tl;dr I don’t mind a hum, but I don’t want to be screamed at like I’m in a server room.
I’m looking at getting a refurb APC SMX1500RM2UNC for a 9U rack in my bedroom office. I don’t mind a hum–I have enough equipment that some background fan noise is inescapable–but I don’t want it to scream at me.
I do my job and sleep in here.
Anyone who has this unit, what’s the noise level like when it’s not on battery? Would you sleep and work and watch media in the same room with it?
Don’t. Sleeping next to that amount of lead-acid batteries is not recommended. It’s a health hazard. Maybe not immediate, but in the long run, most definitely.
1440VA/1000W line interactive pure sine wave tower UPS
According to the NMC as I type this, I’m using:
About 30% of its output power in watts (or 24.1% in VA).
But let’s put that closer to 60-65 percent; I have multiple UPSes in this room and I’d like to downsize to a single one. And those other UPSes are handling ~320w minimum.
Aside: This UPS uses lead-acid batteries, so if the health risk involves inhaling the outgassed fumes, I’m probably screwed. I’ve had this one in here since January 2022, and two other lead-acid battery UPSes for at least 7 years before that.
I chose this one less because I was planning to push it to the limit on power capacity, but because I liked its other features (line interactive, NMC included, etc.). It was on deep sale and I snagged it for a huge discount.
This is such a fair question, and it’s one that I’m even considering myself. I do have the advantage that my “server infrastructure” is in a closet that’s outside of the bedroom and I don’t have to work with the thing next to me.
Plus, understanding the different battery types is a doozy now because of all the garbage AI pages around this topic. I could find these two manuals that explain the entire topic from Eaton and Mitsubishi
I run two similar units - also APC 1500 Smart (one X, one not).
In my experience, one needs to turn off “eco mode” on them to be protected from “weird” voltage issues. In my case, we are a factory: own transformers, large spinning machines, passive-load reactive power compensators / capacitors - sometimes things fail in spectacular ways.
Without eco mode they do emit a slight sound, however I cannot tell how loud it is because of all the other noise in server room.
I have a variant of that model. Sits next to my desktop in my office. I rarely notice the fan making much noise.
However, why are you replacing the entire UPS if it just needs a new battery? Even buying a cheapo replacement may be worthwhile. Usually, they have the same or near the same overall capacity, but lower quality ones just may not have the same overall lifespan.
I purchased my variant in 2016. Yours is probably nearly that vintage. So consider just picking up a battery replacement. Even a cheap one. Worst case, you have to replace it again in 3-4 years (I’d normally expect them to last closer to 5-6, yours probably was in that range).
This one handles my 3 monitor setup, modern relatively high end gaming CPU, a TB4 dock for a laptop and a variety of accessories with no issues for usually about 10+ minutes before I have it shut down the main desktop PC.
