Power Conditioner Recommendation

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

You are overthinking this. Unplugging it does not cause spikes. In fact it removes the cause of any spikes, electricity.

If you unplug the strip while it's still enabled as well as anything connected to it you could get spikes if you do the disconnect while the AC waveform is at other than a zero crossing. Sad thing with a lot of garden variety power strips is when the overvoltage protection fails it's usually designed to fail as a short and therefore popping any breaker or fuse.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by musicman691

If you unplug the strip while it's still enabled as well as anything connected to it you could get spikes if you do the disconnect while the AC waveform is at other than a zero crossing. Sad thing with a lot of garden variety power strips is when the overvoltage protection fails it's usually designed to fail as a short and therefore popping any breaker or fuse.

Hmm I didn't catch that the whole strip was unplugged. Can't say I've ever done that but thanks for the explanation.

Still stand by that I think this is being over thought. Could be a random power supply failure. That panel looks very old though. If I were in such a building I'd get a decent UPS. APC is good for consumer level.

[ReynaldoPena]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

Hmm I didn't catch that the whole strip was unplugged. Can't say I've ever done that but thanks for the explanation.

Still stand by that I think this is being over thought. That panel looks very old. If I were in such a building I'd get a decent UPS. APC is good for consumer level.

I returned the P-2400 20A for a P-1800 which is the 15A version, the plug was foreign to the outlets in my apartment. The image attached should serve as an explanation. I did not know UPS was that big, I see that they are even referred to by Apple. I’m not doing my research as I did with the Furman so if you can direct me to a formidable UPS piece I can look at, I can take it from there. I still have some nice bank on my Amazon gift card.IMG_2913.jpg


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[smurfyou]

It depends on what kind of load you want to put on the UPS. I'd say for you it's primarily for the conditioning not battery run time. And I am not an expert, I based mine around the gear I have to work from home. I can't afford the downtime.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by ReynaldoPena

I returned the P-2400 20A for a P-1800 which is the 15A version, the plug was foreign to the outlets in my apartment. The image attached should serve as an explanation. I did not know UPS was that big, I see that they are even referred to by Apple. I’m not doing my research as I did with the Furman so if you can direct me to a formidable UPS piece I can look at, I can take it from there. I still have some nice bank on my Amazon gift card.Attachment 16851


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All that 20A means is it CAN work with equipment drawing a total of 20 amps. I know the plug is different on a 20 amp AC mains connection than a 15 amp plug. Take a look at APC by Schneider Electric - I use their stuff here. The UPS I use completely regenerates the incoming AC. Expensive but probably overkill for your use but that depends on how clean your incoming AC is. That shot showing fuses instead of circuit breakers makes me think your power isn't all that great.


If you can buy elsewheres than Amazon. Take a look at B&H in New York City instead. Great people to deal with and if you have issues it's easier to get it resolved through them than Amazon. A good UPS can save you a lot of headaches - I won't run without one. Every piece of electronics I have eventually is connected to an UPS. My daw system has it's own, the audio/video stuff has it's own, my other computers each have their own UPS. It's funny that when the power goes out they all beep at slightly different intervals.

[The Weed]

I have two of the older version of this CyberPower UPS CP1000PFCLCD.

Voltage regulator and pure sine wave generator. Never had an issue. Switches instantly to battery backup when the power fails.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by The Weed

I have two of the older version of this CyberPower UPS CP1000PFCLCD.

Voltage regulator and pure sine wave generator. Never had an issue. Switches instantly to battery backup when the power fails.

That 'pure sine wave' power is important and something most people don't think about. Most UPS's do NOT generate a sine wave but something closer to a stepped square wave. Transformers don't like that.


One more thing - do not underestimate the power you use - get more than you think you need. That will also give you more time to shut down before the power drains out. Actually there's something that would really help when the power goes out - plugin a low wattage light fixture so you're not stumbling around in the dark and knocking things over or hurting yourself. Been there/done that.

[Darryl Ramm]

Even better, for delicate/valuable electronics go with an online UPS. That's one that is regenerating the AC sine wave through the inverter all the time, which typically help provide the best protection. But costs go up significantly. If I was to go to the hassle/complexity of adding a UPS it would be an online type.

If you put in a UPS, you are likely increasing fire risk, and are increasing complexity, might have problems with background noise, they need to be used properly/within spec and looked after/maintained.

But again maybe this is all being overthought. Is there any sign of damage due to the AC power.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Even better, for delicate/valuable electronics go with an online UPS. That's one that is regenerating the AC sine wave through the inverter all the time, which typically help provide the best protection. But costs go up significantly. If I was to go to the hassle/complexity of adding a UPS it would be an online type.

If you put in a UPS, you are likely increasing fire risk, and are increasing complexity, might have problems with background noise, they need to be used properly/within spec and looked after/maintained.

But again maybe this is all being overthought. Is there any sign of damage due to the AC power.

How is fire risk increased using an UPS? Never heard that one before. What kind of background noise are you talking about - audible noise coming from the UPS itself? The only time I hear noise is when the UPS's do their POST or when they've lost the incoming AC. The only maintenance I've ever done with my UPS's is to replace the battery when it needs to be replaced like when it can't hold a charge.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by musicman691

How is fire risk increased using an UPS? Never heard that one before. What kind of background noise are you talking about - audible noise coming from the UPS itself? The only time I hear noise is when the UPS's do their POST or when they've lost the incoming AC. The only maintenance I've ever done with my UPS's is to replace the battery when it needs to be replaced like when it can't hold a charge.

Not unknown for folks to overload the outputs or folks to never maintain them. We had one office UPS at a startup I worked at. When I looked at it after it failed to work on a power outage, the battery was hosed, nobody had paid any attention to it an it was not that old.

I've seen cooling fans blocked , stuff stacked on top of them etc. I have found them sitting in closets with no air flow. I've seen one after it failed major melting of components no idea what happened it was just in a trash dumpster. You'd hope the charging/BMS and internal breaker circuits are rock solid but stuff happens... and the failure mode of poorly designed VRLA battery charging circuits is to never trip out of bulk charge mode if the battery is old/has high internal resistance so the charging/power supply gets hot and stays hot unless stopped. And if that helps get the battery warm it vents more water vapor and hydrogen.... (further killing the battery). Hopefully caught by fan management/thermal shutdown/timer/BMS circuits.

I've seen enterprise IT organizations clean out older cheap UPS over safety/management concerns as a part of consolidating distributed servers. The number of Netware servers that we helped consolidate/just turn off early on at VMware, especially in large wall street firms, was eye opening.

It's not just startup noise, some have low level AC hum (I've heard what might have been faint ~120Hz? from some, but since they are using switch mode power supplies that may not be the usual transformer hum). Most might not notice, folks sensitive to florescent tube 120Hz might. I wonder if it's maybe it's ironically poorer made online models (the type I'd prefer to use) that might hum all the time whereas, offline models might be quieter when only charging, who cares if they spin up fans or hum if the power goes out. Lots of reports online of hum issues, e.g. : https://community.se.com/t5/APC-UPS-...zy/td-p/298800