BATTERY BACKUP AND POWER SURGE PROTECTORS

wenbo · Joined: Sep 15, 2003 Posts: 317 Location: Ontario, Canada

I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this but here goes.

I'm looking for a good (inexpensive) battery backup and surge protector for my new flat screen tv and surround sound DVD system.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to brand, etc.?

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 993 Location: Central FL, USA

I'm sure no one remembers, but I did a whole thread on that topic a while back. I'm sure it's in the archive somewhere.

As for brand,,,,,, there's only ONE brand for me and that's "APC"
http://www.apc.com/index.cfm?ISOCountryCode=US

The device is called a UPS, (Un-Interruptable Power Supply) where the device has inside it a small Gel-Cell battery that can drive the UPS during a power outage to produce 110vac to drive your electronic devices during short power outages.

From the basic UPS that can keep a computer alive for 5 to 10 minutes to
allow you time to save your work and shut down your PC,
to wall locker sized units that can power your whole house for hours, USP's have come a long ways in the past 20 years since I became personally associated with them. And as the use has increased, the price has come down accordingly.

Buy a UPS with enough wattage to do the job you need done and then the only limiting factor is the size of the battery(s).

A customer gave me a 600watt unit one day, because the little internal battery's (2) had died and the unit would no longer function.
Those Gel-Cell batteries are not cheap, and in some areas not even easy to find. So I extended the connector wires for the batteries out to a car battery, sitting in a plastic dish pan. This gave me all the power I needed to keep the UPS going for an hour or more. Later I added a second battery, an inline fuse and a quick disconnect switch.
The battery charger in the UPS keeps the batteries charged.

This setup powers my 27" TV, Satellite receiver, DVD Recorder, a small table lamp and can even power a small personal fan, in case of an extended power outage.

Last week, we had a two hour outage and while my neighbors sat in the dark with no TV and no Air conditioning (it was a really hot night) I sat in comfort in front of my little fan, with light and TV.
I was recording a TV program at the time and never missed a second of it.

The average UPS can last for years, but the batteries will not. Every couple of years those little Gel-Cel batteries need to be replaced.

I found that low cost car batteries will provide much more power than the Gel-Cells and at about the same price. They can also extend the run-time of a USP from just minutes to several hours.
Here's my own battery setup.

<<-- click to expand

This setup kept me watching TV for four days, during Hurricane Frances, a few years back.

I have a much larger unit (1750watts), called an inverter, that can power any of my kitchen appliances, except the stove and refrigerator, during power outages. I can still have a hot meal, even when the line power is OUT. Wink

The inverter is powered by two large Deep-Cycle batteries.

<<-- click to expand

For AC power on the go, a little inverter like this 500w unit, can power most power tools, lights, fans and even a TV, right from your car battery.

<<-- click to expand

Anything else you need to know, just holler!

Cheers Mate!
The Doctor Cool

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 993 Location: Central FL, USA

Oh.....Surge Protection?

Every APC UPS comes with great surge protection built in.
It will even protect one phone line and some even protect a LAN Line as well.

APC also sells a whole line of power, phone, lan and cable protectors.
Check their web site. I already gave you the URL in my last post.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor Cool

goretsky

Hello,

Just to second DrWho07's recommendation, APC is a good brand. I have also found equipment from Liebert and Tripp Lite to work well.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

kenmabmcc

kenmabmcc

Double post

Embarassed

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 993 Location: Central FL, USA

With the new HD, LCD TV's running over a thousand bucks, it's a shame to just plug them into the wall with NO surge protection at all.

For the price of a good surge protector, you can get a UPS, with it's own surge protection built in.

You actually CAN prevent this from happening, to your computer or TV.

My PC is so important to me that I actually have two layers of protection between my PC and the wall socket.
I use an APC UPS, plugged into a Commercial Quality Surge Protector from "PanaMax". I live here in FL. the lightning capital of the Americas, where we can easily get over 5,000 lightning strikes in a single afternoon thunder storm and in 20 years, I've never been ZAPPED! Wink

My phone line to my PC also goes thru BOTH of my Surge Protectors.
That's where most PC's get zapped because most people never think to protect that line, even if they have a surge protector.

I can't count the times that I've seen someone with a great surge protector between their PC and the wall, but the phone line is plugged directly into the phone socket on the wall. Foolish!, very Foolish!

Cheers mates!
The Doctor Cool

clhenry

Just a short story.
I got called out to job where the pudder wouldn't turn on. PS and MB burnt up. They were hooked to a UPS, but no surge protector. I advised them to get a good protector, one with a option for their cable line. After repairing their computer and hooking it back up, i got another call from them. Same thing happened. I had them contact the cable and electric company to have the wiring checked out. Everything was ok, as they say. I wasn't about to fix their computer again and plug it in, so i grabbed a old p2 that i had laying around and let them use it to see what happens. Well, you guessed it. About 3 days later, they called and said this one stopped working to.
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Image URL: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/bevelheadgrl/thud.gif
So i went back, and checked everything again. The only thing that wasn't eliminated was the UPS. I unhooked that, and setup another older computer for them. No problem. I then set up their computer and held my breath. No problems.
I have never came across a UPS shorting out a computer, But its something to think about. Their UPS was about 7 yrs olds, so i guess like everything else, they can just go bad.

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 993 Location: Central FL, USA

For years APC UPS's have all had good surge protection.

You didn't say what brand of UPS that was, but at 7 years old, probably sitting on the floor, anything could happen.
It's possible that due to some failure of parts in the UPS, if it had to turn ON, it may have been putting out way TOO much voltage, which would damage a PC.

Codegen 300w PSU's were famous for going ballistic and putting out way to much voltage and just FRYING a PC.

I saw a UPS at Staples the other day that has a digital voltmeter display on the top of the case. It shows how many volts are coming out of the UPS.
A bit of techno-eye-candy, but could also be useful.

I bought me a little device called a "Kill A Watt".
http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

It's an in-line meter that can measure Watts, Volts, Amps, Cycles and Watt-Hours.
I use it to get the exact wattage that any device uses.
That helps me to size a UPS for a particular application.
It showed me that my 19" CRT monitor used almost 200w.
I've not monitored my new 19" LCD monitor yet, but from all the heat it puts out, I imagine that the wattage used is more than I would think.

I digress..... I just put the "Kill-A-Watt" on my LCD monitor and found out that it pulls 21 watts @ 120 volts.

Right now, that monitor is the only device plugged into an APC 200w UPS.
I couldn't pass up that little UPS.....it only cost me $22. Wink

All told, I currently have five UPS's in my house and one 1750watt inverter for emergencies. No Generator!

I caution anyone installing a UPS for the first time.....READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!

I've seen UPS's with the battery not even hooked up. Also a UPS with the monitor plugged into the Surge Protect outlet, not the UPS outlet and the CPU plugged directly into the wall. Cheeeech!
Would it hurt them to just read the instructions?

Just being an old grouch, I guess! Rolling Eyes

The Doctor Cool

boardflak · Joined: Dec 06, 2002 Posts: 108

One of my pet peeves, too. I've had to give the quick "these outlets are for surge suppression only and these will actually keep your equipment runnng" lesson to a few of my users at work - including a few who really should have known better.

One user - who had just moved, and someone else had set things up for her - had her dual monitors plugged into a regular plug strip along with a couple of other things, while a fan, said plug strip. and the light mounted under her overhead unit were all plugged into the battery backup. The PC was plugged into the surge-suppression only side.

I corrected all that, and explained why nothing that she did not need to stay running during an outage should be plugged into the one side. As she works with a lot of data and drawings, she was grateful to have the problem caught before a problem hit. She hadn't even looked at the setup, but the people who were moving here REALLY should have known better, so I checked other people they'd set up in the same move and found some other problems.

Like you said, Doctor, would it hurt them to just READ?

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 993 Location: Central FL, USA

Yes, probably the oldest joke in the world of electronics is,
"When all else fails, read the instructions". Laughing

How much plainer can it be.....the instructions as to what all the receptacles on a UPS do , are printed right on the top of the UPS. Go figure!

It's a miracle that some people can even dress themselves. Twisted Evil

Cheers Mates!
Doc Cool