Hello,
Does any of the power conditioners models that PS Audio offers also come with a backup power feature in case of a power outage?
Hi Alan,
None of our power plants include built-in battery backups unfortunately.
What are you running that you’re interested in keeping on all the time? And do you have frequent power outages in your region?
1 Like
Hi Schroedster,
Oh I am not interested in keeping my equipment running all the time, it’s just that in case that if I am using the equipment and it so happens that during that time a power outage happens the power backup kicks in so I just go ahead and can turn off everything, or if for example there is a 1 second power outage the battery backup kicks in and prevents everything from powering off suddenly due to a loss of power.
I looked online and I see that PS Audio used to sell something called a “PowerPack”, which I think was an external battery backup?
Yes, we did used to make and sell the PowerPack which was a battery back up system.
Something to keep in mind if you don’t need to keep a piece of hardware on all the time - the Power Plants have over and under voltage protection, meaning that your gear downstream is protected in the case of fluctuations or outages.
The Power Plant will shut everything hooked up to it down in this case, though it does so safely. Your gear is at no real risk in the case of an outage if it is hooked up to a Power Plant.
But say if an optical reader such as CD player is playing a CD or a PC is powered on and hooked to a power plant in case there’s a power outage and there are no battery backup, these will be shut down “improperly”, for the CD player a sudden loss of power will destabilize the laser and the PC could become corrupted.
At risk of @Elk deleting my snippet of quote. As a previous owner of what you refer to here, you are much better off without it. It had a design flaw that made it virtually useless.
1 Like
I see, thank you for letting me know, so which other ways could I use to prevent sudden loss of power to my equipment?
Use a UPS that is not a PS Audio Power Pack. It’s a long discontinued product now anyway (I had 2 of them, they were both useless). The last of them were sold by PS Audio for about $500 if I recall. Maybe less.
1 Like
What type of UPS should I get and how should I use it together with a Power Conditioner/Regenerator?
I think you’re worrying too much about something that you don’t need to worry about.
I am not worrying, I am just asking for pointers… For one there are multiple types of UPS, there’s Offline, Line-Interactive, On-Line Digital, On-Line Double Conversion.
Unless you need to keep a router or security camera going in the event of mains power failure I wouldn’t bother with one.
With UPS you get what you pay for. Cheap = nasty square wave modified. Expensive = pure sine wave line interactive. Different form factors, stand-alone, rack mountable, etc.
Brodric is giving good advice.
You need to read the fine print on UPS’s. As Brodric says, cheap ones give lots of distortion. Some that claim things like “Really good Sine” (not really but it makes the point) may have a whole three levels instead of two 
Look for the distortion from a mathematics sine (e.g. THD, or number of steps or whatever) to find the better ones. The big problem is that a good UPS with a good sine wave output is either very expensive or it isn’t very efficient. Low efficiency means that means it’s hot which means that it needs a fan… Check the noise level in (in some form of dB.) If you don’t get a double conversion you’ll need to make sure that the time to switch to backup on a black or brown out is short enough that the equipment down stream can idle thru… That’s hard for units that use a lot of current (e.g. an amp or a power conditioner.)
1 Like
How and/or where am I supposed to hook the UPS? Am I supposed to hook the UPS on the wall outlet and then hook the power conditioner on one of the outlets of the UPS or am I supposed to hook the power conditioner on the wall outlet and then hook the UPS on one of the outlets of the power conditioner?
You would want a true sine wave type UPS.
https://blog.tripplite.com/pure-sine-wave-vs-modified-sine-wave-explained/
A UPS after a power regenerator would be a complete waste. A UPS is a regenerator with a battery, but it’s not a very good regenerator from the point of view of noise (either electrical or audible). A great regenerator is what you want just before your audio equipment.
All of this isn’t really needed. All equipment that connects to the power mains is built to loose power without any notice. Heck most of the power switches on them just disconnect the power. If you are worried about backing up your data, then work towards that goal, but nothing in your audio system needs to be protected from a power off.
As stated above a PS Audio regenerator will protect your equipment from the spikes that may come when the AC power goes off or back on.
What about a UPS prior to the regenerator. Sounds like the OP does not want his equipment going dark without notice.
1 Like
I’ve considered it multiple times and even bought a couple. The audiophile double conversion unit I have works and its battery has lasted much longer than I expected. Now I use it for my satellite receivers/recorders. It never had the kind of capacity I’d need for amps. I also got a newer commercial UPS, but its noise was so high I couldn’t put it anywhere. While good double converters can be built, remember they are essentially two switching power supplies with a battery in the middle (which almost always implies low instantaneous current capacity.) Not ideal for audio. I’m holding out for Tesla’s Powerwall’s to become a little more affordable
2 Likes
Indeed that’s exactly what I am saying. As a matter of fact I just had a 1 sec power outage 5 minutes ago.
I watched some videos online, doesn’t Paul recommend to use a Line-Interactive UPS with a regenerator rather than an On-Line UPS?