UPS Uninterrupted Power Supply

I sorta understand where you’re coming from, but you really didn’t address my need/use case. I work from home, so I need to be able to access the internet in the case of a power outage, at least for a half hour, so the processes I run don’t fail. My main purpose is to have the modem and router plugged in to the UPS so I won’t have any interruptions caused by a power failure (which are more common than internet failures where I live).

This really only became a need for me since our agency went remote. Previously we were telework, so 3 days home and 2 days in the office - and we had the option of switching our home and office days in the event of power failures or internet outages.

I can still go in, if needed, but I no longer have an office space nor free on site parking, and parking costs is equivalent to an hour or two of paid time, not to mention the lost time commuting, which means a potential loss of pay or leave as we are not permitted to work past 6 p.m.

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Helpful share, thanks. I think I’ll be switching to CyberPower going forward.

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A UPS is “sized” based on total output - for example 1000VA. Generally speaking, consumer UPSs have a set battery size/capacity. So those are the two factors in play. Understandably, this may not equate to anything so most manufacturers offer sizing calculators such as this one and run-time calculators such as this.

Cyberpower does offer UPSs with “simulated” sine wave output. They are less expensive and will work fine for most uses however I simply prefer the true sine wave for the reasons I mentioned in my previous response. Add up the total cost of all the equipment you are protecting and the extra cost for a true sine wave model is not that much more. UPSs in general, also offer far better EFI/RF and surge protection than a standard “surge” power bar. Most include insurance for any equipment electrically damaged while connected to the UPS. Any UPS is better than no UPS!

So the CyberPower CP850PFCLCD would be more than enough (well, overkill) for the typical home office setup (laptop, two ~22" LCD monitors, a router/WAP/modem). I have a 1500VA unit and the display shows 56 min run time currently. 1500VA is overkill for me now - I used to have a gaming desktop so it was originally sized for that and my laptop/monitors.

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Anyone try using one of those big batteries as a battery backup? Like the ones from bluyetti or jackery? I wonder if one of those can keep a router running for a while.

In Reddit, there is a post regarding your exact question. The reply below makes sense because UPSs generally use sealed lead-acid batteries whereas a power bank (Jackery is basically that) use lithium-ion which do not like to held at full charge. Also the general opinion using a Jackery or similar is a way too expensive solution. A router/WAP uses hardly any power so if that is the only load, your UPS runtime would be very long…so long the UPS may start to overheat. My Cyberpower has a cooling fan that kicks in while on battery.

Quote from Reddit:

"The Jackery is not designed to do this, specifically to stay plugged in 24/7 and have the battery drawn from. The battery chemistry is different, and will the lifespan of the battery will be decreased significantly. Devices designed to be used as UPS use lead acid batteries designed to stay at close to full charge for long periods of time. Power is only drawn from the battery when AC power is lost, which is meant to be very infrequently.

Most Jackery models, especially the modern ones, turn off their power outputs after a predefined amount of time, usually 12 hours or so. There is no way to override this that I am aware of.

As a result, no, you can not use a Jackery as a (useful) UPS."

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Same – nice review of APC.

oh yes we use UPS for power conditioning big time.

In Mexico they sell power conditioning devices – no battery – for $40 USD, but the UPS devices cost 2x that at $80 USD and up. They don’t sell APC anywhere I have found. And yes I’d say they have gone down in quality since Schneider bought them.

I’ve been in IT a long time and worked remotely since 2004.

If you have not solved the ‘how to keep the internet, wifi, computer’ up and running when the power goes out and you telecommute, you may not have a job long. I have multiple redundant systems in place. 5G mobile hotspot. Battery bricks. A box full of various dongles, cables, and adapters. 6 battery backups. You have to invest in yourself and your career even if your employer won’t to keep yourself employable. Remember you can use your cell phone as a mobile hotspot too which I do at the airport almost 2x a week.

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I have used my phone Hotspot on the very rare occasion my internet goes out, but oddly, my work makes allowances for internet and VPN server outages, but not power outages, and they frown upon mobile Hotspot use. They don’t want us using wifi, either, but most of us ignore that. If they start cracking down, I can connect via wired connection if I have to.

Shoot, the internet at my office and our VPN servers would go down more than my home internet does.

I’ve worked here for over 20 years, and I have very specialized knowledge that no one else knows, so I’m pretty confident the most I’ll ever get is a slap on the wrist. I’ve been telling them for years that someone needs to learn this stuff, and even moreso the last year when I was the last one in my unit. God forbid something happening to me… They’d be attached to an object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis. :joy:

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My friend is in aerospace. He is a cobol programmer for power supplies that are on satellites traveling in orbit and beyond our solar system. He is super specialized. They call him every 9 months or so with a special assignment which starts like this: “the battery is going to run out in 3 months unless we come up with a fix…”

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I did a bunch of research on this a while back when I wanted to run a Raspberry Pi in my car. Unless you have sensitive equipment, such as medical or measurement tools, a stepped sign wave is fine but if you can get pure for not much more, as previously stated, that is the best option but only for those two reasons.

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I appreciate you taking the time to share this extra tidbit because I found it helpful and useful in my upcoming purchases.

Thanks again

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Please, for all that is holy stay away from APC, Cyber Power is a far better consumer product. APC’s electronics might be as good or better overall, however the issue is the batteries, their batteries DO NOT hold up. I don’t know why this is exactly. It’s probably a mixture of things. It’s very likely in their consumer line of products that the batteries might need active cooling, they’re just staying too warm and burning themselves out but that’s a theory on my part and more likely a mixture of issues. Now, if it was cost effective to change the batteries out in a UPS, this might be a whole different story however, it is not cost efficient in a consumer product. In consumer UPS’s if the battery dies you replace the unit kinda like some printers but that’s a different story. That’s why I said the possible slightly higher quality of APC over CP electronics doesn’t mean anything, if the unit last as long as the battery that’s what counts because you’ll be throwing the unit away as soon as the battery dies. And every UPS that I have ever seen, has always outlasted the battery except once, when I had a unit that was hit with an exceptionally devastating surge. Not that it matters one way or the other but this particular unit was an APC but it was also a long time ago when UPS‘s were still made out of metal instead of plastic. APC is a good industrial company and that’s where they should stay in my opinion, as other companies make better non industrial products such as Cyber Power. When I first started using UPSs over 25 years ago I was using APC products however, the track record has always been subpar if not terrible. In my experience, I’ve had multiple APC units that lasted for less than two years, including one that lasted for less than a year and did not go through any power surges. On the other hand, I’ve never had a cyber power unit that lasted for less than two years, if not more. Now everyone’s individual mileage will vary based on the particular load strain and quality of power. If you have exceptionally dirty power that is going to create a much greater strain on your units electronics. Also the quality of the unit itself as far as it’s sine output in terms of whether it’s just a basic wave output, or if it is a true sine wave factors into this as well. Keep in mind that true sine wave units are easier on your computers power supply, but are not strictly necessary in most basic cases and are more expensive. I am currently running four UPSs they are all cyber power and there are three different models. I have two small ones running my network equipment, a medium size one for monitors, and a larger one for my system. The unit running the monitors is seven years old at this point, and shows no signs of age.

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This has been my experience too. Their batteries completely die really fast on me, and the last ones I bought are not easily replaceable either. For that reason I have skipped over a few discounted deals on APC even though they seemed a decent price, I have just been hesitant to have to deal with the battery issues again.

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I’ve had good performance from my CyberPower UPSs – the first was bought from NewEgg years ago (back when NewEgg was a serious vendor, not just a marketplace for discount merchandise), and the latest was bought on Amazon.

I can’t address the long-term performance of the newest one (yet) but my older CyberPower UPS is still providing 100% reliable service. I have also had a couple from APC and those have needed to be replaced (which is why I bought the latest CyberPower UPS).

I just found a website that seems to have a pretty good (unbiased) comparison of APC and CyberPower (although their comparison is based on price and features, and doesn’t address long-term reliability). The article gives a good explanation of the features to consider in selecting a UPS.

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I’ve been using a Tripp-lite for years with no problems. Before that I had a cyberpower which died within 2 years.
John

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I’m not necessarily recommending this APC “Stepped approximation to a sine-wave power output” UPS, but at $87.99 it is roughly 37% off ($62 off), so may be worth considering.

I am tempted to get it for my modem/router to stay online.

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Stumbled onto this thread and just wanted to let folks know that 90% of the time, a “dead” UPS actually just needs battery replacement. Duracell makes excellent UPS replacement batteries at a fraction of the cost that APC wants to charge you for replacements.
Because lead acid batteries die once fully discharged, if you have a long outage and drain your batteries to nothing instead of shutting off hardware that’s attached, you’ll only get a short lifespan out of the unit before the batteries give up.
Much more expensive, but LiFePo4 battery units don’t have this limitation, but are still much less common.

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I haven’t seen it mentioned here, but if you have multiple computer systems connected to a UPS you should consider going NUTs. That’s Network UPS Tool. It allows you to have a master system monitoring your UPS and instructing the other systems to shutdown during a power loss. Very useful, but somewhat complex to setup.

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This is the NUT Server I’m testing—a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

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