[Ted L. Nancy]

If my power goes out I want to be able to use my internet and VOIP for hopefully 1 hour or so. What would be a good UPS for these items:
- surfboard cable modem
- time capsule
- airport extreme
- ooma
- cordless phone base

Thanks!

[turtle777]

1 hour is a LOOONG time, if you ad in a computer and monitor (EDIT: ok, just realized you put peripherals in the thread title. Nevermind the computer and monitor stuff).

You'd need a couple of these:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=292438 or something similar.

Here's how to calculate run-times:
http://www.power-solutions.com/press...y_run_time.php

My gut feeling is that you;ll spend easily $ 700 - $ 1,000 for 1 hr runtime with all the stuff you want to power. If you own a laptop instead of a desktop + monitor, it will be significantly less, probably half of what I estimated above.

I'm basing this on my experience with the Belkin Dual Form Factor Battery Backup 1000VA F6C1000eiTW-RK and the following things attached:
iMac 24", 2 ext. FW HDs, cable modem, router, wireless router, VoIP adapter, cordless phone, USB hubs, powered speakers.

With this setup, I last about 10 mins on the UPS. The 100VA cost about $ 130.
So if you want 60 min, you'll be at around $ 800.

EDIT: Ok, so if you just have the peripherals listed, I would think that a 1500VA could last you close to 1 hr. It really depends much on how much power those different items draw.

-t

[mduell]

Buy a Kill-A-Watt for $15 to figure out what your actual load is (idle, while making a call, etc). Put your actual power consumption and desired runtime into the APC Selector for Configure by Load. As a back of the napkin guess I'd estimate 100W which the APC Back-UPS RS 1300VA ($175) could run for an hour or so.

Note that power capability is unrelated to battery capacity; you could get a "1500VA" UPS that only runs your equipment for a minute or a 200VA UPS that would run it for days.

Buying multiple UPSs is a poor way to increase runtime; there's no reason to buy more inverters and control systems when all you need is battery capacity. I just set up a small closet at work (~400W: an Xserve, a 1U Linux box, 3 external hard drives, a soekris router, a 24 port switch, an 8 port PoE switch, 2 Airport Extremes, and some fiber gear) with a 6 hour run time for $1000 by purchasing a 1000VA UPS ($500) and an external battery pack ($500); ~90% of the battery capacity comes from the external battery pack.

[Ted L. Nancy]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I don't think I was clear with my title and OP. More info on my setup:

I just need enough battery power for the items I listed above and nothing else. I have my MacBook, which of course has its battery, so I'd be trying to preserve my internet for use with my laptop.

I'm already using an APC XS 1500 (LCD) with my Mac Pro and everything attached to it, which gives me just under 15 minutes to shut it all down, so I consider that all taken care of.

So basically, I'm looking more for a new device just to just to keep all the networking components powered up (all of which, by the way, are all kept in my basement away from my Mac Pro and other computer components) so that I can stay online on my MacBook (and also to prevent sudden-death of a Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule!).

Also, I'd be willing to move my APC that I'm currently using with my Mac Pro to use with the networking junk and then get something more appropriate for my Mac Pro if that is a better solution.

mduell, since I already have my UPS w/ LCD, couldn't I just use that in place of the Kill-A-Watt to test my load? (a rhetorical question, perhaps) Also, those links you provided me with... didn't take me to where I think you intended them to.

Thanks again.

[ghporter]

Actually, the Kill-A-Watt would give you better information. You plug each item into it and the device tells you how much the item uses. Add the power usage of all your items together, add 10% (because it's hard to "stress" those items while you're testing, but the probably pull a little more power when heavily used) and you have your minimum required power. Since UPSs are rated in Volt-Amps (VA), you can directly read how much you need off the Kill-A-Watt and then just bump it by that 10%.

I like the idea of really over-UPSing. To me, since they also filter and clean up your power, the farther you are from their maximum power usage, the less stress you put on their AC/DC/AC conversion systems which means lower heat productin and longer life. I currently have a 350VA APC ups set up for all my network equipment, including broadband modem, router, a couple of switches and two wireless access points, as well as a network hard drive. That's WAY more than I "need," but as I said, I like to overdo in this area. And the 350VA unit happened to be on sale and was quite a good buy when I got it, so I guess you could say that I stumbled into this particular level of protection. (I have another 350VA unit that (so far, anyway) just powers my cordless phone/answering system base station...)

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

I'm already using an APC XS 1500 (LCD) with my Mac Pro and everything attached to it, which gives me just under 15 minutes to shut it all down, so I consider that all taken care of.

So basically, I'm looking more for a new device just to just to keep all the networking components powered up (all of which, by the way, are all kept in my basement away from my Mac Pro and other computer components) so that I can stay online on my MacBook (and also to prevent sudden-death of a Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule!).

Also, I'd be willing to move my APC that I'm currently using with my Mac Pro to use with the networking junk and then get something more appropriate for my Mac Pro if that is a better solution.

mduell, since I already have my UPS w/ LCD, couldn't I just use that in place of the Kill-A-Watt to test my load? (a rhetorical question, perhaps) Also, those links you provided me with... didn't take me to where I think you intended them to.

The APC with an LCD is just as good if not better than a Kill-A-Watt; IIRC they give both wattage and VA measurements.

apc.com won't let me deep link to the configure by load selector, so from the link I provided you just have to click Configure by Load.

Another APC similar to your 1500 is all you really need; the RS1300LCD has a slightly larger battery than the XS1500LCD, but it's not much of a difference.

15 minutes with everything on the XS1500LCD puts your running load around 400W (peak/startup is higher, but you're probably not doing that while the power is out); if you want to run everything for 6 hours (you could shut the Mac Pro down sooner and run everything else longer), blow a grand on the Smart-UPS 1000XL and a UXBP24 battery.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Ted L. Nancy 

If my power goes out I want to be able to use my internet and VOIP for hopefully 1 hour or so. What would be a good UPS for these items:
- surfboard cable modem
- time capsule
- airport extreme
- ooma
- cordless phone base

Thanks!

My hunch is that a 1000VA unit would give you hours of runtime. But if you want to be sure, just look at each device's power supply and calculate its wattage, if it's not already listed (multiply the amps on the input by 120). Then add up all the watts. Then look at a UPS's wattage, and assume that the maximum wattage gives about 15 minutes of runtime. Lower wattage load gives you correspondingly more runtime.

I had a 1000VA unit running my PowerBook, 24" LCD, two external HDs, DSL modem, router, USB hubs, and a 20W desk lamp, and with all that load, it estimated a run time of about 1/2 hour. With just those dinky things you mention, it should be easily twice that.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by tooki 

My hunch is that a 1000VA unit would give you hours of runtime. But if you want to be sure, just look at each device's power supply and calculate its wattage, if it's not already listed (multiply the amps on the input by 120). Then add up all the watts. Then look at a UPS's wattage, and assume that the maximum wattage gives about 15 minutes of runtime. Lower wattage load gives you correspondingly more runtime.

Most 1000VA units have full power runtimes in the single digit minutes, but 1000VA alone tells you nothing about the battery capacity (as noted previously in this thread). The relationship between load and runtime is significantly nonlinear; runtime at half power is typically 3-4x runtime at full power.

Use the tools available (like APC's Selector) rather than WAGs.