Power failures.....

Greetings fellow simmers,

My name is Gerry and I am seeking advice when a power failure occurs.

I am sorry if I am not in the proper forum. I live out in the country and we face power failures fairly regularly . I have a 7500 watt generator with a special panel BUT I require a minimum of 2 to 3 minutes to get the generator started and have power for the computer and the house utilities etc...

Presently,when the power stops, my computer stops as well until I restore power via my generator.

Any suggestions as too options I could look at to supply power during the time that the power goes off and I get my generator going ???

Someone mentioned "APC battery pack" could be installed to cover the few minutes required to get my generator going.... this way my computer would still be operating thus giving me the required time to shut down my computer properly etc....or simply continue working .

The whole point is for me to be able to shut down my computer properly and avoid power surge.

Gerry

I am very appreciative for all repies....Many thanks. :)

There are what's called UPS's, or Uninterruptible Power Sources out there that essentially are a box with a battery and inverter in it that the computer plugs into. Essentially, the computer is always running off the UPS battery, and the household power is always charging the battery at the same rate. If the house power fails, the computer (router, modem, whatever's plugged into it) keeps right on running off the battery, but it's no longer being recharged, and the UPS will have an indication of some sort as to how long till the battery get's too low for the inverter to supply adequate power to run whatever is plugged in, at it's present usage. This gives time to fire up the generator (I have one too :D ), or whut down the items attached to the UPS, whichever you elect to do.

Just so you know, if you run a laptop on house current all the time, it basically has a built-in UPS.

The prices of UPS have come into the "reasonable" range now, and I strongly recommend one for EVERY item in the house that could be harmed by sudden power loss or lack or proper shut-down. UPS also come in a HUGE variety of sizes. I used to work at a remote site with a HUGE balloon on it with a radar system, weather radar, all kinds of "stuff". We used roughly 250-300 KW all the time, and e had 2 seperate UPS, each of which could run the entire site alone. If one failed, we would just run off the other. Had banks of 50 12V batteries each. So you can get an UPS for a small computer, or and entire site, and anything in between. Like I said, a Laptop has a small, but powerful UPS, with an hour or two capacity built right in!

UPS also qualify as Surge arrestors, just FYI.

Pat☺

Greetings Pat,

Glad you were able to understand my situation and many thanks for providing your input.

I will follow up with the idea of "UPS"

Safe flying,

Gerry

Glad I could lend a head....errr....hand :D

I understand, because I live in a rural area myself, and we loose power all the time. Enough rain, enough snow, even a car accident, no power for a few hours or more. I have a 7900W generator also, but no autostart. Not on this system. Wish I did. It's easy enough to pull, but the colder it is out, the less it wants to start. It's a lot like me, come to think of it...

I do have a nice little box to plug the generator into the house I put in, at least. No way was I going to pay some electrician I didn't know megabucks I don't have to do what I knew how to do already, anyway.

Out at work, we could run about 1 hour off our giga-ups, with all the radar systems off, but we had 2 X 500KW diesel generators and a 10,000 Gal fuel tank, and THEY had auto-start, and if one failed, the other would start. Had to set up the switching controller modules too, when we first started. That was an adventure, I'll tell you that. Same for the UPS auto-switching modules, voltage sensors, and so on.

Anyway, most computer stores have a decent variety of UPS systems available, although IMO most are rather limited in their capacity. Usually they give you about 15-20 minutes to DO something. You will probably have to go online to get one with anything better than that. A word to the wise, also: Most have have a limited lifetime, although you can help extend them some, by deep-cycling their battery once a month or so. Just unplug it from the household power and let the battery run down into some harmless load until it's almost dead, then plug it back in and let it go for another month. Most have software included to show their status on the computer and the same info on a display on the front. The battery inside is usually replaceable also, but you usually have to get them from the manufacturer.

I keep my desktop PCs plugged into an UPS each, and a smaller one for the Router and Modem together.

Hope all this rambling helps some :)

Pat☺

I have six APC UPS here that run my entire network. Aside from providing power in case of electrical outages, they also continuously filter the incoming power to eliminate any 'spikes' or 'dips' in the voltage.

I also have one for my main television and cable box so that I can still watch the weather channel should I wish.

All of the UPS units are connected to the computer they are protecting, so that during an extended outage they will trigger an automatic and controlled shutdown of the computer. The UPS units I bought from Tiger Direct and ran about $130 each.

As mentioned, even if you have a self-starting generator and automatic crossover switch installed, there will be at least several seconds before power is restored, so the UPS units are definitely required.

I have a natural gas powered 30kw generator and crossover switch panel installed, but have set the generator to not start until power has been off for more than five minutes. This prevents the generator from starting/stopping every time the power hiccups! :cool:

Just thought would solar panels be any good?

Solar is a great idea. Having said that, the initial outlay for solar cells can be a tad high, but if you get enough of them, and get them installed in a proper system, they are an excellent idea! Get enough, and you main (city power) bill will drop off a lot. Fact is, if you get enough of them, and get a battery bank for them to use as a back up (night, overcast weather and so on, and a good UPS on the system and surge arrestor, then Solar cells can take you right off the main city power totally. No more power bills. But as I said, and I don't know if such systems have come down in price much lately, but when I last looked you will pay a pretty penny for such a system. Perhaps as much a year's power bills (presuming "average" usage).

They do have their limitations, as I mentioned, and if you live in an area with snow in the winter that sticks, you will need a heater for them, you will need batteries for the house to run on at night, etc etc.

Well worth the investment, ifyou can afford the initial outlay.

But hey, just my opinion, and I adamantly refuse to discuss "global climate change" in any way, so don't ask about carbon footprints, solar power etc etc, OK? Just a little quirk I have. I never discuss politics or religion in any way shape or form :D

Believe it or not, Mr. Leaming, above, Has exactly the correct idea and setup for his UPS systems. Just wanted to mention that in passing :D

Hope that answers your questions :)

Pat☺

Fact is, if you get enough of them, and get a battery bank for them to use as a back up (night, overcast weather and so on, and a good UPS on the system and surge arrestor, then Solar cells can take you right off the main city power totally. No more power bills. But as I said, and I don't know if such systems have come down in price much lately, but when I last looked you will pay a pretty penny for such a system.

While not exactly cheap, but not outrageous either ($3,000-3,500), Tesla has batteries designed specifically for homes. They can either be charged by solar panels, or by more conventional means during the day when rates are low.

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/POWERWALL

A guy in a PC help forum just told me this, (click on 'UPS's are made')-

"This is exactly one reason why UPS's are made ... to give you time to power things down properly or to crank up your generator."

Excellent article. Thanks for the link. It shows both positive and negative of UPS, probably better than I could :)

Appreciate the help, Scatter.

Pat☺

Two more replies from guys in the Bleeping help forum-

1- "If you select smaller sized UPS units, 1500 VAH rating, it will keep a monitor and computer running for at least an hour. That's a small price to insure things don't go bust during an outage."

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2- "I have a 600 that will keep me up for at least 15-20 minutes, enough time to go out to fire up the gen set"