I wasn't sure where to put this. Its an ongoing project but I guess it is a picture of my power for my current shack...
This thread is a continuation of these threads that I was participating in:
http://forums.radioreference.com/electronics/219715-12v-car-battery-emergency-power.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/li...220014-hurricane-irene-impact-live-audio.html
I've been doing a lot of work on my backup power for the shack and house in general. I got lucky and purchased a generator off Craig's list about 6 weeks before Irene. Got a decent deal on a 5kw Honda.
For the shack itself, I'm building something very similar to KB0NLY (Shack!). The only thing I don't have is the power supply/conditioner. I want to keep my radios, scanners and feed thin client going on battery power since when the weather gets bad, I'm usually out on fire calls. A few hours would be nice until things slow down and I can get home to fire up the generator.
My Firewall, switch and cable modem are in the basement and powered off a 500va UPS. I get about 40 minutes of run time. I wanted to extend that to the 4-8 hour range. During Irene, my ISP crapped out after 8 hours.
I thought about trying to find a 1500va UPS to get longer run time but the more I thought about it, it seemed silly to purchase something that large when all I need is battery; not power for a large load. I started to do some research on how to get more capacity off the UPS. I found a pretty funny article here: Upgrade your UPS! (with some car batteries...).
Before I went and purchased anything, I wanted to do some testing. At work, we swap the batteries in our backups every 3-5 years (depending on what it does) so I grabbed a tray of batteries from a 3000va UPS. It had 8, 12 volt batteries in it (2 groups of 4 batteries in series for 48 volts). They are over 5 years old but they still hold a decent charge. I re-wired them to all be in parallel so instead of 1, 12 volt battery in my UPS, I have 8.
This is only a trial so, my wiring isn't the greatest.
So far its working out pretty well. I'm trying to decide if I'll go with a larger UPS still (750va - 1500va) that would use 24v batteries. I've read that these smaller UPS might not like to run their DC-AC inverters for very long. The only downside with 24 volts is that I'd need two batteries. An advantage is that the 750va and up usually have a plug on the backside to connect an external battery.
I'm thinking I'll use a car battery because I won't be discharging and charging very often. They'll just be on standby should I lose power. The shack has an Optima battery since I'll run on batter a bit more often.
I'm not sure if anyone has any feedback.
To be continued.
Edit: My cable modem, firewall, Vonage and a gigabit switch draw about 2.7amps. I left this on battery for just over 2 hours and the batteries were still at 12.2v or so. I think I may have a winner here.
This thread is a continuation of these threads that I was participating in:
http://forums.radioreference.com/electronics/219715-12v-car-battery-emergency-power.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/li...220014-hurricane-irene-impact-live-audio.html
I've been doing a lot of work on my backup power for the shack and house in general. I got lucky and purchased a generator off Craig's list about 6 weeks before Irene. Got a decent deal on a 5kw Honda.
For the shack itself, I'm building something very similar to KB0NLY (Shack!). The only thing I don't have is the power supply/conditioner. I want to keep my radios, scanners and feed thin client going on battery power since when the weather gets bad, I'm usually out on fire calls. A few hours would be nice until things slow down and I can get home to fire up the generator.
My Firewall, switch and cable modem are in the basement and powered off a 500va UPS. I get about 40 minutes of run time. I wanted to extend that to the 4-8 hour range. During Irene, my ISP crapped out after 8 hours.
I thought about trying to find a 1500va UPS to get longer run time but the more I thought about it, it seemed silly to purchase something that large when all I need is battery; not power for a large load. I started to do some research on how to get more capacity off the UPS. I found a pretty funny article here: Upgrade your UPS! (with some car batteries...).
Before I went and purchased anything, I wanted to do some testing. At work, we swap the batteries in our backups every 3-5 years (depending on what it does) so I grabbed a tray of batteries from a 3000va UPS. It had 8, 12 volt batteries in it (2 groups of 4 batteries in series for 48 volts). They are over 5 years old but they still hold a decent charge. I re-wired them to all be in parallel so instead of 1, 12 volt battery in my UPS, I have 8.
This is only a trial so, my wiring isn't the greatest.
So far its working out pretty well. I'm trying to decide if I'll go with a larger UPS still (750va - 1500va) that would use 24v batteries. I've read that these smaller UPS might not like to run their DC-AC inverters for very long. The only downside with 24 volts is that I'd need two batteries. An advantage is that the 750va and up usually have a plug on the backside to connect an external battery.
I'm thinking I'll use a car battery because I won't be discharging and charging very often. They'll just be on standby should I lose power. The shack has an Optima battery since I'll run on batter a bit more often.
I'm not sure if anyone has any feedback.
To be continued.
Edit: My cable modem, firewall, Vonage and a gigabit switch draw about 2.7amps. I left this on battery for just over 2 hours and the batteries were still at 12.2v or so. I think I may have a winner here.
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