UPS Suggestions

[jdow]

From: "Bill Gradwohl" <bill at ycc.com>

> On Tue, 2005-08-30 at 13:07 -0700, Mike McMullen wrote:
>> Duh... that would help wouldn't it? ;-)
> 
> Actually, power supply rating isn't a really good indicator. We use a
> gadget called a kill-a-watt meter that will tell you what a particular
> machine draws steady state, and then you can know for sure where you
> stand. 

If'n your going to try to size the UPS with a watt meter "fergit it".
Unless your power supplies are very well power factor corrected you
need to measure both the power and the "Volt-Ampere" draw of the
power supply. The latter is closer to right in figuring out the life
of a UPS. The UPS tops out at 5000 volt amp draw. The batteries are
what determines the life. We have those aforementioned SmartCell XLs
with some serious storage capacity back there with the UPSs. THAT is
what pulls us through the blackouts. The UPS power rating is merely
an artifact of APC's sizing for their Matrix units, which were going
cheap on E-Bay at the time. (They're performing BEAUTIFULLY.)

(No, I do NOT work for them nor have they paid me anything. But
contributions are welcome if they feel an irrational burst of
largess coming on. And in spite of that they have offered some
technical support on the EMI issue. Nice people.)

{^_^}