[RESOLVED] APC Battery Back-up question

[Cowboy622]

When I was accumulating the parts for my computer as directed by other members, mention was made for the necessity of a power back up for when the power in your neighborhood goes out. Yesterday for my birthday, my daughters bought me an additiona 6 gig of ramm (so now I have 12 GB ramm running, and an APC Battery back-up XS 1500. The box states that it will provide up to 164 minutes of runtime. It states 1500 VA, 865 Watts, 10 outlets.
My question is, when our power goes out in a severe storm, it is seldom out for more than 2 hours, so does this mean that when the power goes out, I can still work on the computer, OR is this just a safety feature that will allow me to log off and shut down to avoid damage. They paid $199.00 for it but if it is just to give me time to shut down, (assuming I'm home when the power goes out) they had small cheaper versions offering less time than 164 minutes.

Is this like a battery powered back-up sump pump that will run while then power is out?

Just trying to decide whether to keep or return.

Thanks in advance for your guidance,

Cowboy622

[Midknyte]

IMO, it's more so that you don't lose your data and you can shutdown the system gracefully.

Additionally, the battery helps to stabilize power during sags/brownouts aka power conditioning.

[Shinma]

... when our power goes out in a severe storm, it is seldom out for more than 2 hours, ...

The fact that electricity is out for that long may indicate power quality provided in that area is susceptible to fluctations.
So Midknyte's second comments would definitely assist in keeping your system alive.

As for runtime of the UPS, may differ depending on total devices attached and running off the UPS.

[Train]

Believe me, the power going out can scramble hdd so bad you can not even use recovery programs on it. Well it got C:\\ for me.
Learned the hard way.

[Cowboy622]

Thank you very much for the information.

[SpywareDr]

The box states that it will provide up to 164 minutes of runtime.

R-i-g-h-t ... with absolutely nothing plugged into it maybe.

Fully loaded (865 watts) it might run for 5 minutes, half load maybe 15.

Here's an example chart from APC:
http://www.apc.com/products/runtimeg...hartSize=large

One way to find out how long it'll run is to power up everything you normally use, note the time on your watch|clock, and then simply unplug the UPS from the wall.

[SuperSparks]

I have an APC 1500VA UPS, and I would expect to get a bit more than 30 minutes with my Core-i7, triple monitor setup. If a power cut went on for more than 10 minutes or so I would shut down, but it's long enough to carry on working on the chance that it is just a short outage. Over here, on the rare occasion we get an outage they dont usually last long.

[SpywareDr]

My main home desktop setup pulls ~425 watts and will run for almost 15 minutes on an older APC Back-UPS RS 1500.

[Cowboy622]

We don't have a lot of power outages. In fact maybe 3 in the last 8 years, and the longest in duration was about 2 and a half hours. I was looking for a battery system that would let me play on the computer while waiting for power to be restored. For the money they spent, I can retuen it and invest a little more and get a gas powered genrator, for the rare instance of power interruption, and with a generator, I can power a lamp too so my wife can read while waiting.

Any work I do on the computer is just drafting pleadings in Word, and I back all my data to an external harddrive which is not plugged in or connected unless I'm backing up my data. It isn't like my job is a graphics illustrator who would lose all the work on a major project if the power went out.

Thank you for all the useful information.

Cowboy622

[Cowboy622]

One last question: How do you determine what your system's power comsumption is?????

[SuperSparks]

Ideally, get a plug-in energy meter. This is a UK version, I'm sure you must have similar things over there:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plug-In-Powe..._tdp_sv_edpp_t

[SpywareDr]

A Kill-A-Watt or an Amprobe

P3 International > "Kill A Watt" homepage
http://www.p3international.com/produ.../P4400-CE.html

Amazon.com > Kill A Watt P4400 - $21.03 with free shipping
http://www.amazon.com/P3-Internation...4503480&sr=1-1

Wikipedia: Kill A Watt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill-A-Watt

--

Wikipedia: Clamp Meter (Amprobe)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amprobe

Graingers.com > AMPROBE RS-3 PRO - Clamp On Ammeter, Analog, 600 A AC, 600 VAC - $133.10
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg...List+Price%7C0

[Train]

It seems Target has one on there website.
http://www.target.com/Plug-Power-Met.../dp/B003ZTT0Y0

[SuperSparks]

I would just like to point out that if you use a Clamp Meter, then you will be measuring the VA (Voltamperes) and not the Wattage. The difference between the two can be quite marked, and unless you can discover the Power Factor of the PSU, it is very hard to work out the actual wattage.

Having said all that, the VA is really what you want to know, as all UPSs are rated in VA. so a clamp meter would do well for this purpose, but is not so useful for other measurements. The plug in meters can measure both Watts and VA.

[Cowboy622]

Once again, thanks everyone. You are the best.