You want to run 200 amp 120V service off of batteries? I hope you have deep pockets! You would need a battery room the size of a good garage to run that for any length of time. A large battery could be rated at 200 amp hours, so that would put out 200 amps for one hour. (Well, if you were trying to drain it that fast it wouldn't last for an hour. Those ratings are for a much lower drain at a time.) But that is only at 12 or 6 volts. So if it is at 12 volts then divide it by 10 and subtract off the losses for the inverter. So one battery might provide something like 20 amp hours of service doing 120 V AC if you have a very good inverter and have a bunch of batteries so the drain on each one wasn't too much. And these are the BIG batteries that cost mucho dollars. I did a quick search and found some that costed $400-600 dollars each. I have no idea if you can get them cheaper, but you would need so many of them that you probably don't have room, even if you had the money.
You're just not going to get around that trying to provide that much power is not going to be cheap. You're talking about large amounts of power. The generator that John is talking about that provides power for all the basics to survive a power outage is only providing ~45 amps at 120V, assuming it can put out that peak power continuously and everything is working well. But really, if you need this kind of power and backup solutions then you're going to need to pay for it. You should really be talking to an expert in the field about what your realistic options are. Erik On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 12:53 AM, Michael C. Robinson <[email protected]> wrote: > I have APC SU1000NET smart UPSes on 3 servers plus 1 diskless server > and an occasionally active server that is used for backup purposes. > > I am not satisfied with the run time. A half an hour or even a mere 5 > minutes is not enough with most major power outages lasting 1 to 4 > hours. Typically, a squirrel flips the power company breaker or > there is a snow related outage. The service is fairly reliable, but > there are power outages. > > There is natural gas service for backup heating, but generators > are really expensive and with 200 amp service, I guess I would > need a fairly large generator. > > I have a deep cycle marine battery that I picked up, but I'm wondering > if I can even use it as these produce hydrogen gas when charging. How > much gas and how much ventilation is needed to disperse that gas? > > I am after supplemental power so that my UPS'es will run longer. So how > do I set up the AC circuit and what do I need to effectively keep the > batteries I pick up from being drained all the time and prematurely worn > out? How do I set things up, I have an inverter, so that the inverter > kicks in and dumps power into the rest of the AC line > (not the breaker box) during a power outage? > > I understand with wet cell lead acid batteries that they can be > reconditioned. Sealed lead acid batteries are not repairable, > at least without special equipment they aren't repairable. > > How many batteries will be needed to provide 1-4 hours worth of power > to four to six computers, one digital answering machine, and one > cordless phone? Is a 600 watt peak inverter too small and should I buy > a bigger one or more of them? If I go from one battery to more than > one, do I need a charger for each battery? > > Essentially, I want to build a very simple UPS. Charge batteries and > feed AC power to the rest of the circuit when the power is on. When > there is a blackout, power the rest of the circuit (not the breaker > box please) using stored DC power and an inverter(s). I don't care > about smart signal schemes, though I might need a micro controller of > some kind and I might run embedded Linux on it. I estimate on a bad day > that a computer will consume about 300 watts and I have 4-6 of these at > any one time running on the circuit plus a cordless phone and a digital > answering machine. A conservative estimate is that I need to provide > 1920 to 2k watts for 1-4 hours. That is most likely an overestimate > though. > > Thoughts? > > Just from my power need estimate, I figure that translates to four 600 > watt inverters (not grid tie). Additionally, four batteries will be > needed to feed those inverters at $80+ a piece. I figure I can pick > up Cobra 600 watt inverters for around $69 a piece. I already have one > marine wet cell battery and one 600 watt inverter. I'm looking at about > $500 in additional batteries and inverters plus whatever it costs to > build the necessary circuity to make this all work. > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
