UPS system - surge load

[Ashful]

I'm setting up a home office, and facing a circuit capacity issue. Simply put, the one circuit available in this corner of the house is sufficient to run everything in my office... until I need to print. The damn laser printer pulls 10A, and pushes the one 15A circuit available from my desk past capacity.

There are several solutions, each of which involve relocating one of the major loads to another room, since we have a pretty solid network that would facilitate it. But each has a major drawback, I don't need to make this post too long with listing them.

I'm wondering if there is a programmable UPS system, or perhaps an interrupter that could be placed between the wall and UPS feeding this laser printer, which might limit how much current is pulled by the printer. Simply put, if I had a circuit interrupter set to 1 amp, it would be plenty sufficient to keep the printer alive and charge a 1200VA UPS, but then break the UPS (load) away from the branch circuit during printing.

If I cannot make that work, due to an old stone house with no available paths for pulling another circuit without major gutting, I'm forced to relocate a workstation or a printer. I could make that work if needed, but there are other drawbacks to doing it.

 

[stoveliker]

I'm setting up a home office, and facing a circuit capacity issue. Simply put, the one circuit available in this corner of the house is sufficient to run everything in my office... until I need to print. The damn laser printer pulls 10A, and pushes the one 15A circuit available from my desk past capacity.

There are several solutions, each of which involve relocating one of the major loads to another room, since we have a pretty solid network that would facilitate it. But each has a major drawback, I don't need to make this post too long with listing them.

I'm wondering if there is a programmable UPS system, or perhaps an interrupter that could be placed between the wall and UPS feeding this laser printer, which might limit how much current is pulled by the printer. Simply put, if I had a circuit interrupter set to 1 amp, it would be plenty sufficient to keep the printer alive and charge a 1200VA UPS, but then break the UPS (load) away from the branch circuit during printing.

If I cannot make that work, due to an old stone house with no available paths for pulling another circuit without major gutting, I'm forced to relocate a workstation or a printer. I could make that work if needed, but there are other drawbacks to doing it.

Not a solution to the particular question you asked (sorry, not enough knowledge to help there), but a wifi printer can be put anywhere in the home and you can keep your workstation where it is.

 

[Ashful]

Not a solution to the particular question you asked (sorry, not enough knowledge to help there), but a wifi printer can be put anywhere in the home and you can keep your workstation where it is.

Yep. That’s my first ‘plan B’ option. Relocate the printer to the next room. My wife and kids won’t love it, but I could make it work. $20 for a used WiFi adaptor on my current laser printer.

 

[brenndatomu]

an old stone house with no available paths for pulling another circuit without major gutting,

I assume you would be opposed to surface mounted conduit inside...what about outside? We have one place where there was a circuit added to an add-on entryway by going through the wall and near the ground on the outside wall...it is behind some plants, so not really noticeable. The other thing that comes to mind is the possibility of adding a circuit/receptacle in the ceiling, or floor?
Sorry no help on what you were really asking...I did maybe think of something DIY using a relay, but haven't worked out the details yet...

 

[Ashful]

I assume you would be opposed to surface mounted conduit inside...what about outside?

Not a bad idea, for some cases. Unfortunately, this is over an exposed basement, so I’ll have to go up outside and punch thru 20” of stone wall. Also, to get circuit out of utility room is thru 2’ of granite and more than 100 feet around a long house. Not impossible, but maybe not the path of lease resistance, either.

 

[stoveliker]

Can you go under the floor? ("Over an exposed basement")

 

[Ashful]

Can you go under the floor? ("Over an exposed basement")

Normally, that would be my first choice. Unfortunately, the basement below has a ceiling scarfed in between each of the hand-hewn beams, which is basically drywall screwed thru blue styrofoam and into the bottom sides of the floor above. I don't have a current photo, but here's what it looked like with the prior owner's furnishings:



I'd have to pull down ceiling sections to route a new wire, then replace, spackle in place, and repaint. I did this once already, to re-route some of the hydronic heat plumbing to extend my hearth and install the second stove, but really don't want to have to go thru that again.

I think I have a solution, though. I'm going to have a new desk made to go into my kids study, the adjacent room to my office, and will park the laser printer on that. Just ordered the wifi adaptor for the printer, and there's sufficient power over there. In fact, it may open up more desk space in my office to park another workstation. The printer won't be at an arm's length anymore, but it'll be less than 20 feet away, which beats our original ideas of parking it at the bottom of the basement stair.

The new custom desk won't be a real cheap solution, but also likely not much more than any of the others I've imagined, and they could use a bigger desk than the one they have. My office is in the 1775 kitchen, which was actually the third kitchen built in this house, the kids' study is in the dining room of the same age. You gotta be flexible and creative when you adapt modern life to an older house.

 

[stoveliker]

I understand.
Looks good down there! (Pity I can't see what's written on the bottles...)

 

[Ashful]

You know, I remember the prior owner left a bunch of very old bottles in my barn, when they moved out. Can’t remember what I did with them, now.

You dig up all sorts of interesting trash, when you live in a place that’s been someone’s home for 290 years. There was likely no trash service the first 230 years of that occupancy.

Just ran down the basement for a load of firewood, and grabbed a better photo of said ceiling.



Believe it or not, some of those beams are solid black Walnut. It’s the predominant yard tree, around here.

 

[stoveliker]

Beautiful. Different from the (similarly) old farms I was in in Europe, but you made its beauty come out for sure!

 

[brenndatomu]

How often do you use the printer?
I was at Menards tonight and saw a wireless remote control plug in receptacle...an idea popped into my head that could either be "too clunky", or perfect, depending on how often you use the printer...my thinking was this, plug the printer into a UPS, plug the UPS into this remote controlled outlet, then shut it off when you need to print...printer runs on UPS power, no extra load is put on house circuits...just have to remember to turn it back on so the UPS can stay charged...

 

[Ashful]

How often do you use the printer?
I was at Menards tonight and saw a wireless remote control plug in receptacle...an idea popped into my head that could either be "too clunky", or perfect, depending on how often you use the printer...my thinking was this, plug the printer into a UPS, plug the UPS into this remote controlled outlet, then shut it off when you need to print...printer runs on UPS power, no extra load is put on house circuits...just have to remember to turn it back on so the UPS can stay charged...

This is exactly what I was thinking, but maybe something that can be triggered to automatically turn off for 1 minute, each time the current spikes. I thought maybe there was a UPS on the market that could handle this automatically.

Alternatively, I wonder if I could program a smart plug module to operate off signaling from my Emporia Vue?

We use the printer sporadically. Maybe four or five jobs one day, and then it might sit unused two or three days, you never know when the kids have a school assignment to print, or I have to print a contract for mailing. It has auto power save mode, so we just leave it powered on, and it goes thru it’s auto warm-up routine when we send a job to it. Nice setup, other than the 10A draw when printing.

 

[Corey]

How attached are you to your laser printer? Seems like for the cost/complexity of a lot of these solutions, you could possibly just invest in a good inkjet printer. The inkjet would not need to heat up the fusor for each print, so no current spike and more energy efficient overall.

 

[Ashful]

I’m not legally married to this printer, but it has been good to me. Yes, The thought of going inkjet crossed my mind. But truthfully, I’ve never seen a “good” inkjet printer, despite having dumped some pretty good sums on them, in the past. Does such a thing exist?

My primary frustration with each of my past inkjets was reliability, and ink nozzles going dry when only a small fraction of the cartridge has been used. I’ve also had carriages fail, and other random issues, to the point where I completely swore them off more than a decade ago, but maybe the tech is now more reliable.

The laser printer just works, like a tank. Never any frustration, or drama, when you need it. I think it cost as much as a half-dozen consumer inkjets, but this one is now 12 years old, and never a single issue. It’s designed for a yearly thruput of tens of thousands of pages, but that hasn’t caused me any issues, at maybe just 1000-1500 pages per year.

 

[stoveliker]

I don't think ink jets (nozzles drying out) have improved. I have a 5 yr old one after one before that and it still sucks.

Most kids homework though is now paperless, so we don't print much anymore. I.e. 25 pages with a cartridge (before it dries out...) :-(

 

[Ashful]

I don't think ink jets (nozzles drying out) have improved. I have a 5 yr old one after one before that and it still sucks.

Most kids homework though is now paperless, so we don't print much anymore. I.e. 25 pages with a cartridge (before it dries out...) :-(

That’s why I got so frustrated and went with a business laser. When I need it, it just works, every time!

 

[EbS-P]

The most simple answer is a new printer. What’s the load without the printer? Most 1200 VA I have seen don’t do over 700 watts my 750 VA only do 400w max.

Looks like a new laser can be had that draws 500w.

Or run an extension cord when you need to print.

Personally I am trying to transition everything to paperless. A 10”+ tablet and active stylus really have helped.

Edit… you want to put everything but the Pinter on the battery backup.. got it. I’m sure there are timers out there push button off for 2 min. Could set a routine with smart plug. When it goes off it stays off X amount of time. Not sure what ecosystem is best. Not sure Alexa can do that but didn’t investigate beyond on and off at set times.

 

[Ashful]

The most simple answer is a new printer. What’s the load without the printer? Most 1200 VA I have seen don’t do over 700 watts my 750 VA only do 400w max.

Looks like a new laser can be had that draws 500w.

Or run an extension cord when you need to print.

Personally I am trying to transition everything to paperless. A 10”+ tablet and active stylus really have helped.

Edit… you want to put everything but the Pinter on the battery backup.. got it. I’m sure there are timers out there push button off for 2 min. Could set a routine with smart plug. When it goes off it stays off X amount of time. Not sure what ecosystem is best. Not sure Alexa can do that but didn’t investigate beyond on and off at set times.

A 500 watt printer would definitely be better, if it's as reliable as what I have now. Depending on the exact draw of the newest HPC, it might still put me a hair over 15A, but likely not so much as to violate the time/temp constant of a 15A breaker.

As a side note, I pulled up my history on toner purchase. If we believe the page estimates listed for each of the cartridges I've tried over the years, it would appear I'm doing about 1600 pages per year. The largest toner cartridge available is 6000 pages for $60, so $0.01 per page. I think I was averaging worse than 50x that price on inkjet, due to premature ink cartridge failure (clogged nozzles).

I have a question into Emporia, about the smart plug options, as interfacing with the Vue seems a good option. I have Vue monitoring on three of my six breaker panels, including those supplying the office and study, but I wouldn't even mind an excuse to add it to some of the other panels.

But I'm starting to realize other advantages of moving the printer not the least of which is space for more UPS's and workstations up on the desk, rather than sticking them on the floor where they tend to need more frequent cleaning, or tend to get kicked as I swivel around in my chair all day.

With me moving my operation home, and my wife already working at home the last few years, we now have three laptops, one all-in-one, and one big workstation tower on the desk, along with the usual assortment of printer, scanner, wifi router, UPS's, and NAS. Getting the printer (largest single item) off our desk and into the kids' study is starting to look more attractive.

 

[EbS-P]

A 500 watt printer would definitely be better, if it's as reliable as what I have now. Depending on the exact draw of the newest HPC, it might still put me a hair over 15A, but likely not so much as to violate the time/temp constant of a 15A breaker.

As a side note, I pulled up my history on toner purchase. If we believe the page estimates listed for each of the cartridges I've tried over the years, it would appear I'm doing about 1600 pages per year. The largest toner cartridge available is 6000 pages for $60, so $0.01 per page. I think I was averaging worse than 50x that price on inkjet, due to premature ink cartridge failure (clogged nozzles).

I have a question into Emporia, about the smart plug options, as interfacing with the Vue seems a good option. I have Vue monitoring on three of my six breaker panels, including those supplying the office and study, but I wouldn't even mind an excuse to add it to some of the other panels.

But I'm starting to realize other advantages of moving the printer not the least of which is space for more UPS's and workstations up on the desk, rather than sticking them on the floor where they tend to need more frequent cleaning, or tend to get kicked as I swivel around in my chair all day.

With me moving my operation home, and my wife already working at home the last few years, we now have three laptops, one all-in-one, and one big workstation tower on the desk, along with the usual assortment of printer, scanner, wifi router, UPS's, and NAS. Getting the printer (largest single item) off our desk and into the kids' study is starting to look more attractive.

I started racking all my computers. 4u cases work well for most. My HPC had a rack option years and years ago but I was unable to find the hardware. I just built a shelf and have it on its side. I was able to slide the top mounted case on the wheeled rack under my desk. It keeps them off the floor saves desk space. But the reality is I haven’t needed any of these computers (low end gaming, hackintosh, HPC (16c 64 Gb ram sandy bridge) for over a year. I looked in rack mount UPS and they were way to expensive at the time.

 

[Ashful]

I did explore a rack chassis for the Precision 7920, but it bumped the price up several thousand, due to other configuration requirements that came with it. In the end, since I'm not running multiple solver GPU's on this one (additional $25k), I was actually able to get away with a 7820 chassis.

I debated awhile on dual Xeon Gold 6226R's (32 cores at up to 3.6 GHz simultaneous) vs. dual 5220R's (48 cores up to 2.4 GHz). The 5220R's benchmark higher on most tests, but since several of my processes are more sensitive to clock than core count, I went with the dual 6226R. I'd have loved to add another Tesla GPU to the system, but the cost ($10k GPU + $15k licensing) is just more than I wanted to spend, while dealing with other startup costs.

Previously, I was running two 64-core machines with dual Tesla GPU's... serious hardware. But that wasn't on my own dime.

 

[gthomas785]

If you want to double the available power, you could consider converting the circuit to 240V/15A. Then get a step down transformer to produce 120V/30A.

 

[EbS-P]

If you want to double the available power, you could consider converting the circuit to 240V/15A. Then get a step down transformer to produce 120V/30A.

A lot computers have swtiching or switchable PSUs. Still seems like more effort than necessary. It would be a nuisance to have one room/circuit in the house on 240v.

 

[semipro]

How often do you use the printer?
I was at Menards tonight and saw a wireless remote control plug in receptacle...an idea popped into my head that could either be "too clunky", or perfect, depending on how often you use the printer...my thinking was this, plug the printer into a UPS, plug the UPS into this remote controlled outlet, then shut it off when you need to print...printer runs on UPS power, no extra load is put on house circuits...just have to remember to turn it back on so the UPS can stay charged...

I was thinking of something similar:
Unplug the UPS from 120 VAC and use a trickle charger to charge the battery in the UPS. The trickle charger could be sized not to overload the home branch circuit. A larger, external battery could be used if printer demand requires it.
Most office-sized UPS are 12 VDC (gel cell) so an automotive trickle charger should work.
You may need to disable any audible alert on the UPS since it will think power is down.

 

[gthomas785]

A lot computers have swtiching or switchable PSUs. Still seems like more effort than necessary. It would be a nuisance to have one room/circuit in the house on 240v.

Yeah it's a bit of effort, you'd have to change out all the receptacles to 6-15s and spend some money on power adapters. Probably not more than a UPS and all the stuff it would take to switch it on and off though.
I just suggested it as an option that would truly solve OP's problem. There are certainly simpler ways like moving the printer.

Edit: hit post by accident

 

[peakbagger]

Years ago we just plugged the printer into a UPS that had enough surge load to carry the printer. We cycled the batteries a lot but it worked.