Uninterruptible Power Supply question

No.. Not all smooth the power
The cheap ones only pass thru the power, not doing any power line conditioning of the input power

Power conditioning will be Listed as a function/feature on those that do this

I am somewhat familiar with the APC line - at least some of them have surge protection outlets that are separate from the backup outlets. You will want to get one that has enough surge protection outlets for you.

Generally no.

Two common types of UPS:

1. Line Interactive waits for something bad to happen and steps in to help. Probably has some basic surge protectors that are always active. Also called single conversion.

2. Online UPS are always running the inverter off the battery. A fancy charger takes line voltage and charges the battery. These are expensive and generate more heat than the first type. These are also called double conversion.

I wouldn't worry about the output quality of a big standby generator. The sinewave is a function of mechanical design and mass of the system. Bigger means better generally.

All rotating electro-mechanical generators produce a natural sine wave.
Wave form may become distorted because of the load but it does start as sine wave. I would not worry one bit.

You can always simply plug whatever sensitive equipment into a UPS just like you would if you were on line voltage. Big gennys aren't inverters, so good sine wave created. I have an APC UPS that is in a genny-fed outlet at home - when on genny (NOT a nice Generac...) you can hear it alarming fairly regularly, meaning "dirty" power coming in to it, so it is doing it's job. ST

you need double conversion if u want it to clean up power

also most cheap ups's hate non inverter generator power, the hertz is not tight enough +/- .5 hz

NO one can not assume that. When "Shore" power is present and meets the requirements of the programmer it simply passes it.. Oh there may be some spike supression,, but that's all.

Also most UPS units are MSW which is dang dirty power when they kick in .

Had a Generac whole house installed at the last office I worked in... none of the UPS in the building would work on it, constant beeping all over the building. Brought in a Honda 3000 just for the computers.

Replaced the Generac and the second one was no different. That was over ten years ago, maybe they've improved. I would require a guarantee of performance for your purpose on any genset purchase.

I have a UPS installed in our coach that I modified to use the coach batteries instead of a built in battery. One thing to beware of with UPS's as said, is that many of the lower cost models use a modified sine wave inverter for the output on power fail, and not all electronics are happy with that. Tripp-Lite, APC, and others do have models with pure sine wave output though. The PSW models cost more of course, but if your equipment operates more reliably and cooler with the cleaner output, than the difference can be well worth it.

dryfly wrote:
Could one assume that all APC and CyberPower UPS's will in addition to providing battery backup, smooth the output A/C power? Reason I ask is that I'm in the process of installing a Generac whole house generator and while the specs look good, I still have some issue with the powering of some electronic gear. I'm just not sure if the Generac truly puts out pure sine wave voltage.

Pretty much ALL of the APC UPS versions are MSW, not sure about "Cyberpower" but I suspect they may also be MSW since they tend to be a lot cheaper than APC, if not they may be extremely cheaply built PSW and if that is the case I would take a APC over the Cyberpower.

You should also understand that many UPS units will not and cannot work with a generator as a input source.

UPS units are extremely sensitive to FREQUENCY of the input. Units designed for use with US 60hz grid are looking for 60hz, not 59 hz or 61 hz like a generator will supply. Very few UPS units will work with a generator as a input.

As far as running electronic equipment from a generator goes, should be perfectly fine for 99.9999999% of the equipment out there..

Not sure as to what you feel is "sensitive" electronic equipment but I have run TVs, stereos (EXPENSIVE ONES NOT THE $100 types), Satt receivers, COMPUTERS, home fridges, power tools and so on from MSW inverters..

Truth be known, very few electronic devices are "sensitive" to "dirty power" and the disclaimers are used by pretty much every generator manufacturer warning folks to not use with "sensitive" equipment is nothing more than a CYA for the manufacturer.

Your Generac WILL supply a CLEANER SINE WAVE than any MSW UPS. Non inverter generators by there nature produce sine waves, that is where the grid (shore power) gets their sine waves.

The only thing about portable and home standalone gens is they may have some waveform distortion, typically 10% or less but that IS far less distortion than a MSW inverter or MSW UPS.