OT How important a UPS can be

JC
Posted By
Jane_Carter
Dec 2, 2003
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320
Replies
8
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Closed
Last evening we had a brownout-like power failure in SE New England, and several friends have ‘sick’ computers this morning because of it.
But thanks to you people about a year ago having a topic on having our stuff hooked up to a UPS, my equipment is fine and OK.
(Started off with the power going to about 1/2, and I had plenty of time to shut down everything, then unplug every electric motor in the house.)

Saved again by the PSE forum!
Thanks,
Jane
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JF
Jodi Frye
Dec 2, 2003
Oh geeze Jane, now ya got me totally paranoid. I still don’t have one ( I know I’m an idiot )…what happened to the power ?? Juice suckin’ UFO’s or too many space heaters ?? They never did tell us why we had that power outage ( brown out ) a few months back…remember that one ? Strange happenings.
BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 2, 2003
Actually, Jodi, the massive outage of a couple of months ago was caused by an Ohio utility company. Somebody just reported on that a week or so ago. However, no liability for any damages because of the way the regulations are written.

I’ve been lucky and have experienced only one brownout in my whole life – while I was living in Tallahassee. Poor little squirrel tried to complete a circuit and failed miserably. 🙁

I suppose I’ll get one of those if this computer is ever replaced, but more out of "guilt" than need!
JC
Jane_Carter
Dec 3, 2003
The UPS will give about 10 minutes of battery back up, by then everybody in the family should have their stuff shut down. It does light off with a penetrating ‘beep’ that anybody in the house will hear.
Then of course, with low voltage, we must shut off any motors, like your fridge or oil burners. You can leave all light bulbs on.

But thanks to you all, I bought my UPS!!! My computers are OK.

My husband was going to turn the generator on, but we didn’t need it, as it was approaching bed time(the dog had already turned in), and we heat with coal and wood, so that was that.

We do tell people in our area that we heat with coal and wood, and if there is a power outage during bad and cold weather, then just come over to our house and be warm. And they do if it gets bad.
But last night was an easy one. Tonight is our first night below 25º, so winter is finally here on Cape Cod.
Jane
JA
JoAnn_Amerson
Dec 3, 2003
Yea Jane!! My husband and I both run UPSs. Generally our computers are on 24/7 unless we know there’s a storm rolling in. That UPS comes in handy when we’re at work and it hits.

For those of you who don’t have one – go to Circuit City/Gateway/Best Buy and get one! Make sure it matches your system. Technically I should have a beefier one because of my 19" monitor but so far, so good.

wrote in message
The UPS will give about 10 minutes of battery back up, by then everybody
in the family should have their stuff shut down. It does light off with a penetrating ‘beep’ that anybody in the house will hear.
Then of course, with low voltage, we must shut off any motors, like your
fridge or oil burners. You can leave all light bulbs on.
But thanks to you all, I bought my UPS!!! My computers are OK.
My husband was going to turn the generator on, but we didn’t need it, as
it was approaching bed time(the dog had already turned in), and we heat with coal and wood, so that was that.
We do tell people in our area that we heat with coal and wood, and if
there is a power outage during bad and cold weather, then just come over to our house and be warm. And they do if it gets bad.
But last night was an easy one. Tonight is our first night below 25º, so
winter is finally here on Cape Cod.
Jane
JC
Jane_Carter
Dec 3, 2003
Hi JoAnn, I think you can answer a question that I never have been sure about, here it is, Say for example the computers are on and I am outdoors and the power goes off. I would not be able to hear my UPS beeping, so I wouldn’t be there to shut down. How long would the battery last? And would it fade out voltage-wise, or just shut off(hopefully)quickly.
I did ask the company and they assured me that no damage would be done to the computer, but they do not have the software that automatically shuts the system down after a certain amount of time for Macs. Just available for PC.
There are several of us OS 9 people who have been a bit confused about this. We haven’t known anybody who has actually experienced this. Most everybody has said that this ‘shouldn’t’ be a problem, but nobody really knows 100%. Interesting,,,,
Jane
BB
brent_bertram
Dec 3, 2003
Jane,
Most ( if not all ) UPS units sold have monitoring software that allows the PC to be informed when the UPS loses AC power and switches to battery power. That software also can shutdown the pc in an orderly manner after a user configurable time .

Typically, if the power has been out 5 minutes, I instruct the UPS units to begin shutdown, and the servers get shutdown in an orderly manner . That’s also what happens at home.

I’m getting my wife a new 1100 VA UPS for Christmas ( not all she’s getting, of course ) , priced at about $125 . The box gives a run time on battery of 38 minutes for a PC with a 19" monitor. Your mileage might vary, I suppose.

When the UPS batteries get below a safe point, the UPS simply switches off it’s outputs and "goes to sleep" until power resumes. It normally will not fully drain the battery (s) .
🙂

Brent
( Network manager, Certified Network Engineer )

I just checked the APC site and they have software for the MAC OS’s . < http://www.apc.com/template/products/display_bundle_kit.cfm? kit_sku=SDW75&ups_sku=&ups_int_of=UPS>
EW
Ed_Wurster
Dec 3, 2003
wrote…
Hi JoAnn, I think you can answer a question that I never have been sure
about, here it is,
Say for example the computers are on and I am outdoors and the power goes
off. I would not be able to hear my UPS beeping, so I wouldn’t be there to shut down. How long would the battery last? And would it fade out voltage-wise, or just shut off(hopefully)quickly.
I did ask the company and they assured me that no damage would be done to
the computer, but they do not have the software that automatically shuts the system down after a certain amount of time for Macs. Just available for PC.
There are several of us OS 9 people who have been a bit confused about
this.
We haven’t known anybody who has actually experienced this. Most everybody
has said that this ‘shouldn’t’ be a problem, but nobody really knows 100%. Interesting,,,,
Jane

If you spend more money, you can increase the run time. The run time of the battery is realted to how much you have plugged in. For instance, if you do not plug your monitor into the battery, you are reducing the load by quite a bit. This is especially true for old power-sucking monitors.

I can tell you from experience that the best thing about the UPS is that it protects you from brown-outs too, not just complete power failures. In my area there are brownouts at least once a week, and almost all of these occurrences are very brief. The UPS goes on, you hear a few beeps, and then it subsides.

In the past, these brown-outs would shut down some equipment, while others remained on.

A UPS is necessary, in my opinion, and safeguards your investment in most cases. It’s another layer of protection, but cannot protect you from everything.

Ed
JC
Jane_Carter
Dec 3, 2003
Hi Brent, I have a Tripplite, and they didn’t have the shut off software for Mac OS 9.2.2, which is the preferred OS for all our family computers. (Until this old lady gets brave and goes for OS X.)
I probably have run time for 15 minutes, I have one G4, one 17 inch old View Sonic monitor, in the UPS.

If the UPS will just shut off, sort of like unplugging the Mac, which wont bother a Mac, I will not worry any more!
You make me feel better about this, as I am outdoors a lot, and don’t ever bother to shut down unless we are having a storm.

Hi Ed, I usually am outside for hours at a time, so the runtime is out of my question. We walk the dog to the beach everyday.
The brownouts are not too common here, except the little ones, like flickering power. We have lots of wind here occasionally, as we stick out into the Atlantic ocean, so the trees are what usually knocks our power out, and those are pretty fast.

Thank you for your answers, I won’t worry so much any more.

Jane

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