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APC Power Conditioners and Battery Backups


Kraven

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Anyone have experience using this equipment. I know we are putting in a good size home theatre with c4 media controller and want to look at power conditioners and suppression. Battery Backup would be nice. Like APC S10 or S 15. They are a little on the pricey side and wondering if there are other solutions at a lower price point. Don't know why clients spend 15K on equipment but don't want to pay another 1k for protection. They seem to think there have to be a cheaper solution.

Kevin

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We use APC for all of our Computer Systems and have been using them on the AV stuff as well. We are definately not the authority on this subject but I can tell you that they work well. We have found it to be Imperitive to have the C4 equipment on Battery Backup just to save alot of unecessary agrivation, especially just when building the system.

Dan

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We spec them with every job and most customers are too damn cheap to take them... but they are good devices! Most agree they want them, just can't justify the cost "right now". But again - this is a C4 customer, not an AMX (no punches here - but the C4 customer isn't looking to spend 10,000 on the automation equipment alone - they're looking at 2k).

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I have cut open some no-name UPS devices when I worked in retail. The few that I have seen didn't have any active cooling of the inverter, and the batteries were as a light as a feather. Stay away from them. They are nothing more than placebo. They will fail in a few years.

Consider getting a 2nd hand APC and getting the batteries replaced if the customer is baulking at the price. This would deliver a much better result than using the no-name gear. Although I have never used the S15 models, I have two of the SmartUPS 1.5kVA (traditional tower style) models at home. The electronics on them is rock solid. Changing batteries is a snap on my models - hell I don't even have to turn them off to change the batteries. Go uptime!

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The S15 and the computer models are not using the same tech! Be aware, the key difference is in the output, pure sign wave on the s15, square wave on the computer stuff. APC started from scratch on the S15, they didn't use their computer technology in that product.

Curt

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We are using an estimator that we designed in excel that adds equipment automatically like POE injectors, routers, etc. It also builds the order form to C4 and makes a "shopping" list of other equipment needed. I'm going to add UPS as an automatic cost.

In the description and installation warranty we state that all installation warranties are void if all connected equipment and incoming signal feeds are not on surge suppression. We are going to add that we will charge for work that would otherwise be warrantied if all C4 equipment isn't on battery back-up. If they balk at battery backup that's fine, just don't let it be your problem down the road.

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In the description and installation warranty we state that all installation warranties are void if all connected equipment and incoming signal feeds are not on surge suppression. We are going to add that we will charge for work that would otherwise be warrantied if all C4 equipment isn't on battery back-up. If they balk at battery backup that's fine, just don't let it be your problem down the road.

That's not a bad idea. I typically work for one contractor that does mostly high end spec homes so I have never had to worry about stuff like that, but just for my own security that is a good thing to include in the system warranty info.

Blake

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Agreed with posts above, the key is to not make it a choice. I have worked very hard on my end to make sure every quote has at least a conditioner and if hard drives or projectors are involved battery - we don't through it out there as an option and if we propose choice A, B,C, etc, they all have one on there. The APC stuff can make some money (now that they lowered the cost a bit), more importantly it saves you headaches down the road.

Curt

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