Choosing a UPS for a small office: sizing, types and what to budget
Who this is for: a small office or shop that needs to keep working, or at least shut down safely, through load-shedding and power cuts.
First decide what you are protecting
There are two different jobs. A UPS gives a few minutes to an hour of clean power so PCs, the router and the point-of-sale do not crash: enough to keep working through a short cut or shut down properly. An inverter with batteries (and optionally solar) runs the office for hours. Many small offices need both: a UPS on each critical machine and an inverter for lights, the network and the fridge.
Sizing a UPS
Add up the wattage of what plugs into it. A desktop PC and monitor draw around 150–300 W, a laptop 60 W, a router 20 W, a till and printer perhaps 100 W. Choose a UPS whose rated wattage (not VA) is at least 30% above that total. A 1,000–1,500 VA unit (roughly 600–900 W) covers a typical two-PC desk with the router; a 2,000–3,000 VA unit covers a small server or a POS counter with printer. Run time on a standard UPS is short, ten to twenty minutes at full load, because it is built to bridge, not to run.
Line-interactive is enough for most offices
Line-interactive models from APC and Mecer handle brownouts and cuts for PCs and network gear. Online (double-conversion) units from Eaton and APC cost more and are worth it for servers, medical or lab equipment.
Keeping the network up is the highest-value use
If only one thing gets a UPS, make it the router, fibre box and switch: a small 600–1,000 VA UPS keeps the whole office online for an hour or more, so laptops on battery keep working.
Batteries are the consumable
UPS batteries last two to four years. Note the date you install a UPS and plan to replace the battery, or ask us to test it annually.
What to budget
A desk UPS for one PC from around R1,500; a 1,500 VA unit for a desk plus network around R3,500–R5,000; an inverter-and-battery setup for a small office from around R15,000 upward depending on run time. StepEdge installs inverter systems in Gauteng and can survey the office first.
See power and UPS, or call +27 11 023 8740.
