UPS for home

Almost inexorably, the day arrived (start of the season of power cuts !!) when I had to contemplate buying a UPS/Inverter for home. 


BRANDS
1. APC - Numero uno. Almost legendary reputation for reliability. Expensive.
2. Microtek - Best price + warranty offer.
3. LUMINOUS - Good price. Very informative website. Excellent sales and support (if someone is planning to buy a UPS inverter, I would happily recommend these folks). My choice.

FEATURES
1. 800VA - To power the lights, fans and all electronic equipment in our small but snug and comfortable two bedroom apartment, this was sufficient.
2. Pure sine wave - As opposed to Modified(square) sine wave generated by the UPS usually offered by vendors.

See http://www.sinergex.com/inverter-info.html for the differences.

One additional difference is the power factor. The actual power delivered by modified sinewave for this unit was 800VA*0.8=640W whereas for the pure sinewave  the value was 800VA*0.7=560W (1 tubelight).

To power our laptops, printer, I specifically asked for pure sine wave inverter despite the slight reduction in power supplied.

3. 12V, 120 AH battery - Prestolite (an Exide brand) supplied by LUMINOUS.
4. Inline - Did NOT go with a unit that could be connected inline i.e. power is drawn at all time from the UPS battery so that even when there is a power outage UPS inverter automatically kicks in without the tiny interruption.
5. Price - `13k

LUMINOUS Sine (Pure Sine) Wave 800VA for powers my home!!
(Hmm.. Maybe I should ask for a fee for this endorsement :))

PS:
It is sad that Bangalore continues to suffer from daily power outages when its infrastructure ought to match up to  the likes of Shanghai.

A quick back of the envelope calculation: Price of the UPS times No. of households who own a TV (and can be assumed to be able to afford a UPS) = `15000 times 17000000 = ` 25.5 billion or 2550 crores, that is over 40% of the total 2009-10 power budget of the state of Karnataka. So, every household is paying the penalty of buying a UPS, because the funds allocated to build, maintain and enhance infrastructure has over the years been inefficiently utilized  over the years!!