My first UPS.

[Letzki]

Hello,

Im looking to purchase my first UPS.

Im looking at the model:
APC BACK-UPS RS 1500VA 230V
http://www.apc.com/shop/fi/en/products/APC-BACK-UPS-RS-1500VA-230V/P-BR1500I

The unit will set me back, 45 usd, and then 15 usd shipping from UK to Denmark.
A new battery is 90 usd. for a total of 150 usd.
I can also get the battery for around 45 usd, but then is not a original APC battery?

My needs:
I got 2 servers
My storage server is around 75 watt idle, and my esxi host is 50 watt idle.(Thats a reading from IMPI, dont know if thats reliable?)
I also got a HP Procurve 1810 8 Ports switch.


Is this a decent deal?

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Hello,

Im looking to purchase my first UPS.

Im looking at the model:
APC BACK-UPS RS 1500VA 230V
http://www.apc.com/shop/fi/en/products/APC-BACK-UPS-RS-1500VA-230V/P-BR1500I

The unit will set me back, 45 usd, and then 15 usd shipping from UK to Denmark.
A new battery is 90 usd. for a total of 150 usd.
I can also get the battery for around 45 usd, but then is not a original APC battery?

I assume this is used? Ask the seller for the serial number. It is of the form xxyyww######. yy is the year of manufacture and ww is the week of manufacture. So ZA0450011273 would have been made in week 50 of 2004, for example.

The older the unit, the more likely the battery voltage will have drifted out of spec. This almost always happens on the high side, leading to "cooking" of the batteries which shortens their life. The Smart-UPS is a somewhat better product and newer ones let you adjust the float voltage. I don't know if the Back-UPS product line supports this.

There's no such thing as an APC battery - just batteries that APC slaps their label on. For UPS models that take more than one battery, the APC replacement will come with the batteries attached to each other, any needed fuses / cables, etc. A non-APC battery is just the same, but you have to re-use the old fuse, cables, etc. I wrote up a detailed blog article about this, along with a followup article.

 

[Tom5051]

The APC replacement batteries are ridiculously expensive. Any decent electronics store will sell SLA batteries of the correct size. Usually they have 2x 12v batteries in series to give a total output voltage of 24v. Use the connector hardware off the old battery and stick them together with double sided tape.
Not sure if the BackUPS is the same as the SmartUPS but it is not difficult to add external batteries with a bit of soldering and know how. This will increase runtime but not output capacity.

 

[BenchZowner]

What's the purpose of your UPS purchase ?
To have a little time to properly shutdown your machines ?
To have an extra protection from electric failure ?

If the answer to the second question is yes, then you need to look elsewhere, Backup UPS type doesn't protect your equipment from lets say an incoming spike.

 

[Letzki]

@Terry Kennedy Yes, its used. I asked the seller for an serial nummer. Im still waiting on it.
I did google a bit, and havnet found any info on adjusting the float voltage.
Thanks for the link, was a good read. No reason to pay double as much for the "same" battery.
Is there year range where the UPS is best? If you can call it that.

@Tom5051 Thanks, if i go a head with the purchase. I think that the battery in the UPS is enough to keep my systems running for 30 mins.

@BenchZowner Thanks, i didn't know. Well that plan as only to get som run time if the power goes out. My landlord is to cheap to get an electrician, to look at the power. 1 to 2 times in a month the power goes out, and i need to get to the basement at turn it on again.

Well, hmm, now i don't if you should that BackUPS model or go on a look for an SmartUPS.