JeffMackwood said:Is there any equipment that needs to be put through a controlled shutdown during that 30 minute period and does the new unit come with software to make it so?Haywood said:This seems to be power management week. The matching UPS I had on my NAS croaked too, so I snagged a 1350va Cyber Power unit. I've had good luck with them. The two that just quit were at least 8 years old and I've got another one in the basement that I've had for three or four. The old unit was 875va, so the new one is substantially bigger. It provides some interesting diagnostics. Apparently, my 8-Bay NAS, i5 Intel NUC PC, Tablo DVR, Ooma VOIP appliance, printer, MOCA bridge, router and Ethernet switch only consume a whopping 162 watts with everything turned on. I'm sure that would go up if I printed something, but I am very impressed with how energy efficient the new gear is these days. I've got enough battery to keep the entire stack running for 30 minutes.
My UPS units in my main HT serve two general functions: give me time to turn off my projector properly in case of a power failure in order to avoid bulb damage (the assumption that I'm obviously nearby when the power fails if the projector is on); and avoid much less critically, to ensure that my recorders etc. keep working during an outage if they are in the process of recording / dubbing / burning a disc at the time (which doesn't matter if I'm there or not since most of the time I'm not when that's happening.)
Now that I've gone from using a portable as my home office mainstay (with it's imperviousness to power failure, and ability to put itself to sleep when the battery gets low) to a desktop (with it's proclivity to react immediately to a loss of power) I think I need to procure a UPS (with auto-shutdown software) for the home office, just in case I'm partway through composing a Nobel-wining oeuvre when the lightning strikes.
Jeff
My UPS does support controlled shutdown via USB. I need to figure out how to make it work with my NAS, which I plan to start looking at tonight. My DVR is in my server cabinet and is connected to the new UPS. There is nothing in the main system with a hard drive in it anymore. All I have in there is a receiver, amplifier, television, Squeezebox, Roku 3 and Blu-Ray player. I figured at this point it would make more sense to dump the battery and get a good quality surge protector with a convenient form factor.