Question Sine Wave UPS Systems

[Golgatha]

Are both the surge and surge+battery power ports on a UPS voltage regulated with sine-wave output if your UPS is a sine-wave UPS unit? Reason I ask is I don't need battery backup for my laptop, but I would like the clean power and voltage regulation features for it. I'd have to run a short extension cord to it, so I'd rather not if they're just purely surge protected, as I have a small wall unit for that purpose.

Here's the unit I just bought - https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/battery-backup/gx1500u/

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

A pure sine wave UPS will only provide pure sine wave on the battery outlets while on battery backup. While power is live, all the ports will just be passing the wall power through.

If you want a UPS that always provides clean, isolated power you need to get a much more expensive double conversion unit.

 

[mnewsham]

Yea, you need a double-conversion UPS to have always-clean power. They're much more expensive.

 

[BoomerD]

Yea, you need a double-conversion UPS to have always-clean power. They're much more expensive.


View attachment 59226

Yep. That's what convinced me to buy an inverter generator at a much higher price than a regular generator of the same size. MUCH cleaner power...

 

[Golgatha]

Yea, you need a double-conversion UPS to have always-clean power. They're much more expensive.


View attachment 59226

Wow! This is for a home install, so nothing mission critical. I had a UPS unit crap out after 15 years of use downstairs, so I moved the one for a computer on the main floor to the basement and upgraded capacity on the main floor. There was enough excess wattage capacity to run both the desktop and laptop, so just curious if it was worth running the extra extension cord. Kind of interesting that these high end units have a power factor or 0.9 instead of 0.6 like my consumer version (1500VA = 900w for the one I purchased).

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Wow! This is for a home install, so nothing mission critical. I had a UPS unit crap out after 15 years of use downstairs, so I moved the one for a computer on the main floor to the basement and upgraded capacity on the main floor. There was enough excess wattage capacity to run both the desktop and laptop, so just curious if it was worth running the extra extension cord. Kind of interesting that these high end units have a power factor or 0.9 instead of 0.6 like my consumer version (1500VA = 900w for the one I purchased).

Not sure about other brands but APC's double conversion units are rated at 0.9 as an estimate but it actually is based on the PFC of the connected equipment. My SRT1500XLA is generally around 95%+ due to both PCs having 99% PFC power supplies.

It seems on the consumer grade UPS models they enforce the 0.6 as a hard wattage limit regardless of the PFC of the connected equipment.