In one recent video is is sort of recommended to have an UPS to protect against power outages and surges. However, given a PC that is on the higher end side of things this would mean purchasing a new one for 3k$ every three years. This, has led me to the following two questions:
Since power surges are the more dangerous of the two shouldn’t power surge outlets suffice in this regard?
Also, if I have solar panels on the roof wouldn’t purchasing a battery be a better approach? Sure, the initial purchase costs would be around 10k, but after a bit more than three years the costs of a proper UPS will be amortised.
Most all surge protectors are fairly poorly made, and won’t protect against all types of surges and/or brownouts. Also the movs in them wear out without you knowing over time/use. and yes brownouts can be dangerous to equipment just like surges can.
All the higher end UPSs have replaceable batteries, so you wouldn’t need to replace the entire UPS every 3 years, just the batteries in it.
Regarding the solar, having it doesn’t necessarily protect against surges or power outages, even with a battery; it would depend on how the system is set up and can get pretty complex and expensive fast depending on local regulations.
In my experience solar/battery inverters and transfer switches tend to not focus on transient performance other than that they are capable of zero cross switching; UPSs are usually more advanced in transient responses.
Why would you need to pay 3K$ for one if you’re powering just an average PC? And why not just swapping batteries?
I paid about 250$ for a 720W pure sine wave UPS and it just needs a couple of 12V 7Ah batteries every so often. That’s just a negligible cost it just pays itself back when the time comes. And I tested it (unwillingly) both against over voltage on the grid and voltage drops without issues.
The only thing that I had issues with was their software, but that’s marginal in my opinion.
P.S. watched the video (I missed it) and the UPS he’s using as an example is almost a carbon copy of mine (minus RGB and detachable screen). All he said I’ve been applying for 8 years now, more or less. Can confirm that his advices will do you good. But I’ll add one more thing: check the power conversion factor on the UPS specsheet to make sure it can output enough watts and has decent efficiency. Usually the decent ones are around 0.6.
I’m confused, where does the $3K come into play? Why are you buying a new UPS and/or PC every 3 years?
You should have a surge protector in your main panel, as close to the main breaker as possible. Then, I still use surge protected PDU’s and power strips
The problem with home batteries are that they are wildly expensive right now, and should drop very soon. They are also not good at keeping the power on, the Tesla Powerwall has a 2000ms delay in switching, compared to the average UPS which has like a 6ms switchover time. Also doesn’t help if a breaker trips, etc
Personally I have a double conversion UPS, zero switchover time and its always perfect 60hz no matter what. I have 17kw of solar, no batteries, but also a 27kw generator
Someone who doesn’t trust his belt to do the job can double up and wear suspender as well.
Or vice versa…
Not that I think you’re setup is wrong. I just enjoy the same level of slight level of over-engineering done to the enthusiast computer setup in these forums applied to other parts of the home.
I have a question about safety:
Do you need to install another fault current circuit breaker behind the UPS to protect you from electrocution (for example you touch a mains cable coming from the UPS where the isolation has gone bad)?
I have one in front of the UPS, but I guess that one won’t detect anything if the fault current is behind the UPS (at least when it runs from batteries). I’m not an electrician so I don’t know
I am not an electrician but google tells me you don’t need one when an ups is running on batteries as touching a single wire and being grounded would not cause any potential differential (i.e. you do not get shocked).
Touching both wires would make you become an appliance with the usual risks but a gfci would not trip if you did that as well, I think …
Almost all UPSs have a floating neutral once running on battery, so they would likely trip a GFCI if you put one inline with the UPS’s output (when it runs on battery).
Also a UPS’s output can shock you just as a non-GFCI outlet would.
I’m of the mindset that GFCI should only be used around water, and not to protect people from being shocked in general… and since UPSs shouldn’t be used around water it isn’t an issue.
I think over here (Switzerland) the GFCI are mandatory with new electro installations. Although the the building I’m living in is old, the whole electro installation was renewed a few years ago, and I think the GFCI is directly integrated with the main breakers for my appartment.
I have one of these small 1500VA UPS for my PC under my desk. There should be no water around, except if I accidentially spill a drink in a very bad way. But I’m kind of overcautious when it comes to electricity because I once got shocked as a kid when I touched the electric wire of an electric iron that had damaged insulation.
I think when I was searching for a UPS that would fit my needs (to be future proof I went with 1.5KW) I narrowed it down in a wrong manner, because now I’m at roughly 350$ which is fine
Good to know!
It’s good that I checked again, because otherwise my initial search would have dissuaded me from purchasing a UPS. For the time being, I still won’t buy one because my PC is also in my makeshift bedroom and I don’t want any noise like humming during the night. But this is only temporary and the bedroom will be moved upstairs later.
That’s understandable, 230v power is no joke.
Back before all the power tools went to battery operated, construction sites in the old country would use 55v split-phase power (like how the america uses 120v split-phase) for the power tools to avoid people getting shocked badly
Just FYI for you and everyone, this has nothing to do with how a GFCI functions. GFCI’s simply check that the current leaving the hot side is the same amount as the current returning on the neutral side. If there is an imbalance at all (5mA or greater) the GFCI responds and deactivates the hot. The actual ground has nothing to do with a “ground fault.” A ground fault is where the electricity goes somewhere other than from hot to neutral. In the case of water and the bathroom, the electricity is going from the hot to the plumbing ground via you. So a GFCI is a life saving device anywhere, they’re amazing. You can even use them to make an ungrounded circuit safer because the actual ground doesn’t matter to them, just the current imbalance.
Now, UPSs/surge protectors and GFCIs can have a complicated relationship. The surge protection typically dumps excess voltage to ground, which can cause nuisance tripping of a GFCI. So if you’re trying to run actual production servers, make sure your UPS is connected to mains without a GFCI, but for everyone else if you have a GFCI for the UPS your desktop is plugged into, it might trip from time to time. I’ve personally had a UPS plugged into a GFCI for over a year and it hasn’t tripped yet, but maybe my power is just extra stable.
I was under the impression most common GFCIs would trip from capacitive coupling on floating neutrals, and needed at a minimum a bounded neutral to work. but perhaps newer GFCIs are less sensitive now to ignore this?
I’m getting the impression that maybe you’re an electrician and know a lot more about this than me.
I don’t know, I’d have to try it. Given that they generally only see 1 half of split phase 240V in the US, then I can’t see how a US spec GFCI would care. The GFCI wouldn’t have any idea the neutral is floating because it has no access to the other half of the split power to reference. It’s just two ends of an AC potential.
I was referring to the 3k$+ prices, but I noticed now how I wrongly narrowed it down. Instead of filtering for 1.5KW, I was actually filtering for 15KW
but google tells me you don’t need one when an ups is running on batteries as touching a single wire and being grounded would not cause any potential differential (i.e. you do not get shocked).
