PC Peripherals Desktop UPSes in office

[ajayr]

Hi friends,

We have around 75-80 desktops in our office connected to a 20 KVA APC UPS. This UPS, even though under AMC, constantly gives us problems and we have had several outages during the past few weeks. The APC guys are prompt in their service, but ultimately we are the sufferers with these repeated outages.

Would it make sense to go for 75-80 desktop UPSes - one for each computer? This way, there won't be a single point of failure. Are there any potential disadvantages with this setup? Cost wise, a new 20 KVA UPS and 75-80 desktop UPSes are roughly the same price.

Backup time does not matter as we have a DG which will kick in on power failure.

 

[6pack]

A question: have you tried to isolate the problem why the larger 20KVA ups might be going faulty time and again?

A potential disadvantage with having multiple ups's is the high maintenance costs. the smaller ups wont be able to cope with extended periods of over or under voltages and some might just fail. In worst case scenario down the line, you will have to manually change the batteries of each ups - more work for short staffed networking department. plus additional cost of using smf batteries which will be costly in long run.

i suggest to first try and isolate the cause of ups failure.

 

[ajayr]

Thanks a lot for your response. The APC guys are unable to isolate the problem. There is only one big component in the UPS which they call the "power module" and they just replace it everytime. Apare from this "power module", the UPS frame just has connectors and a LCD display. Anyway, we have now decided to buy a new 20 KVA UPS. Thanks again for your suggestions.

 

[Jarod]

Good decision.

Adding my 2 cents..
A typical desktop UPS will only be the line interactive type.
This type has a bit of voltage regulation and shifts to battery when your power supply goes beyond a tolerance range.
If your power supply is bad, this will wear out your battery sooner.
Only some of the higher models of the APC Smart UPS lineup are online, but they work out more expensive.

A centralized UPS is almost always the online type which is a totally isolated double conversion.
In double conversion, AC power is converted to DC and back to AC regardless of the quality or voltage, so its always filtered.

If you are having trouble with APC, maybe you should try another brand.