Summer season is about to begin in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and we all should be prepare to face load shedding. Its the fifth year of government chosen by the public of Pakistan and still they have no solution to overcome this problem. The only solution available to general public is UPS(Uninterpreted Power Supply) or Inverter but the problem is that UPS comes in many shapes & sizes and the cruel part is that many shopkeepers selling inverters as UPS which is totally wrong. Lack of knowledge and illiteracy in Pakistan help theses shopkeepers to easy fool common people and make huge profits.
Difference between UPS and Inverter
One of the main complaints by the Pakistani users regarding UPS is that their computer restarts when ever light goes from Wapda power station. Now if you are a one of those who buy inverter rather than UPS than its your inverter fault not your computer fault or any thing else. The reason is that inverter takes 300 to 800 milliseconds for switching from Main power to Battery power and its not enough to remain your computer power-on while the shift.
So the solution is clearly a Good UPS which has normally 3 to 8 milliseconds shift time from main power to battery power. Now some of you might have brought Chinese UPS and saying that i have good UPS but still my computer restarts. Unfortunately the Chinese UPS available in the market are also Inverters not UPS.
Now you may have heard from your relatives or friends saying that they are using Pakistani home made UPS and its working perfectly fine for them. One thing i will tell you here that inverters are good for some home electronics like Fans, Energy Savers and Bulbs but they are not made for Home Appliances like Television, Refrigerators or Computers.
Why Choose UPS Instead of Inverter?
- UPS provide purified Sine-Wave output as compared to the Inverter’s square wave output which is good for your sensitive home appliances like Television, Refrigerators or Computers.
- UPS are good for your charging devices like Mobile and Laptops but inverters are battery killers and if charge laptop or Mobile on your inverter than get ready for dead battery.
- Uninterpreted Power Supply normally provide constant 60HZ of frequency which is good for your appliances where as inverter frequency depends on battery condition and load which may burn your expensive equipment.
- If there is light problem in your area like low light or light comes on or off very quickly than inverter also not be able to handle this situation and can damage your appliances.
UPS Purchasing Guide
Now that you know the difference between UPS and Inverter its time for you to search the market for quality UPS according to your needs. If you want to use it with your computer than definitely you want branded high quality UPS otherwise it will restart your PC.
Make sure to check whether the battery timing of the UPS is good or not by checking the Auto Voltage Control 3 Strip Charging system feature on the manual.
Some UPS available in the market are not capable of displaying LED or Alarms which are very good to protect your product. Always go for the LED UPS or which can display at-least light bulbs according to battery timings.
There are some new UPS available in the market which are very efficient like they will not make your battery hot, you don’t have to put water into your battery, your fans will not make noise, Fans speed can be controlled via Dimmer, can prolong your battery life, protects your mobile chargers and laptop battery from damaging etc.
UPS Planning and Installation
First of all make sure that the place where you want to put your UPS is away from water and always keep dry. You need some kind of insulation material like Wood, Foam or hard broad so that you first put these material and than put UPS on it. Its better to pick a place near your main board if you want to plan your whole house for UPS but you can also choose a place if you are planning to only connect it with your Computer or Television.
You also need to calculate the power consumption of appliances that you want to connect with your UPS. For calculation you can use this formula: (VA)Watts = Volts x Amps
Before connecting your new battery to the UPS for the first make sure that your battery is fully charged otherwise its life and backup time will be reduced.
Usually a 500W UPS can easily run 1 * Computer + 3 * Energy Savers + 2 * Fans. So you can also calculate your needs from this if you are not good enough calculating Volts and Watts.
Battery Timing depends on UPS or Battery?
Lots of people ask this question that battery timing depends on Uninterpreted Power Supply unit or on Battery and the answer to this question is very simple and that it’s on battery. No matter how high you UPS is i.e 1000 Watts or 2000 Watts if it has small battery than it will give small backup time but if you have 500 Watts UPS with large battery i.e 155 Amps than it can give you long battery timings of up to 8-10 hours depending upon the condition of the battery. You can connect batteries in serial and parallel depending upon your needs. If your inverter is 12 volt than you can use one or more batteries(but in parallel) while if you have 24 Volt than you need to have alteast two batteries which will be connected in Series mode.
If you need inverter, inverter repairing services please have a look
I am confused to have the local UPS and Aurora ups, which one is best and why, please dear help me out of this…
Regards
Local UPS are normally good if you want to run it with your computer because you can install optional card in that UPS which helps prevent the restart. Otherwise all other branded UPS will be fine.
Dear Mr. Mohsin,
A.O.A.
Your website have very informative material about different things, so i really appreciate your efforts.
I read thoroughly your UPS/Inverter Buying Guide for India and Pakistan.
but in your provided detial you have not mentioned any Best available UPS and inverter brand, please let me know
if i have a plan to use computer along with fans and bulbs then which UPS brand is the best?
and without computer usage which INVERTER is the best?
Hoping to have favorable response in this regard.
Thanks with best regards.
Abed Muneeb
Sialkot
Hi Mohsin,
A very helpful article, I am using Microtech 1250 watts UPS for past 9 years, and it has been repaired many times.
I was now looking to buy Homeage inverter (1 or 2 KVA), but after reading this article i am pretty confused.
So, my problem is :
1. first i need to get the battery health check, as it doesnt give enough backup.
2. my main usage is fans and lights, thast it, i dont have a desktop, do have laptops and tabs so restarting computer isnt a problem.
3. need to charge mobile and laptops at times during load shedding.
Please advise.
Thank you.
-Faisal
Do you recommend any UPS brands? that would make my choice easier, I need a UPS+battery that would go for 2 hours and without giving a blink to my computer.
thanks
Have you tested it yourself?
Great article.. cleared all my doubt related to ups,, keep it up.. but plz can u tell which’s the good brand in KHI.. APC, MicroTech, Intex, SyStek??? and from where to get these?? I have just heard these names.. but could not find these anywhere 🙁
Hello Mohsin, you have such a great blog, can you please help me to find out the best company for UPS or I can use local UPS???
If we connect Solar pannel with battery through Charging Controller than what is the best
1= UPS
2=Solar Inverter
my load is computer , T.V fans bulbs.
Mr Mohsin i have a complain of the fluctuation and due to which i have blown 2 of my motherboard i want to buy a UPS but i dont know which one to buy and what size of batter to buy either dry or water please guide me in this regards.
Specs of my system are
Core 2 Duo 3.0 6mb cache
4gb ram ddr 2
250 HD
450 watt supply
GTX 550ti
kindly also mention which company is better to buy and what does the optional card means
do i need a card for computer if i buy a homage inverter???
no brother how inverter are bad. you say wrong
Can I use solar panel plus charge controller with battery while having connected UPS with battery and main supply.
Thanks
For this use Homage Hex inverter series.
Dear Mohsin ,
Kindly tell me about inverter or UPS which one consumed more electricity for charging .
And which one has low cost of 1000 kv..
Never buy homage ups… They are worse.. They over charge batteries… There service center is even worse… They will never be concerned. Inverex is much much better.
Now Inverex also producing UPS locally previously they were importing from China.
AOA.
mohsin bhai it was very nice informatoin about ups.thanks alot
Jani ap ny dil khosh kardya