Hi there, I live out in the sticks and lose power once in a while. I’d hate for that to happen during an print. What do you guys use?
The Form3 power supply is rated at 220W. So if that’s the printer you’ve got, figure out how many hours of run time you need, multiply by 220 and then go find a UPS with that many Watt-Hours of capacity.
But be forewarned, if you’re looking to get a lot of hours of run time, you’re looking at an expensive UPS. A quick check on-line found some UPSs in the $500 range that’ll do 2KW for 10 minutes, which means they can do 200W for 100 minutes. If you wanted 10 hours of run time you’d need a UPS with 2200Wh of capacity. UPSs tend to be rated in Watts/10 minutes. So 10 hours of hold up for a Form3 would need a UPS rated to deliver 13KW/10 minutes. You’re looking at $1000s.
A hybrid solution would be worth considering, IMO. A 1KW portable inverter generator can be had from Harbor Freight for around $100. And it’d probably run for 12+ hours just powering the printer. I’d buy a small UPS that’d give maybe 15 minutes of “ride through”, so that’d only need to be 55Wh (or the way UPSs are rated, “330VA”), plus a small inverter generator (“inverter” is important - it means it’ll be small, light, quiet and efficient) and a long extension cord. Lose power, unplug the UPS from the wall, plug in to extension cord, plug cord in to generator outside, start generator, go back to sleep. (note: this is the solution I use. My UPS has enough hold up power for about 20 minutes for my PC workstation. I have an inverter generator. I lose power, I plug in the generator. The UPS keeps things running while I do that. The system never goes down).
If all you’re looking for is immunity to short power outages, decide how much money you want to spend and buy the UPS with the highest “VA” rating you can find for your budget. UPSs are generally similar enough any one will work as well as another. I am fond of APC UPSs. The batteries are easy to replace.
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Here’s my testing result with my Form3 and an Eaton 9PX 1kVA.
It uses quite a bit of power right at the start of the print, then settles down to not much for the rest of the time.
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