Best UPS for Home Theater?

[brotsten]

I was not really looking for Power conditioning. I just want a cheap, silent, UPS system that will run my entire home theater for hours and hours during a power failure.

It's called a generator

Brian

Do you have a link to the ones that are cheap and silent?

I guess they are mutually exclusive. I use a couple of rackmount UPS's I bought second hand. I only need ~2 minutes worth of time as the backup generator takes about that long to spin up and switch over.

Brian

 

[dronning]

I was not really looking for Power conditioning. I just want a cheap, silent, UPS system that will run my entire home theater for hours and hours during a power failure.

It's called a generator

Brian

Do you have a link to the ones that are cheap and silent?

You can save some on the UPS because as stated above you only need battery power for a couple of minutes until the generator starts. What do you consider cheap?? Most of the generators start at $2K plus installation.

Most of the generators I've been looking at are around 65-72db which isn't too bad depending on where you have to place it. I've been looking at 2 different ones the Guardian 7kw and the Guardian 16kw (whole house) There are quiet kits available and a buddy of mine in the commercial side has used high tech car audio matting to reduce it even further. You have to know what you are doing here because of the heat generated inside the box.


I currently have a gas portable Honda EU3000IS that I use but there is no automatic startup or circuit switching.

Dave

 

[upstatemike]

I was not really looking for Power conditioning. I just want a cheap, silent, UPS system that will run my entire home theater for hours and hours during a power failure.

It's called a generator

Brian

Do you have a link to the ones that are cheap and silent?

You can save some on the UPS because as stated above you only need battery power for a couple of minutes until the generator starts. What do you consider cheap?? Most of the generators start at $2K plus installation.

Most of the generators I've been looking at are around 65-72db which isn't too bad depending on where you have to place it. I've been looking at 2 different ones the Guardian 7kw and the Guardian 16kw (whole house) There are quiet kits available and a buddy of mine in the commercial side has used high tech car audio matting to reduce it even further. You have to know what you are doing here because of the heat generated inside the box.


I currently have a gas portable Honda EU3000IS that I use but there is no automatic startup or circuit switching.

Dave

Actually a generator strategy is a whole separate topic. I just want to have something to keep the DVR from missing a beat if there is a power failure while recording. I saw the nice silver Belkin UPS that would match my AV stuff (not fond of black AV components) that was only about $150 so I was wondering if this was a good deal or if there was something better I should be looking at (in the same price range).

Turns out the Belkins are noisy just sitting there so they are not going to work. The alternatives suggested are good ideas but are either too expensive or too far beyond the original mission definition to work for me.

 

[dronning]

I was not really looking for Power conditioning. I just want a cheap, silent, UPS system that will run my entire home theater for hours and hours during a power failure.

I think it was the "hours and hours" comment that took us to the generator discussion.

Go onto the APC site and use their calculator by plugging in your estimated wattage to determine the size of UPS you would need to run the gear for the time you want to run.


I just had to see what it would take so here it is:
If you want to run a 50" plasma TV a DVR and NOTHING else (see below) you are close to 400 watts. The APC SUA3000XL (list price approx. $1,300) will get you about 1.5 hours of operation. If you add the additional 150lb battery - SUA48XLBP (list price approx $600) you will get 9 hours of operation.


Power consumption compared
50" TVs:
Average plasma: 350 watts
Average rear-projection: 211 watts
Average LCD: 222 watts

Other A/V gear:
PlayStation 3: 197 watts
Xbox360: 187 watts
Average PC: 78 watts
DirecTV HR20 DVR: 33 watts
Wii: 19 watts
Slingbox: 9 watts
Wireless router: 7 watts

Dave

 

[Ranger Digital]

nothing CHEAP will run a full home theater set up for hours. if someone finds something for a couple hundred bucks, let us know. it would likely create lots of sales.

 

[shenandoah75]

So would APC models which feature "Stepped approximation to a sinewave " versus true sinewave be a bad idea? They would still get full sinewave until the power tripped right or is it degrades just for the boost/buck functionality too?


BTW - when i power on my amp/receiver when they were plugged into a UPS, they beep like it's over capacity (just on start up). Is that bad. I'd ultimate like 1 UPS for each 20 amp circuit in my closet. Powering the Tv's, receivers and the lower wattage stuff.

thx
-brad

 

[CollinR]

AVR is a feature you might consider, bumps the price but the performance is far superior.

AVR= Automatic voltage regulation.


Basically it works like this:

Mains>Battery Charger>True Sine inverter

As such technically you are always running on battery power when power fails you will not be charging it at the same time. This makes for total control of the output through the inverter.

 

[shenandoah75]

Well in that case, i could just buy some Trojan T105s, wire in series/parallel combination, hook up a xantrex inverter/charger
(oh wait, that's what i put in my travel trailer so the mrs can have coffee, hairdryer, tv when we dry-camp)

ok - i'm looking...

-brad

 

[huggy59]

And of course having a big UPS or a series of good-sized UPS will also boost your electric bill - it takes power to maintain batteries and every conversion phase uses energy!

 

[upstatemike]

And of course having a big UPS or a series of good-sized UPS will also boost your electric bill - it takes power to maintain batteries and every conversion phase uses energy!

But buying and maintaining a generator is also a significant cost. Maybe a whole house UPS would end up being a viable alternative?