How to select and buy the right UPS to protect your home business or small office computer

Selecting a suitable Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for your personal computer or small office power protection can be easily achieved by specifying the right UPS and implementing a smart purchasing method.

UPS systems solve three basic problems:

First of all, they protect your computer from deviations of the utility voltage beyond the allowable range and from dangerous phenomena associated with surge voltages that occur during lightning strikes, power transformer failures, and network distribution failures. .

Second, they allow you to continue operation of the UPS’s backup batteries in the event of a utility outage.

Third, the UPS enables graceful shutdown, storing current information on the computer’s hard drive and shutting it down in an orderly manner, in case the power outage persists and the battery capacity is too small to continue operation. .

To specify a suitable UPS, you must decide its size, type, and battery backup time (autonomy).

The size of a UPS is defined in units of volt-amperes (VA) or kVA and units of watts or kW. A 350+ VA, 245 watt UPS covers most home and small office computers. However, you should check the wattage of the computer on its label, documentation, or supplier.

The VA and Watt figures for individual computers must be added together if more than one computer is being protected. You need a grid UPS of more than 1050VA, (1.05 kVA) and 735W, for three 350VA/245W equipment.

Three main types of UPS are generally used:

A standby (battery backup) UPS protects against voltage spikes, as well as power outages and voltage deviation beyond set limits, transferring them to battery operation. Backup UPS often used for home computers in stable network environments.

An online interactive UPS, in addition to the Standby UPS functions, also acts as a power conditioner, achieved by means of an automatic voltage regulator (AVR), capable of also correcting the deviation from the network without transferring to the batteries, which which allows continuous operation at low or low voltage. main high voltage without switching to batteries. Line Interactive UPS is considered a cost-effective solution for offices and small professional installations.

An online UPS supplies power from an internal inverter that corrects for all grid disturbances. It forms the preferred solution for businesses in mission-critical applications that need UPS redundancy for high reliability or long backup times to deliver critical online services.

All types of UPS systems are typically supplied with batteries capable of providing around five minutes of standby time at full load and 14 minutes at half load, covering more than 90% to 95% of expected utility failure durations. public network. In general, longer backup times can be provided by extended battery banks, if required for utility applications.

After specifying the required UPS features, you can contact UPS providers or search for a suitable UPS on the Internet, simply by entering the type of UPS into Google or another search engine, and browsing the displayed results to find systems that meet your requirements.

However, you can do better by implementing a “shopping window” procedure. Before you make your decision, check out prices for the type of UPS you need, in the sizes you need, as well as one and two sizes larger than you need. Then repeat the procedure for the next type of UPS.

Make your decision taking into account the following factors:

Prefer line interactive UPS over battery backup and online UPS over line interactive UPS if the price difference is not significant. The better type provides better protection and is generally more reliable.

Prefer a larger UPS size if the additional cost is not proportionally higher. The larger UPS allows for increased future loads and provides disproportionately longer battery runtime, sometimes at less cost than extended power battery if needed. Larger systems also offer better UPS reliability, greatly increasing battery life.

When making your final selection, prefer brands, also considering issues such as battery changeability, type and number of outlets, warranty period, and local service availability.