Are UPSes noisy?

[MrFurious]

Hi,
I'm in the market for a UPS, and had recently focused on the Back-UPS Pro line from APC. Their site says that they can make 45 dBA of noise at one meter. I'm pretty ignorant about decibel ratings but that seems loud to me. I'm wondering if anyone owns this line of UPS, and can give comparisons of the noise levels (like is it better or worse than a typical power supply..... stuff like that.)

Also, what's the cause of the sound. Do most modern UPS's have fans like power supplies?

Any suggestions for other "quiet" UPS's would be appreciated also.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[aGeNt73]

I've worked with a couple of APC Back-Ups pro and they seem to be pretty quiet to me. I never knew they had a rating of 45db tho..thats pretty loud considering my FOP38 is 37 and its kinda loud. Anyways, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most people store their UPS's under the table or behind the desk. That should muffle the sound enough. Some people here at my work have them under their desk and I've never heard them once.


-aGeNt73

 

[LordEdmond]

very slight hummmmmm
very quiet compared to your psu fan
mine works fine
45dbA is quiet
but db is subjective as it is a logarithmic scale very confusuing indeed

eg 1 watt increased to 10 watt is a 10 db increase.
10 watts to 100watts is also a 10 bd increase

the A in dbA is the weighting to the scale there are several different weighting scales

 

[thorin]

Between myself and two co-workers that all have BackUPS 500s we've never noticed any noise on our UPSs.

Thorin

 

[Gunbuster]

The ones I have used make a buzzing when they switch to battery.

 

[Thump553]

All I can think of is that noise level might be the alarm when power is off & running on battery. My UPS is dead silent normally.

 

[Workin']

My UPS makes no noise at all. Except when it beeps when the power goes out, of course.

 

[thorin]

Heh yeah, I wasn't including the Power Outage/Spike alarm, that easily reaches 45db.

Thorin

 

[shipwreck]

The UPS I have a work is whisper quiet, though I don't think I've ever had the need to use it. I forget the type, but I'll let you know tommorrow (I played hooky today)

 

[woodie1]

I have a Belkin under my desk at home and don't recall ever hearing anything except when the power goes off.

 

[MrFurious]

Thanks for all the responses. I just realized I should make it clear, that I'm only concerned about noise during the times when I don't need the battery which hopefully will be most of the time.

 

[Shmorq]

I have the Back UPS Pro 450 and it's no different than having a normal surge protector. Literally, since the power has never gone out in my home that I required the backup power plus the thing makes absolutely no noise at all after it's been turned on.

 

[RossMAN]

My APC Back-UPS 500 Pro is whisper quiet also, you never know that it's even on. But sometimes when the weather gets nasty and the power goes off it instantly begins battery back-up then you hear a chirp or beep.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

My APC UPS beeps very loudly and annoyingly when on battery backup, and if the computer is off but it's still on battery, I can hear a slight hum. When the computer is off and the UPS has power, it's dead silent.

I wish there was a way to turn off the no power alarm, because I really don't care if the power goes out, the idea is simply to compensate for breif power outages. If the power goes out at 6 AM, for a half hour, I'd rather just let the thing run out of juice and cut the power to my computer than wake me up.

 

[MrFurious]

Ended up getting the APC Back_UPS PRO (USB) 500 model. Looks nice, and it does a great job. No noise, so I'm happy. Thanks again everybody!