Nowadays having an UPS for your PC at home or NAS server becomes mandatory. In my case it’s even more important because I host my website from home on my own Synology NAS. If you too have a NAS, Synology or another, an UPS will prove to be a blessing and help you avoid so many problems from downtime due to power outages to actual damage to your electronic devices that might put them in service, or worse.

When looking to buy an UPS for my NAS I spent a lot of time reading up on different UPS models from different brands. When I felt satisfied with the info I’d acquired, I went for a CyberPower UPS. You must know that this article is in no way sponsored and I do not gain anything from its publication. If anything, I simply want to share my experience with you about getting an UPS for my NAS.

One of the main reasons why I decided to buy a UPS was because I live in Romania in a more rural area. While the yard space, being surrounding by nature, breathing clean air and benefiting from quiet and peace are worth the distance from the busy city, there are downsides such as the fact that we often have problems with the electricity grid. As a result, power outages are a common occurrence, but definitely not healthy for your electronics in the long run, or your business if you’re working from home.

As far the UPS I did buy goes, compatibility with my Synology NAS was a must and I have to say it’s living up to my expectations and more. I got the 900-watt CP1500EPFCLCD UPS model from CyberPower. My CyberPower, which is an European version, has 6 Schuko sockets at the back which means I get to connect 6 different devices to it. But I can safely keep more than 6 different devices up and running during a blackout with just the help of a power strip which is simply great.

Once you connect your Synology NAS device to the UPS via its power socket, the NAS will automatically be recognized, and you can also use the USB cable included in your UPS package to activate the “UPS Support” option in your DSM. I for one keep this option deactivated and I will explain below why.

If you check (enable) the UPS support option, every time the power goes off, your Synology NAS will power off the disks in safe mode and shut down. This is done to protect the health of the disks and prevent damage in case of a blackout or multiple seconds-long blackouts. But this option ensures it will automatically reboot once the power comes back on again, even if the blackout lasts several hours.

Why do I keep this option off? In my case, the UPS support option is disabled because a reboot or a shutdown of my Synology NAS will mean my website will be offline which is something I cannot allow. Connecting only my Synology NAS to the UPS means I have about 3 hours of additional uptime in case of a power outage which gives me more than enough time to manually switch off my NAS safely. Or switch it to a generator. As for the webhosting part, it means that despite the fact that there is no electricity, my website will stay online thanks to the UPS which acts as a battery.

If you use your Synology NAS for backup or cloud, not self hosting, the best option in this case is to activate the UPS support option which will provide disk protection by automatically shutting down your Synology NAS and allowing it to restart when the power is on again. In order to do this go to:

Control Panel / Hardware & Power / UPS tab / Check these options: Enable UPS support and choose your UPS type then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• USB UPS: A backup power device that connects to your Synology product via a USB port.
• SNMP UPS: A backup power device that connects to your Synology product through SNMP.
• Synology UPS Server: A Synology UPS Server is another Synology product which is connected to a USB or SNMP UPS. This Synology product will obtain information about the UPS from the server.

In the picture below you can see the kind of box your CyberPower UPS comes in. As an observation, it’s a relatively big, hefty box (the CyberPower UPS weighs about 12 kg).

This is a close-up photo of my CyberPower UPS before installation.

In the following photo you can see the estimated run time in the event of a blackout. Please note that in this picture my computer is also connected to the UPS and it has an energy usage of 450 watts. Add 20 more watts for the monitor, 5 watts for the keyboard, 2 watts for the mouse, 50 watts for my Synology NAS, 5 watts for the router, and 5 watts for the laptop cooling fan and the situation is self-explanatory.

In the following picture you can see the AVR protection is on. AVR means Automatic Voltage Regulator and it comes into operation when there is a power surge or a power dip. An Automatic Voltage Regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level which helps prolong the lifespan of electrical devices.

In the picture below my computer is turned off and you can see the estimated run time has increased considerably and my NAS server will last about 220 minutes in case of a blackout. In this scenario, my Synology NAS, my laptop cooling pad and router are all connected to the UPS.

I did turn off the alarm to the UPS by pressing the ‘Silence Alarm’ button. One thing you should know is that, every time the UPS kicks in, there will be a relatively loud beeping sound to warn you of the interruption in the power supply. This can be useful if, for example, you have multiple devices connected to your UPS, but there is a lengthy power outage in which case you may only want to keep one or two devices up and running for as long as possible. The beeping sound acts as a notification and gives you time to make a decision about which devices you want to keep up and running and which you can afford to turn off.

I do not consider this option useful in my case because, one, I only have essential devices connected to my UPS, the ones that I want to keep up and running for as long as possible, and two, if the power were to go off at night while I am sleeping, the alarm (beeping sound) would wake me up. Fortunately, the engineers behind CyberPower have thought of this too and the alarm can be deactivated.

Why does the CyberPower UPS make noise? If you hear a “strange” constant noise coming from your UPS, it’s probably because the battery is recharging after a blackout. The noise should automatically go away by itself the moment the UPS battery is fully charged again which can be within minutes, whether 20 minutes, 5 minutes or less.

CyberPower and Synology are currently a winning combo. The CyberPower UPS is made of high-quality materials, has a good estimated run time and is resilient to frequent power outages. I also tried an APC UPS, but the smell of plastic and low-quality hard material discouraged me from buying it (at least this was my initial impression of the product I tested).

This post was updated on Wednesday / August 17th, 2022 at 11:11 AM