| Inverter option [message #308616] |
Wed, 12 October 2016 09:44  |
Tilerpep
Messages: 404
Registered: June 2013
Location: Raleigh, NC
Karma: 7
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Senior Member |
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Opportunity driven hack: feedback requested.
APC uninterruptible power supply (UPS) Model BEC350R just started acting like battery not holding (alarm with no significant load added). Been hooked to my home desktop for a few years...
What if... I hook a 35 amp hour sealed wheelchair 12 volt battery I have in the garage to it for use as a 110 power supply while boondocking? Since these things are designed for electronics, do they have the pure sine wave that the expensive, small, quiet generators produce? The stock APC battery is 3 amp hour rated. Build a little box to hold and carry it as a unit, and I have a self contained, mobile AC unit with built in charger. By my math I could charge a little over a zillion phones - ha!
1975 Glenbrook, 1978 Royale rear bath
Raleigh, NC
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| Re: Inverter option [message #308622 is a reply to message #308616] |
Wed, 12 October 2016 10:54  |
Bullitthead
Messages: 1411
Registered: November 2013
Karma: 5
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Senior Member |
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I have several UPS's hooked up to LEAD/ACID automotive batteries and they will provide power for much longer than the small LEAD/ACID batteries that come with them. They DO NOT provide pure sine wave power, it is just a chopper wave and sensitive devices like an induction cooktop will not run on them. I tried 3 different brands. The computers and TVs have their own power supplies that will accept the chopper or square wave output and work just fine on them. Remember to use the same format of battery construction that was originally in the UPS, which for all of mine was LEAD/ACID. I have been using automotive batteries that still have 6 functioning cells for the proper 12.6 volt resting voltage, but not enough current capacity to start an engine. They will last another year or 2 hooked up to the UPS. I am using one of them as a trickle/maintenance charger on several different batteries. DO NOT leave the original UPS battery installed, it must be removed from the circuit and the large battery takes its place. I used one in the GMC to maintain the house battery for 4 years with no problems except that the UPS does not provide enough charge current to run many 12 volt devices without draining the battery (like the Norcold fridge), or incandescent light bulbs. A couple of LED substitute bulbs is all it takes to eat up the charge current of the UPS. The charge current might support a 12V>USB phone charger,YMMV. The 110V output will probably power the phone charger for days if the automotive battery still has some good plate area left in it and is not completely sulfated.
Terry Kelpien
ASE Master Technician
73 Glacier 260
Smithfield, Va.
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| Re: Inverter option [message #308627 is a reply to message #308624] |
Wed, 12 October 2016 12:22 |
tphipps
Messages: 3005
Registered: August 2004
Location: Spanish Fort, AL
Karma: 9
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Senior Member |
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Bonus on using UPS, surge protection. Go for it. Small motorcycle sized batteries would also work in this format. I have UPSs installed on all electronics that I do not wish to replace after a lightening storm. Alabama is within the lightening strike belt of the U.S.
Tom, MS II
2012 Phoenix Cruiser model 2552
KA4CSG
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