Watts vs. Time?

[EthanTheFrogMan]

If I have a PC with a 500 Watt PSU that uses about 400 watts under load, and the power goes out, my APC 350watt Battery Backup Kicks on, How long does that 350watts in the Backup last while the PC is at full load? This question is based on the question of how Watts is measured in conjunction with time.

 

Thanks, 

 

    Ethan

[TheKDub]

Perhaps tell us what battery backup it is?

 

Also, I'm fairly sure that a 350w battery backup will only output up to 350w...

[Aniallation]

If I have a PC with a 500 Watt PSU that uses about 400 watts under load, and the power goes out, my APC 350watt Battery Backup Kicks on, How long does that 350watts in the Backup last while the PC is at full load? This question is based on the question of how Watts is measured in conjunction with time.

350W means that's how much power the UPS's inverter can supply. DO NOT PULL MORE THEN THIS AMOUNT (350W) WHEN ON BATTERY BACKUP. It will damage the UPS.

[mr moose]

If I have a PC with a 500 Watt PSU that uses about 400 watts under load, and the power goes out, my APC 350watt Battery Backup Kicks on, How long does that 350watts in the Backup last while the PC is at full load? This question is based on the question of how Watts is measured in conjunction with time.

 

Thanks, 

 

    Ethan

can you list the APC model? if the 350watt rating is an hourly rating then it'll only run for about 40 minutes (assuming good battery etc) if it is a total load rating then it won't run at all and if it does you'll probably damage something.

[EthanTheFrogMan]

350W means that's how much power the UPS's inverter can supply. DO NOT PULL MORE THEN THIS AMOUNT (350W) WHEN ON BATTERY BACKUP. It will damage the UPS.

I am a noob, what is UPS?

 

So if I have a 500watt PSU, I am pulling at most 500watts from this 350watt PSU, thats not ok?

 

should I get a surge protector and ditch the battery backup?

I will find and post the model of the battery backup in a bit

 

thanks, 

 

  Ethan

[Aniallation]

I am a noob, what is UPS?

UPS = Uninterruptable Power Supply = the APC "battery backup"

 

Your 500W PSU can handle up to 500W of power being drawn from your PC components. How much your components are actually using will depend on what components they are specifically. What specs do you have in your PC?

[EthanTheFrogMan]

i5-4690k non-OC

Z97 MSI motherboard

CX500M PSU

EVGA GTX 970 FTW

Crucial BX100 ssd

2TB WD green

16gb 1866 ram (i forget what brand)

[dalekphalm]

If I have a PC with a 500 Watt PSU that uses about 400 watts under load, and the power goes out, my APC 350watt Battery Backup Kicks on, How long does that 350watts in the Backup last while the PC is at full load? This question is based on the question of how Watts is measured in conjunction with time.

 

Thanks, 

 

    Ethan

 

You need to list the exact part number of your APC Battery Backup unit (Which is a UPS, as explained above). Most likely, you're going to overload the unit.

 

A UPS has two important specs:

Volt-Amps, and Watts

 

If you know the model number, you can cross reference the runtime-based-on-load on the APC.com website.

 

For example:

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE750G&total_watts=400

The BE750G. This is a 450 Watt UPS, with 750 VA capabilities.

 

It can run your 400 Watt load for about 3.5 minutes...

 

Of course, you can sometimes increase runtime by adding more batteries, but not every UPS supports this feature. Usually only rackmount ones will support additional battery packs, so you should generally just buy the right UPS for your needs right away.

 

For your PC, you're gonna want a UPS that supports at least 500 watts, since if for whatever reason, your PC draws extra load, and goes beyond the watts spec of the UPS, you'll possibly destroy the UPS.

 

For example, this unit supports 600 watts max load, and can run your 400 watt load for just under 9 minutes:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000G

 

That's enough time to realize you're on battery power, and to save any open documents/games and shut down the PC.

 

But honestly it depends on why you want to run a UPS. If you just have occasional brown-outs for a few seconds, then you don't need to worry about total runtime too much, as long as it supports your max load.

 

You may also want to consider running your Monitor off the UPS (So you can see what you're doing when the power goes out), which means you'll need a few extra watts for the monitor too.

[EthanTheFrogMan]

Ah, I have this APC laying around from like two years ago, I needed a surge protector for my new gaming PC so I decided to use it. The battery backup is just an extra item I will not use much. Can I use the APC without the battery backup? For example, the APC has 3 battery backup and surge protection plugs, 3 surge protection plugs, and two extra plugs, If I plug my PC into the 3 surge protection(non battery backup) plug slots will the UPC burn out, even If I am not using the battery backup plugs?

I would rather not buy new surge protection.

btw tomorrow I will get the APC and get the model #

[dalekphalm]

Ah, I have this APC laying around from like two years ago, I needed a surge protector for my new gaming PC so I decided to use it. The battery backup is just an extra item I will not use much. Can I use the APC without the battery backup? For example, the APC has 3 battery backup and surge protection plugs, 3 surge protection plugs, and two extra plugs, If I plug my PC into the 3 surge protection(non battery backup) plug slots will the UPC burn out, even If I am not using the battery backup plugs?

I would rather not buy new surge protection.

btw tomorrow I will get the APC and get the model #

 

Once you have the model number, we can check the surge rating (If supplied on the mfg website - which it should be). It's possible to use the device on "Surge Protection Only" and not on the battery, but you still need to make sure your load isn't going to exceed the specs (Otherwise a surge could still wreck your PC).

 

However, depending on where you live, you can get a good quality surge protector for like $10-20, so worst case scenario, you simply pick up a proper one.

[EthanTheFrogMan]

I thought it was a 350w but I guess not.

 

Model: UPS-ES 550

 

http://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Outlet-550VA-120V/dp/B0019804U8

[Mojo-Jojo]

I thought it was a 350w but I guess not.

 

Model: UPS-ES 550

 

http://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Outlet-550VA-120V/dp/B0019804U8

You're confusing supply rating (how much power it can deliver at one given moment) and capacity (how much energy it can store).

The last one is (usually) rated in Amp-hours or Milliamp-hours, but the more convenient term is watt-hours.

A battery with 1 watt-hour of stored energy is capable of supplying a 1W device for 1 hour before being drained.

 

But you could, say, draw 60W from the same battery, except it'd only last 1 minute. It'd still have drained a watt hour of energy.

As long as this supposed battery supports delivering 60 Watts of course.

 

So now you know that:

If a rating is in Watts, this means it can power a certain device that pulls up to 350 watts.

If a device is rated in Watt Hours (Wh) or Amp-hours (Ah) this means it can Power a device for a certain time, depending on the rating of the device being powered

 

The graphs for your unit can be found here: http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550R&tab=models

[EthanTheFrogMan]

You're confusing supply rating (how much power it can deliver at one given moment) and capacity (how much energy it can store).

The last one is (usually) rated in Amp-hours or Milliamp-hours, but the more convenient term is watt-hours.

A battery with 1 watt-hour of stored energy is capable of supplying a 1W device for 1 hour before being drained.

 

But you could, say, draw 60W from the same battery, except it'd only last 1 minute. It'd still have drained a watt hour of energy.

As long as this supposed battery supports delivering 60 Watts of course.

 

So now you know that:

If a rating is in Watts, this means it can power a certain device that pulls up to 350 watts.

If a device is rated in Watt Hours (Wh) or Amp-hours (Ah) this means it can Power a device for a certain time, depending on the rating of the device being powered

Ah, so I cannot power my PC on this UPS. Anyone have any good surge protectors to recommend that can supply enough power for two of these:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236424&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

 

and a PC with that needs 500W? I may need to run my PC off of one and my monitors off of the other. Clearly I have very little Knowledge on Surge protectors.

 

I can spend up to $50 on surge protectors for my setup at the moment.

[Mojo-Jojo]

Ah, so I cannot power my PC on this UPS. Anyone have any good surge protectors to recommend that can supply enough power for two of these:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236424&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

 

and a PC with that needs 500W? I may need to run my PC off of one and my monitors off of the other. Clearly I have very little Knowledge on Surge protectors.

 

I can spend up to $50 on surge protectors for my setup at the moment.

That's all good, it's what the forums are for!

I'm not into UPSes so I can't really recommend anything, but I'd be more than happy to explain stuff like this if the need arises.

 

I think for $50 you might not find the capacity you're looking for with decent build quality (remember, this stuff is surge protection too, and the quality of the output of this thing is going into your equipment!)

I'd save up just a bit longer if I were you, just so you can get a good UPS of which you know the output is going to be clean and the protection circuitry is going to actually work. There might be good units around. Like I said, I'm not into the UPS stuff so I might be mistaken. For all I know there's a good cheap brand!

[EthanTheFrogMan]

I think I am still confused, I really don't need a battery backup, I just need the surge protection, could I get that for $50?

[dalekphalm]

Ah, so I cannot power my PC on this UPS. Anyone have any good surge protectors to recommend that can supply enough power for two of these:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236424&nm_mc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

 

and a PC with that needs 500W? I may need to run my PC off of one and my monitors off of the other. Clearly I have very little Knowledge on Surge protectors.

 

I can spend up to $50 on surge protectors for my setup at the moment.

 

What would you like your surge protector to do? Simply protect your equipment in case of power outages, power spikes, lightning strikes, etc?

 

If so, something like this would be sufficient:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107196&cm_re=surge_protector-_-12-107-196-_-Product

 

Alternatively, here are a couple "better" ones, in case you want more peace of mind:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107131&cm_re=surge_protector-_-12-107-131-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812106085&cm_re=surge_protector-_-12-106-085-_-Product

 

Keep in mind, that the best protection is a "whole house" surge protector, rated for something like 50,000 amps of protection, but those are a lot more than $50, as they protect your entire home electrical grid.

[EthanTheFrogMan]

Ok, thanks, I am looking into the Belkin one. I just want my surge protector to protect my equipment from lightning strikes ect.