Power Conditioner - Inverter - Temporary Power Supply

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I need some sort of a power conditioner for several Power Mac Desktops and other equipment. I live in a mobile home community where we experience frequent momentary power outages. In a split second the device would need to keep the computers from loosing power. I'm familiar with Furman and other companies. Anyone have any suggestions? Thank You!

BTW I'm a 72 year old member in good standing under a new registration name since becoming ill. Wonder if anyone remembers my grateful correspondence under ENIGMACODE back in 2004-2006?
 
Just go to the Best Buy website (or something similar), go to the computer section, and look for UPS. A bunch of options depending on your need and budget.

Conditioning and protecting yourself from outages that last only a few seconds to a couple of minutes is the cheapest of the UPS solutions.

As you'll see, the longer you need the power to last, the more expensive it gets, and rapidly.
 
And if you dont get the power back on quickly the cheap ones wont power you up for long.

We dealt with issues for years, large machines and many pc's....the building backup generator kicks on in 20seconds, that was too slow so after 10yrs they bought a $185,000 UPS to cover the 20seconds and its worked well.

Still theres tools that have a $5,000 UPS to the smaller $400-$500 UPS systems that can handle a few pc's for an hour or two if I recall.

The single cheaper battery ups ac strips cover one pc for a few minutes, dont plug the monitor or anything not needed into the strip will help some.
Laptops come with batterys which is nice and buys some time too.

How long are the power outages? If its a day or two....its probably not going to matter.

Know your Total Current Draw before shopping will help...or be required. I bought a $400-500 one around 5yrs ago, if I recall I had to gather the current draw then figure the UPS time needed. A generator is needed if its going to be several hours to days of no power.
 
Yeah, rereading your post, 'several' desktops and 'other equipment' sounds like a lot of juice, even for a couple of minutes. If it's only for a few seconds, that's a little better, but maybe not much, depending on the total draw. Like CC said, add up the total draw, plus the amount of time you're asking for, then go looking. You might have to make some hard choices about what you put on it. You could get several smaller ones and distribute them amongst your devices, but that's not really going to be much cheaper.

The question I would be asking the community managers is why you experience these outages so frequently. That's usually not a good sign. Plus, that's hard on your air conditioners and refrigerators and freezers, as well as just anything electronic, but especially the ones i mentioned with compressors. They should get that taken care of.
 
Also some UPS are regenerative too, so you are always running on ac power that has been produced from a battery and the battery charged from the mains, while others switch from one to the other when power cuts. These are quick, but not continuous. I can run two computers from mine, and over the eight years I've had it, it can manage less and less time on the expensive to replace battery, but it doesn't matter, I just need enough time if it's a real outage and not a momentary drop, to shut down properly to prevent data loss. I don't bother with the monitors of course, so my 500w limit is fine.
 
The question I would be asking the community managers is why you experience these outages so frequently. That's usually not a good sign. Plus, that's hard on your air conditioners and refrigerators and freezers, as well as just anything electronic, but especially the ones i mentioned with compressors. They should get that taken care of.
This is the reason the place I work bought the $185,000 building UPS (it can last 45 minutes with current load...but we keep adding tools/machines to it.)
The power outages were causing so much repair costs in pcb boards and its tricky because the parts might not fail for a day or week...but it was the power outages. We were on the end of some grid or something , so if the wind blew hard it seemed we would have power outages, if it stormed power outages...lol

A transformer company tech told me transformers windings have insulation, fine insulation and power spikes weaken the insulation so Lightning and Power spikes damage the transformers in many small household power supplys but the transformers wont fail right away so often people dont associate the failure to the power-spike that happened a few weeks ago.

Im no expert, the more I was involved with all this large power spike stuff...the less I knew.
 
Hi Gang - Sorry for the absence - I'm disabled - Thanx for all the responses

As indicated I'm 72 and have a solid background in the Trades. In reply to notCardio's statement: "The question I would be asking the community managers is why you experience these outages so frequently" - These breif interruptions are commonplace in many smaller Florida communities. Most times they naturally cause my router to loose signal until it reboots. Most people live with this. But for an editor using an older Mac Pro Desktop (with several externals connected) this could naturally create corruption etc. I thought perhaps someone out there might have some experience with actually owning a particular type of rack mounted power conditioner-power inverter? What I might do is protect the externals with ONE unit and the Desktop with another one? NO way I can afford 100K - I'm retired-disabled - There's every reason to believe I can use several units successfully to take care of those BRIEF outages ... again just looking for some ideas as to which one? I can always call B&H and discuss it with them - thanks
 
I have both a conditioner and a UPS in my little music room to keep stuff up long enough for me to shut it down properly. The conditioner is mostly and adornment (I think) to keep clean power going to devices like the interface, preamp, monitors and headphone amp, i.e., those things that don't have the potential of leaving corrupted files in the wake of a power failure. External drives and the computer (an all-in-one iMac) are on the UPS.

We had a spell where the power seemed to flicker when a dog barked loudly, and I finally called the power company, and they looked at it, and said "Oh, yeah, we see there's a problem out there." Came out and fixed something on their end which apparently their control system had flagged, but because it was short-lived, didn't bubble up to the top of their "FIX THIS" list. Cost me a couple years of backups, so I got a whole-house surge protector and UPS after that. Our power has been pretty stable since then, not surprisingly, so I'd start with a call to the power company and complain, if it hasn't been done already.

Anyway, a whole-house surge protector is something that goes in your breaker box, if it's got a couple extra slots. Not that expensive, and a good first-line of defense. (Note, this discussion is for the U.S. I know most of the rest of the world is shaking their head about this right now.)

A good home UPS is unlikely to be rack mounted because of the battery. My conditioner is a rack mountable unit (from Carvin IIRC) but I just have it on a box next to the UPS. The UPS is a basic home unit (Cyberpower 1350 something) I calculated to be big enough for my needs and had decent reviews. It's important to understand the limitations of units like this, and I always shut everything down when going away for any length of time, even disconnecting the UPS. Most of the time I'm around though so can respond to the beeping when the alarms go off.
 
Hello Keith!

Thanx for the detailed reply .... I already have surge protection attached to the meter box outside (an extra service provided by Florida Power & Light). I'd be interested in your Carvin Unit. Is that the same company that makes guitars & other stuff? Could you send me the model number please? So yes exactly my goal (like yours) is to: "keep stuff up long enough for me to shut it down properly"

Thank You Keith!
 
Hello Keith!

Thanx for the detailed reply .... I already have surge protection attached to the meter box outside (an extra service provided by Florida Power & Light). I'd be interested in your Carvin Unit. Is that the same company that makes guitars & other stuff? Could you send me the model number please? So yes exactly my goal (like yours) is to: "keep stuff up long enough for me to shut it down properly"

Thank You Keith!
This is what I have. It works very well, and even managed to keep power up through those minor ripples that don't trigger the UPS either. But when the power goes down, this turns everything off and stays off, which is what I like, since when it does get flaky around here, it can go up and down repeatedly until it settles on one or the other.

Some reviews remark on an electrical odor when new, which I do recall, though I got this and the UPS at the same time, and they both probably have some of that. Don't notice it anymore but it's been in place just over a yeaer.

Carvin AC120S Rack Mount 10 Outlet Power Conditioner
 
I have a couple of APC Smart UPS750s, (one is a rack mount, the other floor standing). One is on my entertainment system so that the cable box and TV doesn't go bonkers on a power flicker, the other is on my computer system downstairs with my audio interface for recording.

Each takes 2 x 12v gel cell batteries. I just replaced the ones downstairs with new 12V 9Ah batteries last week. They usually last about 3 years or so. They give me at least 20 minutes of run time on the computer and monitor which is plenty of time to shut things down. I have a smaller unit on the computer upstairs that's good for 10 or 15 minutes. I also have a unit that keeps my internet modem, phone modem and router/backup drive running.

If you have brief but random outages, they are the best things to have. They also condition the power, so you don't have to worry about spikes and noise.
 
Hi again Keith

So yes I'll definitely be needing temporary emergency power as you indicated enuf to shut equipment down property during an outage.

APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS Battery Backup & Surge Protector (Sinewave) = $229 B&H (can't post the link properly)?

After some research (with the power outages here) I definitely need a UPS (temporary power supply) not just a 'power conditioner' for the desktops and 6-8 externals

This one is rated at (900 amp capacity) with 6 outlets. The rack mounted versions are all double or triple the price so I'll stick to these...
 
Hi again Keith

So yes I'll definitely be needing temporary emergency power as you indicated enuf to shut equipment down property during an outage.

APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS Battery Backup & Surge Protector (Sinewave) = $229 B&H (can't post the link properly)?

After some research (with the power outages here) I definitely need a UPS (temporary power supply) not just a 'power conditioner' for the desktops and 6-8 externals

This one is rated at (900 amp capacity) with 6 outlets. The rack mounted versions are all double or triple the price so I'll stick to these...
It's obvious to most folks, but I wasn't thinking straight when I hooked mine up the first time, so apologies for stating the obvious, but don't plug the UPS into the [Carvin] power conditioner, because it will shut off and not come back on, so the UPS will stay up supplying power from its battery even if the power comes right back on. I did that, but luckily was around when the power went out and so went upstairs to see why the alarm was still going off even though power was back on.

You can plug the conditioner into the UPS if it has surge-only outlets and they're rated high enough for what you'll have connected to the conditioner. The conditioner is also providing surge protection for the outlets it has, so this is really redundant, I suppose. And, I have whole house surge protectors which I have decided to trust and so just have the conditioner and UPS plugged in separately.
 
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