Get a UPS with a Lithium battery, better still get a LiFePo4 based battery, they don't catch fire like other chemistries.
Most, if not all, UPS still use deep cycle lead acid batteries (LAB), but these have a woefully small number of charge cycles before wearing out and then have to be tossed out. Although lead usually can be easily recycled, or melted down to make sinkers for fishing. Quick web search said some LABs can do 200-500 charge cycles but I've never gotten anywhere near that number of charge cycles from UPS before they become door stops. Lithium batteries do cost more than LABs, but can still have 80% usable capacity after 3,000 cycles, LiFePo4 batteries usually fall to 80% after 6,000 charge cycles. the Fe part of the chemistry means iron, so they don't use them in cars due to weight and slight increase in bulk, houses don't care though. This is something to look out for, for example the batteries in Google phones are only rated for 80% after 1,000 charge cycles, where as Samsung is up about 3,000, so not all batteries are created the same, even when using similar chemistries. I bought a couple of LiFePo4 135Ah 12v batteries off the net, my UPS is 24v and a 12v to 24v converter costs more than the 2nd battery, so then I just extended the cables from the existing UPS with the dead batteries. I don't just have the weather console connected, but also have a switch, the router, the WNTD (4G fixed wireless) for the internet and a number of servers as well. I estimated it should easily be good for a few days with the current load, and yes we've had a multi-day outage in the recent past as well, but thankfully since upgrading the UPS we have never had to test how long it'll actually last. Also most UPS are only designed/rated to handle a brief supply outages and aren't great for more than 5mins due to the LAB, fully discharging LABs wear them out even quicker. So don't go cheap, it won't end well if you are trying to have coverage for much longer outages, more so if they are frequent as well. As a last resort we have a generator that plugs into the switch board to power the house, UPS do buy time to get the generator setup and running, and then cut over again when power is restored. Still waiting for a house battery, with blackout protection, we finally got approval to install. On Thu, 2 Oct 2025 at 17:05, Auchtermuchty Weather <[email protected]> wrote: > Now I can use the ecowitt_http driver with backfill, it seems worth giving > the gateway a UPS, but I am totally clueless about what would be suitable. > The longest I've been without power for is almost 2 days. That's > exceptional but I think gives a benchmark for how long the UPS needs to > keep the gateway going. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "weewx-user" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/b459bf18-bc64-417b-b12f-82e0572cfba5n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/b459bf18-bc64-417b-b12f-82e0572cfba5n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/CAGTinV7Uf1TYwawOuvfP-wq9RmEqqrJ-gGZQLBq58nOzJn7TPw%40mail.gmail.com.
