Re: What UPS to buy: a MGE Evolution 850 or an APC Smart-UPS 750?
On Sun, Feb 04, 2007 at 12:26:36PM +0000, J.A. de Vries wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Due to power outages at my home I want to buy an UPS for my SOHO server.
> For my needs something between 700 and 1000VA should be enough. I'd like
> to have auto shutdown and powerup and some monitoring facilities too.
>
> After some Googling I am thinking of buying either an APC Smart-UPS 750
> or a MGE Evolution 850. As far as I know APC is the "big brand" and it
> certainly is the one that is the easiest to get around here. Their
> Powerchute software seems to support Linux as well.
>
> However, when reading the NUT website I noticed MGE is supporting them
> really well. And because I'd like to "vote" with my money I have thought
> of going for their product. Before I do so, I'd appreciate if any of you
> could share experiences. I'm not really an expert on this topic as this
> will be the first UPS I own, so any advice would be appreciated.
I used to live in the bush SouthWest of Parry Sound Ontario. We were at
the end of a 10 Km powerline through the bush. The power would go out
frequently and twice each summer for more than 2 days and twice each
winter for more than 7 days.
I put the whole house on UPS. I used a (now) Xantrex Puresine 3 KVA
inverter with a bank of deep-cell batteries totalling 1800 Amp-Hr. It
would run the whole house (except the electric stove, electric hot water
heater, electric dryer) for 14 days. The inverter contoll panel
provided good monitoring (and I added an E-meter [gas gauge and
predictor for the battery, with output to the computer]) and would do 3
stage charging and equalizing (bubbling off the sulphate buildup on the
plates).
My point isn't that you should go out and make a big system like this
but that I suggest you look at not only how much power you need to put
out (1 KVA), but for how long (for me, 14 days), and what type (for me,
pure sinewave, +/- 2%).
The other point is that battery maintenance makes or breaks this. Good
batteries are expensive and with good maintenance will last a good long
time. If your power goes out frequently (you'll be using the batteries
a lot) then you want a larger battery. The deeper and faster you
discharge a battery, the 1) less juice you get out of it before it needs
recharging and 2) the fewer cycles you get before it needs replacing.
Doug.
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