UPS
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I picked up the Monster 3700 ups....I am using it for part of my Ht setup..I have plugged into it My Pioneer Elite pro 11fd plasma,Fios Box, Velodyne sub,Pioneer Elite 05 blu ray player, Rotel p3-24 turntable with out board power supply and and Cambridge phono pre-amp
nice unit but it weighs 63 pounds and is built like a brick...fan is bit noisy but quiets down after a few minutes....899 from Vann's but I took a chance with an OB for 425 shipped and no taxes with 30 day return policy. I needed something powerful because of the plasma display, most say for lamp based tvs/lcds, which I do not own.
just too many brown outs lately and with big heat wave here in New York and the lockout of power company employees forced my hand
I will be looking at something a bit smaller for my main audio equipment...Marantz Pre amp, Krell cd player, Oppo bdp 83 blu ray player, Rega Dac, and my Parasound Halo 5 channel amp
nice unit but it weighs 63 pounds and is built like a brick...fan is bit noisy but quiets down after a few minutes....899 from Vann's but I took a chance with an OB for 425 shipped and no taxes with 30 day return policy. I needed something powerful because of the plasma display, most say for lamp based tvs/lcds, which I do not own.
just too many brown outs lately and with big heat wave here in New York and the lockout of power company employees forced my hand
I will be looking at something a bit smaller for my main audio equipment...Marantz Pre amp, Krell cd player, Oppo bdp 83 blu ray player, Rega Dac, and my Parasound Halo 5 channel amp
If it is brown outs your are dealing with, maybe a voltage regulator would do the job. UPSs are to keep running when the power goes out. Do you really care if you can do that? If you use a voltage regulator, you will at least avoid the hassle or replacing batteries every few years.
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My sub had to be repaired and so did my cd player..the cd is on a panamax 5100..the sub on a Monster 3500..so yeah I need some uninterrupted power supply to be safe...the noise of the fan on the Monster 3700 can be annoying sometimes so I may go a different route with a different brand...figuring out the wattage used from my tv setup that's on the monster is close to 500 so I need something strong, the Elite plasma with speakers peaks around 375 by itself
If you own, and do not want to go with multiple UPS systems, there is always the Whole House or Whole circuit USP systems http://www.nooutage.com/houseups.htm But the best protection from Brown-Outs is making sure that the electrical system is properly grounded, Telco & CATV are bonded to earth ground, and that you are using a Whole House Surge protector, whether it is attached at the meter can (best way), or at the main breaker panel. All a UPS will do, is help keep you online for sustained power outages, not for brownouts. Electronic equipment is spec'd to run from a low point to a high point, to handle this stuff, but stuff like A/C, furnaces, anything else with a motor in the home can not handle the fluctuation as easy.
You still haven''t shown a compelling reason to get a UPS. But lets look at UPSs so you can decide what might make sense for your needs.
The starting point is a standby UPS. Your equipment is on line power until the voltage goes below a certain point or drops out completely. Then the UPS disconnects from the line and powers your equipment from battery through an inverter. Output waveforms vary depending on how much you are willing to spend: square wave, stepped square wave, or a close approximation of a sine wave. Equipment with switch mode power supplies will generally run just fine on any of these. Equipment with linear power supplies are generally better off with the latter two wave forms because of transformer heating. BTW there is a short duration when switching to/from battery when the attached equipment receives no power. You don''t notice anyting because this is less than the hold up time of the equipment.
Line interactive UPSs are a standby UPS with an automatic voltage regulation (AVR) circuit added on. Usually the AVR is simply a transformer with multiple taps which are switched in or out to keep the output voltage within a certain percentage of nominal. Like the standby UPS, a line interactive UPS does not switch to battery until line voltage goes below a certain point or drops out all together.
A third type of UPS is the double conversion UPS. The AC line voltage is used only to charge the battery. The battery in turn is always powering the inverter, which in turn powers your equipment. Your gear always sees the same voltage regardless of what is going on with the line.
IMHO all the major brands are pretty good. I would avoid unknown brands for a variety of reasons. Once you have decided on the kind of UPS you need, you need to determine the VA ratihg and run time required, Once you have that, you can go shopping.
FWIW when people praise a UPS for protecting things when other things not on UPS were damaged, it wasn''t necessarily the UPS per se that saved the equipment. It was the MOV surge protection embedded in the UPS for its own protection which protected down stream devices. IOW the UPS functioned as a very expensive surge protective device.
IMHO if you don''t need to run your gear during a power failure, you don''t need a UPS. If your gear is functioning properly during brownouts, you don''t need AVR. But it doesn''t sound like appropriate surge protection is indicated.
Not likely due to brownout. Low voltages generally don''t damage electronic equipment. They may not function correctly if the voltage is low enough, but when the voltage returns to normal, they should be fine. More likely due to surge, maybe experienced at the same time. If so, then all you need is surge protection. Or combine it with AVR.
You still haven''t shown a compelling reason to get a UPS. But lets look at UPSs so you can decide what might make sense for your needs.
The starting point is a standby UPS. Your equipment is on line power until the voltage goes below a certain point or drops out completely. Then the UPS disconnects from the line and powers your equipment from battery through an inverter. Output waveforms vary depending on how much you are willing to spend: square wave, stepped square wave, or a close approximation of a sine wave. Equipment with switch mode power supplies will generally run just fine on any of these. Equipment with linear power supplies are generally better off with the latter two wave forms because of transformer heating. BTW there is a short duration when switching to/from battery when the attached equipment receives no power. You don''t notice anyting because this is less than the hold up time of the equipment.
Line interactive UPSs are a standby UPS with an automatic voltage regulation (AVR) circuit added on. Usually the AVR is simply a transformer with multiple taps which are switched in or out to keep the output voltage within a certain percentage of nominal. Like the standby UPS, a line interactive UPS does not switch to battery until line voltage goes below a certain point or drops out all together.
A third type of UPS is the double conversion UPS. The AC line voltage is used only to charge the battery. The battery in turn is always powering the inverter, which in turn powers your equipment. Your gear always sees the same voltage regardless of what is going on with the line.
IMHO all the major brands are pretty good. I would avoid unknown brands for a variety of reasons. Once you have decided on the kind of UPS you need, you need to determine the VA ratihg and run time required, Once you have that, you can go shopping.
FWIW when people praise a UPS for protecting things when other things not on UPS were damaged, it wasn''t necessarily the UPS per se that saved the equipment. It was the MOV surge protection embedded in the UPS for its own protection which protected down stream devices. IOW the UPS functioned as a very expensive surge protective device.
IMHO if you don''t need to run your gear during a power failure, you don''t need a UPS. If your gear is functioning properly during brownouts, you don''t need AVR. But it doesn''t sound like appropriate surge protection is indicated.
As for UPS, I totally agree with Colm on this. I do not use UPS systems, unless you count the onboard batteries on mine and my wife's laptops. Otherwise, everything shuts down during power outages. Gives us a nice break from technology.
You can still install a whole panel protection type Surge. There are two types. One uses two breakers that have to be installed in the panel, and the unit mounts to either the wall, or the panel, the other installs inside the panel as two breakers. Then you would just for benefit of mind, can plug in a power strip type surge protector, or install the decora style outlets that are surge protectors.
As for UPS, I totally agree with Colm on this. I do not use UPS systems, unless you count the onboard batteries on mine and my wife's laptops. Otherwise, everything shuts down during power outages. Gives us a nice break from technology.
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I felt the surges I am using were sufficient but with the numerous brown outs I thought I would look into a Ups.I would only use it to shut things down properly during a blackout which is rare, but more importantly the quick off and on of a brown out worries me. The Monster 3700 HTPs I am using hasn't been tested yet, except by myself and it works without the slightest interruption. It is one heavy brick,63lbs, and has a lot of features to protect equipment. I found by placing a small piece of Styrofoam loosely over the fan vent allows the air to flow freely out to keep the unit kool and really dampens the sound of the fan and the vibration noise quite a bit.
any opinions on this unit would be greatly appreciated
http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4806
any opinions on this unit would be greatly appreciated
http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=4806
Um no Gene, you can not feel surges. A surge is basically anything is outside of the normal operating limits of the electrical distribution system. There is no way to physically tell when a surge happens, other than having something like a TED5000 or other device that monitors on a ongoing basis.
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exactly..sorry for misleading ..I meant the line conditioners/surge protectors
I spoke to Furman and they suggested the Elite 20i which is an HT conditioner but not an AVR, and to dump the UPS idea unless i really want it, then add a cheapo ups after the furman 20i to accommodate the DVR
Now I am getting more confused..UPS..no UPS..AVR..no AVR...the Monster does incorporate a UPS and AVR and line conditioning...oh well..keep the responses coming
the Furman 20i is a nice piece too
http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=02&id=ELITE-20PFi
update: went with the Furman Elite 15pfi....trade up program cost was 420....I can keep the panamax too without sending back..nice......adios to the Monster 3700 HTPS
I spoke to Furman and they suggested the Elite 20i which is an HT conditioner but not an AVR, and to dump the UPS idea unless i really want it, then add a cheapo ups after the furman 20i to accommodate the DVR
Now I am getting more confused..UPS..no UPS..AVR..no AVR...the Monster does incorporate a UPS and AVR and line conditioning...oh well..keep the responses coming
the Furman 20i is a nice piece too
http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=02&id=ELITE-20PFi
update: went with the Furman Elite 15pfi....trade up program cost was 420....I can keep the panamax too without sending back..nice......adios to the Monster 3700 HTPS
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I decided that the Monster 3700htps is way too noisy..especially for music and normal tv viewing....so back it went..The Furman Elite pf-15i is on it's way.I spoke to several friends who have blackout issues and saw their setups using a Cyberpower 1500pfclcd and so i am going to try that with the Furman.It has 4 Battery backup outlets and 4 active surge outlets. I plan to try several combinations of these outlets to to get the best protection and performance out of my HT and Music. The Cyberpower is rated at 1500va,900 watts with AVR and true Sine Wave.
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Do you mean 1500 VA?
Do you mean 1500 VA?
I've used APC ups for most of my computers, and even modded my 900W (1500VA) ups with some extra batteries to provide a much longer runtime. It has a feature that kicks on the UPS if the mains voltage goes above or below a certain level, which goes on sometimes for a few seconds if a heavy load is switched on in the house. I get about 50min runtime when the UPS is running at about 90% load.
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