UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, or Surge Protector (alone), or none

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
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$200 will get you a used UPS

$200 will get you a used UPS at 2kW from Ebay.  The batteries are either missing or almost had it.  Just attach deep cycle leisure (caravan) batteries.

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mikey
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Peter Hucker wrote: $200

Peter Hucker wrote:

$200 will get you a used UPS at 2kW from Ebay.  The batteries are either missing or almost had it.  Just attach deep cycle leisure (caravan) batteries.

Hey Peter!!

Are the normal batteries in the 2K UPS 12 or 24 volt ones? Or do you have to change something to make the 'caravan' batteries work? I'm guessing batteries for boats would work as well. I know in the smaller 450 watt UPS's it's not a 12 or 24 volt battery.

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
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mikey wrote:Peter Hucker

mikey wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:

$200 will get you a used UPS at 2kW from Ebay.  The batteries are either missing or almost had it.  Just attach deep cycle leisure (caravan) batteries.

Hey Peter!!

Are the normal batteries in the 2K UPS 12 or 24 volt ones? Or do you have to change something to make the 'caravan' batteries work? I'm guessing batteries for boats would work as well. I know in the smaller 450 watt UPS's it's not a 12 or 24 volt battery.

It depends on the model of UPS, look up the model first.  Usually they're either 24 or 48 volts.  Just connect 2 or 4 caravan or boat batteries in series (I assume boat batteries are 12V too).  Batteries in series should be similar - same Ah capacity and same age, so one doesn't go flat before the other which will wear it out.  Best to get deep cycle or gel batteries, these don't mind being run low - normal car batteries are worn out by going below 20% charge.

 

P.S. do you know anything about Gravity tasks - it seems we're on a big new batch, but I can't find any technical details on it.  They ran down to zero then 4.5 months work appeared.

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mikey
mikey
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Peter Hucker wrote: mikey

Peter Hucker wrote:

mikey wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:

$200 will get you a used UPS at 2kW from Ebay.  The batteries are either missing or almost had it.  Just attach deep cycle leisure (caravan) batteries.

Hey Peter!!

Are the normal batteries in the 2K UPS 12 or 24 volt ones? Or do you have to change something to make the 'caravan' batteries work? I'm guessing batteries for boats would work as well. I know in the smaller 450 watt UPS's it's not a 12 or 24 volt battery.

It depends on the model of UPS, look up the model first.  Usually they're either 24 or 48 volts.  Just connect 2 or 4 caravan or boat batteries in series (I assume boat batteries are 12V too).  Batteries in series should be similar - same Ah capacity and same age, so one doesn't go flat before the other which will wear it out.  Best to get deep cycle or gel batteries, these don't mind being run low - normal car batteries are worn out by going below 20% charge.

Thank you for the info I will start looking, and yes boat batteries are 'deep cell' also. I'm not sure about golf cart batteries but they are for sale EVERYWHERE here as people replace the whole batch instead of just one at a time, I will have to check if they are 'deep cell' as well.

Quote:
P.S. do you know anything about Gravity tasks - it seems we're on a big new batch, but I can't find any technical details on it.  They ran down to zero then 4.5 months work appeared.

Sorry but no I don't.

MarkJ
MarkJ
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I'm in Australia so we have

I'm in Australia so we have 240v power here. I have Belkin surge protector power boards on everything here. Power is usually fairly reliable in Sydney (touch wood).

I also have two UPS. One is a CyberPower BU650E which is just running two routers (one NBN fibre and the other is the ISP's). The second UPS is an Alpha Power System 1000VA used on a storage server to protect it. It looks like its rebranded with no mention of the original manufacturer. I've gone though a few of the Alpha Power ones, they typically get about 3-5 years of constant running. The current one is around 5 years but has been off quite a bit. As far as I know they both use lead-acid batteries.

 

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
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MarkJ wrote:I'm in

MarkJ wrote:

I'm in Australia so we have 240v power here. I have Belkin surge protector power boards on everything here. Power is usually fairly reliable in Sydney (touch wood).

I also have two UPS. One is a CyberPower BU650E which is just running two routers (one NBN fibre and the other is the ISP's). The second UPS is an Alpha Power System 1000VA used on a storage server to protect it. It looks like its rebranded with no mention of the original manufacturer. I've gone though a few of the Alpha Power ones, they typically get about 3-5 years of constant running. The current one is around 5 years but has been off quite a bit. As far as I know they both use lead-acid batteries.

I'm in the UK, I have proper man's power too, not that sissy girly 110V!  I was quoting dollars for the benefit of the ya... er... mer... er... Americans.  I use APC (American Power Conversion) - been running them for 5-10 years and they were 2nd hand.  I don't think they ever wear out.  They have cooling fans that come on whenever necessary.

Everything but the really expensive stuff uses sealed lead acid.  The expensive ones use Lithium Ion.  The sealed Lead Acid though are still far more expensive than just using normal car/boat/caravan/golf cart batteries.  I just wire them into it and sit them next to it.  Much higher capacity at much lower cost.

Got a few surge protectors built into power strips here.  Not sure if I need them, power is pretty good, although my UPSs do light up the "unacceptable power" LED sometimes, probably off by 30V either way.  The UPSs surge protect anyway, no need to duplicate that with others.  Only time I know a surge protector did something useful is at work.  An Irish electrician working in a building extension confused the voltages or wire colours (inbetween UK and EU standards) where we had heavy duty stuff like lathes.  Ended up putting 415V into a load of computers.  Just popped the bulk capacitors.  But a projector I'd installed I'd put a surge protector on it, which melted into a big plastic blob.  I think that's what blew the breaker and protected the rest of the room.  Nice insurance scam got us 20 new computers, new for old policy.  I didn't tell them only a 50p capacitor blew!

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Mr P Hucker
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mikey wrote:Thank you for the

mikey wrote:
Thank you for the info I will start looking, and yes boat batteries are 'deep cell' also. I'm not sure about golf cart batteries but they are for sale EVERYWHERE here as people replace the whole batch instead of just one at a time, I will have to check if they are 'deep cell' as well.

Most/all of golf cart batteries are deep cycle, since they tend to be run flat.  Only car batteries are not deep cycle, as usually you only use a small part of the charge then it fills it back up when you're driving.

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mikey
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Peter Hucker wrote: mikey

Peter Hucker wrote:

mikey wrote:
Thank you for the info I will start looking, and yes boat batteries are 'deep cell' also. I'm not sure about golf cart batteries but they are for sale EVERYWHERE here as people replace the whole batch instead of just one at a time, I will have to check if they are 'deep cell' as well.

Most/all of golf cart batteries are deep cycle, since they tend to be run flat.  Only car batteries are not deep cycle, as usually you only use a small part of the charge then it fills it back up when you're driving.

That's very VERY good for me then as it seems they are EVERYWHERE here at the beach.

mikey
mikey
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Peter Hucker I opened my

Peter Hucker I opened my Newegg add today and saw an APC 1500C backup battery system and the replacements batteries look like this: https://www.newegg.com/apc-rbc6-battery/p/N82E16842101236

42-101-236-03.jpg

 

Is that the kind of batteries you are talking about replacing with the 12volt deep cycle ones?

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
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Yes, those are horrendously

Yes, those are horrendously expensive for the capacity they have, big leisure batteries are way cheaper, for example the big 100Ah ones bigger than a car battery.  Of course the ones you replace them with will have to sit outside the UPS.

 

Those on the picture are $177, not sure of the capacity as they don't even say!  But I'd imagine 12-24 Ah.  Deep cycle batteries are not much over a $ an Ah.  So about a tenth of the price.

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