[Tfug] UPS sizing

[John Gruenenfelder]

On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 05:53:31PM -0800, Bexley Hall wrote:
>heh heh heh... good ol' knob 'n' tube!  :>  Quite fun to
>work on, actually (though I sure wouldn't want to *live*
>with that stuff in my walls!  :>
>
>> and phone connections in
>> the basement from the original Bell Telephone.  The
>> landlord strongly suggested I purchase a UPS.
>
>I'd be surprised that you had good enough *service*
>to run much in terms of electronics, etc.  Many of those
>homes only had 60A services.  And, if they did NOT have
>a gas stove, you can be sure the oven ate up the biggest
>part of that!  :-/

Given the age of the house, there had been a few additions to the wiring over
the years.  In my apartment I had access to three separate circuits.  The
newest was high load on two outlets and used by the oven, fridge, and
microwave.

The second oldest was relatively new (70s I think?) and this was what I had my
equipment plugged into, though I needed an extension cord to plug the UPS into
it.  It was three prong.  The landlord, who had only lived there six months
more than I, said he didn't think the third prong was actually grounded, but
my UPS never complained.

The oldest circuit was the original ancient low load stuff which I only used
for a lamp and a clock.  My neighbor, however, kept stupidly plugging a hot
plate into it which would instantly trip the upstairs breaker.  But... even
with the modifications, it still all wound its way to an aging rats nest of
wires in the basement.  I'm surprised it didn't all trip more often.



My biggest power problem was still linked to the UPS.  I think I posted to
TFUG about it a couple of years ago.  About once every 1-2 months, the UPS
would shut off power to all devices, rapidly blink the red light on the front,
and emit a constant siren.  This error "code" did not correspond to anything
in the manual and the closest match I could find on the web suggested that the
devices were drawing too much power from the UPS and so caused the shutdown.

This was a major pain for a number of reasons.  It could only be reset via
manual intervention which made remote action impossible.  Once I had to have
my landlord reset it for me while I was in Tucson.  Also, I bought the UPS
specifically to insulate myself from anything bizarre on the incoming line.  I
expected that if anything bad happened - too much or too little power, etc. -
the UPS would switch to battery until the problem passed.

This problem stopped after I moved back to Tucson which seems to indicate that
it was indeed some issue with the incoming power.  But, if so, why did the UPS
not do its job?  I could find no errata or firmware update on APC's website
either.

>> I have a APC BackUPS 700 and I've got everything
>> running off of it: cable
>> modem, wifi switch, Mythbox/file server, tiny TV speakers,
>> desktop PC, LCD
>> panel, laptop, Wii, and a few various bits (chargers,
>
>Ah, all of your stuff is bunched together?  (I have stuff
>spread around the house, hence the need for more/smaller
>devices)

One of the few benefits of living in a small apartment.  I have a closet near
the TV where I keep everything but the desktop PC (so as to cut down on the
noise) and I have a heavy gauge 20' extension cord so I can run my desktop
machine off the same UPS.


-- 
--John Gruenenfelder    Systems Manager, MKS Imaging Technology, LLC.
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