Power conditioners and blackouts

[Rafy0126]

I was wondering the same a few weeks back, but power outages or blackout, are not my main concern, is when the power comes back, what's worries me...

 

[Speedskater]

Yes there can be a voltage surge when the power company restores power. The a whole home surge protection system can come in handy.

 

[Blue Dude]

Unless you need to protect something with a bulb (projector) or a hard drive (DVR, HTPC), you don't really need a battery. They are nice to have if you just happened to be using your system when the power cuts out since they'll give you time to shut down cleanly. Pretty much any of the home theater APC products will be sufficient to protect your equipment from power spikes when the power comes back on. The specific model you get really depends on your power environment (lots of brownouts or blackouts?) and your equipment to be protected. If all you want is to make sure your receiver, blu ray player and TV are protected, any of them will do (P- or C- type). If you have lots of brownouts or sagging voltage events, then a model with a variac (H- type) would be a good idea. If you have something that would be harmed by a sudden power loss, then you need a battery (J- or S- type).

 

[moves]

So I picked up an APC S15 for $250 and it is rated for 900w.

However, I have a question... My t.v. manual says it puts out 583 watts, my AVR puts out 770 W and 330 W stand by, the PS4 puts out 90 - 150 W, iMac - 70 watts, cable box?

I have all of these plugged into the APC and all going at once... it says 583 watts used and fluctuates and bit but stays around that... sometimes goes even down to 300 - 400 watts used displayed on the APC... HOW COME? The t.v. alone is putting out what is displayed....


Also, any idea if I can use an extension cord PERMANENTLY on my iMac desktop and plug it into the APC? The stock cord is not long enough.

 

[j_garcia]

Probably peak numbers so not using 100% of rated all the time. So if all devices are not running at the same time, it won't be drawing that kind of current.

 

[Speedskater]

To double check, get a little 'Kill-a-Watt' meter.

Note that most power amplifiers only draw max wattage on musical peaks and those peaks don't last long so the meter might miss them.

Old fashioned CRT TV's drew lots of power on start-up and it took a big UPS to get them going.

 

[highfigh]

The units shut off because the power went out lol. I don't believe that the H10 or 15 have anything to protect against blackouts.

Blackout is when the power goes out, brownout is when the voltage sags.