IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION FOR SUPER U.P.S

IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION For Super U.P.S

It is with this background that I went in search of a decent, cost effective UPS that could run all the electronics in the office for at least a few hours. I quickly came to realize two things:

1. There are no intermediate UPS. You either get the off-the-shelf cheapies or lay out a small fortune. The cheapies are designed for one or two home computers (readily available in most computer stores). Generally these contain “gell cell” batteries which are cheap, don’t leak and are very standardised. They provide only back-up time and little or no protection. The small-fortune variety are much larger and suited for a small- to medium-sized business.

2. Most decent home-use UPS are designed to provide a clean power source, eliminating under and over voltage as well as electrical noise. They are generally not intended to provide hours of backup time. Five to 15 minutes seems to be the norm.

My search eventually led me toBocal Electronics, a local company who specializes in UPS, standby systems and associated products. That’s where I learned about DC-to-AC inverters. Their function is to take power from a battery source, normally 12 or 24 volts DC, and convert it to anything from 110 to 230 volts AC. This is ideal in remote locations where there is no power grid to tap into and allows you to run just about any electrical appliance off a battery.

The unit I bought is the Inverex 1000 with a 1000VA / 600W capacity. It is essentially a DC-to-AC inverter with auto line-to-battery transfer and an integrated charging system. It can serve as an UPS, standalone power source or an automotive inverter. It’s also quite compact, with a footprint roughly the size of a sheet of paper, slightly over 3″ tall, and weighing under four pounds. With those specifications, you may have guessed it does not come with its own dedicated battery storage and that’s where it gets interesting. Provided you stick to the DC voltage rating of the unit, use the same type of batteries (typically lead-acid) with the same Amp Hour(ah) rating, you can pretty much use any combination of battery in parallel or series to meet your specific requirements.

My unit came fixed to the top of the battery housing and comprised of two 12V 45 ah semi-sealed lead-acid batteries, wired in series to produce a total of 24V. The batteries that came with my setup are deep discharge batteries and are well suited for UPS applications.