On 9/27/23 23:43, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 02:11:03PM -0700, Dick Steffens wrote:
The battery has 12.54v. Sounds like my UPS is borked. Any ideas on
how to test it? And any recommendations on who makes a good,
moderately priced model?
At 12.54 volts open circuit, the battery sounds marginal,
and may be WAY below spec with a load. I'd take it to
an honest battery store for testing.
Either the UPS unit or battery could be good or bad ...
OR a computer power supply might be slightly wonky;
a UPS cannot deliver a huge startup power surge the
way a 20 amp wall socket can.
An old incandescent light bulb (not LED or fluorescent)
makes an "interesting" test load; it draws a startup
surge, vaguely similar to the startup surge of a
computer power power supply. For my UPS tests, I test
multiple 100 watt incandescent bulbs, adding one at a
time; a gentler way to learn the limits of the UPS.
I use zero incandescent bulbs for lighting, but I keep
a box of obsolete filament bulbs for tests like this.
Your "800VA" unit produces a maximum of 450 watts. The
(sad) reason for touting VA rather than watts is that
the voltage and current waveforms can be out of phase
with a computer power supply (or electric motor) load.
And possibly more wonky than that; A pathological load
can overload or damage a UPS, even though the VA and
Watts seem small.
However ...
Before you buy another UPS, purchase a P3 "Kill A Watt"
Electricity Usage Monitor, $30 from Amazon, $28 at the
Cedar Hills Harbor Freight (NOT Home Despot). That
reads watts, VA, power factor, line frequency, even
accumulating kilowatt hours.
I have more than one P3. I lashed one permanently under
my computer bench: two desktop computers, two screens, two
KVM switches, and a UPS to "in the darkness bind them".
Currently reading 228 watts and 239 VA, more when I run
big numeric calculations on multiple cores.
Knowledge is power, but so is voltage times current
times power factor.
Keith L.
I got a reply to the email I posted at CyberPower's website. They asked
a bunch of questions, most of which I could answer, some of which I
could not.
UPS exact model name and serial number
When did you purchase it?
Have you replaced the batteries before?
Is there anything between the UPS and the wall outlet?
What kind of outlet is the UPS plugged into?
Aside from your computer, what other devices are connected?
What is the total wattage of these devices?
Have you seen any error code on the LCD screen (if available)?
Do you hear any beeping sounds?
Have you tried plugging it into other wall outlets?
Is it plugged into an AC outlet at all times?
Then they said,
The best way also to know for sure is to check both the batteries and
the charger with a
True RMS voltmeter. If the unit has a single battery, you will want to
see 13.6V on the battery and charger. If the result is less than 12V
on the battery and the charger is reading as 13.6V, then replacing the
battery most likely will resolve it. If the battery gives close to
13.6V and the charger gives less, then the issue is with the charger
and the unit will need to be replaced.
That leads me to think it's the battery, although I don't think it's as
old as 2-3 years. In any event, I'm going to take it up to the place I
got the last one (I have three of these models, so the last one might
have been for one of the other ones) and have them test it. I expect
I'll end up with a new battery.
I do have a "Kill A Watt" meter. I'll need to spend some time measuring
each of the things I plug in to the UPS. Does it make sense to put the
"Kill A Watt" between the UPS and the wall, or should I do each device
separately?
Thanks for the continuing education.
--
Regards,
Dick Steffens
