Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Uninterruptible power supply  (Read 3367 times)

Mark F

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 365
Uninterruptible power supply
« on: March 15, 2010, 06:43:30 pm »

The power went out this past weekend, right in the middle of printing....   Luckily I did not lose any data, although it took a long while for my Mac to fix itself (repair permissions helped). So its time for a UPS, but I recall reading somewhere that unless you get a giant unit my 4880 will suck so much power out of the battery that my Mac will not be protected.  Does anyone know if this is true? Also, how much capacity would you think I need to protect an iMac and 2 external hard drives?

Thanks.
Logged
Mark

martinreed22

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2010, 07:05:14 pm »

Quote from: Mark F
The power went out this past weekend, right in the middle of printing....   Luckily I did not lose any data, although it took a long while for my Mac to fix itself (repair permissions helped). So its time for a UPS, but I recall reading somewhere that unless you get a giant unit my 4880 will suck so much power out of the battery that my Mac will not be protected.  Does anyone know if this is true? Also, how much capacity would you think I need to protect an iMac and 2 external hard drives?

Thanks.
According to the 4880 User's Guide it consumes approx 55W. That is less than a typical LCD screen  

A 1200VA capacity UPS will probably do fine, should you 10 minutes at least for a Mac, screen and printer.

cheers, martin
Logged

PeterAit

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4559
    • Peter Aitken Photographs
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2010, 11:37:36 am »

Quote from: martinreed22
According to the 4880 User's Guide it consumes approx 55W. That is less than a typical LCD screen  

A 1200VA capacity UPS will probably do fine, should you 10 minutes at least for a Mac, screen and printer.

cheers, martin

Are you sure than 55w is while printing? Even so, I would not worry about putting the printer on a UPS - the worst that can happen in a power outage is you lose a sheet of paper.
Logged

martinreed22

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2010, 01:00:14 pm »

Quote from: PeterAit
Are you sure than 55w is while printing? Even so, I would not worry about putting the printer on a UPS - the worst that can happen in a power outage is you lose a sheet of paper.
Hi Peter,

I don't have a 4880 to hand to measure, but several Epson and third party websites quote the same 55W for operating power. Considering what it is actually doing, this seems fair. Different story for a laser printer . As a point of comparison, a 3880 quotes 25W and a 7880 also quotes 55W.

Fair point about only losing a page, however the original poster seemed concerned about this.

regards, martin
Logged

mahleu

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 585
    • 500px
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2010, 01:25:23 pm »

Quote from: PeterAit
Are you sure than 55w is while printing? Even so, I would not worry about putting the printer on a UPS - the worst that can happen in a power outage is you lose a sheet of paper.

If the outage is from a lightening strike it can be a lot more than a sheet of paper. The power often spikes when it's switched back on as well.
Logged
________________________________________

Farmer

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2848
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2010, 11:01:04 pm »

Definitely a max of 55W (for the earlier model, the 4800, was 59W), during low power it's less than 5W (ie idle).
Logged
Phil Brown

PeterAit

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4559
    • Peter Aitken Photographs
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2010, 05:07:35 pm »

Quote from: mahleu
If the outage is from a lightening strike it can be a lot more than a sheet of paper. The power often spikes when it's switched back on as well.

For that you need a surge suppressor, not a UPS.
Logged

feppe

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2906
  • Oh this shows up in here!
    • Harri Jahkola Photography
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2010, 05:09:17 pm »

Quote from: PeterAit
For that you need a surge suppressor, not a UPS.

A proper UPS protects from power surges.

Many (most?) surge suppressors are snake oil and do nothing to protect your equipment from power surges - fuses are much more effective.

ericstaud

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 396
    • www.ericstaudenmaier.com
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2010, 11:52:47 pm »

Quote from: Mark F
The power went out this past weekend, right in the middle of printing....   Luckily I did not lose any data, although it took a long while for my Mac to fix itself (repair permissions helped). So its time for a UPS, but I recall reading somewhere that unless you get a giant unit my 4880 will suck so much power out of the battery that my Mac will not be protected.  Does anyone know if this is true? Also, how much capacity would you think I need to protect an iMac and 2 external hard drives?

Thanks.

It's pretty easy to look up the tech specs of everything you want to plug into the UPS.  Buy one with 30-50% more capacity than that.  You should also consider your modem, cordless phone, usb hubs, etc.
Logged

Mark F

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 365
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2010, 06:25:28 pm »

Thanks. This has been one heck of a week. I've been offline due to another disaster, but have posted that on another topic.
Logged
Mark

feppe

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2906
  • Oh this shows up in here!
    • Harri Jahkola Photography
Uninterruptible power supply
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2010, 06:45:19 pm »

Quote from: ericstaud
It's pretty easy to look up the tech specs of everything you want to plug into the UPS.  Buy one with 30-50% more capacity than that.  You should also consider your modem, cordless phone, usb hubs, etc.

Here's a very nice PSU calculator which I used when I bought a new PSU a while back. It can be used for UPS calculation as well.
Pages: [1]   Go Up