[mythtv-users] UPS with mythbuntu

Stephen P. Villano stephen.p.villano at gmail.com
Tue Feb 24 18:55:38 UTC 2015


On 2/24/15 1:37 PM, Mike Perkins wrote:
> On 24/02/15 18:00, Simon Hobson wrote:
>> Mike Perkins <mikep at randomtraveller.org.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> One note: I initially put *everything* on my UPS but discovered it
>>> didn't like my laser printer. This is because it pulls too much
>>> power on startup.
>>
>> You aren't the first to find this - though normally if the lights go
>> out, you aren't too worried about printing.
>>
> That wasn't the point - when you initially plug everything in and
> switch on the power, the UPS complains - and doesn't stop. The printer
> just takes too heavy a startup load. The same would happen after an
> outage.
>
> I just moved the printer to a normal socket. I can live without a
> printer when everything comes back, even if it means having to sort
> out a part-printed sheet of paper.
>
Laser printers draw massive amounts of inrush current when turned on or
when turning on the fuser heater when a print job begins. The fuser is a
power pig, it's a resistive heated element that "bakes" on the printing
(technically, it's more sintering, but I digress).
The only UPS that could drive your desired load *and* that monster would
be a *much* larger UPS.
As it's typically not worth the expense to be able to print at home in
the dark, the cost is an order of magnitude higher for the UPS and hell,
why not just go with an automatic transfer switch and standby generator
while you're tossing money at the winds? Kind of bit, the printer ends
up plugged into mains.
Even in enterprise environments, all too frequently, printers are *not*
on the essential, backed up bus, they're on a regular outlet. The only
exception I've noted was in hospital treatment floors. But then, while
the system is heavily computerized, it's frequently also with a paper
backup. After all, if the mainframe become unavailable, be it network
centric or even mainframe centric outage, the patients charts have to be
available!



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