winter emergency power sources? Any ideas guys?

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af0h

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I made one of these - much cheaper than you can buy one new for. Of course it helps to have parts laying around - just waiting to be used...
 

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af0h

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Looks good! What did you use for a meter, and what do you use for charging?

Thanks. It's still a work-in-progress, but you get the idea.

The meter is a cigarette-lighter battery/alternator tester I picked up at Big Lots a few years back - it was only a few bucks but is surprisingly accurate. Charger is a 30-watt Solar Panel used primarily, with pig-tails for a Schumacher 1.5-amp Battery Maintainer in case i'd have to use 110 to charge it.

Already ordered is a panel-mount digital volt meter - which will allow me to free up the cigarette lighter receptacle and still monitor voltage.

This setup works great for low-current applications, including a cigarette-lighter Inverter.

The battery is a 26-Ah SLA. I'll upgrade to a 35-Ah U1 SLA when finances allow.
 

af0h

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I've recently added 2 more outputs to the top of the box. This time I used spring-clip connectors (think speaker connectors) to give more options/possibilities.

The first set is at 12-volts (battery voltage) and the other is at 9-volts. I'm using a 7809 Regulator (with heatsink) to give the 9-volt output, which is perfect since my PRO-95 requires 9-volt DC power input. This won't draw much current since I don't charge the NiMH Batteries in the scanner, I charge them externally in a MAHA Powerex Charger.

Drawing 100 mAh, I could power the PRO-95 for quite some time using this setup without having to worry about draining the battery down too far - should the need arise.

I'll post more pics when I get a day off.
 

w2xq

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Has anyone tried using a 350-400 watt ups as a power source when the ac goes down? Maybe powering a pro-197, charger for a ht, cell phone ?

I use the 1500w version of the APC Home & Office Desktop UPS to keep my router and cellphone range extender running. (I just recharge the cell phone in the car if needed. The tablet runs for 12 hours or more. Laptops run a nominal 6 hours or so.) During hurricane/tropical storm Irene last year the UPS kept me on the Internet for a bit more than 12 hours before running out of go-juice. Obviously it works well catching the area brownouts and winkouts during thunderstorms or car accidents.

The APC site has a on-line calculator to estimate the time to run for its UPS's based upon load.

And no, I have no vested interest in APC. Just a satisfied customer since 1985. HTH.
 

Confuzzled

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I've got UPSs all over the house. Lowest is a 425VA, most are 800VA or higher. Runtime varies by load, but they give me enough time to get the devices safely shut-down or get the generator running.

Also have a battery powered low voltage LED lighting system that switches on automatically on AC fail. Runtime is in excess of 48 hours.

Then there's the 8250 Watt generator. I try to keep about 20 gallons of gas on hand.
 

Confuzzled

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(I just recharge the cell phone in the car if needed. The tablet runs for 12 hours or more. Laptops run a nominal 6 hours or so.) During hurricane/tropical storm Irene last year the UPS kept me on the Internet for a bit more than 12 hours before running out of go-juice.

That's where even a small generator (2000W or so) would help. If you don't want to power the house with one, you could at least re-charge the batteries and UPSs running it for just an hour or so at a time.
 

w2xq

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In the 30 years living here, Irene was the exception. Otherwise the longest we've been without power is 8 hours. An on-ground transformer blew up, burning the underground lines. Not worth getting a generator.
 
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