RE: [PLUG] UPS Recommendations?

["kaze" <kaze@voicenet.com>]

I might be way off, but you don't need special software or drivers to use
the serially connected UPS monitoring. Assuming the signaling is standard
and documented (APC, Tripplite, Belkin, etc) just tell your OS specific
generic UPS software positive on this pin is running on line, this means
running on battery, etc. And IIRC APC PowerChute software runs on
Windows/UNIX/Linux anyway. The vender software gives you more goodies like
knowing the remaining runtime, line voltage fluctuations etc. With generic
software you can say, shut down box after 3 min on batt; with the vender's
software you can say, shut down the box when only five min are left on the
batt.

apcc.com has a webbased UPS sizer which you can use to get the VA number you
need based on the wattage of your equipment and the batt uptime you want.
All the venders spec in VA, but some try to trick with misleading model
numbers that look like VA values.

I try to plug as little as possible into the UPS, only stuff you don't want
to suddenly turn off, delicate electronics you don't want to lose due to
spikes or brownouts, or if your running the UPS as a batt only with no
communication to PC, just what you need to manually shut down.

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