I found this UPS article fascinating, because it echoed what I eventually found 
in my own lab:

http://www.theplatform.net/2015/03/13/how-this-battery-cut-microsoft-datacenter-costs-by-a-quarter/

I used to rely on one massive UPS (along with natural gas generator) for my 
entire lab. Eventually I found it more reliable and convenient to have 
localized power backup. By local I mean backup for a single shelf, or even a 
single instrument.

Consider that many Rb/Cs standards and even some Qz standards have internal 
batteries. Even if one chooses not to use their internal batteries, most of 
these instruments still feature dual power inputs. In addition to power 
redundancy it also makes it easy to move equipment or cables around without 
power loss. Most importantly, local backup like this avoids the possibility of 
single-point lab-wide power failures.

Recently, as some of my gear works from 5 VDC, those ~2600 mAh mobile phone USB 
backup power bricks make an excellent mini-UPS. The ideal models are those 
without LEDs or on/off buttons so they discharge and charge/float seamlessly 
without manual intervention, even if fully drained.

Multiple units can be placed in series for additional, if slightly inefficient, 
capacity. A good self-test is:

http://leapsecond.com/images/perpetual-USB-power.jpg

/tvb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <p...@phk.freebsd.dk>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts@febo.com>; "Bill Byrom" <t...@radio.sent.com>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2015 11:44 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] UPS for my time rack


> --------
> In message 
> <1444701906.379459.408467601.5676d...@webmail.messagingengine.com>, 
> Bill Byrom writes:
> 
>>Anything can (and will) fail, [...]
> 
> The interesting thing is that several sources in that business have
> reported to me that about 30-40% of all power related downtime is
> caused by Battery, generator and UPS failure, in that order.
> 
> Many sites simply have lower uptime after they install UPS systems.
> 
> -- 
> Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
> p...@freebsd.org         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
> FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
> Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.

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