Does Backup UPS uses power by itself ? or causes higher electricity consumption ?

[kyutip]

I have some extra APC UPS lying around so I thought why not use it for something other than computers. I plan to use it for living room's HT system (TV, receiver, etc) and bedroom's TV.
My main concern is just for surge protection since I don't really need the extended runtime for TV.

My question is would I be better off with just normal powerstrips (with surge protector) ?
I have a hunch that UPS by itself uses power to maintain the charge, is this true ? Anyone knows ?

 

[KaOTiK]

I don't know if it uses extra power or not but you can just disconnect the battery inside so you don't have to worry.

 

[amdskip]

I would think that they just have a small trickle charger to maintain the batteries, not sure how much they use.

 

[GooeyGUI]

First, I would have put this post in general hardware instead of here.

Try

http://www.avsforum.com/

for about anything you want to know about A/V

 

[kyutip]

Thanks for the quick replies. I would've post this on avsforum but I thought I might get faster response here
I was hoping that someone with a Kill-A-Watt might know this for sure.

I have a hunch about the trickle charge also. If that is the case then the extra power consumption should (hopefully) be minimal.

 

[Jeff7]

I've got an extra UPS upstairs, an APC 350VA unit. I just plugged it into my Kill-A-Watt, and it's reading .03A, and 2W. It might be doing a quick top-off of the battery though from being unplugged briefly. I'll see if it changes much in the next hour or so.


Edit: It's now about 50min after I posted. The UPS' power factor went down, so maybe that means it's switched to standby mode?
In any case, it's still showing .03A.

 

[kyutip]

Thanks Jeff7, that is very helpful.