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Is PFC Sinewave important - What I found

I'm in the market for a new UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for my home/office setup and trying to decide if "PFC Sinewave" (from CyberPower - Amazon link) is a marketing gimmic or valuable.

This CyberPower news article says:

higher end workstations and computer systems that incorporate Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) power supplies may unexpectedly shut down or crash entirely when used with a simulated sine wave UPS.

CyberPower use the term, PFC Sinewave, and APC (APC 1500VA/900W UPS ) uses the term Sinewave UPS. When searching for PFC Sinewave the results were all related to CyberPower which makes me believe this is a marketing term; which is why I'm asking the question.

Searching for an answer - PFC Sinewave vs Sinewave

I currently have an APC 1000VA/600W that shuts down within 15 seconds of a power outage. When researching a more powerful unit, I noticed that my unit is a Stepped Sinewave UPS and from my reading it appears that I want a Pure Sinewave UPS.

This article (from blog.tripplite.com) explains the difference between the two.

a pure sine wave UPS system and a simulated sine wave UPS system is that a pure sine wave system in battery backup mode is guaranteed to produce a cleaner output for any piece of equipment connected to it.

A SO link I found provided a detailed discussion about what true sinewave UPS but didn't answer my question

a non-sine waveform can cause a shutdown, defeating the whole purpose for having a UPS

So back to my original question Is PFC Sinewave important? Is it the same as a sinewave UPS?

The answer will help me pick the next UPS I get (looking for a UPS that provides a pure sinewave).

Sathyajith Bhat
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PatS
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    its my understanding that it depends on your powersupply, and the reason it is desirable or not is based on how the PSU responds to the output of the UPS. so you need to determine if your powersupply uses APFC, and if it does select a powersupply that works with APFC. I believe you are correct that PFC Sinewave is a Cyberpower specific term, but in that article they contrast it with Simulated sine wave, so yes a device that provides a so-called pure sine wave (where output is never exactly 0) is what you are looking for. – Frank Thomas Jan 06 '23 at 23:10
  • @FrankThomas, My belief is that there is no harm in getting UPS that provides a pure Sine wave. The reason (in the past) was that "pure" sine wave UPS's used to be very expensive for the home computer hobbiest. So, do I still need to check that the PSU supports a sine wave? – PatS Jan 07 '23 at 00:33
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    it should be safe to use a UPS that provides "pure sine" regardless of the PSU's needs. its only in the case where the PSU implements APFC and the UPS provides simulated sine that you might have an issue. all three other combinations will work fine (Non-APFC+synthetic sine, non-APFC + pure sine, APFC + pure sine). – Frank Thomas Jan 07 '23 at 00:36
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    At customers we have not had any issues with computers shutting down or crashing using a backup UP with stepped sine wave. For my own network and computers I use an APC pure sine wave UPS unit (verified with a good dual channel oscilloscope measuring UPS and Line waveform (same). So if you are willing to go with the pure Sine Wave unit, I recommend you do that. – John Jan 07 '23 at 00:58
  • don't most computer PSUs use APFC nowadays? – user253751 Jan 15 '23 at 08:47
  • when you Google 'active PFC modified sine' you find lots of people saying you shouldn't combine them, but also, you find lots of people saying they tried it and it seems fine. And nobody saying they tried it and it blew up their computer. So I guess it depends on your risk tolerance. Modified sine can be a lot cheaper. There is good news: if it does hurt your computer, it's very unlikely to hurt anything except for the PSU, which can be replaced with a new one. – user253751 Jan 15 '23 at 08:48

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