kodan50 on 6/1/2009 at 06:56

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I don't think the full name will fit comfortably in the Title box.

Anyways, I just have a few questions in regards to my U.P.S. device, and some that has to do with A.C. power and whatnot.

Just for sake of having it noted, the U.P.S. I have and am using is a A.P.C. Back-UPS ES 350

The issue I am having is that my UPS will go from 100% to 45% with my PC as the only load, but it does that in about 13 seconds, then the U.P.S. beeps with an attitude and my computer it turned off. At first, I though I might have been overloading my U.P.S. with all the upgrades I did to my computer, until I tried the same thing with my Xbox. It went from 100% to about 40% in about the same time, then went from 40% to about 6% in another 10 seconds, then went down to 1% where is remained at 1% for the greater part of 16 minutes. What can I do to get a better result? I'm not certain if my U.P.S. is seeing the quick decline in power percentage and shutting down for no reason, or possibly to protect the battery from discharging to quickly, but I don't think my PC alone is taking enough energy to cause this, especially when the Xbox, taking a bit less energy, can stay on for a very long time, with a similar sharp decline in power percentage.

Also, I've been reading on the wavetypes for AC power, namely, Sine and Square waves. I'm still not certain how it works though. AC works by alternating the current of electricity through two wires, right? Does the wavetype depend on the actual transition of the flow of electricity though the wire? Like, does Sine gives a gradual transition between the flow, and Square gives a sharp transition or something? I've always been confused a bit on that. I only bring it up, because I've heard that some electronics don't like Square wavetypes, and prefer the Sine wavetype. Some cheap U.P.S. boxes output a Square wavetype, like the A.C. inverter I use with my truck's 12-volt D.C. adapter...

Finally, the battery is a sealed Lead-Acid battery, which I know is not good to power cycle, as they prefer to stay fully charged and dislike being discharged, and that has only happened twice in the 4 months I have had it, except for this test with my computer and Xbox. Anyways, I really just need the U.P.S. to stay on long enough for my computer to finish hibernating. Any ideas?

Al_B on 7/1/2009 at 21:23

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Is this the one you have: (http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE350G&total_watts=200) http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE350G&total_watts=200? If so, your results aren't really that surprising to be honest. It's only rated for about 24 seconds at 200W and it's quite likely that your computer is taking this or more particularly if you've upgraded it a lot.

If you believe (http://www.sust-it.net/energy_saving.php?id=71) http://www.sust-it.net/energy_saving.php?id=71 then an XBOX takes about 70W - about a third load for that UPS and likely to last for quite a bit of time.



For most domestic equipment the flow of current depends on the wavetype not the other way around. In simple terms a sinewave represents voltage changing at one frequency (60Hz in the US) wheras a square wave represents voltage changing at many frequencies. If a piece of equipment could extract power at every frequency then this wouldn't matter, but in practice they are designed to be most efficient only within a narrow band of frequencies.

The reason that square waves are generated by cheap invertors is because a square wave is easier and cheaper to produce than a sine wave and as long as enough power can be extracted by the target equipment and the wasted power isn't an issue then everything will work.



I don't want to be negative but it sounds like you need a UPS with more capacity. A 650VA unit should give you minutes instead of seconds and should allow your computer to hibernate or shutdown.