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Running a Home-Office Through a UPS
mwagner_00 asks: "After spending lots of money and time, I now have an office in my home. My wife and I both have computers (mine is a high powered gaming rig), and I also have a workbench where I work on other people's PCs. I have a web/email server as well. I would like to protect the investment by running the room's power through a UPS. I have a APC 3000NET that my workplace was going to throw out. The only thing it needs is a good set of batteries. Has anyone tried something like this before? Basically I want to find the breaker for the room, and after the breaker, run the power through the UPS and back out to the room. Is the UPS that I have sufficient to run a whole small office?"
A surge strip and extention cord for the work bench. If you are going to try to patch into the house wiring you're going to want a certified electritian, and depending on housing codes in your area, you may need a certificate from the building inspector.
Much easier to mount the UPS under the work bench and to run an extention cord/surge strip to the other PCs. You don't want to have anything running off the protector you don't need. Things like speakers, printers, PDA chargers, etc.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
The specs say 2250 watts. 2250 watts divided by 120 volts = 18.75 amps. So, in theory, you could hook this to a circuit with an 18 amp fuse or breaker.
Of course, doing this is surely a crazy violation of electrical codes. Would it be that hard just to plug the computers into the UPS? It has plenty of outlets, it really looks like that is how it was intended. Wiring it right to the electrical box might get you some geek points, but you might also become a Darwin awards nominee.
I doubt it is worth it.
1) Many houses and apartments are not wired the way
you think; all the outlets in one room may not be
on the same breaker. Other rooms may have outlets
on that breaker. Lights may or may not be on the
outlet with that breaker. IOW, you would need to
test thoroughly, and probably do some rewiring.
And you still might miss something.
2) If you miswire anything and the house burns down,
your insurance may not cover you. You'll need to
check what the code is where you live and look into
inspections. Getting a licensed electrician involved
is a good idea.
3) You don't want to plug your vacuum cleaner into the
output side of your UPS; not great for either one
of them. Sooner or later, something like that will
happen.
4) If you have a laser printer, startup surges can be
huge; not a good idea to be on the UPS.
There are others, but this should be enough. I have
to go along with the people who receommended running
one (or however many) separate outlets for the UPS.
These can be current or new outlets wired to the UPS
and *clearly labeled*. Maybe use red covers or something,
with a label "Computer equipment only" or "Ask Fred
before plugging anything in here". Of course, you'd
have to change your name to Fred.... Depending on who
could possibly be plugging things in, you could even
consider switching to no normal outlets; hardwire some
power strips into a junction box, and bolt them underneath
the desks the equipment sits on. The biggest problem with
that is moving the desks.
And finally, what happens when you move? You need to make
sure this isn't too hard to reverse, or consider what
happens if you leave it. You don't want someone coming
after you with an axe or lawyer later.