[Nut-upsuser] choosing a UPS (in the United States)

[lonely wolf]

On 08/09/2006 12:07 AM, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> I do a bunch of "kindness of strangers" hosting in my basement and my 
> three kVA apc unit died recently.  In looking around, it looked like 
> Belkin was a reasonable low-end replacement for a few machines.  Then 
> I read this mailing list after I purchased one and was gifted 
> another.  It looks like people don't like Belkin.  ;-)
>
> So the question is what's a good UPS for running for five machines, 12 
> disk drives, and seven CPUs (one being a DEC Alpha)?  No, I haven't 
> figured out the power budget.  When I take things down this weekend, I 
> will be measuring the power consumption of all the devices.
>
> Power outages around here tend to be fairly frequent but short-lived 
> (i.e. under five minutes) as the trees brush across power lines and 
> then the circus reset.
>
> Given this kind of power fluctuation, I think I am happy with roughly 
> a five or 10 minute runtime with fairly quick shutdown triggers.
>
> assuming that the Belkin units are uncontrollable because the firmware 
> and hardware implementation is just awful, what is recommended and 
> available here in the states?
>
> thanks for sharing your wisdom.
I am not living in USA but as I happened to use several dozens of UPSs 
during the last 10 years, I'll just let you know my impressions.
- I've been using different APC units (mostly BK 500EI, BK650EI, 
SmartUPS XL 1000VA), for years with absolutely no problem except for 
batteries dying after 2.5-4 years. Replacement batteries for a SmartUPS 
1000VA= 34 euro.
 - I also have used (monitored from Windows only) MUSTEK POWERMUST 
units. Decent. No problems so far
 - A few months ago I have replaced 2*SmartUPS 1000 VA with one Ablerex 
MARS MS3000RT. It's definitely dumber then APC but with the great help 
of the nut developers, it works OK and does it's job. Taking into 
account that it costs half the price of an APC with the same capacity, 
I'd say it's a decent trade-off
- and last, I have at home (a gift..) one "IUPS 650 Silver Data". It's 
supposed to be French. Just one word: awful. A load of <100W is 
sustained for no more then 3 minutes.

    Anyway, in order to purchase a correct sized UPS, you need to 
evaluate the consumption. And do not forget to leave a decent margin for 
upgrades :)