Uninterruptable power supplies

[cliveb]

Looking for some advice from the experts here.

With the possibility of power outages this winter, I'm considering getting a UPS for a couple of fairly important servers at home.
They are only Raspberry Pi4s, so no need for much power delivery - 50W should be more than enough.
But it does need to be able to keep running for a few hours in the event of a power cut.

And most importantly, it MUST switch over instantly and maintain power to the servers without any brief interruption.
The reason for this is that one of the Pi4s has a weird boot procedure involving external USB devices and it won't come back up if the power is just pulled and returned.

So, any recommendations?

 

[Newtonuti]

What kind of budget are you looking at?

 

[larmen]

Aren’t these pi things convertible to laptop form factor? That’s basically a backup power supply ‘built in’.

 

[cliveb]

What kind of budget are you looking at?

Hadn't yet considered a budget. No point in not spending enough to get something that does the job properly. I've seen cheap UPS's for under £100, but willing to spend considerably more if necessary.
I'm guessing that in order to avoid any chance of a brief brown-out, I'll need one that powers devices from its battery at all times and uses the mains to keep the battery charged, rather than something that monitors the mains and switches over to battery if it fails.

Aren’t these pi things convertible to laptop form factor? That’s basically a backup power supply ‘built in’.

I believe it's possible to build some kind of laptop with a Pi, but in general: no, they are typically used as low power special purpose appliances and are powered by a USB supply.

 

[jim8flog]

I have one* kicking around but to be honest I found it simpler to buy an inverter it is a lot cheaper because it does not charge the battery or auto switch and it provides a lot more power if you use a car or leisure battery as the power source.

If they are planned outages I understand it would be like 1973 so plenty of time to switch over. If they are like 1973 then allow for about a 3 hour outage and work out the power needs to run for that time.

It is only designed for very short power cuts as the battery is relatively small, probably sufficient time to turn everything off to avoid outage damage but I it used to power both a desk top back when desktops were a bit less power hungry (I.E a internal power supply of about 150 watts).

 

[PJ87]

I have one* kicking around but to be honest I found it simpler to buy an inverter it is a lot cheaper because it does not charge the battery or auto switch and it provides a lot more power if you use a car or leisure battery as the power source.

If they are planned outages I understand it would be like 1973 so plenty of time to switch over. If they are like 1973 then allow for about a 3 hour outage and work out the power needs to run for that time.

It is only designed for very short power cuts as the battery is relatively small, probably sufficient time to turn everything off to avoid outage damage but I it used to power both a desk top back when desktops were a bit less power hungry (I.E a internal power supply of about 150 watts).

I found a document the other day (I'll see if I can find again) if you go on your bill it says what letter you are at your house and then you follow that letter on this document and under the lower plan you can follow what 3 hours per week you will be without power

Goes up for all the Doomsday ones . So stage 2 up until total power loss for days

 

[Neilds]

I found a document the other day (I'll see if I can find again) if you go on your bill it says what letter you are at your house and then you follow that letter on this document and under the lower plan you can follow what 3 hours per week you will be without power

Goes up for all the Doomsday ones . So stage 2 up until total power loss for days

These are listed as 'highly unlikely' to happen so probably best not to start spreading panic, etc - this isn't Facebook

 

[Alan Clifford]

I've been thinking of that for my main PI. It's the mail server, calendar server etc and we leave it unattended for a couple months when we are away. I don't really have any way of making a judgement - would the £16.20 (plus batteries) one be good enough I wonder https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-ups-hat

 

[PJ87]

These are listed as 'highly unlikely' to happen so probably best not to start spreading panic, etc - this isn't Facebook

Useful information tho in the stages just when you will be without power

Think I was mid morning for one and middle of night for another

 

[cliveb]

I'd rather this thread didn't turn into a debate about the likelihood of power cuts. That doesn't really help in finding a suitable UPS.

I've been thinking of that for my main PI. It's the mail server, calendar server etc and we leave it unattended for a couple months when we are away. I don't really have any way of making a judgement - would the £16.20 (plus batteries) one be good enough I wonder https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-ups-hat

That looks interesting. I wasn't aware of this HAT and it might be just the job. The fact that PiHut sells it would suggest that it's known to work well. Thanks for the pointer.

 

[Alan Clifford]

I'd rather this thread didn't turn into a debate about the likelihood of power cuts. That doesn't really help in finding a suitable UPS.

That looks interesting. I wasn't aware of this HAT and it might be just the job. The fact that PiHut sells it would suggest that it's known to work well. Thanks for the pointer.

They have another one that looks as though there is no soldering https://thepihut.com/products/uninterruptible-power-supply-ups-hat-b-for-raspberry-pi

 

[cliveb]

They have another one that looks as though there is no soldering https://thepihut.com/products/uninterruptible-power-supply-ups-hat-b-for-raspberry-pi

Thanks Alan. That one looks easier to deploy so is even more interesting.

 

[jim8flog]

I found a document the other day (I'll see if I can find again) if you go on your bill it says what letter you are at your house and then you follow that letter on this document and under the lower plan you can follow what 3 hours per week you will be without power

Goes up for all the Doomsday ones . So stage 2 up until total power loss for days

I'm on the at risk register with both the main supplier and the company I pay my bills to so hopefully will receive the info by email.

We get enough power cuts generally to make it worth while buying the kit anyway. The inverter is big enough to power the TV, sky box, BB router and one light, so no getting bored.

 

[Alan Clifford]

Thanks Alan. That one looks easier to deploy so is even more interesting.

Video about it:

A bit long winded but interesting. He does pull the mains plug to test it!

Looking now for a bit of code to shutdown the PI after an hour or two on battery power but not being very successful. Might have to have a go myself - I did with a temperature monitor I set up a few years ago but I'm getting old and lazy.

 

[PJ87]

I'm on the at risk register with both the main supplier and the company I pay my bills to so hopefully will receive the info by email.

We get enough power cuts generally to make it worth while buying the kit anyway. The inverter is big enough to power the TV, sky box, BB router and one light, so no getting bored.

That's why I went for my Tesla system, it's UPS with 13.5kw battery can power my house for a while

Added bonus it keeps the solar alive so if it's sunny I run until dark off that