UPS for mac-mini

When considering the total of items to be run from a battery backup, they do detract from an suggested run-time of the APC device. I've owned a few battery backups, to include a few from APC, so all things you may need to safely close down everything after an outage hits, can be used. Even an APC 1500VA is rather short-lived.

Mine automatically regulate power, so lower or higher mains power is corrected, in addition to being a supposed 'uninterruptable power supply' the regulating factor saves the Mac from damages, unlike a surge protector.

Read up on safe use of these, some makers pages said to not put two on the same circuit in a residential situation because a surge could dump excess power via the ground wire and may cause a fire. However this was a few years ago, and I've not heard of anyone lighting up their house. It did convince me to not use two in the same room; so one with more backup runtime was put in use.

You can get up to 30 minutes from a 1500 UPS, if you add on whatever is on when the power goes out. I use multiple power strips so as to ration the backup runtime, by turning off unimportant items (power strip switch) to extend the battery time to the Mac.

These UPS items are cheap insurance, if you get adequate capacity to actually protect and run a Mac. The smaller ones may not have automatic voltage regulation or significant runtime to actually save work and shut down the computer. I do mine manually when present during outage, but do let my Macs sleep otherwise when not in use, with up to six months w/o shutdown. My AirPort base station is also on UPS. The printers are not. I used to have a DSL modem on another UPS setup; but also had a good quality backup generator. At least until the generator failed. It was a 6500W industrial model, but nobody can fix it. That was my best backup power, and used my UPS to keep my Macs alive until I started the genset, & switched it over.

Anyway, I think you'd do better to have a larger capacity UPS for the more important computing items, and where a display or other items, powered USB hubs, backup hard drives, etc. You need to formulate a plan.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

I have a APC 750 backup. I have a 2011 MacMini Server (2GHz, quad core),

a Thunderbolt display, and a couple of external hard drves and a ethernet

switch connected to the backup outlets and I get around 30-40 minutes of

run time on backup. The nice thing about this unit, is you can connect

via USB and be able to get status of the power supply.

I use a Cyberpower 1500 for my Mini and TB display and external HDD and works great. I get about 20-25 minutes of run time with all on. USB to Mini and I use the UPS menu to regulate. Go to Amazon and read reviews of all the various models which will give you an idea what you need.

The larger UPS units have a display on them and extra actual buttons to look through items in the display; a handy one is where the line-in voltage appears. Another one can show what the load is on the UPS. I was able to help troubleshoot a power utility's repair where afterward they had been sending 145volts AC over the lines, and my UPS had been switching. I looked into it and made a direct call to their dispatch at 2AM. Of course living out in a semi-remote location, if you don't report something amiss, maybe others would have slept through it.

I have a spare UPS in a box. Bought these locally (a drive, to the city) for less than Amazon. Since shipping costs would equal almost a tank of fuel for the vehicle; and I can do more with the money in a circular route than just get a UPS. That, and I also found a place to get replacement batteries at near wholesale; after a few years or so these need them.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂