First let me make sure it’s clear that I am NOT trying to extend runtime by connecting two UPSs in series. That’s been asked a million times on various forums, and is not what I’m trying to accomplish.

I’ve had 3 UPS units fail on me in the last 12-18 months, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s the power flickers that are doing them in. My power rarely goes out for more than a minute or five, but before it does, it always violently flickers for a few seconds. Those flickers are hell on my unprotected equipment, and I’m wondering if that’s what has caused my UPSs to die prematurely (the newest one barely lasted 5 months).

The old ones still function and still seem to do automatic voltage regulation, but none of them last more than 1-2 seconds once they switch to battery. I’ve tested the batteries, and they’re fine; they were also all replaced about 9 months ago.

So, what I’m hoping is that the old ones can sit upstream of the new UPSs to take the brunt of any rapid brownout /surges and keep my new UPSs healthy. They’re all pure sine wave and similarly rated.

Thoughts? Warnings/cautions?

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgOPEnglish
    3·
    16 hours ago

    The first is that you’re potentially going to cause a ground loop, which is not healthy for the life of anything plugged into those UPSes.

    Wasn’t aware of that, but will look into it. Good to know

    The other two, yeah, they’re pretty much non-issues with modern pure sine wave UPSs. Mine both have AVR and will, within a certain range, just boost an undervoltage at the expense of a little extra current draw (or also the opposite for overvoltages). Since I’m limiting my loads to 1/2 of the rated value, even that extra current should be well within spec.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.netM
      5·
      15 hours ago

      I am running a UPS after a solar battery system as it doesn’t switch fast enough when the power cuts (despite having a “UPS” mode) and I can tell that the lack of a proper sinewave is still a problem. It seems to work, but the real UPS makes some very strange humming noises when running that way.

      • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgOPEnglish
        1·
        10 minutes ago

        Good to know (I’ve got similar plans to setup a solar battery system)

        Though I do have a sinewave inverter I run from my big 48v 30 Ah ebike battery during shorter outages (9 times out of 10, that will get me through outages without having to start the generator). I’ve plugged my UPSs into it, and they seem fine with it (no weird humming or constantly going on/off battery). I’m a little more than 90% positive that’s not what’s caused them to fail because I’ve done that for a lot longer than these have been having issues lol.