Overclocking your APC Backup!

[jjsole]

A guy I know is doing this with his computer at home...he's removed the gel cell in his APC400 power backup and attached the leads to a car battery. He noted that the two are similar enough in chemistry to keep a good charge in the car battery. His system stays up for 9 hours with it!!

He told me I must use a "deep cell" battery, and of course anybody thinking of this must know the risks of car batteries, if something metal falls across both leads it can blow up. And not to mention the brutal water/battery acid issue...

He also noted that he needs to check the water every month because of the evaporation in the warm room temp.

What do you think?

[tonym]

jjsole,

You want to use a sealed lead-acid (SLA) battery for this application. Car batteries, although they have "maintenance-free" features, are not meant an UPS application. They are designed for short-term, high discharge events...like the engaging and cranking of the starter motor, but they are poor for log term charge supply performance.

Vendors like Gates, PowerSonic, Hawker and Exide have SLA batteries of various sizes/capacities that are targeted at the UPS/BBU applications. I suggest getting one of the larger A-hr rated batteries. You can get a lot of information at Planet Battery: http://www.planetbattery.com/p_all.htm .

Another caution is that your UPS is designed to charge the battery that it was shipped with. So if you replace the battery with a higher capacity version, you will need to allow it a longer time to recharge at a given "C" rate in order to properly top it off once you've discharged it/used the UPS.

Also, if you're a neophyte with handling batteries and with high energy charging systems, then I *STRONGLY* urge you to wear safety goggles and remember to remove rings/jewelry/neckchains. In this arena it's always *SAFETY FIRST*.

I've designed among other things high energy power systems (and big UPSs) for many years and have seen experienced engineers/technicians get hauled away in ambulances after MINOR lapses in concentration, so please heed my safety warning. Batteries can supply millions of Joules of energy and they can't be shut off.

The bottom line is be CAREFUL, learn and have fun...


Tony

[jjsole]

It's of interest to me because if my system goes down during the day it can cost alot of money, but I don't like wasting money either with the riculous prices of the retail backups.

Thanks Tony for the tips and site. I'd really love to be able to avoid real downtime during winter storms (chicago) where its realistic to have a power outage for part or all of the work day. But your point is well taken, to consider a battery with a quicker recharge time...particularly in storms, there often is multiple outages, not to mention surges, so saving a day might not help if it means being down the next because its still recharging...good info.

And I'm not sure what neophyte means, but until I look it up I'll assume it means either "rookie" or "klutz"....whichever, warning heeded. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by jjsole (edited 10-23-2000).]

[qball]

Considering other propositions, this is actually tame....

Coupla questions;

Why are you having UPS problems? If your UPS does not offer enough battery power, buy one that does.

If you want to run your PC for hours on end when the electricity is out, get a generator.

UPSs are catastrophic recovery insurance, not an everday type of thing.

Well, that is what I think.

[qball]

Neophyte means beginner or rookie.

[fast_eddie]

jjsole:
"Deep cycle" batteries are designed to be discharged 'deeper' than most automotive applications are normally subjected to. They are also used for marine applications such as a trolling motor. These type batteries DO require periodic addition of water. A 'room temp' temperature is far below that which an automotive battery is usually subjected to; in other words, the 'loss' of water will be less than under the hood of a car.
Deep cycle batteries are NOT low maintenance or maintenance free! AND 'maintenance free' batteries CANNOT be 'deep cycled' much more than 5 or 6 times before they are permanently dead.

OPTIMA [www.optimabatteries.com] makes a deep cycle, Spiralcel battery that is very similar to 'gel cell' batteries; it is sealed battery so the problems usually associated with using an automotive battery indoors should be eliminated. I have an OPTIMA battery in my 4x4 so that when I go 'dirty side up' the electrolyte doesn't 'drain out'; yeah, I know that I should keep the wheels on the ground, but sh*t happens.

[This message has been edited by fast_eddie (edited 10-24-2000).]

[jjsole]

hehe....thats a pretty good idea, fasteddie...a drained battery might be the least of your problems if you roll it, but once you get it back over atleast you can still drive it to the shop (albeit the shell out thousands to get it fixed!) http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I was pretty clueless on 'deep cell'...(and now I know what "neophyte" means too...you learn something new every day...now I'm doubled up in case tomorrow comes up empty http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif)

Thanks much for the info.