UPS for active PFC equipped personal computers?

[Anonymous user]

Active PFC power supplies came into use much earlier than they did in personal computers to minimize power factor penalties and maximize facility distribution resources by reducing difficult to correct odd order harmonics.

Although it is of no direct advantage to common personal computer users, some active PFC front-end components and some modified square wave UPSs are susceptible to fighting each other and shutting down when it goes to backup mode.

Active PFC has become a buzzword despite the lack of advantage and it is being endorsed by utility companies and environmentalists as it makes better utilization of power companies resources. Part of the 80Plus certification requirement is that in addition to 80% efficiency under typical load, it must have a power factor of 0.9 or greater.

With active PFC equipped computers becoming more common in personal computer market, is APC working on low-end UPS' to accommodate them correctly?

Some active PFC power supplies work fine on modified square wave, however some UPS may freak out.

[Anonymous user]

Have any lower-end UPSs been released yet that provide a more pure sine wave for use with PSUs that have active PFC? Our company is struggling with our newest workstations (having active PFC PSUs) working with new UPS units with a simulated sine wave while running on batteries.

[BillP]

Hi Martin,

Unfortunately the SMT750 is the cheapest UPS that you could get that has a pure sine wave. All of our BackUPS product line still provides step approximated sine wave.

[Erasmus_apc · Accepted solution]

We are currently working on addressing issues with PFC supplies with our lowest-end UPS systems, although we cannot get into detail on products in development/testing. We do currently have small Smart-UPS units that are fully capable of supporting active PFC devices for use in IT environments or for the most discerning home/small business users.