Power supply for home office and lab

deanwebb · June 19, 2019, 09:47:03 AM

I'm moving and will finally be getting a dedicated office area. Yay. I'm seriously considering a UPS because we have power dips and outages due to weather quite frequently in Dallas. Typical scenario is a storm rolls in, power cuts out for a few hours, power is restored, second wave of storms hit, power goes up and down over the next few hours, crews try to restore power to adjacent neighborhoods, but accidentally cut my power... I'd like something that could cover the sudden drops and give me time to do graceful shutdowns in the event of a major outage.

If the UPS can integrate with my systems to initiate shutdowns in an outage, that would be even better. If I'm on the road, I'd like an automated solution.

What can you recommend? I'm happy to look at overkill solutions for humor value and to better understand available features.

No, I haven't googled it yet. I'm about to, but I did not do the initial search, so that's my full disclosure.

Otanx · June 19, 2019, 10:24:53 AM

Just get a smaller UPS. Something like the APC SMX1000. Then back it up with a small auto start generator. Use natural gas to run the generator. The generator linked below has auto start, and an automatic transfer switch built in. At 9KW it can probably run your lab as well as other critical loads in the house like the fridge. Will need to hire an electrician to wire it all up, but should come in under $5K.

APC - https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-X-1000VA-Rack-Tower-LCD-120V/P-SMX1000
Generator - https://www.absolutegenerators.com/briggs-stratton-home-standby-generator-40375-10-kw-carb

-Otanx

icecream-guy · June 19, 2019, 11:05:21 AM

I just picked up a APC UPS Pro BR1500MS for the server room and computer.
and 2 x APC BN900M for the TV Rooms, (nuthin like watching TV when the neighborhood is dark)
I just got them yesterday, haven't played with them yet.
APC has a good trade in program, save about 25% on retail
so if you have some old ones you can trade in, same VA or greater to qualify,
I traded in a 1500 and 2x 650's for above, ran about $450 with tax and shipping.
They will even send you PP address labels, for shipping the trade ins back.
(saves a ton of money there on disposal)

deanwebb · June 19, 2019, 11:14:33 AM

APC looks way cool... question about battery life, how long do they last before needing replacement, and how much does the replacement cost?

Otanx · June 19, 2019, 11:27:45 AM

The ones we had at work have a little battery light that goes red if the battery is bad. We would replace them when the light came on. I think they would last about two years or so.

-Otanx

deanwebb · June 19, 2019, 01:26:50 PM

Quote from: Otanx on June 19, 2019, 11:27:45 AM
The ones we had at work have a little battery light that goes red if the battery is bad. We would replace them when the light came on. I think they would last about two years or so.

-Otanx

Better than AC filters!

icecream-guy · June 19, 2019, 01:28:17 PM

literature says 3-5 years life, cost of replacement battery is dependent on battery type, there are different models, singles and doubles,
leak proof, etc. so it best to find the correct battery online, and then price the replacement. cost will change over life of battery. eventually you'll not be able to find replacement, like me, and have to trade in.

Dieselboy · June 19, 2019, 09:48:08 PM

Quote from: deanwebb on June 19, 2019, 09:47:03 AM
I'm moving and will finally be getting a dedicated office area. Yay. I'm seriously considering a UPS because we have power dips and outages due to weather quite frequently in Dallas. Typical scenario is a storm rolls in, power cuts out for a few hours, power is restored, second wave of storms hit, power goes up and down over the next few hours, crews try to restore power to adjacent neighborhoods, but accidentally cut my power... I'd like something that could cover the sudden drops and give me time to do graceful shutdowns in the event of a major outage.

If the UPS can integrate with my systems to initiate shutdowns in an outage, that would be even better. If I'm on the road, I'd like an automated solution.

What can you recommend? I'm happy to look at overkill solutions for humor value and to better understand available features.

No, I haven't googled it yet. I'm about to, but I did not do the initial search, so that's my full disclosure.

Sounds like our Sri Lanka office, except this happens any day, rain or shine.

On the lower end of the scale, if you wanted something easy / cheap / quick; you could use an APC UPS or similar. They all come with monitoring, you just need a USB port or serial connection to a computer or hypervisor and map the usb port through to a monitoring VM appliance that you can download from APC. You can get UPS with a management card but thats a bit more expensive for web browser access over a network. It depends on your preference.
I use APC powerchute to auto-shutdown my systems in the event of a power outage, does the job.

On the upper end of the scale, I'd be looking at solar panels and battery storage. My boss has two of the Tesla powerwalls along with solar and a gas-fed (natural gas from the street pipe) generator. But the caveat for this is, if there is a power outage I dont think he can use the Tesla for safety reasons. If you're good with electric, I have seen a setup that used truck lead acid batteries and an inverter without solar. The guy set it up so that the batteries charged from the cheaper electric over night and then he manually switched it over to run from the batteries during the day. But there are fancy smart-systems out there that do these sorts of things now. There are even mini wind-turbines that will aid solar and work together. Ref https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=mini+wind+power+generator+home

I am really into the home electricity savings. There are other companies out there other than Tesla that are producing home batteries. They're taking the batteries from electric cars, testing them and then creating a modular home unit for storage. Like I mentioned, you dont need solar to benefit from them if you're able to subscribe to a dirt-cheap night time electricity rate. I looked it up here in Australia and the cheap off-peak tariff is 25% the cost of the flat tarrif but I think the day time unit price doubles compared to the flat tariff.

Quote from: ristau5741 on June 19, 2019, 01:28:17 PM
literature says 3-5 years life, cost of replacement battery is dependent on battery type, there are different models, singles and doubles,
leak proof, etc. so it best to find the correct battery online, and then price the replacement. cost will change over life of battery. eventually you'll not be able to find replacement, like me, and have to trade in.

Our 8KV APC UPS batteries needed replacing in 2017. I removed one of the modules that contained (if I recall) 5 batteries in each module and went to a local battery shop. Saved a TON of money buying the individual batteries and installing them. Each battery was very very slightly higher capacity as well. Can't find the purchase note now, it was September 2017 but compared to APC units we saved a lot and did not need any postage. I simply shut down, removed, took to the shop and they installed the new batteries in the units for me while I went back to the office and grabbed the rest of the modules.

One youtube channel I use to keep up with the latest tech on this sort of thing is fully charged show: https://www.youtube.com/user/fullychargedshow

They have grown a lot and are now doing conventions. They just had one at Silverstone race track in UK last weekend I believe.
They are having one of these events in Texas next year: https://fullycharged.show/events/fully-charged-live-north-america/

deanwebb · June 20, 2019, 09:11:51 AM

The one thing that makes me hesitate about solar panels is the biblical sized hail we can get here in North Texas. How hail-resistant are those panels? I like solar simply because when it's not raining here, we're getting some sun.

Dieselboy · June 20, 2019, 09:21:44 PM

No idea about that

good point,though! I'll ask my boss when I see him - we have car-destroying hail here on a rare occasion. I saw a parked car just this morning that was entirely covered in hail damage.

Look into the windmills that generate electricity also.

And yesterday I forgot to mention that there is a company in Europe that makes what we call in England a 'boiler'. It's a unit, about the size of a small fridge that is mounted to the wall. It takes in a natural gas feed from the street and burns that to make hot water which you use for showers/baths (ie the hot taps in the home) as well as central heating, hot water thats pumped around through radiators that hang on the walls underneath windows. You probably know what I'm talking about...

The difference with this company is that they not only do the standard water heater function, but they also use the gas to produce electricity by way of a chemical process (no flame). Electricity production is the primary function. From this it creates heat which is not wasted, it's used for heating. This obtains over 90% efficiency apparently. I did find it difficult to locate info on this, though.