UPS Devices

Post by **Sooty** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:04 pm

Just wondering which UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) people are using.

I have an old APC Back UPS 600VA unit, which has finally given up and I am looking to replace it.

The APC unit would add about 15 to 18 watts extra load to the total of the appliances running off it even when the battery was fully charged.

Is anyone using a UPS that does not impose such a high extra load? It seems a lot of power to waste, about 130 kWh per year.

Paul..

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 9:18 pm

I'm using an APC Smart UPS 1000. I was considering a 1500, but 1000VA is already more than I need. I didn't measure the additional power consumption, but I'm pretty sure it's over 18 Watts.

I selected the 'Smart' series because of the optional Ethernet card. I hoped this card would enable my SBS2003 server, my TrixBox and my Thecus NAS to gracefully shutdown if the UPS reaches 50% of residual battery time, but unfortunately my NAS only supports a direct connection to the UPS' serial port. And if you use the Ethernet card, the serial port no longer works...

My UPS also powers my PoE enabled switch so everything important keeps up and running. It's an easy way to distribute uninterruptable power througout the house

I bought mine new for tax reasons because I have my own company, but these devices are usually very cheap on eBay and alike; They are built for reliability, so if you put in a new battery it's a good as new.

Post by **RDNZL** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:17 pm

I also have an APC Smart UPS 1000 and measured it with Plugwise Circle it consumes 20 Watt by itself when powering my server (which uses 19 Watt) so it doubles the usage, I have it switched off now.

Post by **Bwired** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:57 pm

I had the same problem APC Smart UPS is known to use a lot of power even when its Idle so I Sold my APC.

Post by **Sooty** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:21 am

Thanks for the replies.

I've had a few APC units over the years both for business and personal use and they have proved very reliable. The one that's failed must be getting on for 10 years old, so it's not done so bad.

I like the idea of the protection a UPS offers, but we don't get so many power outages here (maybe 1 per year) and I don't like the idea of wasting 20 watts of power for 364.5 days of the year when my Homeseer PC is only using about 15.

The old unit used to be connected to my Homeseer PC, ADSL router, DECT phone base, RFXCom LAN interface and an 8 port LAN switch and this would provide just under an hour on battery power.

Perhaps I will risk it without UPS backup for the sake of the environment.

Pieter, are you running Bwired without any UPS?

Paul..

Post by **Mdamen** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:34 am

I have the back-ups ES700 don't know how much it consumes in standby mode though.. should measure that someday. Aren't there any green UPS's ?

--
Maarten Damen

www.maartendamen.com

Post by **drmacchi** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:52 am

I have APC ES350 , 350VA , it uses 11W. Oh oh what a discover! i'll shut it off.

Post by **Richard** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:59 am

APC Smart-UPS 1000VA overhere, powering the SBS2003 server, the Draytek router, the HP Procurve switch and some other small appliances. Very satsisfied about the UPS.

Does anybody knows or have some API documentation about this thing? i thought about reading the 'charts' data from the UPS (it records some powerline data/usage/interupts) but until now i didn't find much about it on the world wide web.

Richard Lichtendahl, The Netherlands - Europe (+1 GMT)

Post by **Stevexyz** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:18 am

If you're after SMART UPS commands over serial I've collected these over the years and put them into a little program:
$ apc
apc: usage: apc followed by one of:
name [newname]
charge
estimatedruntime
acminimum
acmaximum
acfrequency
acvoltage
onbatteryvoltage
outputvoltage
lowtransfer
hightransfer
returnthreshold [0|15|50|90]
sensitivity [H|M|L]
load
temperature
batteryvoltage
batterynominal
model
copyright
firmware
firmwarerevision
serialnumber
manufacturedate
batterydate
alarmdelay [0|T|L|N]
querytransfer
status
powerfailtest
selftest
autoselftest [ON |OFF|336|168]
lightstest
startstopcalibrate
turnon
delayedshutdown
immediateshutdown
softshutdown
reset
turndumb

It's in C and the actual commands are in the source code. I can post it here or mail it to you if that would be useful.

Cheers, Steve

Post by **RDNZL** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:06 pm

On linux you have upsd/nut which can monitor this UPS.
I'm sure you can find the source code somewhere since it's open-source, so you can port it to windows if needed.

I use it in my DomotiGa program, which monitors line voltage and status of an SmartUPS 1000.

Post by **mo046** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:05 am

Look for APCUPSD. It's an open source tool to monitor the status of the UPS. The documentation also describes the interface and commands. There's an APCUPSD Homeseer plugin to monitor the status. It works very well.

** Maurice **

Post by **glabbeek** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:32 pm

If you use your domotica for your alarm, an UPS can be a necessity.

Burglars often short your electricity, by using an outdoor socket. This will trip your circuit breaker crippling your alarm.

HS 2.0 / JvCADDX / SKYPE connector / RFXCOM / Moony / Mainlobby