On Sun, Nov 07, 2010 at 12:53:11AM -0700, Michael C. Robinson wrote: > I have APC SU1000NET smart UPSes on 3 servers plus 1 diskless server > and an occasionally active server that is used for backup purposes. > > I am not satisfied with the run time. A half an hour or even a mere 5 > minutes is not enough with most major power outages lasting 1 to 4 > hours. Typically, a squirrel flips the power company breaker or > there is a snow related outage. The service is fairly reliable, but > there are power outages.
The purpose of a UPS is to provide power for a short period of time, either for: 1) Hoping the glitch goes away within a minute, or 2) Safe shutdown, or 3) Starting a generator I've done the deep discharge batteries trick, with a triplite inverter charger designed for them. I kept them in an unused fireplace so they could vent hydrogen. Didn't work very well, the batteries were sulfated when I actually needed them. Batteries do not store enough energy to last hours with kilowatt loads. Further, batteries wear out, and you should plan to replace them every two years or so. So get a generator and find a safe place to store a couple days of gasoline for it. It is easier to manage and lift and pay for gasoline than batteries for runtimes over 30 minutes or so. I put all my critical computer circuits, along with refrigerators and FIOS ONT and furnace motor, on a separate 50 amp breaker panel with a manual transfer switch to a 30A/240V generator socket. When I get more money, that switch becomes a relay, and the generator becomes "digital start", probably controlled by my Alix firewall box (which runs Linux, making this on-topic). I hope to have all those controls, including generator start, available over a secure web page. Perhaps by that time, PGE will offer some web-accessable way to estimate when the repair crews are scheduled to appear. Then I can pile on fiendish amounts of open source software to manage my powerless plight. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
