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From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: Cascading UPSs
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:41:20 -0700
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On 1/10/2025 1:50 PM, Bertrand Sindri wrote:
> Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
>> And, the home/SOHO markets have got to be "one time" purchases
> 
> The home/SOHO market is much more likely a "disposable appliance" where
> UPS'es are concerned.
> 
> They buy one.  When the ear peircing continuous scream of "battery
> gone" eventually occurs, they trash it and buy another new one.

I suspect the sorts of people who would have bought these are the
same sorts who would have bought a (crappy) "tape backup" unit
(nowadays, that would be a shingled external disk) thinking they
were "doing things right".

The reality would eventually sink in when (as you say) it "demanded
attention".  (By contrast, the tape/disk backup would silently
become "unused")

I brought a small unit home for a neighbor to power her CPAP
(as she was talking about buying one).  I suspect the same
will happen with her usage -- outages being so infrequent
(and, she would have to be using the CPAP, at the time, for
it to matter) that it just becomes a bulky "outlet strip"
by the bed.

> A small subset that would be willing to swap the battery /might/ look
> at the manufacturers cost for a replacement battery and then conclude
> that it is cheaper to just trash it and buy the one on sale on Amazon
> right now, because new battery for old unit is 110% the cost of the
> sale item on Amazon.  So those become disposable appliances as well.

What I find more amusing is the number of (likely) commercial users
who must be discarding them -- that assumption based on the size and
cost of the units I see (2U, $1K+).  This week's pile of discards:

<https://mega.nz/file/JzhE3R5C#2q6j98sBJ2uSW7z5VjmoJcYCgYIUnz8kVcZlpW6j4-Q>

(sigh)  Maybe there should be a warning printed on the package to
discourage unnecessary purchases?  <frown>