APC’s UPS now for homes

American Power Conversion (APC) has announced the introduction of its Back-UPS HS 500VA, a wall or rack-mountable power management uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for home and office environments.
Back-UPS HS 500, the company said, provides availability to critical home networking equipment by protecting data lines.

The unit also offers battery backup to home networking devices such as routers and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones.

APC’s patent-pending Back-UPS HS 500 is one of the only UPS solutions with user controlled plug outlets and a management interface allowing the user to manage the unit remotely over a network or via the Web.

Country General Manager for Africa at APC, Mr. Carl Kleynhans, said, that with the convergence of networking products in a centralised location in homes, has been on the increase.

Stressing it paves the way to protect these systems from power anomalies as well as monitor the systems prior, during, and after a power disruption.

“The APC Back-UPS HS 500, which provides high quality power protection for home networks, also gives the user the ability to remotely monitor their unit efficiently,” he said.

The manager also said that this feature allows the user to choose what critical applications, via the Web, they want on battery backup when at another location.

He explained that the product has four battery backup outlets offering up to 51 minutes runtime for critical applications.

“The device notifies the user through visual alarm LED indicators of the power supply’s condition and status,” he said, which includes notification of communication status and if the battery is in use, needs replacing, as well as low, missing or not properly connected.

The new Back-UPS also offers surge protection for cable modems, cable television converters or Digital Satellite System (DSS) receivers.

In addition, he said, it protects equipment connected via 10/100 Base-T Ethernet lines as well as fax, phone, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) and modem lines.

The UPS, he further said, is designed to be wall mounted next to the building’s panel box or used with a shelf mount (2U).

Therefore, the unit allows a user to remotely manage the unit by turning the three Web-controlled outlets not in use on and off, thus preventing overloads, which helps to maximise battery performance and reliability.

“It also allows the user to recycle power to locked equipment minimising downtime and travel time to the equipment. Up to five Back-UPS HS 500 units can be controlled through the included management utility,” Mr. Kleynhans said.