UPS Suggestions

[Scot L. Harris]

On Wed, 2005-08-31 at 01:47, jdow wrote:
> From: "aaron hirsch" <aaronh at uptime.net>
> 
> >> I'm looking to buy a UPS with greater than 90 minute battery life
> >> for 3 servers I have. The servers are Athlon XP 2900+ with 2 EIDE
> >> drives in each. Nothing else in the boxes.
> >> I'm not looking for exact numbers etc, just feedback on experiences
> >> with >90 minute UPS. What brands work well for you.
> > [aaron hirsch] 
> 
> You beat me to it. We have a lot of computers here, for development
> work mostly. So we have a pair of Matrix 5000s with three of the
> large battery packs each. (That's a total of 12 60AH 12 volt batteries
> each UPS.) We run the machine room off the pair of them. (We also
> sneaked a few strategic light bulbs in various rooms of the house
> as well. I also have my ham station on the UPS.) We got tired of
> losing power with the Ca blackouts. In theory we should last out any
> ordered blackout or brown out we face. We still tend to shut down
> most of the machines in an orderly fashion if it looks like it's not
> a formal blackout. Once we do that there is close to 24 hours of power
> for the computers. (We REALLY should hook up the fridge to one of
> the UPSs and the freezer to the other. But that's only food.)

Depending on the particular situation you might want to consider
installing a transfer switch and getting a generator.  A 5000 Watt
generator can support a refrigerator and freezer easily.  Not sure your
UPS could support the surge when the refrigerator kicks in, you would
need to verify that before hooking up those types of appliances.

A transfer switch allows you to isolate circuits and switch them from
line power to generator power with out back feeding the utility.   I
installed a transfer switch here a few months prior to the series of
hurricanes that hit last year.  Keeps from having to drag extension
cords through out the house and makes switch over to generator power a
matter of a few minutes.  

By making it easy to switch to generator power the UPSs just need to
provide ~30 minutes of up time.  Can get the generator fired up much
quicker than that.  

Also make sure you have plans to replace those batteries at some point. 
I have recently started swapping out batteries on UPSs that have been in
operation for several years.  Over time they won't support your systems
as long and eventually will fail completely.  

And during a black out don't forget cooling for your equipment. You may
be able to keep power to your computers but you generally need a sizable
generator to run the A/C system (unless you just have a window unit or
live in a cold climate).

And if you are using a generator make sure it is outside and not where
the exhaust can get into the house.  Use stabilizer in the gas and fire
it up once a month to keep it lubricated and make sure it works so it is
ready when you need it.  :)