Life of an UPS

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I just got an APC UPS.  Although U used them in a work environment, home use is new to me.

It’s an APC 650VA/360 watts.

Once it’s fully charged and plugged in, assuming no power interruptions, how long do I “let it run” before I need to be concerned with draining it and recharging, if I in fact do need to be concerned?

Chuck Billow

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With my UPS, I give them so little thought, I need to be careful when they are due for replacement batteries! They are just there, doing their job.

APC has a manual and FAQ which might answer any specific questions you may have.

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I have two CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD 600 watt UPS’s (I bought the second after I built my NAS).  They sit there quietly doing their job.  I have both set to shut down the PC (they are connected via USB) after running on battery for 5 minutes.

I replaced the battery in the oldest one about 6 months ago.  Other than that, they’re just there.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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I think you’ve misunderstood your setting.  The 5 minute setting is generally for letting the battery run until there are about 5 minutes of power LEFT in the battery and then FORCING shutdown.  What good is it to have a battery backup that only allows 5 minutes of on-battery-run-time?

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Excellent question.

Never in my decades of IT experience have I ever heard of anyone draining and recharging a UPS for maintenance purposes. EVERYONE simply plugs them in and forgets them.

I think you will be fine doing the same.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

EVERYONE simply plugs them in and forgets them.

That’s usually the problem… they don’t find out about a dead battery until the unit starts beeping (if they’re lucky) or the attached devices go down hard when you have a power glitch.

Some UPS manufacturers include “self-test” routines in their bundled software; Tripplite lets you schedule self-tests and email the results. If you don’t have that option, shut all your programs down, make sure you have a current backup, and pull the UPS power cord out of the wall every few months.

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jabeattyauditor wrote:

That’s usually the problem… they don’t find out about a dead battery until the unit starts beeping (if they’re lucky) or the attached devices go down hard when you have a power glitch. Some UPS manufacturers include “self-test” routines in their bundled software; Tripplite lets you schedule self-tests and email the results. If you don’t have that option, shut all your programs down, make sure you have a current backup, and pull the UPS power cord out of the wall every few months.

Absolutely agree here.  Like so many others, I just kinda forgot about my UPS (I have one of the Cyberpower true-sine models), by now several years old, until I had a power outage.  The unit started beeping its “I’m almost out of battery” sound almost immediately, even though it was fully charged, and I barely managed to get it shut down in time before it ran out of juice and shut down.

Later on, with the power back on, the UPS started acting weird… I seem to remember it cutting off the power for no apparent reason.  Perhaps the line voltage had dropped below the threshold that causes the UPS to cut in, possibly from the same cause as the original outage, and the UPS couldn’t handle it?  I don’t really know.

When the indicator on the unit showed the battery was charged, which happened much sooner than I would have expected, I tried running the built-in self test.  I installed the Cyberpower client software into a Windows VM and forwarded the USB to the VM, then told it to do the self-test.  The PC immediately went dead, powered off.

I tried it again with a laptop hosting the VM, under its own power.  This time the self-test completed and reported that everything was OK… which it most certainly was not.

I decided to let the battery charge for several hours and test it again with a simulated power failure (aka “unplug the UPS”).  As soon as it was unplugged, it went dead, just like in the self-test where the desktop PC I was using was connected to the UPS.

The battery was the most likely suspect, I thought, given that the unit was several years old, but the bit about it declaring everything OK as the PC performing the test wasn’t depending on that UPS for power made me think the unit itself may have been faulty.  The unit was long since out of warranty, so if that was the case, I’d have to get a new one.

I called Cyberpower, and the agent told me it was probably time to replace the battery.  He said that the symptoms I described sounded exactly like my battery was bad, and he confirmed that it would probably not detect the battery as bad in the test I had done with the laptop (with not much load on the UPS).

I took the agent’s word for it that this sounded like a bad battery.  I went to the local batteries and bulbs store and bought a new Duracell-branded battery for the unit (no idea if it actually has anything to do with Duracell, or if it is just a brand licensing deal for some other battery), and it once again works perfectly.

As an added plus, the battery store took the defective battery for recycling, so I don’t have to figure out how or where to get rid of it.

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APC’s general guidance is to replace the battery every 3 years.  But if your battery and computer are connected and you have the PowerChute software installed, you can look in the software and see if the battery needs replacing.

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We have 3 CyberPower UPS’s in the house for 3 desktops. Over the years I have changed the battery’s in 2 of them which are reasonably priced on Amazon. When we had W7 the “Gadgets” had a battery meter for charge status but W 10 did away with all that so I use the “Rain Meter” widgets to show battery strength. If it starts to get below 100 % then I know it’s time to replace.

I leave the UPS’s plugged in all the time and the battery’s last at minimum 5/6 years.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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NOTE: I bought an APC unit before I changed brands to CyberPower. The reason is that my 1st UPS was the APC and we got a power surge and it died, since the unit was only 6 mos. old I tried to get a replacement and they refused to replace it so I swore that I would never use an APC again. Just my experience probably not others.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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I feel your pain; I very nearly swore off APC many years ago with a similar experience. I had a small APC UPS with an APC-branded battery in it that had swelled to the point where I could not get the battery out when it needed replacement. I emailed APC and politely asked for assistance in removing the battery and received a curt “not our problem” type of response. Figuring I had nothing to lose at that point, I tried and failed to get the battery out short of taking a chain saw to the unit. Instead of the chain saw, I took my anger and frustration out in a series of increasingly nasty emails to APC. I guess that extra effort got their attention and I was told a brand new UPS, battery and all, was on its way to me.

Moral of the story: Perseverance furthers.

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I think you made a good choice in terms of customer service.  I can’t make any statements about the relative quality of Cyberpower and competing brands, as I have only bought Cyberpower (I had one other Cyberpower unit before this one, but when I upgraded my PC to a PFC (power factor correcting) PSU, the old UPS wouldn’t work, which is a known limitation of the cheaper models.  The new one is sold specifically as being PFC compatible, and the old non-PFC model was put into service to keep my Dish satellite box from forgetting all of its settings if there was a power loss.

When my current Cyberpower unit (with its new Duracell-branded battery) was under warranty, the front panel started glitching, with the wrong elements lighting up.  I called them and they sent out a new front panel with no drama at all, saving me the effort of preparing and boxing up my unit and sending it in (which they would have also accepted if I didn’t want to swap the part myself).  They didn’t ask for the old panel back.

When the part arrived, I swapped them and everything worked well again, and has for years after that.

Their agent was also willing to talk to me about my problem and make suggestions when my battery had died even after the unit was no longer under warranty.  I’ve never had anyone flatly refuse to talk to me based on warranty status, but anecdotes of that type abound.

 

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I gave up on CyberPower units years ago.  At the time, they were cheap enough, but you couldn’t replace the battery.  The batteries in APC units are easily replaceable.  I also think the APC software is better than the CyberPower software.

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I have an Advice Partner Digital PRD750 UPS which holds for 45 min.
The UPS supports my laptop, Laser Printer, 2.1 loudspeakers, 2 x 3TB external HD drives, 1Gb router
I have replaced the batteries every 3 years.

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I can’t speak for any of the other brands of UPS’s mentioned so far as I have only ever used APCs. In all the years I have ever owned UPS’s I have never “drained/recharged” the batteries.

The current ones I have offer LCD screens to display information such as current load, various alarms, and estimated battery time. There is also a procedure to do a self-test. All of this and more is covered in the User’s Manual pamphlet that came with the unit; it is also available on-line if you lost yours.

APC btw also includes a data cable and software for their UPS’s called PowerChute and, while I prefer not to run that all the time, there are certain features that are useful and one that is required. Unfortunately, not too many people are aware of that “required” feature. You’ll need it when you go to replace the battery. It’s the only way to reset the “battery replacement date”.

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

Never in my decades of IT experience have I ever heard of anyone draining and recharging a UPS for maintenance purposes. EVERYONE simply plugs them in and forgets them.

I have used a datacenter UPS that had a “maintenance” feature – it could do that automatically on schedule. If you had at least two units, you could make them coordinate so that they don’t both hit the drain cycle simultaneously, too.

The datacenter UPS thing is pretty different from small-business freestanding or even simple single-rack UPS – datacenters typically have a dedicated battery room or several… heh, at that one place, during my time there the UPS power was down more often than mains feed. One outage was caused by a wrench dropped between the DC bus bars…

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The battery in the UPS’s I use over the years last between three years and five years. I have six connected to my shop PC’s, security camera, router, and switches. Over the past twenty, or so, years, I found that buying UPS’s a power rating that is at least 20% higher that I calculated I would need at the peak use when everything plugged in was turned on and running “full blast”, lasts at least a year longer than the one that “just fits” the power need. I recently replaced the battery on a five yard old 550 V/a APC unit for about $30.

GreatAndPowerfulTech

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[George S. Augustas]

My UPS failed, and it wasn’t the battery. I had an APC BR-1500 (the tall, skinny one). It had worked well for many years, and I had replaced the battery once. One morning, it started beeping as if the power was out (it wasn’t). The unit continued running from the battery. It lasted about 2½ hours until the battery was depleted, then it croaked. It would not run from the mains or recharge the battery anymore. I had to buy a new one.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by George S. Augustas.

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I had a problem similar to that, so I called APC.  They walked me through resetting the UPS and it has been fine every since.

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My UPS uses a sealed lead-acid battery to the best of my knowledge. If so it should be just a reliable and durable as the one in my automobile.

That car battery is kept fully charged during years of service without being drained down and recharged, as happens with the lithium ion batteries in computers. And the car battery does this in a more hostile environment than my desktop computer will ever experience.

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F A Kramer wrote:

That car battery is kept fully charged during years of service without being drained down and recharged

Your car battery charges and discharges more than you might think, especially if you live in a colder climate.

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Yes, an automobile battery in my environment does charge and discharge almost daily. But by how much? Five percent would seem to be reasonable, and surely not more than 10 percent. That is not the nearly complete (>  80% ) discharge and recharge cycle that others have been asking about.

I once had to use my automobile in a cold climate, at night, for over three hours with the headlights on, with the battery charger inoperative. The car started the next day, and ran on the battery for a few hours before a repair could be done. Took over six hours while driving to recharge the battery after the repair. Nuf sed!

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We have been using CyberPower Standby Uninterruptible Power Supply systems for years. At this point, we have two that have been in operation for over a decade with no change of battery.

We experience frequent power losses and rely on a generator to cover the periods when public power is not available.

The standby units serve to bridge the gap between the period between when the power fails and the generator kicks in.  And, while the generator is operating the UPS system cleans the power feed from the generator by maintaining  steady voltage to the our computers, modems, and routers.

We monitor UPS performance and battery status by using PowerPanel Personal a free download from CyberPower

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I was using four APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500G for several years until last week.  I replaced two of them with one TrippLite Smart1500LCDT.  I had replaced the batteries in both APCs within the last year.  Recently they both were beeping and flashing the battery symbol with a X.  I cannot afford new batteries every year.  I hope the new one is better.

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Hopefully, MinnesotaVegans, you did not throw out the APC’s and the batteries. It might take a simple reset using the PowerChute software to get those units up and running. There are some reviews on Amazon that mention this unwritten and undocumented (by APC, anyway) procedure and it takes a LOT of digging to find them. Apparently there are some APC models that will give you problems with new batteries if you don’t reset the Battery Replacement Date via the software. Here are excerpts from two of those reviews and the current Amazon page they are on (if you can’t find them with the link below, you’ll have to search around for them).

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B004F08NSM?sortBy=recent&pageNumber=58

TN Experimenter
Watch the prices rise & fall
April 26, 2018

“…. Be sure to reset the “Replace Battery Date” in PowerChute especially if your UPS is in the Back-UPS XS 1000(BX1000G) series. This series of UPS units have a “Power On Self Test” that runs every time the unit is turned on and if the battery is not at full charge the battery will not pass the test. The UPS then declares the battery bad and will not charge the battery. The UPS will continue to operate but the internal UPS electronics will completely discharge the battery and then start beeping.

“… After reading other reviews, the BR1000G & BR1500G may have the same issues as the BX1000G & BX1500G.”

Rick
I purchased a new APCRBC124 for my BR1500G because my ups said the battery was bad (an “X” on the battery icon)
April 25, 2018

“… So I ordered this new battery, and installed it. Very easy, just slides in. But after charging for two days the UPS indicated only a 10 minute run time, which I know from experience is not correct. The load on the UPS is 210 watts.

So thinking this battery may be defective, I contacted APC customer service via chat. After two chats they told me that my UPS was 5 years old and had reached the end of its life.

I was about to order a new UPS, but dug down and read a lot of these reviews. One person mentioned that after replacing the battery it is necessary to run the self test AND run the Power Chute software to reset the “battery replacement date”. I have never fooled with the Power Chute software, but after using it I recommend it.

I did this, and now the UPS indicates 27 minutes of run time, which my experience tells me is reasonable for this UPS with a load of 210 watts.

Unfortunately there is no documentation that says to do this. It is not in the original documents that come with the UPS, nor is it in the battery replacement document that comes with the battery. …”

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to owburp

Thank you for that information.  I will try that.

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The chemistry of a sealed lead-acid battery doesn’t require “exercise” like NiCd and NiMH did.

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A sealed lead acid battery does not need cycling and in fact the life of the battery is shortened by doing it.  But it does need periodic maintenance. Open the unit and disconnect, clean and reconnect the electrical connections at least every year. If there is any sulfation on the contacts it can be cleaned with baking soda in water then reconnected. It also means the battery is no longer sealed and due for replacement. With dirty connections it may Pass a condition test but fail in use.

Keep it charged and keep the contacts clean and tight. The UPS should be large enough to cause a powered safe shut down during a blackout.  The only thing needing backup is the computer and maybe an external disk if that is where the system is. Everything else like printers go down with the main power.

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I also keep my monitor on the UPS. If I can’t see what the PC is doing it’s pretty much useless to try to get a safe shutdown.

-- rc primak

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I always had the monitor connected, like you, but after a major power outage and with much of my work now cloud-based, I also added the modem/router. It saves me losing work, and if it’s only a short outage, allows me to continue being productive.

In the push for fibre internet connections and the resulting removal of POTS copper-line telephone connections, the only way to keep a VOIP phone line connected during a power outage is an UPS, and for this reason, they are becoming more common in homes, as well as offices and home offices.

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wavy

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Kirsty wrote:

I always had the monitor connected, like you, but after a major power outage and with much of my work now cloud-based, I also added the modem/router. It saves me losing work, and if it’s only a short outage, allows me to continue being productive.

I also have my modem, router, and monitor connected, as well as the PC itself, of course.

Rather than have multiple displays (which is tremendously useful!) like some people, I only have one standard (23″, 1080p) display for my desktop PC, but I use my two main laptops on AC power (Dell G3 15.6″ for a portable DTR and Acer Swift 13.3″ for “grab and go” mobility, both also 1080p) at home, sort of acting like separate displays.

Fwiw, to facilitate the use of the laptops as stand-in second displays, I use KDE connect to quickly open a web page I am using in Waterfox on one of the other PCs, or share the clipboard, or move files around.  I used to use Samba (Windows networking) shares for file moving, but KDE connect is integrated into the GUI and is so seamless and fast, there’s hardly any need for network shares anymore, except for things like Veeam backup that are not part of KDE and don’t use the KDE connect protocol.

For desktop sharing, I use NoMachine, as it is faster than Windows RDP (which can be set up without having Windows on either end) and TeamViewer on my setup, and that allows my slow Pentium N4200 4GB Swift to effectively have the performance of my fast, hexacore i7-8750H, NVMe, 16GB G3 or my desktop (4 core Sandy, but overclocked to the point that it still has better single-threaded performance than the Coffee Lake i7 in the G3).

The neat thing about the laptops is that they have their own UPSes, so I just have them plugged into the surge suppression outlets on the UPS, so that they don’t continue to try to draw power from the UPS battery in the event of a power loss.

In the push for fibre internet connections and the resulting removal of POTS copper-line telephone connections, the only way to keep a VOIP phone line connected during a power outage is an UPS, and for this reason, they are becoming more common in homes, as well as offices and home offices.

I… was not aware there was such a push in some places!  Here, POTS is the only choice the phone company provides as far as the “last mile” connection.

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You are lucky in that regard, we have Verizon/Fios around here, I am still on POTS/copper but my girlfriend was pushed off a few years back because Verizon does not want to fix copper and already has the fiber in. After Sandy there was a big hulabaloo because the phone company did not want to repair copper in the Rockaways. Personally if fiber was the option from my phone company I would bundle ISP/Cable/Phone rather that pay for phone from a different company than ISP/Cable (or maybe just a cell on a different network than my main). It would save me a bunch, but when it works copper with its battery backup at the head ends is there when the electricity and cable/ fiber are dark.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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It does also mean that the fastest internet you can get around here (not counting cellular) is what I have, VDSL with 40 down, 2 up, which doesn’t even meet the US federal definition of broadband because of the slow upstream.  Of course, the telco could have provisioned the upstream to be high enough to be broadband if they wanted to, but without any real competition locally, why would they? There’s no such thing as last-mile fiber here… it’s all copper, with all of the limitations that involves.  This area has no cable service either, so that’s not an option.

I’m lucky to have this non-broadband, too, as the installer explained that there are a limited and fixed number of customers that can have it on each block, and mine is full… if my next door neighbor didn’t have it and wanted it, they would have to wait for someone else to cancel their service first to open up a slot, so to speak.  I had to do that when I first moved here.  I checked with my address in the telco website almost daily for a few years to see if DSL was available yet, until it finally said that it was (and I put in the service order immediately).

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You have made me feel lucky to have what I do. < waxing philosophical > We do all need to appreciate that now and again, the ‘simple’ things we have that others don’t. < /waxing philosophical >

Happy New Year Hoping there is broadband in your future

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Thats what the software and serial connection is for. W/o that option yeah maybe a problem, a power switch soft shutdown should still be a n option though.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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[rc primak]

From two earlier posts:

Later on, with the power back on, the UPS started acting weird… I seem to remember it cutting off the power for no apparent reason. Perhaps the line voltage had dropped below the threshold that causes the UPS to cut in, possibly from the same cause as the original outage, and the UPS couldn’t handle it? I don’t really know.

and

My UPS failed, and it wasn’t the battery. I had an APC BR-1500 (the tall, skinny one). It had worked well for many years, and I had replaced the battery once. One morning, it started beeping as if the power was out (it wasn’t). The unit continued running from the battery. It lasted about 2½ hours until the battery was depleted, then it croaked. It would not run from the mains or recharge the battery anymore. I had to buy a new one.

My impression is that this is what happens when the surge suppression part of the UPS has been hit with a surge or repeated dropouts, and the UPS has been sacrificed to protect the attached equipment. An older UPS simply loses its ability to protect from surges just like any surge suppressor, but more slowly than a power strip surge suppressor. The cutout behavior is normally a reaction to a faulty electrical ground condition, but it also happens if surge suppression is failing. Both conditions will make the ground LED go blank or flicker. An alarm should sound.

While upon regaining normal electrical service there usually will be a sort of rapid or delayed on/off condition, this should not last longer than a few minutes. Any longer with the cutting out and I would suspect an older UPS has failed or soon will fail to provide surge protection.

I had this happen after a thunderstorm with my Cyberpower 650 VA UPS, and I decided it was time for a new UPS. The new UPS was so cheap at Home Depot that I simply replaced the whole unit, rather than fool around with battery replacement. Especially since replacing the battery will not restore the surge protection. While I was at it I replaced the other Cyberpower 650 VA unit I was using for some home theater peripherals, as both units were a few years old. Best Buy took the old UPS units intact for recycling, so I didn’t need to take out the batteries.

For my bigger APC unit, the replacement batteries (two of them, both gel-type unspillable lead-acid batteries) were available from B&H Photo in New York, so I ordered a replacement. (Note: It is important to actually open up the UPS and look carefully at the old batteries and the photos of the replacement batteries, as model numbers can be very similar!) Once the new batteries arrived, replacement was just slide out the old, slide in the new, and the access door was very easy to operate. The batteries are marked as to which side is up or down. The old batteries can be recycled at Interstate Batteries, Batteries Plus, or anywhere which recycles lead-acid batteries. Many places don’t charge a recycling fee.

UPS batteries should be replaced every three or four years, and more frequently if there have been frequent outages or a heavy load attached. More than 50 percent of the stated capacity is considered a heavy load, after converting Watts to VA. If the price is not much different, or the manual specifies OEM (manufacturer certified) replacements, I’d go with the same brand as the UPS brand. For my APC UPS that was as cheap as getting anything generic.

-- rc primak

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by rc primak.

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rc primak wrote:

I also keep my monitor on the UPS. If I can’t see what the PC is doing it’s pretty much useless to try to get a safe shutdown.

CyberPower UPS’s come with a USB cable to connect the UPS to one’s PC, and software to both monitor the UPS status and enable the UPS to perform a safe shutdown of the computer.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Ascaris

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bbearren wrote:

CyberPower UPS’s come with a USB cable to connect the UPS to one’s PC, and software to both monitor the UPS status and enable the UPS to perform a safe shutdown of the computer.

Indeed, and they even have a Linux version to perform the safe shutdown.  It doesn’t have a GUI like the Windows version, but if all you need is to have a service to shut down the PC when there is an outage, you really don’t need a GUI. Once set up, it just sits there in the background anyway!

I’ve never used the shutdown service (on Linux or Windows).   I’ve only installed and used the Windows version of PowerPanel for testing when the unit was not behaving normally.

The use case for the UPS I am most concerned about is if I am in the middle of something while actively using the PC and the power drops at that point, so I will most certainly notice the lights are off and be able to initiate the shutdown myself.  If I am at home and not actively using the PC when an outage happens, I will certainly be drawn to the warning beeps of the UPS even if I do forget that I have a PC running.

If the power outage happens while I am asleep or not in the house (I leave all of the PCs in standby/sleep and with session locked when I am not using them; the laptops are already set to auto-hibernate if the battery level gets to the critical point, so they’ll be fine, so it is only the desktop that is a concern), they could suffer an ungraceful shutdown, which in theory can cause problems, but in practice, the last time I remember seeing serious problems from unintended shutdowns (or lockups, or spontaneous reboots, etc.) was with Windows 95/98, which crashed if you looked at the PC funny, and didn’t have a journaling file system.

If something does happen, I have backups that can restore a borked system to normal function… it’s the data that may not be saved that is my first concern.

It boils down to “I don’t perceive the problem as big enough to overcome my lazy impulses.”

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You don’t have to be concerned.  A GENERAL guideline is to replace the battery every 3 years, but if the software shows that the battery’s in good shape, there’s no reason to even do that!

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rc primak wrote:

I also keep my monitor on the UPS. If I can’t see what the PC is doing it’s pretty much useless to try to get a safe shutdown.

It is always useful to remember the keyboard shortcuts to safely shutdown your computer.  For Win10 it’s:  <WIN>+X followed by U and U again

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wavy

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[MikeyD215]

I have been using TrippLite products for years, both for their surge protection around the house and as a UPS for our desktop. As far as I am concerned, they are the single-most experienced company there is for any of this kind of equipment. Not too many years ago I installed both a Kohler backup generator covering the entire house, plus an Intermatic surge protector too, covering all circuits. (I did not bother to disconnect the several surge protectors we had to protect our appliances and other electronic equipment. How many of you are aware that a surge even can fry your garage door opener these days–if you have one?)

Anyway, as mentioned, UPS equipment is powered by sealed lead/acid batteries. No maintenance is required. Why do I continue to use a UPS even though the house now is protected with a backup generator. Because it takes 8-10 seconds for the generator to respond to the interruption.

I replaced a depleted UPS a number of years ago, but more recently have replaced just the batteries of my TrippLite when required. Check Amazon or Batteries Plus to see which is less expensive.  Why go to these lengths? It’s called peace of mind. (We’ve had numerous power  failures hereabouts for absolutely no apparent reason in perfectly calm and beautiful weather, as well as days-long failures during storms. Our local electric utility is the single-largest employer of BS artists in the world.)

So one piece of advice might be to double-check how easily and/or costly it is to replace just the batteries.  I will say this, however, TrippLite’s monitoring software compatible with WIN 10 isn’t as useful as it was for WIN-XP. (The older version had a light bulb (!) in the notification area providing real-time status information. It is missing from the latest version.)

 

 

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by MikeyD215.

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I worked on a computer that had a generator for backup.  It took 10 seconds to start and stabilize.  A seven ton fly wheel turned an alternator during the 10 seconds.  The computer used 325 kilowatts.

My computer today uses 200 watts.  My new TrippLite 1500 should do the job without a fly wheel.

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I bought an APC unit in 2007 and it lasted a full 10 years without doing a thing to it. The battery finally gave out.

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