Electrical worries in new apartment

sweave

Just finished moving to my new apartment
one thing that is worrying me is the power.
i noticed that when you turn on an appliance the lights dim somewhat and when you turn it off they brighten up again.
i have my pc components plugged in to a pretty decent surge protector but i was thinking i should buy an apc unit as well.
anyone have recommendations for what kind of unit i should get?
should i get a ups or just stick to surge protection?

some ideas::
http://www.amazon.com/APC-Back-UPS-Outlet-550VA-120V/dp/B0019804U8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315238599&sr=8-1
or something like this?
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=LE600&fnl=3945,3&fnl_basket=3945,4c
or this
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=P11GTV

my computer specs are a core i5 2500k
xfx 450 gpu
3 1tb harddrives
4gb ram
750w psu

Straight_Man

Look here: http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000G-BR&total_watts=200

Also, that kind of electrical problem will cause a undervoltage,meaning you will need a full UPS (with a battery or batteries in it).

sweave

hmmm moneys a bit tight right now
is there anything a bit cheaper that might do?

the other thing i noticed today is that the only lights that dim when i activate an appliance are the dimmer lights and not the regular switch lights. could this be problem with the dimmer lights only?

going to call an electrician this week

Sonorous

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that an APC is always the better option. Surge protectors only do one thing, protect you from a spike in power above the voltage that is normal. An APC on the other hand will protect you from both surges and brown outs (drops in voltage below normal). I am not sure if this is true or where I heard it, but I think that brown outs generally cause more damage to consumer electronics than power surges do. Just do yourself a favor and get an APC. Better safe than sorry I always say.

sweave

also is the higher wattage of the ups unit used for giving the pc extra shutdown time?

how about something like this?
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0353898

Hawk

Here's what we use in our house. APC BE750G 750 VA 450 Watts 10 Outlets
I've used the APC brand for many yrs now without fail or damage.
We have power fluctuations, brownouts and power loss quite often here in Fla.
My office has one full tower gaming pc and a gaming laptop in it and I always have enough time to shut the systems down before power runs out.
Our living room has 2 full tower gaming pc's / sound systems, printer/fax/scanner all in one on a APC BR1500G 1500 VA 865 Watt 10 Outlets .
We always have plenty of time for shutdown on that too.
These backups come with shutdown software that you can install for auto shutdown also.
If you choose to use that method.
Hope this helps.

Tushon

Sonorous wrote:

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that an APC is always the better option. Surge protectors only do one thing, protect you from a spike in power above the voltage that is normal. An APC on the other hand will protect you from both surges and brown outs (drops in voltage below normal). I am not sure if this is true or where I heard it, but I think that brown outs generally cause more damage to consumer electronics than power surges do. Just do yourself a favor and get an APC. Better safe than sorry I always say.

Just to clarify, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is the device, American Power Conversion (APC) is a company which produces these devices. Surge protectors are appropriate for devices which will not be damaged by a sudden loss of power, but would be damaged by a spike in voltage. They do not protect against under-voltage, which can damage some devices in a different way. For devices sensitive to power loss and/or under-volting (no idea which of those ways of saying under-volting was grammatical), a UPS is definitely ideal and highly recommended. Desktop PCs should almost always be on a UPS, which helps to protect your hardware and data. A laptop, for example, would only "need" to be on a surge protector, as the battery performs some of the roles a UPS already handles. You may be correct on brownouts causing more damage, but that is probably due to brownouts being more frequent than real power surges (no citation, just guessing).

sweave wrote:

also is the higher wattage of the ups unit used for giving the pc extra shutdown time?

Sort of. Quoting from wiki "The VA rating is limited by the maximum permissible current, and the watt rating by the power-handling capacity of the device. When a UPS powers equipment which presents a reactive load with a low power factor (e.g., a computer), neither limit may safely be exceeded." Basically, the wattage rating does give you more time, as there is a higher capacity in the batteries. My gaming desktop, for example, draws almost 600W while under full load (F@H on CPU, GTX 570, GTX 465), but only ~200W when I shut off the folding clients, yielding a much longer time (<2 min compared to 8-10) to save/shutdown safely.

sweave

hmmm
i guess i'll bite and get the 1000va one
luckily brownouts here are rare but i do get like 2 or 3 a year. mostly following hurricanes when all the trees fall down.
i'll definitely get the software that i will auto shut me down no matter what i'm doing.
does the software that comes with the device work well or should i look at a 3rd party program?

Straight_Man

Well, APC has distributed and tweaked and improved Powerchute (the software name)for over two decades, and first made its progenitor work with Unix boxes before that. Very trustworthy and NOT bloatware.

Straight_Man

Here is a article I wrote a while ago that is pretty much in plain english:

http://johndanielsonii.name/articles/powerart01.html

This is for those who wonder if the techese is BS.

sweave

ackk just realized that both my power supplies are .98 pfc
back to model hunting