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Don't buy anything Chinese.
I did, and regretted it when it failed in under a year. Needless to say, the supplier and manufacturer had disappeared by then.
Be aware that couriers are a PITA as well - the first two I had delivered had been physically broken in transit and had to be returned. Heavy batteries and transformers make for fragile packages!
You do probably want a "pure sine wave" output - many PC PSUs don't like chopped square wave and won't work at all or will fail quickly. Check your PSU's for "Active Power Factor Correction" or "APFC" and if you find it, it's a no-no unless you have a pure sine AC input.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I have had the CyberPower BRG1500AVRLCD[^] for several years now and it's been a good one. I had to replace batteries a couple of years ago but it was a simple inexpensive procedure.
As far as operating off battery it lasts about 20 minutes, enough to finish what you are doing and shutdown.
Unless you spend a ton of money on a UPS or devise a way to hook in better batteries you won't get 3 hours.
[edit]
Sorry this was meant for Marc
{/edit]
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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OriginalGriff wrote: Be aware that couriers are a PITA as well - the first two I had delivered had been physically broken in transit and had to be returned. Heavy batteries and transformers make for fragile packages! I'm putting my own rack network together at home for a test environement. This past week. I ordered an APC rack-mounted UPS with 4 batteries. The courier decided that it was too heavy for her, while carrying it on her shoulders, and tossed it down onto concrete. She then walked away, while we watched, and stated that it was the shippers fault that it is damaged.
Lucky for me, the shipper sent me a new one at no charge.
"When you are dead, you won't even know that you are dead. It's a pain only felt by others; same thing when you are stupid."
Ignorant - An individual without knowledge, but is willing to learn.
Stupid - An individual without knowledge and is incapable of learning.
Idiot - An individual without knowledge and allows social media to do the thinking for them.
modified 19-Nov-21 21:01pm.
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Thanks! And good advice on the pure sine wave - I forgot about that.
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Marc Clifton wrote: Something that runs off of the battery with a power inverter and the battery is kept topped up with the charging system. That seems tough to implement, charging a battery while it's sourcing power to a load. Seems like primary source of power would need to be switched, otherwise the battery charging circuit would be driving the load.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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jeron1 wrote: Marc Clifton wrote: Something that runs off of the battery with a power inverter and the battery is kept topped up with the charging system. That seems tough to implement, charging a battery while it's sourcing power to a load. Seems like primary source of power would need to be switched, otherwise the battery charging circuit would be driving the load.
Online/double conversion UPSes do just that. They start at a few hundred dollars for the same range of capacities that would be $50-150 in more affordable consumer models. I don't know if the hardware required actually costs that much more or it's mostly high margins on the enterprise product.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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That's pretty neat, I'll have to read up on them, thanks.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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When I worked as a network tech many years ago, I always went with Eaton. Extraordinarily reliable, but not cheap.
Backup Power UPS[^]
If you want it to run from the inverter continuously you need to check "Online" in the Topology filter. (You probably need to go to the 9-series for that)
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Ugh, their site is full of popups and accept cookies. None-the-less, looks like a great source, but I notice the don't make pricing obvious.
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Well, if your "specification" in your OP stands it will dig a serious hole in your wallet.
You get list prices and runtime graphs on this page[^]. I would have probably recommended a 9SX1000 with one or two extra battery modules on that spec. (Sine output and Generator compatible)
But not without making a "cost benefit analysis" beforehand.
Also note that the prices at Newegg are 35-ish percent lower.
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Plus one for Eaton, moved to them from APC and never regretted it.
When it comes round to the time to change batteries, go for the best, Panasonic or Yaesu for example. Cheaper or rebadged ones tend not to enjoy the warm environment inside a UPS and can last only a year.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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I've had an APC under my desk for 12 years now. It describes what you're looking for to the letter, except the 3 hour run time. My 1500VA will get me about 20 minutes at a 360W draw.
My first UPS wasn't that large, but its battery lasted about 9 years before I got a warning about the battery failing. The unit still worked flawlessly, but the battery just couldn't hold a change anymore. Keep in mind, the standard on these things is to replace the batteries every 3 years. I decided to upgrade to get more runtime.
To get 3 hours of run time at 300W, you're going to need an enterprise or rack system. Though some home/small business units support extra battery packs, I haven't heard of anything that'll get you 3 hours of capacity.
To get that run time and the specs you laid out, you're looking at something between $2,000-$4,000. You can try APC's configurator to size a system for you here[^].
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I know the title says UPS but if you are intending to power a DC charge like a computer, it might be cheaper, for your given specifications, to replace the AC-DC PSU by a DC-DC one, hook that to a battery, or a pack, and hook those to a battery charger capable of charging the batteries and powering the DC charge at the same time.
This will insulate your charge from any power line misbehaviors. This setup is basically a more efficient Online UPS (I think that is how it is called) because you remove losses from converting AC to DC back to AC in the UPS and then back to DC in your charge, which also extends runtime from the battery.
I do not know how the technology is today for this kind of setup but, some fifteen years ago, we did this in a lab to protect a 100000€ FPGA board from current spikes and over-voltages that were common in the aging building we were in.
Best of luck
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I used a TrippLite UPS a few years ago. Online and true sine wave. It could back up two Windows servers for about 4 hours. I can't remember the model but it wasn't cheap.
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I’ve run APC UPSs for over 25 years - both workstation and server-rack models. I suppose there are better ones out there, but as long as APC works for me, I have no reason to try anything else.
I run a 1500 at home, which is many times greater than needed, but I’m comfortable with that size.
I understand the difference between sine and square waves, but frankly don’t really care as long as the equipment doesn’t cycle or shut down. I guess for some scientific equipment it may make a difference.
You should be sure the UPS can issue a safe shutdown command to the connected computer so as not to surprise the system.
Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by man to measure the passage of human events.
- Manly P. Hall
Mark
Just another cog in the wheel
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I believe the phrase you are looking for is Make before Break.
Effectively the unit has a few seconds of power (like a capacitor), that keeps the circuit going as it switches.
We had a unit installed like this for these very reasons. It was QUITE expensive, but it worked.
It ran our servers, phone systems, etc.
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that's a new term, I always knew those as "Off-line" ie. they don't draw direct power from the utilities as they are allways "off-line" drawing from the batteries being charged at the same time...
but yeah, those are the real expensive ones, especially as you need them to be true pure-sinewaves
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...About all the things I should be doing in my life.
It's an oughtobiography.
I should get my coat and leave.
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it's one of those out to be read as well, will start tomorrow, for sure!
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When you get a Round Tuit[^]
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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I have to admit, this took me way too long
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Damn! I wish I'd thought of that ... Excellent TotD material!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Please finish it fast.
I'll waste no time reading it.
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I read his one of the history of glue - I couldn't put it down.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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