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How long before my UPS runs out of juice?

How long before she runs out of juice?

  • 15 minutes

    Votes: 2 9.5%

  • 30 minutes

    Votes: 4 19.0%

  • 45 minutes

    Votes: 3 14.3%

  • 1-2 hours

    Votes: 4 19.0%

  • More than 1 hour

    Votes: 2 9.5%

  • Bacon

    Votes: 6 28.6%
  • Total voters
    21

TanTJJim

Red Skull Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2020
Member Number
3009
Messages
175
Not the shipping company, my uninterruptible power supply.

I recently got a cheapy UPS to keep my starlink going during work hours as we lose power occasionally for typically less than 2 hours.

My UPS says it's 450VA and starlink says it's drawing around 50 watts right now. I unplugged the UPS from the wall about 10 minutes ago and want to see how long before it dies.

Any guesses on when she craps out? I'll update with the correct answer tomorrow.
 
Don’t know what the low voltage cut-off is on your UPS, but if you run it all the way down, your shortening the life of those lead acid batt’s. I wouldn’t let the batts get below 50% before I plugged it back in.
 
My buddy has one that will run his internet and tv approx 45 minutes
 
I'm guessing an hour, but I will always vote bacon. :flipoff2:

My Power supply is about the same size but It will only power my computer for a 20 minutes.
 
Swayzeexpress said:
So what happened?
Click to expand...
The poll was on point last night with their guesses. Looks like the morning crew came in a messed it all up.

Final time was a whopping 33 minutes. I was hoping for a little longer than that, but honestly just happy it worked at all.
 
The UPS is really just an inverter with a brain. You're losing a lot going from DC to AC and back to DC. You'd get a lot more out of a bigger deep cycle battery and a D -DC boost converter. Google says the starlink modem runs on 56v DC. A bunch of companies are selling kits with a boost converter and a barrel plug for $80-100. You can buy the pieces on ebay and DIY for under $30. Pretty damn simple and theoretically with a couple of batteries and properly sized solar panels you could run it indefinitely.


1727797525172.png
 
I've heard about a lot of mods related to starlink to just run it on DC like you mentioned. It's pretty cool stuff but doesn't fit my use case.

For me 30 minutes of backup is plenty of time to determine what my next options are.
 
My APC 9000 rated at 480 watts runs my broadband router about 4 hours. After that the broadband tower runs out of backup battery also. Then it's generator time or time to migrate into town and steal my sons interweb.
 
My APC with 850VA/450W rating says 110 minutes when power drops with my Synology NAS, Netgear cable router, Netgear wifi router, and 6 port switch plugged in and in use. I have not had to run it that long though.
 
UPS Are not designed to be discharged and charged. They are designed to run the system so you can shut it down properly. Also for power management and filtration to get clean power to your equipment.

Trust me on this, I've seen far too many UPS shit the bed because people use it to run their equipment until the battery dies, recharge and repeat when the power comes back on.
 
KarlVP said:
UPS Are not designed to be discharged and charged. They are designed to run the system so you can shut it down properly. Also for power management and filtration to get clean power to your equipment.

Trust me on this, I've seen far too many UPS shit the bed because people use it to run their equipment until the battery dies, recharge and repeat when the power comes back on.
Click to expand...
This right here. Used to set up a UPS for every point of sale in gas stations. Their sole purpose was to give the staff time to properly shut down the registers in the event of a power outage.
 
I have 400va "Amazon Basics" UPSs on all of my computers. The power where I am will occasionally "blink" for a fraction of a second to a few seconds. The UPS's keep them up and running during such "blinks". I also have a 1500va UPS for my network equipment (Starlink, an ASUS Router and a POE camera).

I normally don't have to shut anything down unless the power stays out for a significant amount of time. I rarely shut down the network though and the 1500va UPS will usually last longer than the outage (especially if there's no network activity since everything else is off).

So far, I've only lost one 400va UPS as it randomly started turning itself off. It was the one I was using for the network, so to the point being made in the thread, running it until it was out of power may have had something to do with its ultimate failure. Hence, I replaced it with a 1500va "smart" UPS.
 
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