[ale] OT need 600-1000W power protection for 3 minutes - cheap

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:

>On 7/9/2013 12:46, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>> Hi Alex,
>>
>> Thanks for the BR/BX explanation link.  It looks like the BR series
>are
>> better units.
>>
>> Would you like to acquire another Smart UPS?  Mine is an SMT-750 (750
>VA
>> / 500 W) less than 1 year old.  It works great and, as far as I know,
>> the batteries are in good shape.  However, the more advanced features
>> are beyond my needs and I do need the additional capacity of a
>BR1500G.
>> The current amazon price is $ 272 for this unit.  I'll let mine go
>for $
>> 200, which is a 25% discount.  I'll even deliver it within 30 miles
>of
>> my house (from Cumming, GA, exit 16 on GA 400).
>
>Shipping to Los Angeles wouldn't work out so well. :)
>
>

Doh!  I keep forgetting.  I could probably still ship it to you for slightly less than the cost of getting it from Amazon new.  8-)

>> I probably shouldn't tell you this since I just asked you to buy this
>> unit.  But, according to http://www.apcupsd.com/ , this unit will
>only
>> communicate basic data to apcupsd, and will not communicate voltage,
>> frequency, etc.
>
>Odd because it works fine with mine.  I get all the data.  In fact I
>log 
>the incoming voltage to track brownouts.
>

Maybe the info is outdated.  If you know it's working with the models they mention, you might want to drop them a note.

>> I was under the impression that computer power supplies were
>essentially
>> (or appear to be) resistive loads.  As an example, my pc is currently
>> running at a .98 power factor, almost as many watts as VA.  In any
>case,
>> it psychologically bothers me to have to look at a box for an
>SMT-750,
>> for example, and mentally convert and think, no, that won't power my
>> 530W load.  Oh well.
>
>Nope, switching power supplies are very much reactive by the nature of 
>their design.  Your power factor is likely not 0.98 because the 
>Kill-a-watt has a difficult time with distorted waveforms.  Depending
>on 
>the filtering, your supply likely injects a small amount of harmonics 
>back up the power line (a chief complaint by power companies) and that 
>interferes with the Kill-a-watt's measurements.  I have two of them, 
>they work pretty well on most things and show reasonable numbers for 
>items like fans and compressors with AC induction motors (where the 
>waveform isn't distorted) but they act weird on any switching power 
>supply.  The only good way to do it is with an oscilloscope and a pair 
>of probes (voltage and current).
>

When I get the chance, I'll hook the computer back up to the UPS at a reduced power level and see how many kva it thinks it's outputting versus how many watts.  I still think my power factor is pretty high.  I am using a high quality Corsair power supply though.

>> By the way, for those of you who would like to track the storms in
>the
>> area in case you're worried about power glitches too, I've found a
>> couple of good ways to do that.  I'm sure there are others.
>>
>> Go here and get the Reload Every Firefox plugin and install it (if
>you
>> use Firefox): http://reloadevery.mozdev.org/  Or, you can use the
>addons
>> menu in Firefox.  There are many plugins with similar names though.
>>
>> This will allow you to automatically refresh a web page on a
>schedule.
>
>Not to pick on you too much but this is a lot easier without needing 
>plugins:
>http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=FFC&product=NCR&overlay=11101111&loop=yes
>

The reason I post these things is to help others, but also to see what they know.  A little picking on me is no problem.  I have a friend that likes to say, you don't know what you don't know.  Cliche but true.  I'll try the alternate methods you mentioned.

>Click the AutoUpdate button at the bottom of the image and you'll have 
>always current radar direct from the source (NOAA, where AccuWeather 
>gets its radar data and just gussies it up a bit).  This particular 
>radar site covers only north Georgia, with extremities in Alabama and 
>Tennessee.  This works on phones, too, since the graphic is an animated
>
>GIF.  It has a crude zoom feature, too, but it's usually not necessary 
>since the scan volumes tend to be large.
>
>Their local forecast page (Atlanta in this case) used to update on its 
>own every 15 minutes:
>
>http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Atlanta&state=GA&site=FFC&textField1=33.7629&textField2=-84.4226&e=1
>
>The above radar link came from this page, lower left.
>
>
>Now, the reason I'm picking on you a little is that this can be done on
>
>the page (why load an extra plugin for Firefox when the same task can
>be 
>done by the page itself).  But I'm only doing a little picking since my
>
>main issue is that I have a deep loathing for AccuWeather.  Some number
>
>of years ago, AccuWeather made a small financial contribution to
>Senator 
>Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) to support a bill that would force the 
>National Weather Service to prevent the public from seeing its data on 
>its web page and require the public to pay for service from AccuWeather
>
>after the public paid for the data via taxes.  The NWS effectively gave
>
>AccuWeather the finger and kept publishing the data.  The Senate bill 
>(S786) died in committee (killed by Senator Bill Nelson of Florida
>since 
>the National Hurricane Center was in AccuWeather's crosshairs, too, and
>
>that's a no-go for Florida.  I had written to Nelson at the time and
>got 
>a personal reply that effectively read "Don't worry, we've got this".) 
>All this happened just as the NWS was starting to really produce an 
>online presence that the public could use rather than just a giant 
>collection of data files.
>

I understand what you're saying, but, sorry to say, I'm not surprised.  I have unfortunately concluded that ANY corporation, with the exception of a few Christian run ones with morals, in ANY industry, and under ANY circumstances, will do underhanded things to make more money if they can get away with it.  I'm not condoning it, just acknowledging it.  The only way to stop them is to not let them get away with it.  One of the favorite tactics to insure profit is to legislate competition out of existence, by bribe, extortion, even murder if necessary.  It's a method as old as dirt.  Highly effective too.

>To this day I refuse to support AccuWeather and rely entirely on 
>NOAA/NWS/NHC for my weather information.  They've steadily made some 
>very nice improvements to their page and the data products they provide
>
>and I like to support that effort.  There's a lot of places in this 
>world where the weather data isn't available to the public at large. 
>The NWS provides an excellent service and they work hard on it.  I
>can't 
>count how many times I've emailed them about a bug and get a personal 
>letter back from a programmer or forecaster.
>

Sounds pretty cool.  I haven't had a chance to poke around their websites too much.

Ron



--

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Ron Frazier
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linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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