UPS for home?

pwjohnston

I assume that most of us run a UPS at home. I personally have an APC 500 VA I think, it might be a 650VA. I have a bunch of surge strips peeling off it that run;

2 PC’s
26” CRT TV
TIVO
24 Channel Audio mixer
80 watt PA speaker system
Old XBOX Which I mostly use for the DVD Player
Various routers, surfboard, cablebox
And sometimes my laptop

I’ve been thinking about getting one of the XS 1500VA from Bestbuy or whomever.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8022935&st=apc&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1157067061643

Do you guys think this would be overkill?

skrpune

I'm not sure that's actually enough if you plan on keeping all that plugged in and powered for very long. I think the calculation is that you need 1.5 VA for every 1 W you plan to keep running, so in all likelihood 2 PC's and 1-3 more piece(s) of equipment (not sure what the power usage is for those other items) are about all that can be safely handled by the 1500VA. Your current UPS is WAY overloaded and probably won't continue to power devices for very long at all with all those things plugged into it.

The main purpose of UPS's is to give you enough time/power to end processes, save documents/files, and safely shut down PCs. I would calculate the upper range of the power load for PCs & monitor(s) & laptop, get a UPS to handle just those devices (plus a little "wiggle" room in case you go over your what you calculated as your max power usage), and plug *just* those into the UPS. You can save money and get a better end result should you ever actually lose power & need to rely on the UPS to provide enough power/time to shut down your PCs.

ULWiz

I personally dont see a need for this. Now if you had a home business with a server that had vital information on it then the UPS would be ideal. Your just running basic equip at home so what you have now is just fine.

This is just my personal opinion

Also try and stay away from retail prices you purchase that from bestbuy your already being ripped off.

Try www.pricewatch.com might find a better price

kalebksp

I have to echo ULWiz and skrpune's replies. There is no reason for a home audio system and TV's to be on a UPS, you're better off with just a regular surge protector for those. (Some would say that high-end audio systems should have a power conditioner too, but that's a different topic all together.) My recommendation would be to just put your computers (and maybe the TIVO if you have frequent short outages and don't want your recordings screwed up). I'd also configure the software that usually comes with APC's UPSs to shutdown your computers when the battery is running out.

msteinhilber

I have a few APC 350VA UPS's that I use on the couple of desktops and our server in the house and a 1500VA Cyberpower rackmount UPS that is used for our media PC and satellite boxes since my wife loves her recorded programs.

I never used to use a UPS at home and never really thought of much of a need for one either, until I lost power for a few seconds in the middle of a paper I had been writing, ended up losing a couple of pages since my last save.

I would agree that I always avoid retail places for most purchases unless it's something I can't fix myself such as our TV, washer/dryer and whatnot. Technology items, especially things like a UPS are just big cash cows for many retailers.

mamono

Actually, it is a good idea to run a UPS for some home entertainment equipment such as DLP's, HDTV's, and high end audio components. Not only does the UPS filter and stabilize the power going into the equipment, it also protects the equipment from sudden power outage. Some home theater equipment that utilize high intensity lighting equipment and vacuum tubes (audiophiles) will not be able to go through the standard-shutdown/cool-down-process thus introducing the possibility of thermal fatigue that can damage internal components. Power filtration is also important for the audiophiles that run $10k-$15k audio equipment, so a UPS is a must. In most cases, it is not necessary. In some, it is.

I personally use a laptop and I only really care that my home entertainment equipment is surge protected. I hardly turn on my TV anyways.

kalebksp wrote: »

My recommendation would be to just put your computers (and maybe the TIVO if you have frequent short outages and don't want your recordings screwed up). I'd also configure the software that usually comes with APC's UPSs to shutdown your computers when the battery is running out.

I concur with kalebksp's statement. The TIVO is a PITA to get running again after too many power outages. The amount of hard drive problems that could be introduced due to power failure is not fun to fix.

photex

I agree that a UPS might me handy for sensative audio equipment, but I really see no need to plug in an XBOX and your tv :P