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Suggestions for UPS backups

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Hi All,

We're doing some upgrades at the reading service for the blind I work for. Except for the servers, I wouldn't call anything we are running as "critical" in the broadcast sense.

We have a 4 year old APC Smart-UPS 2200 in the rack for the servers.

The five recording booths and two production machines are each on APC Back-UPS LS 700s. Those batteries were replaced last year.

We're about to start a streaming station for the blind, which will feed an SCA service to a local FM via Internet. We'll add two PCs (one running the station automation, the other as a backup). For the rack in the server room, we'll add a Barix encoder and an Omnia 1 Multicast processor.

In my personal experience, I've had some bad luck with the APC brand but there's a lot of variables there and I won't rule out buying to little backup for what I've had plugged in. At work, besides replacing batteries last year, all but one of the LS 700s have worked fine.

The other question I've always had is: Is it better to let a new UPS charge for several hours before plugging in anything to it?

Any opinions on brands/models and experiences with these things would be appreciated. Thanks for your insights.
 
CC here has an Eaton unit and seems to be pretty happy with it. One thing about those guys is that they have enough stations nationwide that if something screws up on them, they'll eliminate the problem by not buying more of that product line. I'd think Eaton would be a pretty safe choice...
 
A STACO Unistar at a 50 kw AM transmitter site handles the generator just fine.

The Best Ferrups that was out there was having fits, going to battery with the modulation.

A 2 year old APC 1500 decided to go to battery and stay there after another load was plugged into the same source 4-Plex it was plugged into. Had to pull it's supply plug out for a few seconds then back in to get it off battery. Also the APC units have had serious battery failures after only a year and a half use. Using APC Factory replacement batteries! Even though they're in an airconditioned environment about half of the battery cases swelled up & split. No alarrms on most of the units until total battery failure.
 
I've a translator and microwave repeat site with a 30KW or so Best Ferrups three phaseUPS. New batteries, set up by the Factory Guy. Runs maybe 50% load on the front panel when the A/C has cycled on. The microwave sets are Lynx spread spectrum 2 and 6 GHz multiple T1 units. They have individual switching 24VDCsupplies. When the genset comes on,perhaps one time in three or four, one or more of the microwaves will glitch off and back on. About one glitch in three or four, one or more of the T1s will hang. This always happens on the return side, i.e. incoming off a 2GHz radio and going directly into a 6GHz. In six years of my experience, has never failed from the 6 to the 2. For whatever reason,the switching supplies don't store enough energy to survive the sag time on the U.P.S. We're building up a redundant 24 volt linear supply to power all of the radios (Currently six,probably eight in the near future) in hopes the filters will keep them up while the UPS cranks up to voltage. The option is a true on - line UPS,which would be very expensive. The microwaves with the switchers seem to be the only thing affected. Anyone else have this knid of problem with a ferroresonant UPS and a switching DC supply?
 
I’ve had computers and AirWave digital consoles on Best & APC UPS’s that would shut down if the power glitch was just right.

Unless it's an on-line type, it really isn't a true “Uninterruptable” PS. You might miss a few cycles of AC when the power drops through a standard non-on-line UPS. Most computer supplies will hang in there & nothing will happen.

Just the act of buck/boost causes spikes whe they use relays to change taps.
 
That's the wonderful thing about the STACO Unistars. It's double-conversion 24/7. Nothing gets through. Bad generator that runs all over the place? It doesn't care. Spikes, dips, and other crappy power? It doesn't care. It just charges the batteries and uses off the batteries. My client in a smaller town had some of the WORST power on earth in a downtown studio. You could sit in his office and watch the lights blink and wink. This is coming in that way from the power company, not something that's going on within his station itself. Total crap power. He also has a very sorry Generac generator that wanders all over the place. We used to have cheap APC units in there. They were nothing but trouble on the generator. We rigged the whole studio complex up on a set of big Stacos and have NEVER had a power related problem since. The only bad thing about them is they are noisy, so in our case we just had his local electician run extention outlets into the studios and make it where we could plug it in to the UPS units. The noise stays outside the rooms and everyone is happy.
 
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