Solved How do I find out what wattage UPS I need?

[HAVOC]

Not sure where to post this.

I'm looking at an APC Back-UPS Pro.
Thinking about also getting the external battery (APC BR24BPG UPS Accessories - Newegg.com) which means I would have to get the 865 watt BR1500G (APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500G 1500 VA 865 W 10 Outlets Power Saving Back-UPS Pro - Newegg.com).

I've been looking and it seems the only one that has the port for the external battery is the BR1500G.

 

[HAVOC]

I found the info I needed. I couldn't find the wattage calculator on APC's site so I searched on google and the first listing was from APC's site

 

[dsperber]

Presumably your wattage calculator pointed you to the 865W size UPS that you've identified. But honestly, that's a big UPS.

The unit you're looking at only has 5 battery-protection sockets, with 5 more as surge-protector-only sockets. So what will you be plugging into the battery sockets that adds up to 865W? Might you need more battery sockets and fewer surge sockets as a better combination?

You really only need to plug in devices to the battery sockets that actually justify 24/7 battery protection, such as your computer, monitor(s), modem+router, TV tuner, external USB drives, etc. You don't need to have battery protection for your non-critical equipment such as printer(s) (which use a lot of power), speakers, etc., which can go into the surge sockets.

For my HTPC (ASUS P8Z77-V Pro board, i5-3350p CPU, 8GB, with four internal hard drives, an internal 4-tuner Ceton card and a 2-tuner Hauppauge card, and an AMD R7 250 video card) I have an APC Back-UPS NS 1050 (i.e. BN1050-CN) which they don't make any more of course, which is rated at 650W but has 6 battery-protection sockets and 4 surge-protection sockets. In the battery sockets I have two 24" flatscreen monitors, two external 2TB USB drives used for regular backups, the computer itself, and my 4.0 speaker system.

With the current setup the PowerChute software shows me only using 240-290W of power depending on what I'm running, with the two monitors powered on. I have my hard drives set to spin down when not in use for 15 minutes. Same with the external USB backup drives. Of course when the drives spin back up electrical consumption goes back up.

With the two monitors powered off electrical consumption drops to about 190W. Of course I intentionally downsized my higher-end video card to save about 100W because it was consuming lots of electricity (even when the monitors are powered off) and the machine is on 24/7. Previously I was using about 330W with all things powered on. Still I'm using less than 1/2 the 650W the UPS is rated at, with the software showing 18 minutes of battery lifetime at the 240W rate.

In other words, you may be surprised that you don't actually need 865W of battery backup power capability, although I don't really know what all you have in your machine. Once you install the PowerChute software with all your equipment plugged in as you want, you'll truly be able to see what the "draw" is, and how long you can run on battery backup before it safely shuts Windows down (at the 5-minutes left mark, typically).

Mostly however, the UPS is to protect you from quite brief intermittent outages that occur occasionally and last for seconds or maybe a minute, rather than extended outages of hours. So you really only need to guarantee battery power for those devices that you absolutely want to be "immunized" against these electrical outages or surges which would trigger machine shutdowns or possibly cause equipment damage stemming from a quick OFF/ON for example.

Just things to consider.

 

[HAVOC]

I wound up buying the APC Back-UPS Pro 1500. I think it may be a little overkill but I'm OK with that. The stuff I need to plug in will be my PC, 4 displays, printer, 5.1 surround system, and a 4 port gigabit switch. The leaves me with 2 plugs available. I'll plug the PC, main display, speakers and printer into the backup battery outlets, everything else will be plugged into the other outlets. I'm still deciding where I'll actually want stuff plugged in so this is a first draft.

I removed the UPS from the box and set it in place to see if the wire was long enough. It fit exactly where I wanted it to (I also allowed room for the BR24BPG external battery pack, if I decide to purchase it at a later date). Now I can start my cable runs to keep cable management as neat as possible.

The PC that will be plugged in to the main outlet has yet to be built, I was saving money to buy the components and had to buy a car so that started me back at 0$.

The wattage calculator seems to be a little outdated. I'm going to see if I can find a better one. The PC specs will be a X99 board, Intel i7 CPU, three GTX980's, one SSD, two HDD's, and a Corsair AX1200i PSU, the system will also be water-cooled.

 

[dsperber]

I wound up buying the APC Back-UPS Pro 1500. I think it may be a little overkill but I'm OK with that. The stuff I need to plug in will be my PC, 4 displays, printer, 5.1 surround system, and a 4 port gigabit switch. The leaves me with 2 plugs available. I'll plug the PC, main display, speakers and printer into the backup battery outlets, everything else will be plugged into the other outlets. I'm still deciding where I'll actually want stuff plugged in so this is a first draft.

I still think that given your limit of 5 battery sockets, you probably really don't want the printer in one of those. It draws lots of power, and honestly would you mind if it powered off if you lost electricity and you were without printing capability for a time? Supplying the printer by battery will take a huge amount off of the battery-lifetime provided by the UPS.

I'd consider having the gigabit switch in a battery socket along with the PC and at least the main display and your speaker system, if not also your next most important display.

Once you install the PowerChute software, it will show you how much power you're currently drawing through the battery sockets, and will also calculate how much battery-powered time the UPS can provide given that draw. Your decisions may vary, once you know that.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Normally, the purpose of a UPS is to allow you enough time to safely shut down your computer without losing any work still setting unsaved in RAM should there be a power outage. They are not intended for extended operation. If you need to keep your entire system running continuously or for any significant amount of time after the start of a power outage, then you need to pair up a self-starting backup generator with your UPS (the UPS will keep the computer running until the generator can kick in and take over).

Printers draw quite a bit of current so, usually, it is not recommended that one plugs them into the battery backup outlets. One can always clear a printer and reprint whatever got interrupted by an outage. All I have plugged into my UPS battery backup outlets are my computer, my three monitors, and the HDMI splitter feeding my primary monitor (my TV is attached to the other side of the splitter but I don't need to keep it running if the power goes down) and I have a much more powerful UPS than you do (2200VA, 1500W). I don't have my modems and router connected right now since they are in another room and I don't have room in the linen closet where they are to put in their own UPS. Besides, any download or upload can be done over if a power outage interrupts them.

Even though my UPS has the ability to run what I have connected for up to an hour and a half after an outage (the actual time will vary according to how much power is actually being drawn at the time), I have it set to hibernate the computer if the power has been out five minutes. If I'm running something critical at the time (such as updating a backup drive), I can manually override that until the job is done, but then I shut everything down once that job is done. The reasons for the short shut down times are to reduce wear and tear on the batteries, reduce the time it takes to fully recharge the batteries once the power comes back on, and to ensure there will be enough remaining charge after a power outage to still protect my computer should there be multiple outages in a day (which has happened).

 

[HAVOC]

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't know printers used that much power. I have an inkjet from Lexmark.