UPS - Universal Power Supply for HTPC

[tripplej]

For those of you who are having a home theater PC, are you using any UPS?

A friend of mine is asking whether this one is good for his HTPC..


He wants one that will last a long blackout or power outage..

Any recommendations? Is this one good? Any thoughts?

[TRainH2O]

I am no help on this one.

I've never seriously considered one but we have pretty stable power around here. I've never experienced a major surge, brown-out that affected my system. Power outages are also extremely rare.

[tripplej]

There are various type of UPS available on amazon but it is very hard to decide which is best. Some will only give power just to allow you enough time to power down while others will go a lot longer like the one above. But of course, it will also depend on how many items you plug into it as well as the wattage consumption for those units.

[DLCPhoto]

I did some research on this in the past, and at least for JVC Projectors, a "Pure" sine-wave UPS is required.

As for the duration, I only needed enough to properly power down the Projector in case of a power loss.  If I wanted to continue to watch a movie, I would need enough UPS capacity to drive all my speakers and subwoofer, which would be totally impractical.  So if the power goes out while I'm watching, I would just start the power down cycle on the Projector.

I bought a CyberPower Pure Sine-Wave unit, CP1350PFCLCD, for a reasonable price.  I tested it with my prior RS400, and it had no problem maintaining power long enough to properly cool down the Projector.

[tripplej]

I did some research on this in the past, and at least for JVC Projectors, a "Pure" sine-wave UPS is required.

As for the duration, I only needed enough to properly power down the Projector in case of a power loss.  If I wanted to continue to watch a movie, I would need enough UPS capacity to drive all my speakers and subwoofer, which would be totally impractical.  So if the power goes out while I'm watching, I would just start the power down cycle on the Projector.

I bought a CyberPower Pure Sine-Wave unit, CP1350PFCLCD, for a reasonable price.  I tested it with my prior RS400, and it had no problem maintaining power long enough to properly cool down the Projector.

Great. Thanks for the input. I will suggest him to look at this as well. Thanks once again.

[AVSCraig]

I have one of these - https://www.panamax.com/product/1500va-rack-mount-ups-MB1500

[tripplej]

Thanks. Didn't realize Panamax  made UPS as well. Will have him look into it. 

[AVSCraig]

Thanks. Didn't realize Panamax  made UPS as well. Will have him look into it.

I've had mine for over 10 years now. I just replaced the battery.

[AVSMike]

I've had mine for over 10 years now. I just replaced the battery.

Your battery lasted 10 years or it died a while back and you are just now replacing?

[AVSCraig]

Your battery lasted 10 years or it died a while back and you are just now replacing?

The battery finally quit holding a charge and needed replacing after 10 years. A battery back up that could run a projector 10 years between charges would probably be really really large ! ;D

[Paul Heroy]

If anyone is still watching...

The initial APC unit posted looks to me like overkill for a HTPC. It's the 2200VA unit. While good there are much less expensive units at the 1500VA rating (~900 watts output power) that are more than sufficient for a high end PC. HTPCs these days don't even need to be that high end. But the power supplies usually do like to see a sine wave. So the CyberPower CP1350PFCLCD model someone mentioned is good, and it goes for less than 25% of the APC. I have 3 of these (well 1 is the 1500VA version) on my PCs & server. APC also has a similar model around the same price so if you like that brand it's here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779QFRRT/?coliid=I37N4GTWBNRROB&colid=44MBCUR9KVGJ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it .

Also, the Panamax MB1500 is a more HT oriented UPS / power conditioner, and as far as I can tell it's exactly the same as the Furman F1500 which goes for $400-500 less. They are made by the same company now. I got a used model of the Furman - it has a 4 battery configuration so it's a very robust and heavy beast. In comparison the above CyberPower & APC units rated at the same 1500 VA only have 2 batteries - so your run time would be about double. BH Photo has a good deal on the Furman "like new" for even less.

[AVSMike]

The battery finally quit holding a charge and needed replacing after 10 years. A battery back up that could run a projector 10 years between charges would probably be really really large ! ;D

No, I was impressed/surprised that the battery lasted 10 years. I thought that maybe it had died a while back and you were just getting around to replacing it. 

[Paul Heroy]

10 years for an SLA battery is WAY beyond what they are supposed to do. 3-5 years is more the norm. I got some Duracells for my last replacement that are claimed to be much longer lasting than typical (and more expensive than the basic 12v 8ah type batteries you'll see all over Amazon), but that was less than a year ago so it'll be a long time before I can verify that claim. 

[AVSCraig]

10 years for an SLA battery is WAY beyond what they are supposed to do. 3-5 years is more the norm. I got some Duracells for my last replacement that are claimed to be much longer lasting than typical (and more expensive than the basic 12v 8ah type batteries you'll see all over Amazon), but that was less than a year ago so it'll be a long time before I can verify that claim.

Only 3 years would be a bummer, since the replacement battery is $ 200.00 and a heavy beast !

[AVSMike]

Only 3 years would be a bummer, since the replacement battery is $ 200.00 and a heavy beast !

Three years is the typical  life that I see them lasting, if you actually test to see if it is providing the time it is supposed to. That is the whole reason I do not do battery backup. I figured I would spend more in batteries than I would in reduced lamp life. Also we do not have very many power outages. Usually only if a really bad storm takes down a line and I generally do not use my projector during bad storms.