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Ask HN: How to choose a UPS / calculate power for a home office?

3 points by snow_mac 16y ago

I have this little cheap UPS that doesn't seem to work, probably too much of a load on it. I need to be able to survive surges, lightning strikes, all that stuff that a surge protect doesn't protect against and able to power my devices for up to 15 minutes. I have a big problem at home, when somebody plugs in a vacuum cleaner or something on the same circuit it shuts off... Always while I'm in the middle of working too. Equipment: Dell Optiplex GX 620 with HD video card Macbook White USB hub w/ Extrenal hard drive 2 Acer 22" LCD's 10 watt LED Lamp Small 5port network hub Please help! I'm not sure how to select the correct UPS for my needs.

brk 16y ago
Go to APCs website. They have a tool for this. Or, find the wattage draw of all your equipment you want to ups, add it up and add 20-25% and find a unit with that VA rating, or the next highest. Note that VA has nothing to do with runtime, VA ratings are just the wattage loads the UPS can handle for usually about 15-20 minutes.