UPS is intervening for 1 second 'blackouts.'

[Cat]

I just bought an APC Battery Backup 800VA. It's been kicking in for very short durations, and PowerChute registers them as blackouts. My TV and lamp, which are in the same room, but not on the same outlet, don't flicker at all during these reported blackouts.
This doesn't happen very often, but I'm not sure what's going on. The software can also classify interventions as under/overvoltage, and brownouts. Neither of these are reported.

Before the UPS was installed, I had no problems on this outlet either.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ionizer86]

Well, one solution is to not use the software. I personally don't like bloat that slows my PC, so I have the UPC plugged in and all, but I didn't hook up the USB connection for monitoring. I suppose it's easy enough to manually shut down if the power goes out and the thing starts beeping.

 

[Cat]

This is a case of the software merely reporting what the UPS does. My system doesn't attempt to shut down. I'm just curious as to why the UPS is switching to battery power for a second, when nothing else in the room seems to be affected.

 

[corkyg]

Sometimes the power company switches from one source to another. It is very fast, and ther naked eye does not see it - but a UPS often does. I have three of them and that sort of thing is not uncommon. I don't use any serial cable connections or software - I use them manually, and they are very reliable.

 

[zephyrprime]

That's odd. My APC doesn't do that. Any brownouts are detectable because the lights dim very briefly.

 

[VTEC01EX]

Whenever someone turns on the TV in my living room, my UPS beeps. Whenever I turn on the bathroom light, my roommate's UPS beeps. Never both at the same time (unless we actually lose power), and only when we do those two things. Odd...

 

[ZimZum]

Originally posted by: VTEC01EX
Whenever someone turns on the TV in my living room, my UPS beeps. Whenever I turn on the bathroom light, my roommate's UPS beeps. Never both at the same time (unless we actually lose power), and only when we do those two things. Odd...

Easy solution is to set the UPS so it only sounds the alarm if power is out for 5 minutes or more.

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: corky-g
Sometimes the power company switches from one source to another. It is very fast, and ther naked eye does not see it - but a UPS often does. I have three of them and that sort of thing is not uncommon. I don't use any serial cable connections or software - I use them manually, and they are very reliable.

I agree they are very reliable. I use the software just to monitor the battery charge, as I shutdown manually. The electrical service in my parents' house is awful, and growing I remember having all sort of problems. We used regulators for almost anything

The UPS beeps a lot, but it is better than having to deal with lost information...

ZimZum, how do I configure the UPS to beep only after 5 minutes, or 1 minute to be safe? I have a Belkin silver series 500VA.... Let me get the complete name and number.


Thanks

Alex

 

[ozziegn]

good battery back UPS (like APCs) will sense a voltage drop and kick in automatically. thats what they're supposed to do.

they sense when your current voltage might drop below a certain threshold (like under 110 volts) and they kick in for that brief milli-second or two to fill in the gap until the supplied voltage is back up to par.

your other eletrical things might not notice the voltage being under 110 but thats whats so good about APCs is that they do.

 

[Cat]

APC's software differentiates between voltage problems and actual loss of power. My strange incidents were recorded as blackouts, not as voltage incidents. corky-g's post makes the most sense to me.