[Nut-upsuser] [OT] Re: UPS units and heat generation

[arnaud.quette@mgeups.com]

Hi Steve

> A slightly off topic post, but one that I think someone out there in the
> NUT community could probably help me with.

first, remember that not everybody has yet switched to these
new lists, so there won't be lots of answers for the moment...

> ...
> Trying to get "idle heat generation" information about UPS units from
> any manufacturer is quite hard. Its not one of the items they have on
> their spec sheets or website, and my attempt at getting info from APC
> involved them being more interested in who I was, where I worked, where
> I got the UPS from, what its serial number was, etc than actually
> wanting to answer my question (I gave up eventually). Yes, I know the
> major reason for having a UPS is to protect the attached kit from power
> outages and spikes, but there are other things to consider beyond that.

You've got to correlate the QOS (Quality Of Service, ie the type
of UPS between offline, line interactive and online) with the actual
load on output. That will generate more or less heat.

The rule of thumb is: the best quality, the more heat generated...

Lastly, that's the first time I hear this question. Generally, people
look toward QOS and runtime, more than generated heat, but
that's because line-int. and online are in air cond. room...

> Does anyone have any links, tips or helpful info in choosing UPS units
> that dont want to heat the room up? Would it be better to buy one big
> unit to cover my home office kit (like I have now), or a few smaller
> ones (one per PC, plus one for extra kit).

sadly, no. I haven't any doc nor link on that point...

I'll just point, as always, MGE's UPS selector:
http://www.mgeups.com/selector/ups/

I can then put you in touch with some MGE representative to talk
about this point...

Arnaud Quette
---
Linux / Unix Expert - MGE UPS SYSTEMS - R&D Dpt
OpenSource Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/
Debian Developer - http://people.debian.org/~aquette/
... and much more ...