Power Protection

[Vlad]

This is why you should invest in a good battery backup.

Such awesome weather I'm having at the moment

The screen shot is from the APC PowerChute program that controls their UPS's. Very much worth every cent it costs.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Such awesome weather I'm having at the moment

Currently pretty toasty here. I use an old 1600 watt Elgar sinewave UPS that runs from 4 garden tractor batteries. No gel cells for me.

 

[Vlad]

Large lightening strikes were causing the line distortion and there was a power drop as well.

I use an old 1600 watt Elgar sinewave UPS that runs from 4 garden tractor batteries.

Wow. That setup must have an awesome run time in the event of a power failure. I'm pretty sure my APC as a lead-acid battery that's going to need replaced due to age and usage pretty soon.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I've had a system (HP ePC) on it for 8 hours until the power came back on. If that fails, there's always the gasoline-powered generator in the garage...

 

[Mike Chambers]

i've been considering setting up a car battery + heavy duty AC-to-12VDC + heavy duty 12VDC-to-AC power inverter as a ghetto but long lasting backup system for my web/ftp/irc server machien.

 

[Ole Juul]

i've been considering setting up a car battery + heavy duty AC-to-12VDC + heavy duty 12VDC-to-AC power inverter as a ghetto but long lasting backup system for my web/ftp/irc server machien.

Don't forget that car batteries are built for starting cars. They have high available aperage at the expense of the thickness of the lead. That means that they will wear out quickly if you cycle them deeply, and that is why they sell "deep cycle" batteries with thicker plates. I just thought you might want to know in case you were going to spend any money on the batteries.

 

[paul]

When I lived in San Diego I had a 1000VA APC unit on my garage door opener.

It was worth it just to see the stunned look on my neighbor's faces when I opened the door during a blackout!