Comparative

Ketchup Product Test

UPS: Holding on to the Power

Higher the capacity, better the backup
The fact is, in India a remote village is declared to be ‘electrified’ as soon as a single light bulb
illuminates it at night, regardless of the duration of its illumination. While this is an entirely
different issue and not the subject of this report, it may well be mentioned as the product that
we have tested and reviewed has its roots in this fundamental problem – namely insufficient
or interrupted power supply. There is an increasing range of devices that run on electricity,
but many parts of the country do not have enough electricity to run these. One has to rely on
alternative systems that can run crucial devices in case of power outages. The commonest of all
such devices is the uninterruptible power system (UPS), which is often a mediator between the
main power socket and the computer’s power cord. The report that follows will tell us something
about backup capacity, standby strength and other relevant aspects to look for in the UPS.
A Consumer Voice Report

T
he UPS is probably the only affordable and with backup time anywhere between ten minutes
solution to keep the workstation – and one hour.
mostly comprising a desktop computer We researched further to figure out the brands
and a printer – ‘on’ for enough time to that were being sold the most and bought the 10
complete and save important work in leading brands from the organized market. Then, as
case of power failure. Through our preliminary market per procedure, we sent them to an NABL-certified
research, we found out that the most common UPSs laboratory to test if they met the set standards and
were the ones with capacity of 600VA to 1100VA also delivered what they promised.

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What is a UPS? Social Connect

The UPS is an electrical power source Apart from helping consumers in
connected between the main power supply and making the best choice, the focus of this test
the hardware that works on electricity, especially report is also to sensitize electrical product
computers, printers and a few lights. The aim of manufacturers towards the environment
the system is to supply continuous, undisturbed so that they make efficient—and to the
and conditioned power to a specific load in case extent possible, eco-friendly—products. All
of a power failure. brands that consume less power and have no/
The UPS uses batteries for storing of power. minimal standby loss are always rated better
When the external supply is ‘on’, the inverter in Consumer Voice reports. Each watt saved by
in the system keeps converting AC current into an efficient appliance or a gadget is valuable
DC current that gets stored in the battery. When for the planet.
main power supply goes off, this stored power
reverts to its original form – AC current – and
powers the respective connected devices. The
whole conversion and powering process happens
in a fraction of a second, so that the device
connected to the UPS does not even flicker
when the power goes.
The device attached to the UPS can run on
the stored power for a few minutes or even hours,
depending on the backup capacity of the UPS.

BRANDS TESTED
Rank Total Score Brand Model Declared MRP Retail Manufacturer/
out of 100 Capacity, (in Rs) price Marketer
(Rounded off) VA
CAPACITY 1000VA–1100VA
1 90 APC APC back UPS 1100 8,425 6,499 Schneider Electric
RS 1100
2 88 iBall Nirantar 1000 4,490 4,299 Best IT World
3 84 Zebronics ZEB-U 1000 1000 4,200 4,100 Top Notch Infotronix
3 84 Elnova T-1002 1000 6,040 5,800 Elnova Pvt. Ltd
4 83 Microtek Twin Guard 1000 4,890 4,649 Microtek International
4 83 Asia power AP1050+ 1000 5,999 5,499 Asia Powercom
4 83 Intex Gamma 1000 5,038 4,899 Intex Technologies
CAPACITY 600VA
1 88 Numeric Digital 600 EX 2,300 2,100 Novateur Electrical &
Digital Systems
2 82 Luminous Duo 600 2,599 2,350 Luminous Power
Technologies
3 79 V-Guard SESTO 600 2,500 2,050 V-Guard Industries
Score Rating: >90: very good*****, 71–90: good****, 51–70: average***, 30–50: poor**, <30: very poor*

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Ketchup
Test Methodology
The draft Indian standard consulted for the KEY FINDINGS
comparative testing of UPS is as per Document • APC produces sine waveform; all the other
No. ET-31 (5432), which is mainly based on IEC: tested brands produce rectangular waveforms.
62040-1: 2008 (Uninterruptible Power Supply UPS • APC gives the maximum backup – of 80
general and safety requirement for UPS) and IEC: minutes – in the 1000VA–1100VA category.
62040-3: 1999, under development by the power In 600VA category, Numeric gives the most
electronics sectional committee of Bureau of Indian backup time.
Standards.
• Efficiency level was found between 85.69 per
cent and 91.70 per cent. Numeric (91.7 per
CV Recommendation | Top Performer cent), APC (89.59 per cent) and Luminous
(1000VA–1100VA category) (89.13 per cent) showed better efficiency.
APC • Power consumption in standby mode is
lowest in APC (20W) and highest in Intex
• Only brand in the tested lot to produce
(32W).
recommended sine wave (other brands
• All the brands have relatively fast change-
produce rectangular wave that can harm
over time.
sophisticated devices)
• Most of the brands were manufactured in
• Highest backup time of 80 minutes China.
• Has minimum standby loss
• At Rs 6,499, it offers a justifiable price for its
qualities

CV Recommendation | Top Performer

(600VA category)
Numeric

TEST RESULTS
FOR PERFORMANCE
Efficiency | Backup time | Change-over time
| Capacity | Wave form | Output voltage |
Frequency

u Efficiency
All brands show efficiency level of over 85 per
cent, which is just about at acceptable point.
• Numeric with efficiency level of 91.7 per cent,
APC at 89.59 per cent and Luminous at 89.13
proved to be the better performers.
u Backup time at full rated load
One of the most important factors with regard over a period of usage due to weakening of battery
to a UPS is its backup time. The backup ability is capacity in retaining the charge.
directly proportional to quality as well as capacity of • APC gave maximum backup – of 80 minutes – in
its batteries. It is to be noted that backup time reduces the 1000VA–1100VA category.

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• In 600VA category, Numeric topped in backup
time.

Brand Backup Time

1000VA–1100VA

APC 1 hour 20 minutes

iBall 63 minutes

Elnova 57 minutes

Asia Power 55 minutes

Microtek 55 minutes
u Capacity
Intex 52 minutes
Before buying, consumers must see the actual
Zebronics 50 minutes capacity in watts in addition to the VA capacity,
which is actually the virtual power capacity.
600VA
• Capacity in watts for all the brands is above or
Numeric 15 minutes negligibly less (1watt–10 watts) compared to their
rated capacity. Hence, all brands passed this
Luminous 12 minutes test.
V-Guard 10 minutes

u Change-over time
This means the time taken for switching on
to UPS backup power in case of electricity outage
and then reverting to the mains when electricity
returns. This time should, of course, be such that
the power going to the device attached to the UPS
is uninterrupted.
• All the tested brands showed relatively fast
change-over time for both the modes.

PERFORMANCE
% Weightage APC iBall Zebronics Elnova
Efficiency 14 12.51 12.28 12.29 12.30
Backup time at full rated load 15 13.33 12.60 9.99 11.4
Change-over time 6 5.59 5.45 5.26 5.54
Output voltage 2 1.94 1.96 1.98 1.99
Frequency 2 1.99 2 1.97 1.97
Capacity 5 5 5 5 5
Overload capacity 3 2.26 2.63 2.26 2.26
Output wave form 4 4 2 2 1.4

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Ketchup

u Overload capacity at 15 per cent higher load u Output voltage

(than rated capacity) All brands except Microtek (at 228.4V, but within
To ascertain whether the UPS can handle limit) provided the output voltage close to their
overload, they were loaded with 15 per cent more respective rated voltage of 230V.
than their rated capacities and the backup time was
u Frequency
noted.
The UPS must give a frequency of 50 Hz with
• All the brands could withstand the extra load for 1 acceptable tolerance. The output frequency should
minute to 1.8 minutes. also be stable.
• All brands passed these tests.
u Output waveforms
Ideally the output wave of a UPS should be sine
wave as it is safe for sophisticated devices. In the tests,
though, we found that except for APC all the brands
produced rectangular wave.
• Only APC produced sine wave.
• Amplitude of rectangular wave in Elnova and
Luminous is quite high, so they should be avoided
for sophisticated devices.

TESTS
Microtek Asia Power Intex Numeric Luminous V-Guard
12.02 12.13 11.99 12.83 12.47 12.19
10.99 10.99 10.39 11.25 9.0 7.5

5.25 5.32 5.27 5.55 5.31 5.33

1.92 1.97 1.94 1.97 1.98 1.99
1.97 1.99 1.99 2.0 1.98 1.97
4.49 4.94 4.97 5 5 5
2.63 2.63 2.26 2.85 2.63 2.26
2 2 2 2 1.4 2

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RELATED ELECTRICAL TESTS as declared by manufacturer. The condition/status

Standby loss | THD | Batteries charging | Input of the fully charged battery is to be indicated on the
power/voltage front panel/bezel of the UPS.

u Power in standby mode u Battery-charging time

This refers to wastage of electricity when the The battery-charging time should neither be too
battery is fully charged; therefore it should be minimal. quick (as it may deteriorate the battery) nor should
The tested brands showed standby loss between 20 it be too low. The UPS must always retain enough
watts and 32 watts. power to take the load in case of frequent power
• APC showed lowest loss of 20 watts, while Intex outages.
with 32 watts had highest standby loss. • In 1000VA capacity, iBall and Zebronics took the
least time to charge the battery (6.10 hours and
u THD
6.20 hours, respectively); Asia Power took more
The total harmonic distortion (THD) should not than 12 hours.
exceed five per cent as it can affect the sound quality
of audio-video gadgets in the vicinity. • In 600VA capacity, Numeric charged the battery
in just 4.10 hours. The highest time – 6 hours –
• The total harmonic distortion of the tested brands
was taken by V-Guard.
was between 2.5 and 4.8, and is thus not a
concern. It will not disturb the electronic gadgets u Input voltage range
operating in the vicinity.
The UPS should be able to operate on the input
u Batteries charging voltage range as declared on the rating plate/operating
The built-in battery charger of the UPS should be manual.
able to charge the fully discharged battery in the time • All the brands complied with the requirement.
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Ketchup
SAFETY TESTS u Operating manual
Endurance | Temperature | High voltage | The operating manual must include instructions
Insulation resistance | Electrical shock for installation, battery (charging and maintenance)
and safety, along with a schematic diagram of internal
u Endurance
connections showing terminals, components and sub-
The endurance test was conducted for 10 cycles –
assemblies.
in each cycle the UPS was charged seven hours and
discharged for one hour. • V-Guard’s instruction manual contained the least
amount of information.
• All the brands withstood the endurance test.
• Asia Power and Numeric’s manuals did not have
u Temperature rise schematic diagrams.
All brands were tested to check if there was an
exceptional rise in their temperature after 50 per cent A three-member expert panel checked and rated
charging. Temperature rise was measured on three all the brands for their workmanship, aesthetics,
sides of the UPS body at room temperature. robust construction as well as ventilation provision,
and found all of them to be equally good.
• None of the brands exceeded 40 degrees Celsius
during charging. Hence, all of them can be Our conclusion is that it is advisable to buy a UPS
considered safe. of higher capacity – of minimum 1000VA – if PCs,
laptops, etc., as well as other supported peripherals
u High voltage are needed to be used during power outages. In terms
This was to check if the UPS could withstand of actual capacity and backup time, brand APC
voltage of 1500 V at 50 Hz for one minute. emerged as an excellent performer (backup of 80
• All brands passed this test. minutes on full rated load usage). Brand iBall lasted
for 63 minutes in our tests, while the remaining
u Insulation resistance five brands of 1000VA capacity gave backup of
This test was carried out at a voltage of 500V DC below one hour (52 to 57 minutes). Brands with
to be sure that the insulation did not break down or 600VA capacity have given backup of only 10 to
melt at high voltage. 15 minutes.
• All brands passed the insulation resistance test as
well as the test to check protection against electrical
shocks.
GENERAL TESTS
Packaging | Marking | Operating manual |
Physical observations

u Packaging
The packaging has to permit convenient
handling and protect the UPS against any loss or
damage during transit and storage
• Packaging of APC was very robust, followed by
of Microtek and V-Guard. Difference in kW and VA
Watts (W) and volt-amperes (VA) are units
u Marking of measurement for electrical power. Watts
Mandatory information includes source of refer to ‘real power’, while volt-amperes refer to
manufacture, serial number, date of manufacturing, ‘apparent power’. Electronic products show one
warrantee/guarantee time, and the rated voltage and or both of these values to provide information
Hz capacity. about how much energy they will consume or
• All tested brands had complete information on how much current they will draw.
their respective rating plates.

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