts. The basic problem is very few appliances give data for VA or peak power. Start up power for capacitor electric motors is another demand that is always a lot higher than normal power after a short time (think 1 second or less). This is not a problem for most UPS usage since we don’t tend to use a UPS for garbage disposals or table saws.
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