Alternative Power sources - UPS for power??

Author

UPS for power??

GMD

2005-07-26, 1:21 pm

Hello all,

I am thinking of running my barn thru solar or wind power. I have some UPS's
that I am planning to use. Is this feasable? I figured that the invertor is
already built in to the unit, making it easy. I will have 60X 12V 7.0 amp
batts. Has anyone else rigged any such a thing up with any success? Do I
need any other circuits or can I get away with what I have now.

Thanx in Advance

Gerry in Nova Scotia

Dale Farmer

2005-07-26, 2:21 pm

GMD wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I am thinking of running my barn thru solar or wind power. I have some UPS's
> that I am planning to use. Is this feasable? I figured that the invertor is
> already built in to the unit, making it easy. I will have 60X 12V 7.0 amp
> batts. Has anyone else rigged any such a thing up with any success? Do I
> need any other circuits or can I get away with what I have now.
>
> Thanx in Advance
>
> Gerry in Nova Scotia

Many computer UPS units are not built for always on duty cycles. If you
are just using it for half an hour or so at a time, and only a couple of days a
month, then I'd say go for it. Otherwise you would be wise to buy a beefier
unit. Or if you have a large supply of cheap UPSs, then go for that and replace
as needed.

--Dale

the seventh sign

2005-07-28, 6:21 pm

GMD wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am thinking of running my barn thru solar or wind power. I have some UPS's
> that I am planning to use. Is this feasable? I figured that the invertor is
> already built in to the unit, making it easy. I will have 60X 12V 7.0 amp
> batts. Has anyone else rigged any such a thing up with any success? Do I
> need any other circuits or can I get away with what I have now.
>
> Thanx in Advance
>
> Gerry in Nova Scotia

No do not ever use a ups you can run a computer only with those you can
not run a laser printer, air conditioner, refrig or other things with
that. anything that draws greater amps once it is first fired up will
kill the UPS power supply fast. and most of these things have an
annoying bell dinging at you to let you know there is a power problem.

TSS

RF Dude

2005-07-29, 2:21 am

UPS are not usually efficient for long run times or solar type functions.
They are often 60 Hz magnetic (transformer) based, heavy, and will likely
kill your battery in so many hours just sitting there doing nothing. A
switch mode inverter would be a better choice.

Why would you use 60 x 12V @ 7 Ahr batteries? Did these fall off a truck
somewhere? Not economical unless they were next to free. Trying to
maintain 60 blocks is hard . Normally you won't parallel more than a few
strings.

RF Dude

Ptaylor

2005-07-29, 10:21 am

RF Dude wrote:

> UPS are not usually efficient for long run times or solar type functions.
> They are often 60 Hz magnetic (transformer) based, heavy, and will likely
> kill your battery in so many hours just sitting there doing nothing. A
> switch mode inverter would be a better choice.
>
> Why would you use 60 x 12V @ 7 Ahr batteries? Did these fall off a truck
> somewhere? Not economical unless they were next to free. Trying to
> maintain 60 blocks is hard . Normally you won't parallel more than a few
> strings.
>
> RF Dude
>
>

I have a bank of random small 12V lead acid batteries that I've collected.
I decided it might be a bad idea to parallel a bunch of batteries of
varying,unknown condition..So I used diodes to isolate them from eachother.
2 diodes for each battery (or 1 bridge rectifier,for a pair of batteries)
One diode with the anode to the battery + and the other with the cathode
to the battery +.
The diode with it's anode to the battery will be the "output" to the
load(s).The diode with it's cathode to the battery will be the "charge
input" (from solar,wind,generator,whatever)

With a bridge rectifier,and a pair of batteries,it's pretty easy.
Connect an AC~ terminal to each battery's +.
The + terminal on the bridge rectifier is the "output",and the -
terminal is the "input".

If you use decent schottky or Fast-recovery diodes the losses will be
half what a regular diode is. (0.2-0.4V drop,opposed to ~0.7).I'd
suggest using these types of diodes.Plus there are common high current
types available. (old PC power supplies,for example.)
I've had this setup for,maybe 3 years now,It's working well for me.

One advantage of this setup that I really like,is if one battery decides
to die,and hog current,it's just hogging the input current from the
solar panel,and *not* sucking it out of the other batteries and draining
them aswell.Instead of a discharged battery bank,you just have slightly
reduced capacity,and may notice that the batteries aren't getting a
decent charge when they should be. -That's how I noticed when one of my
batteries finally died.There was plenty of charge current to the battery
bank,but the voltage wasn't going up much,so I investigated,and found a
dead battery,unplugged it,and all was back to normal,minus a couple AH's.

Pete C

2005-07-29, 12:21 pm

On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:58:56 -0300, "GMD" <support@pchg.net> wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I am thinking of running my barn thru solar or wind power. I have some UPS's
>that I am planning to use. Is this feasable? I figured that the invertor is
>already built in to the unit, making it easy. I will have 60X 12V 7.0 amp
>batts. Has anyone else rigged any such a thing up with any success? Do I
>need any other circuits or can I get away with what I have now.

Hi,

There are 'pure sine' UPS which I'd expect are pretty efficient and
are fairly cheap. The bigger ones tend to be use 24v DC for backup in
the form of 2x 12V batteries in series.

cheers,
Pete.

John P. Bengi

2005-07-29, 11:21 pm

Sounds like this would give "equalize charging" a whole new meaning
though...LOL

"Ptaylor" <Ptaylor@nospam.qwest.net> wrote in message
news:yApGe.2$HV3.721@news.uswest.net...
> RF Dude wrote:
>
functions.[color=darkred]
likely[color=darkred]
truck[color=darkred]
few[color=darkred]
>
> I have a bank of random small 12V lead acid batteries that I've collected.
> I decided it might be a bad idea to parallel a bunch of batteries of
> varying,unknown condition..So I used diodes to isolate them from
eachother.
> 2 diodes for each battery (or 1 bridge rectifier,for a pair of batteries)
> One diode with the anode to the battery + and the other with the cathode
> to the battery +.
> The diode with it's anode to the battery will be the "output" to the
> load(s).The diode with it's cathode to the battery will be the "charge
> input" (from solar,wind,generator,whatever)
>
> With a bridge rectifier,and a pair of batteries,it's pretty easy.
> Connect an AC~ terminal to each battery's +.
> The + terminal on the bridge rectifier is the "output",and the -
> terminal is the "input".
>
> If you use decent schottky or Fast-recovery diodes the losses will be
> half what a regular diode is. (0.2-0.4V drop,opposed to ~0.7).I'd
> suggest using these types of diodes.Plus there are common high current
> types available. (old PC power supplies,for example.)
> I've had this setup for,maybe 3 years now,It's working well for me.
>
> One advantage of this setup that I really like,is if one battery decides
> to die,and hog current,it's just hogging the input current from the
> solar panel,and *not* sucking it out of the other batteries and draining
> them aswell.Instead of a discharged battery bank,you just have slightly
> reduced capacity,and may notice that the batteries aren't getting a
> decent charge when they should be. -That's how I noticed when one of my
> batteries finally died.There was plenty of charge current to the battery
> bank,but the voltage wasn't going up much,so I investigated,and found a
> dead battery,unplugged it,and all was back to normal,minus a couple AH's.

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