APC UPS for back up and voltage stabilization

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi

I have a PC whose SMPS busted due to voltage fluctuations in my home.
I called up APC to find out what could be the solution. The APC tech guy spoke to me and he asked me to take a 1000VA online UPS high end model which is some 400 dollars. He told me that this UPS would give steady voltage of 230 volts to the SMPS what ever might be the line voltage.

I don't know how to correct the power fluctuation problem at home. I contacted the electrical guys here who are telling me different things. The apartment which I live is partially occupied and some houses are still under construction. People keep tinkering with power supply. The earthing is also not proper. We got earthing done last year after my TV mobo got spoiled. We tested the earthing again recently using multimeter and we are getting some 40 to 50 volts when we put the leads in neutral and earth. One guy asked me to go for an inverter solution. He told me that the inverter would give me steady power and cut off incase high voltage surge. I don't know about it much.

Any thoughts?

Regards
Srinivas

 

[silicon]

Hi

I have a PC whose SMPS busted due to voltage fluctuations in my home.
I called up APC to find out what could be the solution. The APC tech guy spoke to me and he asked me to take a 1000VA online UPS high end model which is some 400 dollars. He told me that this UPS would give steady voltage of 230 volts to the SMPS what ever might be the line voltage.

I don't know how to correct the power fluctuation problem at home. I contacted the electrical guys here who are telling me different things. The apartment which I live is partially occupied and some houses are still under construction. People keep tinkering with power supply. The earthing is also not proper. We got earthing done last year after my TV mobo got spoiled. We tested the earthing again recently using multimeter and we are getting some 40 to 50 volts when we put the leads in neutral and earth. One guy asked me to go for an inverter solution. He told me that the inverter would give me steady power and cut off incase high voltage surge. I don't know about it much.

Any thoughts?

Regards
Srinivas

you may never be able to solve the power grid problems as it seems the entire grid in india is unstable to a large degree. That said its now up to you to tame those fluctuations to have a steady voltage to your computer. A power inverter changes DC current to AC current. What you need is a power conditioner that will give a steady 230vac regardless of the input voltage. Without that you will continue to fry the computer power supply.

 

[adityasrinivasb]

Hi

Thanks for the reply

Can you please recommend me any power conditioner that is good for my PC. Are there any such devices that can be connected at the mains which can give consistent 230v Ac in my whole house?

I am also hearing that the Mobo can cause SMPS problems like this. I am also planning to get Corsair 500 watts SMPS and try with it to see if it better than cooler master 500w thunder. I am bothered about the affect of this SMPS problem on my Mobo and CPU. They are the costly items in my setup. I never thought something like this would ever happen.

Regards
Srinivas

 

[Red Squirrel]

I was thinking you could setup a dual conversion UPS using a AC to DC power converter (Rectifier basically), battery bank, and pure sine inverter.

But then you still are going to blow the rectifier every now and then. You could maybe do something like:

Power conditioner -> Rectifier -> batteries -> inverter -> computer.

Though I'd imagine telecom grade rectifiers may be robust enough to handle the fluctuations. Hard to tell as working in a NOC I do see them fail regularly enough, but that's also across thousands of sites.

I've actually been wanting to setup something like this myself, more "just because" than because I need it though. We get the odd ball power outage and it's nice to have a couple hours of battery power, but otherwise our power is stable.

Brownouts and fast fluctuations are what is really bad, because a typical UPS may end up switching back and forth a lot or not switching at all and letting it get to the PC. That's where dual conversion is nice as it completely buffers that.

 

[silicon]

Hi

I have a PC whose SMPS busted due to voltage fluctuations in my home.
I called up APC to find out what could be the solution. The APC tech guy spoke to me and he asked me to take a 1000VA online UPS high end model which is some 400 dollars. He told me that this UPS would give steady voltage of 230 volts to the SMPS what ever might be the line voltage.

I don't know how to correct the power fluctuation problem at home. I contacted the electrical guys here who are telling me different things. The apartment which I live is partially occupied and some houses are still under construction. People keep tinkering with power supply. The earthing is also not proper. We got earthing done last year after my TV mobo got spoiled. We tested the earthing again recently using multimeter and we are getting some 40 to 50 volts when we put the leads in neutral and earth. One guy asked me to go for an inverter solution. He told me that the inverter would give me steady power and cut off incase high voltage surge. I don't know about it much.

Any thoughts?

Regards
Srinivas

a good power conditioner may be somewhat expensive but in india what else can you do?