Backup for power failure

"Tristan" wrote in message ...
Thats not like an apartment I am familiar with, thats more like a
hotel, if your living quarters is so far from a outside entry door. I
guess I can see your point on that with a lot of lofts or apartments
in the older larger towon instead of the newer ones......thats built
nowadays. Sorry I was zeroed in on the typical sytyles od aprtments
normally encountered around here.

I was not describing my place - I live in a much nicer, brick building
with only 12 units at 3 floors :-) But my buddy lives in an condo
unit which looks like a big hotel with probably 20-30 apartments
on each floor. Even in my place I cannot imagine putting a gas
generator outside on the front yard farting there loud and clear
like a fricken gas mower and running extension cords to my window
on 2nd floor... Generator is not an option for appartments, believe me.

Pszemol wrote:

I am guessing you were never living in any large appartment building,
lets say on 4 floor, 100 yards from the front door ? :-)

Even if one had a patio or balcony sort of thing, in most apartments in which
I've lived, that generator would be in a pawn shop half an hour after you left
for work.

George Patterson
No one ever says "It's only a game." when his team is winning.

"George Patterson" wrote in message news:jBpvh.535$Pw3.24@trnddc01...
Pszemol wrote:

I am guessing you were never living in any large appartment building,
lets say on 4 floor, 100 yards from the front door ? :-)

Even if one had a patio or balcony sort of thing, in most apartments in which
I've lived, that generator would be in a pawn shop half an hour after you left
for work.

That is true... apartments attrack certain sort of individuals with
short time stay on their mind... Totally different than a house in
a nice area where people more watch for each other's property.

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"that *other* annoying little troll" wrote in message
. ..
True, but the UPS setup I recommended below will run a 50 watt load for
about 105 hours. Without the noise and exhuast a generator creates.
Problem is it's over 3 grand. For those of us that live in apartments,
generators are not an option.

For less than $200 you could assemble similar system yourself
with marine battery + one relay + cheapo inverter and some wire.

Agreed. I`m lucky enough to have had a new house built with whole house back
up generator that powers everything needed as part as the build
Buddy had used some marine deep cycle batteries and some inverters that gave
him long enough power to keep everything alive and some water movement/ and
air circulation in the process. Worked real well for a few days he needed
it.

Another thing that can be done is to hook up a car battery to your ups
for longer running time. You could even hook up as many batteries as you
like.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets


Pszemol wrote on 1/29/2007 8:42 AM:

UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) will always be expensive
because it has advanced electronics to monitor precisely each
period of AC current and provide output without a missing power
for a milisecond. This is done for your computers/servers to not
reset when there would be some power glitch...

You do not need such advanced protection for your fish tank.
That is why a simple relay with one coil running straight from 120AC
(or if you have to use low voltage coil relay you add powerpack)
and with this cheap system you will have a moment without power,
lets say 20-50ms, time for the relay to react and switch over...
But this is ok for a fish tank. As soon as the relay switches over
your output to battery+inverter you will only be limited with the
size of the battery you get.
I have got a very large marine deep cycle battery at Walmart for
less than $80 EverStart MAXX-29. The battery is humongous.
I got it in 2003 and it still works great every power outage I have here.
All this with 10 dollar relay, 15 dolar inverter and 9 dolar charger
and some wire plus little time to assembly everything together.

Wayne Sallee wrote:
Another thing that can be done is to hook up a car battery to your ups
for longer running time. You could even hook up as many batteries as you
like.

I've never seen a UPS with a 12 volt hook up. I use APC's and even have
a 80# version w/ no hookup.

I was looking into a power failure relay, but haven't made much
progress. I think I'll just build my own as I've been thinking of a
battery bank anyway for other reasons.

--Kurt

KurtG wrote:

Wayne Sallee wrote:

Another thing that can be done is to hook up a car battery to your ups
for longer running time. You could even hook up as many batteries as
you like.


I've never seen a UPS with a 12 volt hook up. I use APC's and even have
a 80# version w/ no hookup.

I was looking into a power failure relay, but haven't made much
progress. I think I'll just build my own as I've been thinking of a
battery bank anyway for other reasons.

--Kurt

The "extended run" or "XL" series UPS'es that APC makes have hookups for
extra external batteries. Of course they are inteded for their APC brand
extended run battery packs (which cost an arm and a leg) -- but I bet
that one could hook up any old 12 volt lead acid battery...

I dunno if I would really want to fool with keep ingf a buynch or even
one battery topped off and redy. Not particularly fond of the smell of
electrolyte in a living space or long termin my shop or shed....Gell
cells are an alternative, but still require a trickle charge but are
usuallay not obnoxious when it comes to smell and you do not have that
corriosive vapor getting in the area and causing premature rust, nor
the chance of spilling it and eating holes in the carpet etc. I htink
I would look at sealed, totally sealed gell cells.

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:39:53 -0500, Add Homonym's home account
wrote:

KurtG wrote:

Wayne Sallee wrote:

Another thing that can be done is to hook up a car battery to your ups
for longer running time. You could even hook up as many batteries as
you like.


I've never seen a UPS with a 12 volt hook up. I use APC's and even have
a 80# version w/ no hookup.

I was looking into a power failure relay, but haven't made much
progress. I think I'll just build my own as I've been thinking of a
battery bank anyway for other reasons.

--Kurt

The "extended run" or "XL" series UPS'es that APC makes have hookups for
extra external batteries. Of course they are inteded for their APC brand
extended run battery packs (which cost an arm and a leg) -- but I bet
that one could hook up any old 12 volt lead acid battery...



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

"Tristan" wrote in message ...
I dunno if I would really want to fool with keep ingf a buynch or even
one battery topped off and redy. Not particularly fond of the smell of
electrolyte in a living space or long termin my shop or shed....Gell
cells are an alternative, but still require a trickle charge but are
usuallay not obnoxious when it comes to smell and you do not have that
corriosive vapor getting in the area and causing premature rust, nor
the chance of spilling it and eating holes in the carpet etc. I htink
I would look at sealed, totally sealed gell cells.

I have huge marine deep cycle lead-acid battery in my living
room and it is on the trickle charge: no smells/odors...

Tristan wrote:

I dunno if I would really want to fool with keep ingf a buynch or even
one battery topped off and redy.

I was planning a 12V or 24V circuit around the house that gets topped
off with wind/solar. It's been in the back of my mind for a few years,
and why not now? That I have a conspicuous 110 gallon energy hog
sitting in my living room that needs a backup plan gives me all the more
reason to think about it.

I like to explore my engineer, geek, gentlemen scientist side and it
certainly beats the snot out of TV.

And, yes, I wouldn't use anything except for sealed cells. I have a
very bad habit of failing to maintain my batteries by topping them off
with distilled water.

--Kurt