uninterrupted power.

[glondor]

I am looking at working out an uninterrupted power supply for the fume hood. Also for some emergency lighting as my lab is inside a unit inside a big building.

I have 12 working models of these>>>> http://www.kevinscrate.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/ups.jpg

Does any one know if they can be daisy chained together? IE so the power of all is available as a cascade to the last one?

I imagine as long as the power is on to the first one, all will maintain charge and in the event of a blackout they will discharge from first to last, as each discharges and shuts down it kicks on the next in line to the end.

Make sense? think it will work? I am not an electrician, so any replies appreciated!

 

[Anonymous]

If you are simply wanting to add batteries,then yes you can,as long as you wire them in parallel.But I would suggest a large supply.If you want to pay for shipping,I have one here that would run half of a city block for some time..... :mrgreen: I believe it has 8 seperate battery cases that plug into it,not counting the 8 inside of it.

 

[glondor]

Hey Mic, how ya doing. I did not want to just add batteries rather just plug one into another into another ......and so on. Thanks for the offer on the big set. Shipping would be killer i am sure.
I do have a couple of larger ones as well but have not tested them. The 12 I have were all working units. Maybe I am looking for a too easy solution, But if it works....A short term solution for sure.

 

[seawolf]

My emergency lighting system for many years was a 12 volt truck battery and a 12 volt fluorescent light from travel trailers in each room. I flipped a switch manually but a 110 volt relay could be used to switch automatically. The battery working seven lights would keep up for over ten days. An inverter would work the blower on a fume hood but you would have to compute the amp hours of the batteries to get a safe run time for your area.
Mark

 

[glondor]

I did give that some thought as I do have a 3500 watt inverter doing nothing. I only have 1 deep cycle battery at this time tho, and all these working power supplies....

 

[TXWolfie]

Behold the power of solar energy, each solar cell does .5 or 1/2 watt and it comes off as DC power. If you can figure the wattage with a lil bit more it will be able to keep a steady flow of charge to the battery. And you dont need to use the sun it will run off of regular light bulbs. So after reading seawolf's reply adding a few cells will replenish the batteries and keep it going for ever or until the bulb goes out or battery dies, well lets just put it as mechanical errors.

 

[Geo]

if you just need time to cool down a reaction an inverter will be the way to go. find a deep cycle marine battery and a 1,200w inverter should run a blower for hours. a larger inverter will run the lights as well. use a 24v power supply for a door bell and a 24v relay switch from an old hvac unit. connect your 24v power supply to the coil of the switch and split the + (positive) cable from the battery to the inverter between the two contacts for contact assurance on one side of the switch and again split the cable from the switch to the inverter on the other side of the switch. be sure to wire the coil on the switch to constant open, that way when and if the power fails the switch will close and the inverter will automatically supply power to the blower and lights at the workstation.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Mic, how ya doing.

Hey Mr. B. Sorry I haven't called you guys in a while,I have been spending a lot of time helping a friend that was hurt very badly.....and then I tried to melt my hand off with an oxy/acet torch.It works pretty good,but it takes a while....I think I'll use the chainsaw next time.

I did not want to just add batteries rather just plug one into another into another ......and so on.

Yes you can do that,considering all you will be doing is supplying power from #1 to #2 to #3 and so on......however,always make sure you use all the plugs from the last unit,then work your way forward.They cannot reverse power from the last unit forward,given that the inverter only supplies power to the outlets,so the batteries in front of what you have pugged in will go dead first.

 

[oldgeek]

Does any one know if they can be daisy chained together? IE so the power of all is available as a cascade to the last one?

I imagine as long as the power is on to the first one, all will maintain charge and in the event of a blackout they will discharge from first to last, as each discharges and shuts down it kicks on the next in line to the end.

Make sense? think it will work? I am not an electrician, so any replies appreciated!

Sorry, this will NOT work for you. You need a larger UPS.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, this will NOT work for you. You need a larger UPS.

Only if he's using a primary source with secondary batteries,like mine.He is not doing that.

 

[butcher]

Why try and daisy chain a bunch of UPS together? You would only have the 110v. Output power available that one UPS would be able to supply to appliances, the battery bank is what you want, how long the batteries lasted would determine how long emergency power was available, with and one UPS large enough to supply your power needed to support your appliances during outage, set up batteries in parallel, the UPS should be able to charge the bank, you could measure the charging current with an ammeter in series with battery bank, batteries bank could also be charged from another battery charger.

 

[Anonymous]

one UPS large enough to supply your power needed to support your appliances during outage, set up batteries in parallel, the UPS should be able to charge the bank,

And you can store the batteries anywhere you want.Simply run a supply line to the inverter.

 

[oldgeek]

You will still usually have problems expanding the battery bank on a smaller UPS, like the one in this thread.
They are designed to operate at a given wattage for a certain length of time. Run them longer than they are designed to, and the electronics will overheat, and FAIL. Sometimes in a spectacular fashion in my experience with them!

Scotty

 

[Anonymous]

You will still usually have problems expanding the battery bank on a smaller UPS, like the one in this thread.
They are designed to operate at a given wattage for a certain length of time. Run them longer than they are designed to, and the electronics will overheat, and FAIL. Sometimes in a spectacular fashion in my experience with them!

Scotty

Scotty, I beg to differ.The battery charger in any UPS I have ever seen,will work with a 100% duty cycle.And the inverter of any UPS will only convert the amount of power that it is designed for.Attempt to draw anymore than that and the fuse/breaker will blow.
Of course you may have a different situation.Just because I haven't seen it,doesn't mean it's not true.
The main problem that I see Mike having is that he will never be able to draw more than a combined total of 350 watts from each inverter.I took an 1800 watt UPS and installed it in my truck.It works great with 2 optima red tops,and an H.O. alternator.I haven't found anything yet that I can plug in and throw the breaker,but then again I haven't figured out a way to get my refrigerator in my Suburban.

 

[oldgeek]

You will still usually have problems expanding the battery bank on a smaller UPS, like the one in this thread.
They are designed to operate at a given wattage for a certain length of time. Run them longer than they are designed to, and the electronics will overheat, and FAIL. Sometimes in a spectacular fashion in my experience with them!

Scotty

Scotty, I beg to differ.The battery charger in any UPS I have ever seen,will work with a 100% duty cycle.And the inverter of any UPS will only convert the amount of power that it is designed for.Attempt to draw anymore than that and the fuse/breaker will blow.
Of course you may have a different situation.Just because I haven't seen it,doesn't mean it's not true.
The main problem that I see Mike having is that he will never be able to draw more than a combined total of 350 watts from each inverter.I took an 1800 watt UPS and installed it in my truck.It works great with 2 optima red tops,and an H.O. alternator.I haven't found anything yet that I can plug in and throw the breaker,but then again I haven't figured out a way to get my refrigerator in my Suburban.

No doubt, different situations produce different results!

 

[butcher]

Mic you just need a smaller refridgerator.

Old campers have inverters, they would work better for motors and lighting, they do not use a high frequency converter to invert power like a computer UPS would (computers do not like noisy power).

 

[glondor]

Well I charged up 6 of them and put them together. I will have a "power failure" today and see how long they hold up with an emergency light and the main blower.

Thanks for all your good Ideas. I like topping up with solar and building a more permanent system. I just could not scrap these little units as long as they are working. I will find a use for the other 6 as well.

I will also put the inverter and deep cycle battery to good use as the main back up. I will run a test on this as well and report back. Cheers.

 

[glondor]

Just a quick update, project did not work as planned. Small battery packs did not have enough power to start blower motor. Using inverter and truck battery for back up. It will do for now.