UPS recommendations ?
UPS recommendations ?
Hello. I recently relocated to a new home in the UK and have noticed that my main power supply is quite unstable: over the past three months, I've experienced at least four brief interruptions lasting only microseconds. This would obviously prevent me from using my PC right away (it's mainly used for X-Plane flight simulator). I previously owned a Cyberpower CP1300EPFCLD, which worked well for a while but eventually stopped functioning after a few years—not due to battery issues, which left me somewhat disappointed.
I've been considering Riello UPS units, suggested by criticalpowersupplies.co.uk; they offer a five-year warranty, which is a significant benefit compared to Cyberpower's shorter warranty.
However, I'm puzzled by the terminology used on the site. I only know that I need a pure sinewave model. The two recommended units are not inexpensive (especially now that I'm retired): 1. Riello Sentinel Pro 1kVA Online 230V and 2. Riello Sentinel Pro 700VA Online 230V.
I've been told these models are 'double conversion'. When I searched for the term, it seemed to mean something positive, but I'm not sure if they are indeed pure sinewave or if that's a misinterpretation. Other more affordable Riello UPS options (like the VST 1100) are described as 'Line Interactive'—what does that imply?
I purchased a power meter to monitor my PC's power consumption. It has a 650W PSU, and according to the meter, it averages around 250W when connected to the mains socket and the PC, with occasional peaks up to 350W, especially when the flight simulator is running at full capacity.
Could anyone provide some guidance on this? Would people recommend this brand (it seems to receive positive feedback online)? It would be a significant investment for me, so I want to make sure I'm getting good value and not making a costly mistake. Thanks!
Double-conversion means it is always running off the inverter and battery, while the battery is being charged from AC or not. There's no switchover time to running on battery because it is running from battery all of the time. Yes, this means it is less efficient, more expensive because the hardware has to be rated for continuous duty, and you may need to switch to a bypass mode in order to hot-swap batteries when the time comes to change them.
Line-interactive means it watches the sinewave of the incoming AC so when switchover occurs, the generated sinewave is more closely in phase with what the incoming power was. There's still a switchover time but it's less glitchy. You can hotswap batteries at any time but if the power goes out when they are out, it just shuts off.
Neither term has anything to do with sinewave, but generally the double-conversion units are so much more expensive that they usually are. Pure sinewave is important if you are running any AC electric motors or sensitive electronics, but the switchmode PSUs in computers don't care about that, and a stepped-approximation of sinewave is more efficient to generate than pure sinewave too.
Riello is an Italian company that generally makes good UPSes that cost less than comparable APC or Eaton
Double-conversion units can be less efficient because they require additional steps, which may increase energy consumption and reduce overall performance.
Voltage converting isn't free, and double-conversion means it converts 230v AC to 36v DC and then back to 230v AC. If each conversion is 85% efficient then the overall efficiency is 72%, which with a little math means you'd use1/0.72 or 38% more electricity than if the load was plugged into the wall. This is not an issue if you are not paying for electricity, but be aware that your 350w load will thus require
483w
and the extra 133w is being dumped into your room as heat too.
A standby system (such as the line-interactive type) may actually be rated
less
efficient because the inverters used can be cheaper since they only have to operate occasionally, however this lower efficiency only counts
when running off battery
and this type seldom do that. So no matter what load you put on these, so long as there is AC power available such units will consume less than 20w (which is mostly for the battery charger), making them on average use far less electricity.
Both of those Riello models are both sinewave and double-conversion. Note there is a
third
conversion as your SMPS converts that 230v AC to the 12v, 5v and 3.3v DC the computer runs on, and
that
conversion is generally more efficient from stepped AC power than sinewave too
Yes, that's what I believed you intended, though in practice it seems more costly to purchase and maintain. I find myself in a bit of uncertainty now. My primary concern is acquiring a UPS that can quickly respond to brief power interruptions—something I experienced during my time in India and Sri Lanka. It frequently failed to react swiftly enough during frequent outages, causing my computer to shut down. However, when I tested it by manually disconnecting the power at the outlet, it performed as expected. I’m puzzled by this inconsistency and have become a bit cautious.
Perhaps I don’t need the energy-inefficient double-conversion technology to ensure full reliability. Could a line-interactive UPS (such as a Riello model) suffice in this situation?
These considerations weren’t part of my decision when buying my previous UPS—likely because I wasn’t fully informed about them! Until last week, I was only familiar with pure and simulated sine wave models. Now things have become more complex.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
It was finally decided to go with the CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD. The price dropped by £50 yesterday, and I also added a three-year extra warranty. I’m hoping this was the right choice.