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Power Inverter or UPS

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
With the wood stoves running, I like to keep a quick power supply available to keep the stove's fans running in the event of a commercial power outage. This is so a) we have heat and b) the fans keep the stove from getting too hot.

My current setups are inverters sitting with Deep Cycle Marine batteries. The batteries are due for replacement and aren't cheap.

I was thinking of switching over to UPS backup units that you use for computers and such. You can get a 1500VA/865W UPS for about $150 which is just a bit more than a decent battery.

With the UPS, the switching back-and-forth will be automatic and give me 10+ hours of run time for the fans. (The fans pull 55 watts)

Any downside to using the UPS? Seems like an easier solution compared to the inverter.
 
We were not able to use a UPS with our gen/battery/inverter set up. The UPS did not like the sine wave the generator/invertor put out and would not allow the UPS to recharge or be in standby mode. I called the manufacturer and they said that it would not work properly because of the sine wave. If you are tied to the grid and only used it during the power outage I don't see why it wouldn't work though. Not sure how the UPS holds up over the long run or how many cycles it will tolerate before it gets tired.
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
The UPS's I used would charge all the time but after they were a few months old they did not keep the equipment up for long. Barely long enough to do a graceful shutdown. After two years they were ready for the trash pile. Using laptops now so no longer need the UPS's. Deep cycle batteries seem more dependable to me. I've used them for years on boats and get 6 to 10 years out of them. There should be a way to automate the Deep cycle batteries. That might be your best answer.
 

Adillo303

Diesel Truck Fan
GOLD Site Supporter
I think the life expectancy of the marine batteries is the key.

Most every UPS manufacturer recommends replacing batteries every two years.

If as Doc says marine batteries last 6 - 10 years, I would suggest staying with them.
 

ki0ho

Active member
GOLD Site Supporter
I took an old UPS and replaced the batts with larger gel cels and I get a good 2-3 hrs on the sat-tv and the sat-internet and I-mac......I feed the UPS along with the refers and large freezer and asorted lights with our genset when we are without line power.

the batts seem to charge fine when on the gen. for us.....for years we had alittle 4kw unit that I had to switch things in and out....now we have a 10kw unit and I haven't seen any problem with mom running about any thing she wants....so far she has had enough sense not to turn on both elect ovens when on the gen!!!!!
 
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