The circuit breaker in my apartment randomly trips about once a week, shutting down my computer. I can't figure out what causes it and I've called several repair men to take a look at it and they haven't had any luck either.
As a workaround, I've been thinking about getting an UPS for my computer to keep it active long enough for me to reset the breaker. I've heard stories about people having problems with UPSes before, though. Preferably I'd want something with an alarm or something so that I know right away when it trips. Would this work? Does anyone have experience/recommendations?
As far as my experiences go. My father once told me you can just install a bigger something in the circuit breaker so it can handle more appliances. Alternatively, assuming your apartment has more than one circuit, you can try to distribute the electricity load.
We were having the same problem when we were running 4 computers, a TV, Xbox, satellite receiver, and an air conditioning unit all in the front room. Solved it by moving my power-hog PC into the basement on a different circuit.
[QUOTE=Naelstrom;42722506]As far as my experiences go. My father once told me you can just install a bigger something in the circuit breaker[/QUOTE]
If you want your house to burn down, yes.
You can't just toss in a bigger breaker without first ensuring that all of the wiring in the wall, the plugs, switches and other electrical fixtures are rated for the extra load. With an apartment, all bets are off. You get the lowest bid electrician, plumber, framer, etc. and they use the cheapest possible parts to get the job done.
The reason you need to check all plugs, switches and fixtures is because everything is wired in series, and the closer the series circuit gets to the breaker panel, the higher the load will be. So the plugs and such near the breaker box are going to have the highest load going through them.
The repair guys did lots of tests with me running my computer really hard and then checking the circuit and they said it's nowhere near maximum load. As I said it's completely unreproducible and seems to have nothing to do with my computer use.
What I'm really wondering is if an UPS would be a suitable workaround for this.
The only thing I can think of is that either the breaker is defective and is just randomly tripping, or when they built the apartment, the electricians fucked up and put a plug on you breaker in another apartment and someone else is overloading the breaker.
A UPS would help, but you'd have to get a really beefy one if you want it to last more than a few seconds with a fully loaded system on it. You'd have to plug the UPS int your computer via a USB cable so the computer could monitor the UPS and the UPS could shut the computer down when you aren't at home if the breaker trips.
Fucking hell UPS are expensive. Apparently due to the type of PSU I have none of the low-end ones will work with my computer.
You can use any UPS really, but if you get one that has a weak battery, don't expect it to last more than 5 seconds when the power goes off.
I've heard about people having problems with approximated sine wave UPSes (all cheap ones are) and PFC-enabled power supplies (like mine).
[QUOTE=Larikang;42729593]I've heard about people having problems with approximated sine wave UPSes (all cheap ones are) and PFC-enabled power supplies (like mine).[/QUOTE]
I've read about this, apparently they can damage some power supplies. Get a full sinewave ups, like [URL="http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Sinewave-Compatible-Mini-Tower/dp/B00429N19W/ref=sr_1_sc_1_m?ie=UTF8&qid=1383453911&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=simewave+ups"]this one[/URL] to remedy that. There's different sizes of it but the smallest one should provide you enough time to reset the breaker. For more time get a larger model.
Thanks! I was having a hard time finding a sub $200 UPS with true sinewave.
[QUOTE=Larikang;42746958]Thanks! I was having a hard time finding a sub $200 UPS with true sinewave.[/QUOTE]
True sinewave is not really needed, expecially as the signal is just rectified again in the computer's PSU, really, if i got a UPS for my computer, i would tear out a lot of the electronics in it and just have it output 300v DC, saves a small bit of energy. (don't do this unless you REALLY know what you are doing)
I'd go with a fairly good brand like this one here:
[url]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APC-1400-UPS-CREAM-Guaranteed-new-batts-A-Grade-/400077583416?pt=UK_Computing_Uninterruptible_Power_Supplies&hash=item5d267b7438[/url]
[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;42747356]True sinewave is not really needed, expecially as the signal is just rectified again in the computer's PSU[/QUOTE]
I don't think you quite know how a switching PSU works.
If you have dirty mains power, it makes the PSU considerably less efficient and is much harder on the primary components (line caps, bridge rectifier, primary switching transistors.)
[QUOTE=nuttyboffin;42747356]really, if i got a UPS for my computer, i would tear out a lot of the electronics in it and just have it output 300v DC, saves a small bit of energy. (don't do this unless you REALLY know what you are doing)[/QUOTE]
The primary switching transistors don't output DC, it outputs a much higher switching frequency (10-20 kHz) at ~375V RMS. This is why you can have transformers that are small enough to fit inside an ATX power supply with being able to handle huge loads, because the higher switching frequency makes transformers more efficient.
If you just plugged 300V DC into any part of the PSU, it'd just explode in your face.
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