CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, 1500VA/1000W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini Tower; UL Certified

CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC SinewaveSo good, I bought 2! UPS systems in this class can easily cost more. I have had poor experience with APC systems in this range, so I gave CyberPower a shot. First one I bought for all my network equipment. I bought the optional network card as well. I have a couple routers attached, several WiFi Mesh base units attached by PoE router, laptop, NAS and a couple other items. I get 1 hour or more of uptime! (YMMV, yada yada) All the items I have attached amount to about 40% load if they are all on at the time.The 2nd UPS I bought about a year later for my home entertainment stuff - TV, stereo and a couple miscellaneous network items. Also gets about 1 hour uptime. No net card on the 2nd one, I wanted to test connecting it to HomeIt via HomeBridge and RPi.I don't need to manage these UPSs on a regular basis. We live in the mountains and power can be flaky. I wanted to have some way to monitor utility power when I was at work. The NIC adapter is perfect for that. I think it is a little on the $$ side, but has been worth it. Plugs right in and easy to configure. I started out with a 1 year promotional subscription to their service, but don't really need it. I still get power change notifications even without the subscription. When I get a power out notification I know I have about 1 hour of uptime before I need to turn on the generator. I did get the other CyberPower UPS to hook up pretty easily to my RPi unit running HomeBridge, with NUT UPS plugin. NUT can have a reasonably steep learning curve. I did get it working, but haven't really had the need to play with it too much since I still have the other UPS with the NIC. FWIW, I already had the RPi unit in place for a bunch of other IoT integrations with HomeKit - I would not go that route just for UPS management! ;PA word about generators:Most UPS systems will not play nicely with your standard portable open frame generator, regardless of how large/stable it is. It's the shape of the stepped wave that can often fool the UPS causing it to trip on. The only foolproof way around that is to 1) Get an online UPS system at 3-5 times the cost of line-interactive 2) get an inverter generator. Don't get too fooled by 'generator' modes on line-interactive or standby UPS types. Those modes may help, but in my experience it will not work 100% of the time. Initially I had a standard Champion 7kw open frame delivering power to whole house. Performance was rock solid voltage and frequency delivery without fluctuation. These CyberPower systems worked off the generator about 75% of the time, tripping on the rest of the time. I have a couple APC systems with 'generator' mode that would have nothing to do with the generator - they would trip instantly even in 'generator' mode. Still, this was not stable enough for me. My solution was to get the inverter generator - a 9kw Westinghouse delivering power to the whole house. It was actually cheaper than getting an online UPS equivalent to this CyberPower! Ultimately it wasn't just the lower cost, but the versatility and stability of delivering super clean pure sine to the whole house. Better for everything inside. Zero issues, of course, with these CyberPwoer UPSs. They just see the generator output as regular utility power.

Works good. I have a gaming PC and bought it since I occasionally get power outages here for up to a minute due to occasional power fluctuation. I was orignally worried it wouldn't draw enough power when gaming (bout 260 watts plus a monitor) but that is a fraction of the load this thing can handle and I probably went overboard. But it's nice, has a LED screen and usb port/app that will auto shutdown your PC if beyond a specified time of battery life. The battery life is, meh, it's about half an hour of full draw but I don't get why it can't pull more on a simple computer but probably related to the specs. For outlet capacity it's very good. Size is smaller than my PC tower so I stick it right next to it. Setup is pretty easy aside from needing to charge it before plugging things in. All and all good buy and if it protects my PC even better.

I live on Long Island (NY) and have been suffering through a 10-day power outage thanks to Hurricane Sandy (and her friend, the winter storm Athena). In addition to its normal role of keeping my PC safe, this UPS also gives me some welcome flexibility in an extended blackout. Connected to my generator (a Generac XG8000E), it charges when the generator is running, and then I have power for a few simple things (a light, my PC, my cell, etc) when the power is off. I have had zero problems with the CyberPower UPS after several days of operation.I've owned a number of other UPS systems over the years, including APC, Belkin, Tripp-Lite, etc. Most have done the job, but I find the APC units lacking in ergonomics (some models are nearly impossible to shut the alarm without having a PC connected to it). Longevity is also an issue with some of the brands, and about 50% of the units I buy are toast after an average of under two years. Yes, the batteries are replaceable, but I usually find it more cost effective to discard the entire unit when the battery goes bad since the full units are usually discounted much more than the batteries alone are. This time, I figured I'd try a new brand, and so far, I'm glad I did.Construction quality is very good on the CyberPower "PFC" line, as they are about $50 more than the lower-end units for the same capacity. The case and display are better than anything I've seen from APC, and capacity is terrific - on a full charge, I get up to about two hours of run time for my 27" iMac - about double what I got on my most recent APC 1000VA unit. The display is helpful, giving you a readable countdown of time left, input/output voltage and frequency, and various other useful information. About the only thing I don't like is that the outlets are just a bit too close together, and I find I need an extra power strip to handle the bigger power adapters I need to plug in.Speaking of Mac OS, I've tried connecting the unit to my iMac via USB, and it seems to work as advertised, at least with Mac OS X 10.7 and higher. If you don't like the built-in Mac USB agent, there are plenty of free open-source alternatives out there, and the two or three I tried all seem to work properly with the CyberPower unit.I also have one of the less expensive square-wave units, and I have to say that the added cost for this one is worth it. Mine plays double-duty, acting as a voltage regulator as well as UPS for some of my high-end AV gear (though many of these components are capable of drawing more than the 900W these units are capable of, so be careful).Overall, I'm impressed with the CyberPower units and they're worth a look if you need a UPS with these features at a fair price.LONG-TERM UPDATE:It's now 2023 - almost 9 years since I bought this UPS system, and it's still running fine. Just recently, I needed to change the batteries for the first time...they worked, but in a blackout we had, they only kept my equipment running a few minutes, and I noticed that the entire unit seemed to run quite a bit hotter than I recall when it was new. A pair of new batteries took just a few minutes to install, and now the UPS is working like new again. In fact, it's better than new - I have it connected to a Linux server that runs my home automation system, and it's learned new tricks like sending me text messages whenever something's not right with my home power. I was glad to see that this UPS is compatible with the "NUT" (Network UPS Tools) open-source package - it lets me monitor the system on one computer, then broadcast power status to all my other computers, even though they aren't connected to the same UPS. If there's a power outage, I can shutdown all my computers in a coordinated way like this - very convenient.For the most part, it's been "out of sight, out of mind", but this CyberPower UPS has really been a worthwhile investment overall.