Choosing a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

Radio engineer Joe Geerling explains UPSes, why you need one, and how to choose one, based on decades of experience building and maintaining critical radio infrastructure.

#UPS #Backup #IT

Contents:

00:00 - Introduction
00:37 - Single workstation UPS
01:27 - Rackmount UPS
03:00 - Sizing a UPS
03:23 - Network integration and monitoring
04:21 - Getting clean power
04:54 - Battery hot-swap
06:36 - Battery chemistry and choice
08:55 - Stories from the trenches
09:47 - Why you need a UPS

[keithmonahan]

Thanks for the video. I've owned a dozen APC UPS's for years and used to swear by them. APC more "intelligent" firmware now actively prevents you from buying higher capacity batteries, which are often cheaper and better quality than the APC packs, as well. It locks runtime to the model number, instead of using a cutoff voltage, or proper battery management of consumption. No amount of factory default, or calibration fixes this issue. This is on units from about 2010 or later. I've since migrated to Victron Energy inverter/charger/xfer switch products out of the Netherlands. They are completely programmable for SLA vs LifePo4, cutoff voltages, charge voltages, absorption times, etc. They are more expensive but infinitely more useful to protect a larger DIY home network.

[ChristopherdeVilliers]

Can you do more radio station Tech videos pls, good quality tour videos that actually talk about the tech and not just an overview is rare.

[fjcoughlin]

This is a VERY good presentation. The information and thefather/son dynamics are a huge plus. Good job, and I hope you guys make more videos.

[NiklasAuBln]

I work in Event Tech and we also use UPS devices to make sure that our temporary network and computers does not shut down if there is a power outage (aka someone unplugged the wrong cable), for computers we really like to use the option to connect the UPS to the connected PC so that the Computer can safely shutdown and here comes a BIG downside on the APC UPS, they use an RJ50 connector for USB so that you have to order a separate RJ50 to USB Cable which will take a few weeks to arrive, previously this cable was included with the UPS but for environmental reasons it is no longer included and you need to message them and they will send it to you (for free) but it will take a few weeks to arrive. If they really cared about the environment they would just put a USB Type B or USB Type C connector onto their devices so that the customer can use any spare USB cable to connect to the UPS. So my advice for everybody that want to add a UPS to their computer: get a UPS with a real USB connection and not the APC stuff which requires a special cable you can not buy local.

[the_ultimo]

love these vids, wish i had this kind of relationship with my father

[BigMikeECV]

Love this. I live in an area with frequent power outages, so I built an online double conversion UPS using a power factor correcting charger/converter, a pair of AGM batteries, and a quality pure sine wave inverter. From that I run my NAS, POE switch (which powers wifi access points and surveillance cameras), PC running Blue Iris, and my home theater (except amplifiers). This is the way to get the cleanest power to my audio components and television display, and there's never a flicker in the power supply.

[cheeseburgerbeefcake]

Great advice here, and it sounds like a lot of hands on experience! Had a few of the APC 2200VA rack mounted units, they've been great; we switched over to the next generation of 3kVA 2U units and a couple of Eaton ones too; we always buy batteries from 3rd parties (not in sleds) and switch them out, it takes 30-35mins per unit or an extra £200 if you want them in sleds - well worth the time investment!

[AabhasLall]

I recently was upgrading the IT infrastructure for my home back in India, which involved new batteries for the UPS and a proper Synology NAS for storage.
We have always used power products from APC because their quality has been excellent. From small UPS es to full home inverters. However, recently we faced a problem with an old UPS and had to buy a new unit. It was disturbing to know that APC is not selling any UPS, in India at least, with a USB communication option. The ones available cost about 3 times more, which stops making sense in a home environment.
USB interface for auto shutdown commands should be standard in every power backup device. It would cost barely a few dollars in the BoM, and the advantages are so obvious.

And then just last week, due to a strike, our house was without mains power for almost 36 hours. The main home inverter lasted about 16 hours (Yay to LED lights), and then the UPS which was handling my network stack lasted an hour more. Thanks to the USB interface, the drives were unmounted and all services stopped as soon as the battery level went critical. Also a big thumbs up to Synology software, the APC UPS from 15 years ago was plug and play!

I plan to write about this in more detail on my blog later, if someone is more interested. :)

[SilentDecode]

I've had an UPS sitting at the bottom of my rack for almost 10 years now. It protects my desktop (not really needed, but hey why not), my big ESXi machine and some other stuff like KVM switch, LED monitor and ofcourse the core switch of my rack. Power quality here in the Netherlands is good, so I've had 5 power outages in the past almost 10 years. It too has an NMC, so I can look at logs and have it communicate with the PCNS on my ESXi machine.

[kirbybaes]

The Network card that you got can also work with SNMP. That's one great way of monitoring your equipment. Nice video!

[briananderson]

VRLA(the batteries you showed) have a recommended storage temperature of 77F +/- 5F. Every 15 degrees F over 82F typically reduces your battery life by 50%.

[Therealstorm-htwf]

Your dad is a professional. Great voice and demeanor. Congrats, your future looks bright.

[ReneKnuversrk]

The oscillating UPS story sounds like an inrush current problem. Major issue when you add a multitude of equipment on a single UPS. The 50% rule helps, but use an Ammeter to determine the inrush of your rack to develop a solution. Staged turn on circuits help to cascade rather than avalange the inrush currents.

[kcgunesq]

As briefly mentioned, if you have a standby generator, you can generally get by with much smaller UPS devices as you only need to cover the load for 30-60 seconds. Aside from the UPS supplying my desktop with a 750w PSU and a bunch of smaller loads, the remaining 5-6 UPS units around the house are generally smaller 225w units (powering tv, switches, router, security system, etc). My desktop ups is a CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD 1, 000w pure sine wave and its done great for a couple years.

[radijoe]

There is a guy that has been designing small support devices for radio stations for a long time and he made a product that supplied power to the rack and had a UPS and wall power input. Watches for a UPS output issue and would switch to normal AC automatically. A bit pricey for a home or home office. Henry Engineering. Some guys make a simple relay-in-a-box that can do the same thing without the cool intelligence built into the Henry unit. These boxes typically have the relays held ON all the time and that is kind of a failure mode in itself so I have avoided...

[brizzle]

Yes ups units are great! We have 6 of the 60k eaton units at our main building.
Then a bunch of the apc xl3000 units at around 25 other locations.
Nice thing about the commercial apc is there is usually a connector on the vack the allows you to double/ triple the battery capacity.

[BunkerSquirrel]

Thank you for this. I recently got a Synology NAS and accidentally disconnected it the other day when re-wiring my network. It sent me quite the nasty gram when it came online telling me to not unplug it again!

[MarcoGPUtuber]

That has to be RSJ's favourite sign!

Danger - Welding Area

[frankwoodyard]

Speaking as someone who had designed and deployed critical power systems, you always have to account for inrush as things come back online. That is where in a large facility having smart power distribution (plug strips) allows for timed delay of what turns on in a rack on power resumption/power up.
For the home user, it is important to understand the difference in line-interactive (reactive) and true dual-conversion (always on) UPSs. I will say that most of the UPS manufacturers seem to do their level best at obfuscating the true technology of their UPS by changing what the call their "technology", etc. True Dual-conversion is the way to go if at all possible. APC is a good brand however, there are many like CyberPower and my favorite Opti-UPS and I have all 3 in my home. To give an idea about what a UPS can do for you in the home is that I have a now 13 year old Samsung smart TV that I have not needed to replace, as it still has excellent picture quality. The 55 inch screen has only 2 dead pixels because it has lived its whole life on a UPS. The side benefit is that my TV continues to work for hours after the power goes out because the network and TV are both on UPSs.

[DmitriyKhazansky]

The new lithium battery APC units are a lot lighter and double the life of the battery, but right now they're 3x the cost...

And I think the term your dad was looking for was whether the UPS is "online" or "standby".