Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System ~ Question (+Star Trek)

[Tiffany]

I have the following backup and surge protector UPS system:

CyberPower EC850LCD Ecologic Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System, 850VA/510W, 12 Outlets, ECO Mode, Compact, Uninterruptible Power Supply ​

On one side of the battery backup it says: Battery supported and surge protected outlets. I have plugged in both my laptops and desktop PC on this side.

We live in pseudo country, where we have power outages with bad storms. When we have a power outage, my pc's are shut down, rather then staying on, as the battery backup should maintain as I thought what the battery was designed for?

Thoughts? Have I set this up wrong, since my computers are getting shut down during power outages?

 

[Tiffany]

Remember, UPS batteries typically need to be replaced every 2 - 5 years. And two identical UPS will be different as it depends on how often the UPS switches over to battery, and how long they run on batteries.

As far as the same outlet, if all the computers are currently in the same outlet, probably not a problem. But I really have no way of telling because I don't know what is currently on that circuit in your home, or what the breaker is rated at.

Kitchen appliances typically consume a lot. A toaster can use 1500W. That's a lot. A coffer maker can be close to that while brewing (just the warmer is much less). Microwave ovens can too.

Based on your suggestion of "circuit load", I think by looking at what I have on this circuit, it's a lot since my work desk is off of my kitchen and living room. That includes everything going on in the kitchen (small to large appliances), and all of the living room entertainment devices, then add my computers. I believe you just solved the mystery between too much plugged in on my UPS and too much load on this one circuit.

My new UPS will arrive tomorrow, YAY! Just before the next storm comes in on Friday, YAY!!

 

[Digerati]

If there is too much load on the circuit, your circuit breaker in the service panel would (should!) trip. Is that happening?

Unless that is a VERY old house, or it was rewired by a real amateur who never got the necessary permits, I would find it odd the living room outlets are on the same circuit as the kitchen outlets.

If you are not positive, I would take the time to map out and label your circuit panel. And I recommend you do it with the help of a
AC Outlet Tester. Not only can this be used to determine which outlet(s) go to which breaker, it will verify if the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground, or not.

I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK, or this one for German outlets) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

Also the main kitchen oven (if electric and not gas) surely runs off its own circuit.

 

[Tiffany]

If there is too much load on the circuit, your circuit breaker in the service panel would (should!) trip. Is that happening?

Unless that is a VERY old house, or it was rewired by a real amateur who never got the necessary permits, I would find it odd the living room outlets are on the same circuit as the kitchen outlets.

If you are not positive, I would take the time to map out and label your circuit panel. And I recommend you do it with the help of a
AC Outlet Tester. Not only can this be used to determine which outlet(s) go to which breaker, it will verify if the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground, or not.

I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK, or this one for German outlets) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

Also the main kitchen oven (if electric and not gas) surely runs off its own circuit.

Our house was built in the early 2000's, though had some issues before we moved in. It took about 13 months to get the electrical and structural problems taken care of, plus numerous other exterior issues. The internal craftsmanship was concerning in many areas. We did have an electrician add another electric panel too. I just went out to our garage and took a picture of our electrical panels. They are marked, with GFI. We do have some quirky issues with the GFCI's because of their location doesn't necessarily mean that's the room affected if it switched off. Thanks for the links for the socket testers. We likely have one. I'll look in the garage for it. We have actually needed to address this issue on the GFCI's. Life just gets so busy and you forget until you have a problem.

 

[Digerati]

Good luck. And I hope your new UPS arrives in good shape and meets all your needs.

 

[Tiffany]

Good luck. And I hope your new UPS arrives in good shape and meets all your needs.

My new UPS-AVR arrived!! I will set it up today.....yay!

Thank you all for all of your help and advice.

​

 

[Retro]

I thought you were getting the bigger one, Tiffs? <best puzzled face>

 

[Digerati]

I thought you were getting the bigger one, Tiffs? <best puzzled face>

Me too. At least in post #19 above, you said,

I'll get the bigger 1500VA, as you suggested and I'll order it today

 

[Tiffany]

Did I mess up? Taking a look now at my order and I what I actually got....Oy vay!

 

[Retro]

lol we've all been there.

 

[Digerati]

Well, for me, ordering the wrong size typically involves clothes. Not sure why but "Large" in China seems to be "Small" here.

So now you just need to decide if you want to return that one and order the bigger one, keep and use that one, or buy the bigger one and use both.

BTW - I've been using a similar 650VA UPS on my electric blanket for years! When you live in Tornado Alley, it can really help with a good night's sleep - well, for a few hours anyway.

 

[Tiffany]

Well....I did frick up my order....clicked on the wrong box.

Thanks for verifying my product!

Is this the right UPS/AVR on Amazon, $184.99?

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD UPS System, 1500VA/900W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini-Tower ​

Oh and using a UPS on an electric blanket, just sold me on keeping this UPS. We have had snowmaggeddon of February of 2021 (lost power for 4 days, 0 degree weather) and icemaggeddon of February of 2022, lost power for a day.​

 

[Retro]

Well....I did frick up my order....clicked on the wrong box.

Thanks for verifying my product!

Ah, bless.

You might wanna redo that link Tiffs, as it's just text with spaces. I think the wrong thing ended up in the copy buffer.

And I do love those 'maggeddons!

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks for the heads up on the link @Retro ....I think this link works.

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD UPS System, 1500VA/900W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini-Tower ​

 

[Digerati]

Oh and using a UPS on an electric blanket, just sold me on keeping this UPS. We have had snowmaggeddon of February of 2021 (lost power for 4 days, 0 degree weather) and icemaggeddon of February of 2022, lost power for a day

LOL - no UPS is going to hold up power to a blanket all night, let alone days. A standard queen size, for example, consumes about 200W when it cycles on. Depending on how cold the room is and the controller setting, the UPS can easily deal with outages that last 2 or 3 hours, or maybe a little longer.

 

[Tiffany]

LOL - no UPS is going to hold up power to a blanket all night, let alone days. A standard queen size, for example, consumes about 200W when it cycles on. Depending on how cold the room is and the controller setting, the UPS can easily deal with outages that last 2 or 3 hours, or maybe a little longer.

Seriously, wouldn't it be nice if a UPS could power up our electric blankets much longer in times of utter weather related "freezemaggedons" .

I'm not looking forward to our winter at all. We never stocked up on wood until snowmaggedon of 2021. We had some wood saved from a few years back that was actually kept in my daughter's truck for weight, used it up during our freeze and zero degree temps and we were left with going outside to break down tree limbs. Luckily, by then, we got some power back, but we had already collected a few hours worth of wood.

Our rooms did get very cold. Unbearable and we were all living in the living room near the fire. Taking care of pets and their safety and warmth put this real life dissenter movie in another perspective.

Back to batteries.....so important to have all kinds of batteries on hand for any form of weather or disaster.

 

[Retro]

Tiffs, I'm sorry that you get some really harsh weather over there. With increasing climate change, we're seeing more stuff like that in Brexit Blighty and it can be quite severe in places, but still it's nothing to what you guys have to put up with. I do empathise with you and your family, including the pets.

Seems the worst of it are the power cuts in the middle of winter. Can't do a thing without power.

 

[Tiffany]

Tiffs, I'm sorry that you get some really harsh weather over there. With increasing climate change, we're seeing more stuff like that in Brexit Blighty and it can be quite severe in places, but still it's nothing to what you guys have to put up with. I do empathise with you and your family, including the pets.

Seems the worst of it are the power cuts in the middle of winter. Can't do a thing without power.

Thank you @Retro. There are so many millions of people going through new "never been through that" scenarios between energy challenges, and the skewed/unusual climate changes over the past couple of years. You all had a really hot summer too.

Guess I'll hop on over to your climate change thread now

 

[Digerati]

I've been where you are with extended power outages. We (Eastern Nebraska/Western Iowa) had a record-breaking snow & ice storm 25 years ago this week that taught me a few lessons about preparedness. It is when I bought a 5KW generator (the last at Menards) - big enough to power everything in the house.

First it rained. Then the temperature dropped and ice formed all over everything. Then the storm dumped over 9 inches of snow, twice the previous record for that date set 99 years before. Normally, 9 inches of snow is not that big a deal - just a big annoyance. But in late October, the trees are still full of leaves and they (or the overhead cables) could not handle all that weight.

The tree in front split in half - but missed the house, fortunately. However, the biggest branch from the biggest tree in my back yard came down and took out my power and cable TV/Internet cables - and my shed.

It took 2 days before the lines were rehung. But that didn't really matter because the entire substation for over 20,000 people on this end of the county was out for 5 days.

Another lesson learned: When there is a major power outage that takes out a major section of the grid powering your town, understand there is a good chance the power to your neighborhood gas stations may be out too. I had to go 10 miles to get fuel for the generator. And then that was being rationed to 10 gals per customer per visit.

Also, I am positive there is some sort of fine-print rule or regulation dictating where the city snow plows will push the snow from the streets. There are no houses, no driveways, no sidewalks and no parking on the other side of my street. So guess where they always push the heavy (too big for my snowblower) chunks of snow and ice and sand and salt from the street?

 

[Tiffany]

@Digerati I'm so sorry you lost your tree....very scary! But then you lost your shed and power....OMG!!

Your weather experience sounds like our snowmageddon year of 2021. We started out with ice too and then got 6 to 8 feet of snow with zero temps.

We are in your early learning stage of weather preparedness. We don't have a generator yet, not even sure we can pull that off, but have some kind of heat thing, I'd have to ask what my husband has for winter of 2023, which I'm sure we will have some kind of event. We have the wood, but that doesn't do much unless you are near the fireplace. ...sigh...we just aren't ready....but.....I do have my extra UPS for my electric blanket now...lol...

 

[Digerati]

Even a small generator is great (and easy to move around) as most will run a refrigerator or deep freeze. Running a deep freeze, for example, for just an hour every 12 hours (less often if you don't open the door) will keep everything frozen solid. Doing the same for the fridge will keep everything from spoiling.

As for the tree in front, it survived - or half of it did. I had an arborist come out after the split. 25 years later, it looks great and is doing well.

Fortunately, I had just bought a new Weber gas grill with a side burner, and an extra LP bottle. So cooking something hot was not a problem.

 

[Tiffany]

@Digerati after Icemaggeddon last February, we were not able to get a generator, too hard to find at the time, but I do agree, any size of generator would be better then none, particularly if it could just keep the refrigerator going and some basics. Last year, we lost a lot of our food, including refrigerated meds. The food that we were were able to save, we literally put outside and packed it with snow in bins. It was like living on the prairie, total survival stuff.

Glad your tree survived and is doing so well. Ferngully lives!! We have a tree just about to go...I don't know how it's survived the past few years since a lightning strike. Sometime soon, I'll post some pics...Your gas grill is a great idea too. You never know how bad it is until you've lived without power...at least we all had shelter.

 

[Retro]

As for the tree in front, it survived - or half of it did. I had an arborist come out after the split. 25 years later, it looks great and is doing well.

I do like a good news story. Nice. Does it still carry the scars from when it split in two?

 

[Digerati]

Last year, we lost a lot of our food, including refrigerated meds.

For future reference, such losses are typically covered by home owners and renters insurance. Of course, it would not be worth claiming if the value does not exceed your deductible. I believe most policies have a deductible of $500. Mine does - except for the roof.

Does it still carry the scars from when it split in two?

You have to picture it before, then now. Back then, the total tree height might have been 25 feet. The single trunk rose from the ground about 2 feet, then split into a "Y". It was the left side that broke away. The surviving right side has since pulled over and grown straight up and I would guesstimate the tree - a silver maple - is nearly 60 feet tall now. Where the damaged, exposed area was has nearly grown over but a slit in the bark remains. So a scar, while not very visible, is still there, and I suspect will always be there.

IMO, it didn't just survive, it has thrived since then - with a lot of care. I think having an arborist come after the split made a huge difference. He cut and trimmed the exposed, damaged area to ensure proper drainage from rain. This helps prevent, and apparently did prevent disease from entering in. And I've had him come out a couple times since to clear out the dead wood and shape the canopy. It really is an asset to the house now - really helping with "curb appeal".

 

[Retro]

@Digerati amazing just how much a little tlc can help nature.

 

[Digerati]

And how quickly Mother Nature can take it all down again.