My old UPS, a SmartUPS 1400RM, threw a battery recently. It didn’t complain about battery failure, it just wouldn’t hold charge and couldn’t carry a load. With the quality of the power we get here, combined with the sensitivity of the UPS, it meant that my server and network were dropping out on a very regular basis (I think it got up to every twenty minutes at one stage). So, with a tax refund burning a hole in my pocket, I went shopping.
At first I was just going to replace with an equivalent. The old one was nearly eight years old, however, and “they don’t make ’em like they used to”. The rack I have is only a tiny wall-mount type (that I put castors on so it runs on the floor) and is nowhere near full depth — but virtually all the APC UPSes now are at least as deep as they are wide (the 2200VA 2RU job is about 650mm) and are way too big for my housing.
So I decided to go with a tower (floor-standing) version, and with the cost-saving from doing that I could more easily justify an upgrade to the 2200VA version. A very helpful fellow at PowerFirm told me everything I needed to know, and toward the end of the conversation said “now, you know that these units need a 15A plug, right?” Well of course I didn’t…
So then I rang around looking for the electrician that would do such a job in the fortnight leading up to Christmas. I found one, and a couple of days later they arrived. I indicated where the point was to be installed, right near an existing one in the garage. Sparky replied “well, it’s got to be on it’s own circuit.” Oh, crap, well of course it does, doesn’t it… “Where’s the power box?” he asks, and I reply “the other side of the house…” Both our faces fall: his upon seeing a 15 minute quick fill-in job turning into possibly hours of pulling cable through sealed walls, and me upon realising that the job that I could pay for with the cash in my wallet turing into something far more expensive.
I figured I needed to make the most of the situation, so I asked the guys to pull some Cat 5 for me while they were in the walls (which leads to Vic’s Household Hacker Tip #1: Always keep 100m or so of Cat 5 lying around; you never know when you might be able to get some cabling done).
So the stage was set… all I needed was the UPS to arrive… Stay tuned for Part Two!
Crossed Wires 