Recommendation for UPS? On a 1600w PSU drawing ~1400w. Just for controlled shutdown

Rough year for weather? Before July, I think we’ve had 1 power outage in the past 8 years. Have had 3 in the past 30 days! Weather forecast suggests more are on the way soon. Anyway, any recommendations on a ups to signal a controlled shutdown for a workstation drawing around 1400w from the wall? I’m no expert on this subject, but it seems like there’s a lot of bad info out there.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I’m in the U.S.

SLA batteries can only supply around 200W-400W each for a short period.
A UPS to supply 1400W will be large and expensive.
Rent a generator and run off of that, the fuel cost be cheaper than a ups for 1 power outage in 8 years.

Is your workstation really drawing 1400w? That’s rather obscene. I hope you’ve at least got 80plus power supplies.

1500W is the top rating you’ll find on cheap UPSes. They’ll actually do 1800W on a normal 120V outlet, but code says not to draw the max for more than 3 hours at a time, so they de-rate them to 1500W. Any higher and you’ll need a funny plug with sideways prongs, and prices jump.

Assuming your PSUs do have PFC (your WATT number should be the same as the VA number), One of these should minimally work for you without breaking the bank:

An actually “smart” unit. Uses a few of the cheap RBC2 batteries you’ll find in FIOS boxes and lots of other devices all over the place. Run-time will be under 5 minutes.

I have two APC Smart UPS 1500s. These are enterprise grade.
https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-1500VA-LCD-120V-Not-for-sale-in-CO-VT-or-WA-/P-SMT1500

@Wendell tried a few ups’s “rated” for 1500w but few actually worked well

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I’m happy with Delta Amplon R-2K. It will run 1,2 kW load for about 6-7 minutes and you can add external battery units to it.
R-3K is rated for 2,7kW, but I don’t have that.
It’s a bit loud as it’s not line-interactive kind, and network card to control it is a piece of crap, so just use USB.
Mine was about 750€ at the time, and it’s OK for the price.

I’m using a APC SmartUPS-2200 for my 1100-1300W loaded host.
Gives about 30-45 minutes of runtime.
Using the apcupsd daemon to control the shutdown of the host during a power outage.

I’ve tried Riello lately, a few times and they seem well made. I would have gotten another APC, but I was irritated that it decided to die with no warning at all.

I guess you’re hammering multiple Compute GPUs?

I guess that you’ll most likely be in the US, but here’s a model available to the UK

Yes, four gpus along with 46 threads crunching BOINC. The 2200 unit was only $800 and my SmartUPS 1500’s cost $450 so the 2200 unit was actually cheaper per watt than the 1500’s.

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Einstein@home ftw! Let’s go find some Pulsars!

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You’ll need a UPS which can actually supply 1500W, not 1500VA. Some UPS can do both 1500va and 1500w, but most don’t.

This one can do 1800w/1920va.

This one does both 1920va/1920w.

Generally the price is $300+ USD on brand-new UPS’ which can handle 1500w or higher.

Supposedly this UPS can do both 1500w/1500va.

Personally I’ve never paid more then $60 for a 1500va UPS, as I always buy them used from Craigslist/Kijiji.

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The “VA” number is the actual amount of wattage the UPS can/does supply. The “watt” figure is just a guess at what the power-factor of most of the equipment a customer is likely to want to connect to it.

The “80plus” system made active PFC a requirement, kepping power-factor at least 0.9 (90%) so an 1500VA UPS would be able to supply at least 1350W to computers using any “80plus” certified power supplies.

And as I said before, 99% of the time, those 1500VA UPSes can actually do 1800, but NEMA / building codes force them to de-rate that to advertise only the maximum that building code says you can draw from a given outlet type, which is 1500W for standard 5-15 outlets and only 1800W for short bursts of less than 3 hours. You can find this “agency derated” note prominently on some PDUs.

With an inexpensive kill-a-watt meter, you can measure the actual power-factor, watt, and VA power consumption of your own equipment, to determine exactly how powerful of a UPS you need… Just leave yourself some margin, as batteries degrade over time, and you won’t want to buy new ones every year.

Edit: Added links. 23:06 UTC

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I bought this on a whim since it was on sale: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMLKFM/

Yeah, totally inadequate. It fails/overloads even when it’s plugged into the wall! WTF!? I knew it was probably inadequate, but I hoped it would have 1-2 minutes of runtime, ie enough for a controlled shutdown. It says 1500VA, but 900W.

This is the type of $#!t I’m trying to avoid…

Oh, and another power outage occurred since I first wrote this post! Bracing for another since the remnants of Ida will be here tomorrow-ish. Sigh…!

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Not so sure. This one says 1500VA, but 900W and is overloaded by my system, even when power is on and it’s plugged into the wall! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMLKFM/

If you have a NEMA 5-20P plug
Tripp Lite SU2200RTXL2UA
or
Tripp Lite SU2200XLCD

You are unlikely to find a UPS that powers your needs on the standard wall plug (NEMA 5-15)

Re-read my comment. 1500w ≠ 1500va (in most situations).

Either buy one of the UPS’ that I suggested or one that says 1500W. Additionally, if you find one which supports external batteries, even better.

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That UPS is obviously a piece of junk. I understand it has just one little 9AH battery which is going to be horribly overloaded trying to provide 1500VA. The UPS I linked to has three similar batteries to power the load, is much more efficient, and is simply not a piece of junk.

The cheap UPS that @TheAlmightyBaconLord linked to, claiming identical watts and VA is a good example of what cheap junk UPSes are sold by liars to unsuspecting victims out there.

I can assure you my explanation of VA and watt ratings on UPS is accurate. You really need a power meter that shows both watts and VA to know what your actual power consumption is. http://powerquality.eaton.com/thoughtleadership/power-protection/va-vs-watts.asp

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That’s a lot of salt man.

Considering he tried to follow your “advice” but it was wrong and didn’t work out for him.

There’s also enterprise APC and Eaton UPS’s which have nearly the same VA + watts output as well. Guess those enterprise units are also “cheap junk”.

Edit:

Definitely don’t get this APC unit.

Output power capacity

1.92kWatts / 1.92kVA

Obviously this model as well is " cheap junk ", right @rcxb ?

Anyway OP, feel free to ignore what @rcxb . Get a UPS unit that does something like 2200va or 1800w, just to ensure you don’t overly stress the UPS.

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not to start or add fuel to a nascent dumpster fire, but I am going to have to back up what @TheAlmightyBaconLord is saying here. If you look at the enterprise stuff, and I work around a lot of industrial UPS units, stick to name brands and look for the VA and the Watts to be close.

In this field, you have to pay good money for quality stuff or else you will get exactly less than you think you are actually pay for.

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I never advised him to buy the cheapest UPS that says 1500VA on it. There are huge differences in UPSes that that aren’t reflected in that rating. Everything from the waveform to the battery capacity, brand of batteries, size of conductors, etc.

I’ve managed fleets of dozens and dozens of UPSes for many years in this business.

My explanation of what the watt and VA ratings on UPSes mean is just factual, not my opinion at all. Notice the part where I recommended buying a meter to determine the exact actual power requirements?

That’s reasonable advice, getting higher capacity is of course safe, and there are fewer junk UPSes in that capacity as consumers don’t often buy them, but that’s no guarantee. There’s no substitute for checking the actual UPS design.

But going up to 2200VA may mean hiring an electrician, which could be expensive. Someone buying a 2200VA UPS and swapping their outlet to get it to fit could potentially result in fire, which is a far worse result than someone’s computer crashing. And there’s potential to avoid that just by confirming a system’s actual power consumption, and then perhaps saving some money and ordering a high quality 1500VA UPS.

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