Which APC UPS VR battery backup for CS Rack?

[micahlundy]

I have a Creation Station rack unit. I'm looking for the best APC unit to provide battery backup in case of power outs. I also need voltage regulation (I currently have a Furman).

How do I find out how much power (VA and Watts) I need? How much power does my CS Rack use?

I'll also be putting my interface on the UPS.

Micah

[Justin]

Most of the APC business class units should work. Creation Station power draw should be in line with a high end business workstation.

The wattage of those units mainly determines how much runtime you'll get once you're running on battery power.

[JungleGeorge]

I have a Creation Station rack unit. I'm looking for the best APC unit to provide battery backup in case of power outs. I also need voltage regulation (I currently have a Furman).

How do I find out how much power (VA and Watts) I need? How much power does my CS Rack use?

I'll also be putting my interface on the UPS.

Micah

Hi Micah,


For the rack Creation Station you need to get yourself a unit like Smart-UPS 1500 rackmount SUA1500RM2U. The 1500 is a line interactive unit that has 980W of power, power filtering, surge protection, avr boost/drop. The rackXT consumes a Maximum of 660W, which on the SUA15002U would provide you with 16 minutes of run time. If you have additional switches, modems, the load would become higher and reduce your runtime.


This is pretty much the biggest unit you can get on a regular household line. If you get anything bigger, you'll need to install a dedicated line.


If you have the budget to install a dedicated line, you could move up to the SUA2200RM2U UPS. This UPS has a capacity of 1980W and would provide you with 26.5 minutes. There's also quite a bit of capacity left so you can add additional hardware to the UPS and still have a decent run time. This particular unit has all the bells and whistles of the 1500 but needs a dedicated 20A circuit to provide all the power.


If you have lots of appliances, you could always get bigger and bigger. The best thing to do would be to add up all the pieces of hardware you want to protect and size a UPS based on that. You want to size a UPS at 75% capacity and not much more above that unless you're planning to expand and keep adding hardware to it. Having a UPS that's too big will be costly in the long run.

[JungleGeorge]

I have a Creation Station rack unit. I'm looking for the best APC unit to provide battery backup in case of power outs. I also need voltage regulation (I currently have a Furman).

How do I find out how much power (VA and Watts) I need? How much power does my CS Rack use?

I'll also be putting my interface on the UPS.

Micah

Hi Micah,


Also, if you have a Smart-UPS unit, the business class unit as Arbiter said, you won't need a voltage regulator. The Smart-UPSs regulate the voltage perfectly. The only time you really need to worry is if you buy a very cheap UPS then you need to regulate the voltage because it doesn't do anything useful.