UPS Market Review and Buying Guide

We had covered this Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) market review few months ago, however, changes take place in days now. As the energy crisis continue in Pakistan, in fact it has gone worse, people are again rushing towards UPS markets to get themselves electricity backups.

Thanks to winter, general people may not require UPS units as they did in hot summer, but businesses, students, and those who want to remain in tact with their electrical devices are in crucial situation due to unannounced and long run power failures.

Okay, I am covering only UPS market review, hopefully I will bring forward Generators’ market review as well in coming days, but lets focus on options and prices for UPS units in this article.

We saw two very significant things, one that UPS market is undergoing tremendous rush, and same is the case with prices. By the way, these prices went down in month of Ramadan (as there were no power outages then), but once again UPS businesses have gone high.

We noted that average cost of a Rs. 10,000 UPS has increased by almost 30 percent when compared to prices in May-June 2008. Retailers say this increment is due to the fact that manufacturers have increased prices of raw material on pretext of higher production cost due to higher imports of accessories.

A survey of retailers unveiled that UPS with a capacity of running two fans and two lights is hot item, and its sale has gone as high as 30 percent. It merits mentioning that this is least powered UPS available in the market, and is mostly used by small to mid sized shopkeepers and home users.

It merits mentioning here that there are two types of UPS available, imported ones and locally assembled. Retailers said that buyers prefer locally made UPS units for two reasons. 1 – They are inexpensive, 2 – Imported UPS units come with no warranty, hence more risk for buyers.

As the demand is increasing, there are more people getting involved in making of these local made UPS units. This retailer named, Hafiz Imran confirmed that there are tens of UPS manufacturing plants working in Rawalpindi. By the way, Daily Time lately reported that there are around 45 manufacturing units of UPS are working in the different parts of the Karachi only as cottage industry. The wholesalers have doubled their orders in order to meet the growing demand.

It was also reported that there comes lots bugs and after sale complains due to ordinary quality and unqualified technicians who make these UPS units in lesser time.

With UPS units, there come batteries, which are used with UPS units to keep your electrical devices alive – and scenario is not different of batteries as well, as prices have gone high here too.
So this is what the market has been undergoing, now check out these tips that you must consider before buying a UPS

Things to consider for Buying a UPS

• Try to put minimum load on UPS, that is don’t try to put all electrical devices on your UPS, instead make sure that only power critical devices are on UPS
• Once you have decided what items you will be running on UPS, calculate their power load. For this, don’t rely on UPS shops, instead ask for electrician in your colony and let him calculate the power load that you will be running on UPS. For instance, a computer with 17 inch monitor is likely to require 400 to 450 watts. Similarly, calculate your entire load and make sure what power do you require from this UPS.
• Go into main electrical markets of your city, instead of your corner electrical shop. Check around in couple of shops for the rates for the power your need. Let’s assume you need a UPS of 1000 Watts, then ask around what quotes you get.
• Please note that there are NO OFFICIAL RATES, so you will have to do little research to save you couple of thousand Rupees
• Please make sure that battery is nothing to do with your UPS. Your batteries will be responsible for backup time. So if you purchase a low ampere battery, it will give you lesser time and vice versa.
• Once your UPS is ready, make sure that it is giving output of exactly what you had asked for. For this purpose you can keep along your cousin or friend who knows a little about electrical meters, ask retailer (shopkeeper) to verify that this UPS is giving out proper voltages.
• If you are planning to use computer with this UPS, make sure that UPS unit supports it. For this direct the shopkeeper to make it computer complaint. (They make little configuration changes in your UPS, which prevents your Computer rebooting when electricity goes down.

Prices for UPS Units with Built in Dry Batteries

These UPS units come with built in Dry Batteries, and stabilizers. Means you get a once pack solution and simply take it home. But make sure that back-up duration for Buil in Dry Batteries’ UPS units is between 10 to 15 minutes only – Meaning that these are mainly for computers and for just saving your files and allowing you enough time to shut down your computer. (In case you need more backup time, then check for below given UPS prices that come without Batteries – and you can add up batteries to get more back up time)

• UPS 500 VA (300 VA actually) good for running 1 PC costs Rs 7,000.
• UPS 1,000 VA (650 VA actually) good for running 3 PCs costs Rs 12,500.
• UPS 1,500 VA UPS (900 VA in actual) that could run 4 PCs costs Rs 25,800.
• UPS 2,200 VA (1,800 in actual) capable of running 5 to 6 PCs costs Rs 35,900.
• UPS 3,300 VA (3,000 VA in actual) that runs 8 to 9 PCs costs Rs 45,500.
• UPS 4,000 VA (3,500 VA) capable of running 12 to 13 PCs costs Rs 80,400.
• UPS 5,000 VA (4,500 VA in actual) that is capable of running 15 to 16 PCs costs Rs 96,000.
• UPS 6,000 VA (5,500 VA in actual) capable of running 18 to 20 PCs costs Rs 117,000.

Prices for UPS Units that come without Batteries

These UPS units are suitable if you require more backup time. These UPSs come without built-in batteries and built-in voltage stabilizers, but you can add up batteries which are connected to these UPS units, to give you backup time as per your requirement. Huge battery = more backup time

• UPS 500 VA (300 VA actually) good for running 1 PC costs Rs 7,500.
• UPS 1,000 VA (650 VA actually) good for running 3 PCs costs Rs 11,500.
• UPS 1,500 VA UPS (900 VA in actual) that could run 4 PCs costs Rs 16,500.
• UPS 2,000 VA (1,800 in actual) capable of running 5 PCs costs Rs 26,000.
• UPS 3,000 VA (3,000 VA in actual) that runs 8 PCs costs Rs 32,000.
• UPS 4,000 VA (3,500 VA) capable of running 11 PCs costs Rs 42,000.
• UPS 5,000 VA (4,500 VA in actual) that is capable of running 14 PCs costs Rs 55,000.

The prices of wet batteries range from Rs 5,500 and Rs 12,000. So you will have to add one or multiple batteries with these UPS units which can give you backup time of 1 to 3.5 hours depending on power of battery you choose.

Please note that, you can get better rates than of these… I have put these prices just to give you a hint.

Happy Load Shedding…!