Going To Buy a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

[JohnyMac]

Of late, our electricity is going out due in part to all the beetle dead Ash trees. Another thing to thank China for.

Typically, if the power goes out is no big deal as half of our house is on solar with ample back-up batteries. Then we have a 3,500 watt gas generator to back-up the sun. The challenge is loosing my computer during digital RX/TXing.

OBH suggested buying a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for the computer and starlink setup in my radio shack.

Does anybody have experience with buying and use of a UPS? I am currently looking at the APS 1500 VA on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VY6FXMM/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

My goal is to keep my desk top I use for FLDIGI nets running along with my Starlink internet during an abrupt power outage. Don't laugh, it has happened twice now while I was the NCS for the digital ERIN net.

Thoughts?

[DMCakhunter]

We have a few similar units at home and at work.
They work well. They will beep loudly when the power is out, but always keep the computers running.
The duration of power will depend on what you are running.
Seems like the batteries last between 3-5 years of use.

[JohnyMac]

Thank you DM 

[Searchboss]

I have one of those on my system here at the house. It seems to be a good piece of equipment. I have been using it for several years. It is my third replacement UPS as the previous ones died. I have my monitor, a large desktop computer, my modem, and my router plugged into the UPS. When the power fails the UPS will supposedly run my system as described for 28 minutes. We don't lose power often, but it has happened. When it does, everything plugged into the UPS continues to work normally. Loss of power here is usually only for a few minutes. Only once did I turn off my equipment because the entire area lost power and was not expected to get it back on for hours.

I considered getting one for my radios but never did. I am now thinking of buying a "solar generator" (stupid name) to use as a backup, as opposed to a UPS power supply. There are a lot of things to research first.

[pkveazey]

Searchboss: We have had quite a bit of discussion here about Solar systems. Basically, it consists of SOLAR PANEL (or panels), CHARGE CONTROLLER, BATTERY (or Batteries), and INVERTER. The one thing that is very important is to never connect your Solar Panels to the Charge controller until you have already connected the Charge Controller to the Batteries. If you connect the Solar Panels to the Charge Controller before connecting it to the Batteries, it's like trying to transmit on a radio that has no antenna connected. That would be a bad thing. I suggest that you hook things up in reverse order. Inverter to Batteries, then Batteries to Charge Controller, then Charge controller to Solar Panels. When everything is connected, then plug electrical loads into the Inverter. With all that said, there is a trick to connecting a bunch of batteries in parallel. Never connect the positive and negative terminals to the last battery. Connect the Negative terminal to the first battery and then connect the Positive terminal to the last battery. The reason for that is so the last battery doesn't try to be the only one to take a full charge and do all the work. Yep, it will work but you won't get the full benefit of all the batteries. I hope this helps. Also, don't max out your Charge Controller. I have a 30-amp Charge Controller and I'm only putting about 20 Amps through it.

[Obh]

Another option is having something like I do for my radio system.

I use the epic power gate from west mountain marine. https://www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_id=epic-pwrgate

My power supply, solar panel, and battery feed into it before going to a 12V power distribution strip. If the power supply stops outputting, it switches over to the battery within 100 msec. When the power supply comes back up, it switches back. It also has a charge controller and can charge your dedicated radio battery from either the power supply or solar.

[JohnyMac]

Thx OBH 

[Nemo]

Something about that West Marine sound familiar around here?

Nemo