Picking out a UPS

[monkey1802]

Hi all. I need a little bit of help picking out a UPS or battery back up. The need for the battery backup is a little un-computer-related. But I know a lot of people here have experience with battery backups, and in all the forums I've searched, no one seems to want to answer me. Here is my dillema. I have a DLP TV. DLP's have lamp's in them, which need to be properly cooled after the TV is turned off. After I turn my TV off, I can still hear the lamp fans running for 2 minutes. So I know that the cooloff period for my TV is 2 minutes.

Here is where I need the help of all of my fellow TPUers. Seeing as how I live in TX, and theres a thunderstorm about every other day, the risk for power outage is almost a constant. If the power goes out while I am using the TV, the lamp could blow due to improper cooling. My plan is to plug the TV into a battery backup or UPS. As soon as I see that the power has gone out, I will turn off my TV, and let the lamp fans run off of the battery back up.

The TV runs at 270 watts when turned on, and does standby (lamp fans) at 20 watts. Unfortunately, I know NOTHING about UPS's, and what to look for when shopping for one. What I need, is a UPS that will allow me around 1-2 minutes to turn the TV off, and still give the TV 5 minutes worth of power for cooling (I know it only needs 2 minutes, but just to be safe) Does anyone know what I should be looking for? What kind of VA rating, or any of those things? Any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[DonInKansas]

APC is probably the widest known quality UPS. I put an 800 RS on every computer here at work. Probably more than they need, but for the purposes it's neccessary. They protect against brownouts as well which are fairly common here.

 

[monkey1802]

APC is probably the widest known quality UPS. I put an 800 RS on every computer here at work. Probably more than they need, but for the purposes it's neccessary. They protect against brownouts as well which are fairly common here.

Yeah, I've heard and seen the name APC quite a bit. Do you know how many VA I would need though? The TV needs to have enough power to run 250w for up to 2 minutes, then 20w for up to 5 minutes.

 

[monkey1802]

What kind of details about the TV would I need to post, to make my question easier to answer? Like I said, I don't know much about UPS's, so I don't know what kind of information is needed.

 

[Polarman]

A good UPS can be quite expensive.

APC or Tripp lite ?

 

[AsRock]

UPS are dam expensive but there very well known for there performance all though i heard a lot of good things about Cyberpower.

Here a newegg link just one that i'm after personally
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

 

[monkey1802]

But does anyone know what I am looking for in a UPS? What kind of VA rating I am looking for? Wattage? all that type of stuff. Again, the TV will need to run at 270w for 1-2 minutes, then immediately after that it will need to run at 20w for 5 minutes. My thing is, I don't know how to shop for a UPS. I know where to find them, but I do not know what ratings I am looking for.

 

[Kreij]

UPS's are expensive? You can pick up a 500VA (330W) APC for a little over $50. (I just ordered two of them today)
That should easily handle your TV needs. Even with the TV on it should give you > 3 minutes run time. With just the fans running it would probably last for quite some time.

I run a 1500RS on my rig at home and it was over $300, but my gaming rig is much more important that the machines here at work

 

[Arctucas]

But does anyone know what I am looking for in a UPS? What kind of VA rating I am looking for? Wattage? all that type of stuff. Again, the TV will need to run at 270w for 1-2 minutes, then immediately after that it will need to run at 20w for 5 minutes. My thing is, I don't know how to shop for a UPS. I know where to find them, but I do not know what ratings I am looking for.

APC runtime chart.

 

[AsRock]

UPS's are expensive? You can pick up a 500VA (330W) APC for a little over $50. (I just ordered two of them today)
That should easily handle your TV needs. Even with the TV on it should give you > 3 minutes run time. With just the fans running it would probably last for quite some time.

I run a 1500RS on my rig at home and it was over $300, but my gaming rig is much more important that the machines here at work

Indeed, but we still don't know what size TV he is using and if it's the tube or LCD type. As some of these take upto 200w. And the last ups i got is around 300w ( would have to check and don't run our TV for shit and yes it's new but the TV is a 27" tube.

 

[Kreij]

The OP said the TV uses 270 watts when turned on. Shouldn't make any difference what size it is.
If he shuts off the TV as soon as there is a power failure (and the TV is only drawing 20W for the fan), a 330W UPS will be plenty. It would also easily handle short glitches and brown outs.

According to the runtime chart posted above he has 3 minutes at fill load (300W) and a full 15 minutes at 150W. If he's only pulling 20W that things going to last for hours.

Just my 2 cents

 

[newtekie1]

We already know the TV pulls 270w running and 20w during the cool down, that is really all we need to know, we don't need to know anything more about the TV.

A decent 650VA UPS will run a 300w load for ~3 Minutes. So that would probably the be bare minimum I would look at. A 650VA should give you your 2 minutes of run time and 5 minutes of cool down and then some. It is always good to error on the side of caution, IMO.

I've found that CyberPower makes very reliable UPSs for relatively inexpensive prices.

You might want to look at this CyberPower UPS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102034

For $90@825VA, it will more than cover your needs and the price tag isn't really that bad, and again erroring on the side of caution wouldn't hurt.

 

[suraswami]

We already know the TV pulls 270w running and 20w during the cool down, that is really all we need to know, we don't need to know anything more about the TV.

A decent 650VA UPS will run a 300w load for ~3 Minutes. So that would probably the be bare minimum I would look at. A 650VA should give you your 2 minutes of run time and 5 minutes of cool down and then some. It is always good to error on the side of caution, IMO.

I've found that CyberPower makes very reliable UPSs for relatively inexpensive prices.

You might want to look at this CyberPower UPS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102034

For $90@825VA, it will more than cover your needs and the price tag isn't really that bad, and again erroring on the side of caution wouldn't hurt.

+1.

650VA and above should be sufficient. If you are going to hook up a PC too to the UPS then I would suggest

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm

But ideally a UPS with AVR function will be better for TVs.

 

[Kreij]

A decent 650VA UPS will run a 300w load for ~3 Minutes. So that would probably the be bare minimum I would look at. A 650VA should give you your 2 minutes of run time and 5 minutes of cool down and then some. It is always good to error on the side of caution, IMO.

650VA = 2 minutes@390W / 10 minutes@195W
500VA = 3 minutes@300W / 15 minutes@150W

Either will do in this case as long as he does not start plugging in more stuff to the UPS.
You are right, Newtekie, err on the side of caution. It never hurts to get the largest UPS you can afford, even if it is way overkill. That way you have a bit of "future-proofing".

A guy here at worked ripped the battery out of his UPS and wired in a motorcycle battery.
Says it lasts A LOT longer (Yes, the UPS will trickle charge just about any kind of battery)

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

My brother and I run Cyberpower UPS's. The damn thing is great. Best investment. Its already saved our computers multiple times. Hell, im running my desktop and my server off of it and its still got enough juice to probably hold up another.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

 

[monkey1802]

Thank you all very much. I'll probably go for a 650va, because I agree, err on the side of caution. Especially when talking about my 2nd most loved possesion (aside from my pc) Just for those who were asking (I doubt it makes any difference, but no matter) it is a 65" Mitsubishi DLP. And for anyone who is looking at the dying breed of DLP, let me say, go with Mitsubishi. BY FAR the best DLP color reproduction out there. Anyway, thanks again all. It is VERY much appreciated. You have no idea how annoying it is to have to turn off the TV every time i see the sky flash, or hear some thunder bang.

 

[newtekie1]

My brother and I run Cyberpower UPS's. The damn thing is great. Best investment. Its already saved our computers multiple times. Hell, im running my desktop and my server off of it and its still got enough juice to probably hold up another.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

I've got the 1500VA version of that running my main rig, love it.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

I've got the 1500VA version of that running my main rig, love it.

They're great UPS's. I doubt ill buy any other brand down the road.

 

[AsRock]

The OP said the TV uses 270 watts when turned on. Shouldn't make any difference what size it is.
If he shuts off the TV as soon as there is a power failure (and the TV is only drawing 20W for the fan), a 330W UPS will be plenty. It would also easily handle short glitches and brown outs.

According to the runtime chart posted above he has 3 minutes at fill load (300W) and a full 15 minutes at 150W. If he's only pulling 20W that things going to last for hours.

Just my 2 cents

We already know the TV pulls 270w running and 20w during the cool down, that is really all we need to know, we don't need to know anything more about the TV.

A decent 650VA UPS will run a 300w load for ~3 Minutes. So that would probably the be bare minimum I would look at. A 650VA should give you your 2 minutes of run time and 5 minutes of cool down and then some. It is always good to error on the side of caution, IMO.

I've found that CyberPower makes very reliable UPSs for relatively inexpensive prices.

You might want to look at this CyberPower UPS. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102034

For $90@825VA, it will more than cover your needs and the price tag isn't really that bad, and again erroring on the side of caution wouldn't hurt.

LOL, yeah must be going blind again lol...


Although 290w for a TV HOLLY CRAP.. that like 50"-60"+ or some thing. And when the battery wears out some it do less than he used to in about a year or so and thats going by 2 UPS i've had in the last in fast one of them the batterie is pretty much dead and thats with a 300w UPS and only 18 month old which runs a 80w comp and dies in like a minute. And baterie replacement i had better just buying a new unit.