Comment: Back-UPS ES BE750BB 450W/750VA

[Anonymous user]

I generally handle Smart-UPS series, but was helping a friend with finding a UPS for his home PC, so I had a chance to look at a few different ones from a few different brands. I'm quite impressed with the Back-UPS ES 750VA BE750BB's specs. On this model, APC got away from the annoying new trend of mating a tiny battery with higher VA ratings offering quite a respectable runtime.

This is what he wanted to get:
TrippLite Smart1000LCD 500W/(1000VA) MSRP $184. Not bad. Until I looked at the specs

It looks fancy, has AVR and looks cool with blue lit LCD screen and I think this is what appealed to him, but the basics didn't look too good.
http://www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=3071

Full load 500W (1000VA) 3 minutes
Half load: 250W (500VA) 11 minutes

They used a VA to W ratio of 2, which is unrealistically high. VA rating makes for bigger value on the package, but watt is what matters when it comes to runtime.

APC Back-UPS ES BE750BB 450W (750VA) $100 MSRP
http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE750BB
It looks plain, but this one gets better runtime at a normal home PC load level(200-250W under normal use, ~400W while graphics intensive apps in use)

Having runtime far in excess of the frequent <1min outage with lower level of discharge means the battery lasts longer.

Full : 6 min (450 Watts)
Half: 19 min (225 Watts) , 12 min (300 Watts, something between 12-19min at 250W)

Since he was working around $200 budget and wanted the voltage regulation, he got the APC Back-UPS BR1300LCD(13 minutes @ 500W), which gets better runtime than the TrippLite SmartPro Smart1500LCD that costs more and runs 13 minutes @ 450W.