avaloncourt
Member
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- Jun 10, 2011
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- 167
Unless it's a REALLY long outage, you'd never have an issue with spoiled food. Just keep the doors shut.
12V Emergency power backup for a single scanner
- Thread starter howie38
- Start date
How long is a "long" outage for you?
Whenever I moved someplace new, one of the first things I did was to find out how long outages last in general.
Except here (near DC), where the power failed as my wife (arriving a week before me) moved in, and it was long enough that she got herself a generator (one I didn't like)
After that, the outages have lasted no longer than 70 hours or so, although 11 hours is more common (yearly, at least), so food spoilage is an issue.
In addition, two fridges and a chest freezer indicates a LOT of cold food, even a regular fridge can loose hundreds of dollars of food after 4 hours or so.
Thanks
Joel
Whenever I moved someplace new, one of the first things I did was to find out how long outages last in general.
Except here (near DC), where the power failed as my wife (arriving a week before me) moved in, and it was long enough that she got herself a generator (one I didn't like)
After that, the outages have lasted no longer than 70 hours or so, although 11 hours is more common (yearly, at least), so food spoilage is an issue.
In addition, two fridges and a chest freezer indicates a LOT of cold food, even a regular fridge can loose hundreds of dollars of food after 4 hours or so.
Thanks
Joel
avaloncourt
Member
- Joined
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- 167
4 hours? I sure hope you never go to a picnic.How long is a "long" outage for you?
Whenever I moved someplace new, one of the first things I did was to find out how long outages last in general.
Except here (near DC), where the power failed as my wife (arriving a week before me) moved in, and it was long enough that she got herself a generator (one I didn't like)
After that, the outages have lasted no longer than 70 hours or so, although 11 hours is more common (yearly, at least), so food spoilage is an issue.
In addition, two fridges and a chest freezer indicates a LOT of cold food, even a regular fridge can loose hundreds of dollars of food after 4 hours or so.
Thanks
Joel
Yeah, a few people seemed to have missed that.
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But I think down the road he will likely want to power other things--usually when I go for limited use myself on some idea, it morphs into wanting to do something greater.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
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Three times in my life, I have had outages longer than 3 days and those were the main ones that I would have wanted something to power at least lights and radios as otherwise I could use the car or just go somewhere.
I'm somewhat the same way. I get into something and realize I may be burning a bridge if I shortchange myself now. But I have to remind myself that not everyone thinks like I do. Can't understand why though.
Coming from florida you might like a couple of lights and a refrigerator running. After a month of no power in 2004, my generator has paid for itself over and over. 8500 peak and 6500 continuous and runs everything 110 in the house. Also had a solar water heater in Florida, and installed one here in SC. 110 pump circulates the water.
these days, you should invest in a generator. Storms are getting worse these days. I have a 220 outlet in my garage. Lost power a few years ago for 3 days. My 6400 generator has a 220 plug on it. I shut the main breaker off, plug in the generator and back feed it through the house. No need for multiple cords through the windows to fridge, freezer, etc.. works great. Just had to go a ways to fill multiple gas cans for the generator.
Yes that is what I do, just make sure the main breaker is turned off.
prcguy
Member
Reading through all the posts in this thread I come back to this for just powering a scanner, which is all the OP asked for. I have one of these same 12v UPS's and its perfect for the job and cheap used off eBay with a new battery from Amazon to freshen it up. It would simply become the main power source for the scanner at all times and if the power goes out the scanner should run a minimum of 24hrs continuous and possibly up to three days depending on receive vs standby time.
QUOTE="cralt, post: 3742148, member: 48359"]
I have a few of these 12 volt UPS's. AT&T and Frontier used to give them out with their voip service. They are common in goodwill and on ebay. Look for the "rev B" versions.
They take a common battery that is easy to change with no tools. Puts out 3amps on 12volts.
www.belkin.com
View attachment 128995View attachment 128996
[/QUOTE]
QUOTE="cralt, post: 3742148, member: 48359"]
I have a few of these 12 volt UPS's. AT&T and Frontier used to give them out with their voip service. They are common in goodwill and on ebay. Look for the "rev B" versions.
They take a common battery that is easy to change with no tools. Puts out 3amps on 12volts.
Getting to know the Belkin Residential Gateway (RG) Battery Backup REV B, BU3DC001-12V
Getting to know the Belkin Residential Gateway (RG) Battery Backup REV B, BU3DC001-12V
www.belkin.com
View attachment 128995View attachment 128996
[/QUOTE]
spacellamaman
Member
[/QUOTE]Reading through all the posts in this thread I come back to this for just powering a scanner, which is all the OP asked for. I have one of these same 12v UPS's and its perfect for the job and cheap used off eBay with a new battery from Amazon to freshen it up. It would simply become the main power source for the scanner at all times and if the power goes out the scanner should run a minimum of 24hrs continuous and possibly up to three days depending on receive vs standby time.
QUOTE="cralt, post: 3742148, member: 48359"]
I have a few of these 12 volt UPS's. AT&T and Frontier used to give them out with their voip service. They are common in goodwill and on ebay. Look for the "rev B" versions.
They take a common battery that is easy to change with no tools. Puts out 3amps on 12volts.
Getting to know the Belkin Residential Gateway (RG) Battery Backup REV B, BU3DC001-12V
Getting to know the Belkin Residential Gateway (RG) Battery Backup REV B, BU3DC001-12V
View attachment 128995View attachment 128996
Is there anything particularly imprudent in just straightwiring a 12v gel cell up? I mean I have been doing it for years, with no noted problems, but I only did so cause I could never find anything stating it to be an issue either way. I realize a UPS is "the whole package", charging built in, circuit protection etc, but I have used a wall wart charger, just allegator leads, and yeah there is no lightening protection but the size/form factor wins out over a UPS for me.
Just curious if an old hand would like to tell me what lies in my future to cus over for doing things the el cheapo way.
prcguy
Member
Many chargers will not work properly if you are drawing current from the battery while your charging where the UPS will work fine. I would consider a gel cell and separate charger more for use in a power outage than something to power the scanner at all times, and that might be ok for what you need.
I have various types of batteries here plus chargers and a few UPS's but run my everyday scanner(s) off a 12v power supply that also runs some amateur and commercial radios. I also have about 240AH of golf cart batteries charged by 400w of solar panel in the garage to run radios, repeaters and other stuff full time. If we have a big power outage my garage radios will run for a long time.
Is there anything particularly imprudent in just straightwiring a 12v gel cell up? I mean I have been doing it for years, with no noted problems, but I only did so cause I could never find anything stating it to be an issue either way. I realize a UPS is "the whole package", charging built in, circuit protection etc, but I have used a wall wart charger, just allegator leads, and yeah there is no lightening protection but the size/form factor wins out over a UPS for me.
Just curious if an old hand would like to tell me what lies in my future to cus over for doing things the el cheapo way.
[/QUOTE]
I have various types of batteries here plus chargers and a few UPS's but run my everyday scanner(s) off a 12v power supply that also runs some amateur and commercial radios. I also have about 240AH of golf cart batteries charged by 400w of solar panel in the garage to run radios, repeaters and other stuff full time. If we have a big power outage my garage radios will run for a long time.
Is there anything particularly imprudent in just straightwiring a 12v gel cell up? I mean I have been doing it for years, with no noted problems, but I only did so cause I could never find anything stating it to be an issue either way. I realize a UPS is "the whole package", charging built in, circuit protection etc, but I have used a wall wart charger, just allegator leads, and yeah there is no lightening protection but the size/form factor wins out over a UPS for me.
Just curious if an old hand would like to tell me what lies in my future to cus over for doing things the el cheapo way.
[/QUOTE]
paulears
Member
Here in the UK, power outages last happened in the 70s. Our power history is really good, so it’s really computer users who need UPS gear, and the one running the lighting desk in my theatre got used first time a few weeks back. First time in memory, and the unit is five years old. Somebody turned a breaker off mid show. The UPS beeped and we started running around trying to restore power with no luck. We got to the end of the show, and the audience started walking out and then the UPS ran out of power. 7 minutes! Spec says 20 minutes. Years of cycling killed the batteries. leisure batteries have huge capacity nowadays for the mobile home folks and a scanner for a few days is not going to be a killer. Locally I can get one for £130 that does an amp for 100 hours. Bit shocked to see the number of cycles is quite low though? 250. maybe this is normal, but £130 for 250 seems a bit high?
I have multiple UPS units in my house, and strangely enough, I had a power outage about an hour ago, it wasn't long, but I didn't even notice until I went out into the kitchen to get some coffee and the pot was off as well as the clocks on the microwave and stove, then the fan on the UPS in the den came on.
Since I have LED lights in all my lamps, they draw very little juice, for example the one in the den only draws 4 watts which gives hours and hours and hours of use, in fact it doesn't even register as a draw on the UPS it's that low, my scanner doesn't take much either.
Since I have LED lights in all my lamps, they draw very little juice, for example the one in the den only draws 4 watts which gives hours and hours and hours of use, in fact it doesn't even register as a draw on the UPS it's that low, my scanner doesn't take much either.
Back in the 70's my dad used to do that. He would shut off the mains, unplug the dryer in the garage, plug in the generator and be good to go. The only problem was his generator was loud as hell and it really irritated my mom.
Is there anything particularly imprudent in just straightwiring a 12v gel cell up? I mean I have been doing it for years, with no noted problems, but I only did so cause I could never find anything stating it to be an issue either way. I realize a UPS is "the whole package", charging built in, circuit protection etc, but I have used a wall wart charger, just allegator leads, and yeah there is no lightening protection but the size/form factor wins out over a UPS for me.
Just curious if an old hand would like to tell me what lies in my future to cus over for doing things the el cheapo way.
[/QUOTE]
Not a thing wrong with the el-cheapo route!
For just a scanner, it's hard to beat << this little unit >> pictured below, it even has a USB outlet to keep your cell phone phone charged during an outage, which is important. Size-wise it's not too bad and it's inexpensive. I know your method works, I've used it in the past, but as I've gotten older I tend to lean towards a little extra functionality and ease of use, because you never know when you're gonna need it.As I see you already know, the whole topic here is to power a single scanner in the $350.00 dollar range, so to me it makes no sense spending more than the scanner just for the rare power outage, but that's just me.
avaloncourt
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I didn't miss it. I choose to plan for the future not buy "just enough" to address one situation. Then you're just setting yourself up to spend even more money for the next thing that comes along.
The opposite of that is what I run into, sometimes called "analyses paralyses" I start with a simple idea, then research it, and the idea morphs until an idea becomes unmanageable, or takes a lot longer than it should. This isn't the same as indeciciveness.
For example: Lets say I want an Oscilloscope, what features should it have depends on what current and future things I plan on doing with it, there are lots of options, is it worth paying for a certain feature for just convenience, or its it a necessary feature or performance level? It can go on and on.
IMHO, in the case of a battery backup, a "just enough" solution may be fine, stuff can be added later if desired, it wont detract from a current units performance. I imagine few people use whole house UPS's and prefer something like a battery pack for radios, another seperate one for fridges, etc...
Thanks
Joel
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