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

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 12705
Credit: 1839109974
RAC: 3610

Peter Hucker wrote: Yes,

Peter Hucker wrote:

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. 

I wasn't going to buy those batteries just wondering if they are the same principle you were talking about and you said yes they are so no I have got to research how long they will last running different things. A generator is about $10K so a few batteries may get me thru the night if the power goes out running what I only need too and then hopefully the power will come back on again. They have been working on upgrading the wires etc around me, my neighborhood has underground wires but the lines feeding the neighborhood are all above ground which are the ones they been working on. When I first moved into my house there was a 3 day power outage but since then the longest has only been about 3 hours and that was a transformer that blew in a substation, they trucked in a brand new one and had it replaced very quickly. My house is 31feet above sea level so no problems with any flooding, any water we get now all runs back towards the ocean anyway. So if I can power just a few things overnight I think I will be good without a generator, although I did get a 500 gallon propane tank buried in my front yard just in case I decide to go the generator route. The hot water heater is an on demand one and it runs off the propane tank as does the cooktop in the kitchen, the fireplace is also propane as is my bbq grill. They sell small dual fuel gas/propane generators but I really don't want to do one of those.

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
Joined: 12 Aug 06
Posts: 838
Credit: 519376175
RAC: 15315

mikey wrote:I wasn't going to

mikey wrote:
I wasn't going to buy those batteries just wondering if they are the same principle you were talking about and you said yes they are so no I have got to research how long they will last running different things. A generator is about $10K so a few batteries may get me thru the night if the power goes out running what I only need too and then hopefully the power will come back on again. They have been working on upgrading the wires etc around me, my neighborhood has underground wires but the lines feeding the neighborhood are all above ground which are the ones they been working on. When I first moved into my house there was a 3 day power outage but since then the longest has only been about 3 hours and that was a transformer that blew in a substation, they trucked in a brand new one and had it replaced very quickly. My house is 31feet above sea level so no problems with any flooding, any water we get now all runs back towards the ocean anyway. So if I can power just a few things overnight I think I will be good without a generator, although I did get a 500 gallon propane tank buried in my front yard just in case I decide to go the generator route. The hot water heater is an on demand one and it runs off the propane tank as does the cooktop in the kitchen, the fireplace is also propane as is my bbq grill. They sell small dual fuel gas/propane generators but I really don't want to do one of those.

Yeah just add up how much you'd run overnight, fridge, freezer, lights, electrics for the water/room heating, computer, internet, TV, the important stuff :-)  How long you'd want it to run for.  Then pick a UPS 2nd hand on Ebay that'll give out that much power.  Then buy enough big batteries to last the time.  The big caravan ones are about 1kWh.  100 Amp hours x 12 volts minus some UPS inefficiency.  And I recommend APC UPSs.  Never had one fail.  Make sure you get one (maybe they all do this) with a USB port so you can get it to tell a computer to shut off Boinc.  Just tell Boinc to not run on batteries.  Your desktop will behave like a laptop with a battery level indicator and remaining time.  Not sure if it's possible to get several computers to link to one UPS like that.

If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.

Tom M
Tom M
Joined: 2 Feb 06
Posts: 6471
Credit: 9597679027
RAC: 6186451

GWGeorge007 wrote:Is anyone

GWGeorge007 wrote:

Is anyone using only a Surge Protector?  How many Joules is it good for?  What brand?

I run serial surge protectors on my bedroom systems.  And the highest powered surge protector I could find from Walmart.  It says it is the "Monster" brand and it is cooler than the 1600 watt PSU power cord.

I own a Cyber Power UPS but only use it on less demanding system setups.  It won't support my higher end ones.

Tom M

A Proud member of the O.F.A.  (Old Farts Association).  Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)  I want some more patience. RIGHT NOW!

Mr P Hucker
Mr P Hucker
Joined: 12 Aug 06
Posts: 838
Credit: 519376175
RAC: 15315

Tom M wrote:I run serial

Tom M wrote:
I run serial surge protectors on my bedroom systems.  And the highest powered surge protector I could find from Walmart.  It says it is the "Monster" brand and it is cooler than the 1600 watt PSU power cord.

Eh?  Cooler?  Surge protector?  Did you mean to write UPS?

If this page takes an hour to load, reduce posts per page to 20 in your settings, then the tinpot 486 Einstein uses can handle it.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.