Router Battery Backup

Reaper84 said:
I went on a UPS calculator site to check what I would need to keep my tp link router(12W) and Ubiquiti Unifi AP (19W) up and it says I would need a 2000VA UPS for a 2 hour load shedding session. Does this sound right?
Click to expand...

Normal UPS batteries won't have a long life span if you have a continuous load. If you replace them with deep cycle I would go the UPS route.
 
I am trying to work out if my particular UPS is fine to wire a 12V deep cycle battery to.

It is the 800VA AP series from PSS (http://pss.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PSS-Distributors-AP-Series-Brochure.pdf) which has 1 x 12V battery (9AH) in it.

Is there any of way of knowing if the battery charger handle it - will it overheat? @Chuckmyster mentions his gets hot and one instructable says a guy nearly caused a fire so I am concerned about this.

Not sure if there's any other issues, I am presuming the inverter doesn't mind how big the capacity of battery is, it only minds what power I am trying to draw from it on the outside.

I am also trying to work out how many Amp Hours I need to get through 2 hours of load shedding to run my PC. Unfortunately I have no wattage meter (I used to have a little one). I am estimating 250W for my PC and monitor. So is it 500Wh = 500VAh = 500/12Ah = 41.7Ah *2 (as don't want to discharge battery beyond 50%) = 84Ah?
Or do I need to add in the power factor of 0.6 (as mentioned here http://pss.co.za/product/ap-series - though I thought power factor was different for each device?) or some other inefficiency percentage?
 
If I understand this correctly then:

amps = watts / volts

I.E 500 watts / 220 volts = 2.27 amps.

You are powering it with a 12V battery though so the calculation should rather be as such:

500 watts / 12 volts = 20.833 amps (I.E you will get nearly 1 hour of uptime for every 20Ah battery you have connected.

You should therefore get roughly 25 minutes from your UPS with its 9Ah battery assuming your 500 watt estimate is correct.

That is why inverters which use 24V circuits or even 48V are better since the more input voltage you have the more you reduce the load on the batteries , and the thinner your connecting cables need to be.

To demonstrate, suppose 2x 12V batteries connected in series:

500 watts / 24 volts = 10.5 amps.

Also not sure what you meant with a wattage meter, do you mean an ordinary multimeter?

If you have an ordinary multimeter you can measure the exact current draw by passing the current through the multimeter.

I,E take neutral to the device(s) you want to power and pass live through the multimeter's red and through the black onto the receiving live of the devices you want to power. You will need to change the connector on the multimeter too.
 
As per whether the charge on the inverter will be able to handle bigger batteries, I am not certain how to calculate that, but a charger that under supplies in current will charge, albeit slowly, but it will also run warm, and yes, it can catch fire.
 
I guess the only way is to actually try it (regarding warm vs over-heating).

I meant one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nevsetpo-M...TF8&qid=1544699312&sr=8-8&keywords=watt+meter I guess they are doing what you describe, they just make it easy to plug up.

But I do have a multimeter so I will try your method. I am travelling at the moment so I can't do any measurements.

I might also contact PSS though I suspect they will discourage me from doing it, aside from the warranty dying, which I am ok with.
 
See my offering (pic on the left)
This is specifically designed for power backup of your routers (fibre or ADSL & Wi-Fi)
It's a low voltage unit (i.e. not an inverter UPS) so it's way more efficient.
It will keep your system going for the whole day during power outages.
I charge R650 and will do the installation as well (Joburg area)
If you are interested I need to know which routers you are using..
 
Got to try out my GeeWiz mini UPS (1850 mAh version) the other day. This was feeding an Asus LTE router during a 1hr 45min power outage. It worked as advertised.
 
garyc said:
Got to try out my GeeWiz mini UPS (1850 mAh version) the other day. This was feeding an Asus LTE router during a 1hr 45min power outage. It worked as advertised.
Click to expand...

was it just doing the ADSL router?
 
garyc said:
Got to try out my GeeWiz mini UPS (1850 mAh version) the other day. This was feeding an Asus LTE router during a 1hr 45min power outage. It worked as advertised.
Click to expand...
That is impressive from a 18650 battery. Or is there more than 1 battery in the UPS ?
 
PUP Backup said:
See my offering (pic on the left)
This is specifically designed for power backup of your routers (fibre or ADSL & Wi-Fi)
It's a low voltage unit (i.e. not an inverter UPS) so it's way more efficient.
It will keep your system going for the whole day during power outages.
I charge R650 and will do the installation as well (Joburg area)
If you are interested I need to know which routers you are using..
Click to expand...
Hi

Please could you provide further details regarding your system.
 
malstan said:
Hi

Please could you provide further details regarding your system.
Click to expand...
It replaces the external power supplies for the router/Wi-Fi being used. (Only one PUP required for each system)
This then provides power directly to the router/Wi-Fi and has battery backup.
It will keep your system up and running for the whole day during a power outage. The backup time depends on the load of the equipment it is powering but one user survived a 15hr power outage.
It has a built in charger for the battery which will automatically switch over to backup power and then resume to mains power when it's restored. (It has a battery charge LEDs and a low voltage cutout to protect the battery when fully discharged)
So no input from the user is required.
 
Chuckmyster said:
That is impressive from a 18650 battery. Or is there more than 1 battery in the UPS ?
Click to expand...
I was curious myself, but unfortunately there are no details in the specifications (and the unit is sealed).
 
garyc said:
I was curious myself, but unfortunately there are no details in the specifications (and the unit is sealed).
Click to expand...
Judging by the size is it a single 18650 battery or does it look more like a power bank?
 
Chuckmyster said:
Judging by the size is it a single 18650 battery or does it look more like a power bank?
Click to expand...
It looks more like a power bank. Length wise it could accommodate an 18650 plus some electronics. Width wise it has the potential to allow for two of these batteries (or three with a bit of cramming). It is the same case for several different rated capacities, so my speculation is that they just add more batteries to it as the capacity is increased.
 
i am looking for a cheaper solution just to run a mikro tik router and fibre box for the 2.5 hours that Eskom is having a power outage in cape town, i asked today at the shops for a cable that has usb to 5.5 power, got met with blank stares nothing like that exists-thought i could macgyver like youtube powerbank to the router, but maybe i will go to zakspeed to help with that....
all the computer shops suggested a ups but qualified it with saying its only meant to shut it down, not keep it going. one guy at another computer shop suggested buying mecer 650va ups which is currently out of stock, he said that will definitely work for a few hours. another one suggested getting an inverter trolley, nice suggestion if i got a few thousand rand lying around....
im not an electrician and a lot of the posts are just over my head, i just want a cheap solution that will work, i dont have thousands of rands to spend.
the mikrotik rating says dc10-28v and the other box where the fibre line plugs into says 12v-0.5A
hope someone can give a helpful solution, thanks in advance
 
taheera said:
i am looking for a cheaper solution just to run a mikro tik router and fibre box for the 2.5 hours that Eskom is having a power outage in cape town, i asked today at the shops for a cable that has usb to 5.5 power, got met with blank stares nothing like that exists-thought i could macgyver like youtube powerbank to the router, but maybe i will go to zakspeed to help with that....
all the computer shops suggested a ups but qualified it with saying its only meant to shut it down, not keep it going. one guy at another computer shop suggested buying mecer 650va ups which is currently out of stock, he said that will definitely work for a few hours. another one suggested getting an inverter trolley, nice suggestion if i got a few thousand rand lying around....
im not an electrician and a lot of the posts are just over my head, i just want a cheap solution that will work, i dont have thousands of rands to spend.
the mikrotik rating says dc10-28v and the other box where the fibre line plugs into says 12v-0.5A
hope someone can give a helpful solution, thanks in advance
Click to expand...
a simple UPS will do. I have one running a wireless router as well as two huawei LTE routers which lets just about the 2 hours need for load shedding
 
taheera said:
i am looking for a cheaper solution just to run a mikro tik router and fibre box for the 2.5 hours that Eskom is having a power outage in cape town, i asked today at the shops for a cable that has usb to 5.5 power, got met with blank stares nothing like that exists-thought i could macgyver like youtube powerbank to the router, but maybe i will go to zakspeed to help with that....
all the computer shops suggested a ups but qualified it with saying its only meant to shut it down, not keep it going. one guy at another computer shop suggested buying mecer 650va ups which is currently out of stock, he said that will definitely work for a few hours. another one suggested getting an inverter trolley, nice suggestion if i got a few thousand rand lying around....
im not an electrician and a lot of the posts are just over my head, i just want a cheap solution that will work, i dont have thousands of rands to spend.
the mikrotik rating says dc10-28v and the other box where the fibre line plugs into says 12v-0.5A
hope someone can give a helpful solution, thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I tried to UPS route. It's highly inefficient. converting the UPS 12V battery to 220V. Then plugging your router adapter in there to take it back down to 12V!.
I've solved the issue by simply powering my wifi router and Fibre router straight from 12V in the first place! The cheapest , most reliable option is to use a Alarm or CCTV backup system. They go for around R400 (Excl the R190 battery) and will provide power to your routers for roughly 6-7 hours!

Simply cut off the routers Power adapter power point off (or buy a new lead) and screw the two wires onto the product below. Voila that simple.

Here's a link to the product I'm referring to:
https://www.alarmtec.co.za/battery-chargers/sherlo-3amp-p-1605.html

Here's another one:
http://www.communica.co.za/catalog/Details/P0726831591
 
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