ups considerations...

[az]

A flourescent lamp has much higher efficiency.

If you add a battery, this should only improve autonomy - in theory, more batteries in parallel would mean less load for each battery and thus the possibility of higher loads, but the inverter needs to be capable of this, too (and the fuses), and I don't think you could upgrade them (or do so cost-efficiently).

AZ

[RichL]

A flourescent lamp has much higher efficiency.

Indeed - but I havent seen many flourescent desk lamps.
Low energy bulbs OTOH will run between 6-13watts and fit in a normal desk lamp.

[VJ]

If you add a battery, this should only improve autonomy - in theory, more batteries in parallel would mean less load for each battery and thus the possibility of higher loads, but the inverter needs to be capable of this, too (and the fuses), and I don't think you could upgrade them (or do so cost-efficiently).

Makes sense... So if you get a 1500 VA UPS now, you are stuck with a max load of 1500 VA, no matter what.
This makes it more interesting to opt for the 2200 VA model (who knows what my next PC will be? )

Regarding the light: I was thinking along the lines of a USB light: led technology, doesn't draw much power (and I have a usb hub on my desk).

My desk light is a halogen light (12 V), probabely not the best thing to put on a UPS, is it?


Jörg

[az]

Why not? The transformer for the desk lamp is a switchmode power supply, just like your PC's PSU - and a lot of PC periphery uses wall-wart switching power supplies. Your desk light probably uses about 9-11 W.

AZ

[xortam]

I landed up with a single led USB wand light that I use on my HTPC on occasion. We have a living room light controlled by timer and I sometimes found myself needing to jot down video content notes late at night. It was better for me to just plug the wand light into the front USB port rather than mess with any of the main lights or the timer. The single LED lamp is just enough light for taking a note and such but probably very nice for laptop users on a plane and such.

I also use a 4-LED head lamp (Zipka) all the time for a multitude of applications (originally purchased for backpacking).

[VJ]

If you add a battery, this should only improve autonomy

Yep, confirmed by MGE.


Jörg

[VJ]

When you power the PC down, just power the UPS down as well. But it shouldn't really be that loud (or audible at all) with no load, if properly designed.

On the MGE Evolution 2200, the fan keeps running even when the UPS is powered down.
Just curious: when it is powered down, it obviously doesn't pass power to the connected equipment, but does it charge?

The switching in line-interactive models is measurable, but it shouldn't interfere with your hardware (that's one reason for the big electrolytic capacitors in the PSU: bridging very very short blackouts)

The switch is visible on my desk light, but other equipment is unaffected by it.


Jörg

[degrub]

It may trickle charge. DOes the fan ever stop after turning the UPS off ? quick test you can do: turn off the ups, verify the fan is running, unplug the ups - fan still running ? i t may be running off the battery until the charging circuit is cooled down.

[Technoid]

One more question: the spec sheets say: "sound emission: 40 dba".

Does this noise also occur when the is no load on the UPS (i.e. PC powered down)?
(I have a small one-room appartement, so the PC is in the same room as my bed........)


Jörg

I don’t think you need to worry about noise, I’ve sold a couple of UPS’es and all of them has had specs where they’ve been claimed to output 40 to 50db of noise and none of them ever made the slightest nose when we tested them

[VJ]

Degrub: the fan stops when the UPS is unplugged. If it isn't unplugged though, the fan never stops (I was away, turned off ups but kept it plugged in: it is still running since friday).

Technoid: It does make quite some noise (it claims 40 dBa, and that might be about right). Still, when wanting to sleep in that room, it is noisy. Luckily, it is a very monotonic sound (and not that dissimilar to the air ventilation of the appartement), so I think I'll manage.


Jörg