SUPER UPS Battery Hack- Mikes Inventions
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- mikesinventions.etsy.com paltap.me/MikesInventions
The SUPER UPS Battery Hack,. Have you ever wanted your electronics to run longer on battery power? I have. So now they do. I swapped the tiny SLA batteries in my APC battery backup for two deep cycle batteries to get ludicrous run time. This procedure would work with CyberPower brand just as well as the APC that I have. The key is to match the input voltage to whatever your UPS is using now, which is most likely 24v. I've never seen anything other than that. You'll need 24 volts worth of batteries, a UPS, some wire, terminals, a fuse and holder. Check it out! 
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Great video! I'm with you on off-grid power.
I think everyone would have liked to see this work. As well as some runtime information!
YES DID NOT SEE ALL OF THE CONNECTIONS APPLIED. WHAT TYPE CABLES OR CONNECTIONS NEEDED TO THE UPS.
Subscribed when you said, "I'm obsessed with off-grid power." :)
Mike, if you want to force the unit to relearn its endurance on battery power, you have to put about half a load to it, and execute the self test multiple times a day for about 3-4 days.
Hold down the power button while its turned on for a total of 6 seconds.
2 seconds will power the unit off, and you get the single beep, DO NOT LET IT GO, continue to hold it for another 4 seconds and you will get a second beep, then release the button and it puts the unit into 'Self Test' which forces battery usage for 5 seconds.
another way to help it relearn, is cycle the batteries, go full charge and then run them down on a roughly 80-100w load , when the unit dies, hold down the power button and force a 'brain dead' sequence upon it. hold the button for 5-15 seconds.
APC Backups units have logical sense in them. clearing the logic by forcibly doing a logic brain dead procedure clears its prior memory of the batteries it once knew.
after a few times of fully cycling the batteries you should start seeing some really impressive numbers as the unit re-learns the numbers as it works.
But how is it going to display the remaining time? 20 h is 1200 min. I don't think the LCD has a place for a 4 th digit.
@@louistournas120 where are you getting that?
the firmware doesn't even know how to display that so it would just say 999 or error out to ERR until it got back down to 3 digit capacity.
@@louistournas120 nice job on necro bumping a 2 year old comment also
@@CapStar362 I am basing it on my own UPS. It can only display 3 digits.
However, I haven't modified it so I don't know what it would do.
Thannks, i had this idea recently...but for my deep freezer. Lots of power outage recently...thanks for your video
Instead of the conductive metal hose clamps, you could use large plastic zip ties pulled down tight - non conductive. And yes, those batteries definitely need vented to outside. Hydrogen has a very broad explosive range, 4.1 - 74% and very light, rises up.
Even a common cable gland would be perfect.
Thank you for this video. I have several heavy duty ups unit and wanting to experiment . Just gotta get inside the unit to rid that beeping when operating of batteries.
I did the same thing a while back. This set up works but one thing has to be considered, UPS' are not design to work for extended periods of time. They have very small heatsinks on the Mosfet/transistors and most don't even include a fan to keep them cool so they end up getting damaged by overheating. Of course to help on this issue you can add your own fan.
Your comment is true for the cheap line-interactive UPS where the inverter stage is only working when the mains go off, but the more expensive dual-conversion units (2X to 3X cost) are designed to work full time and constantly supply clean inverted power. My Eaton 9125 dual-conversion units have internal fans that keep them cool. They also come with connections on the back of the case for plugging in an external battery pack to extend survival time eliminating the need to hack the insides of the unit as shown in this video.
@@jamesskinner7744 Rack mount APC units also work well for this as like Eaton UPS are designed to be on for years at a time.
I have been doing that for years. The best wire that is about 10 gauge and flexible can be found at the automotive shop. I use heat shrinking tube over the connectors that I solder the wires to.
In a tight spot getting the outboard battery(s) where you can service them is a real help.
Hi Mike. What you probably don’t know is that APC sizes their components to match the runtime of their batteries. Attaching a super large battery, and a full capacity load, will eventually cause most UPS models to overheat. Instead, use the TrippLite automatic PowerVerter if you want an external battery bank. That’s what I did 20 years ago. They are also fan-cooled.
I like the idea of the PowerVerter, but it does not have auto-switching from AC mains. I wonder if the PowerVerter could be simply installed behind the APC UPS, which means once the acid batteries run out, then the APC will take over for it's tiny 5-10 min and shut stuff down?
@mcw0530 any way to hack the ups to fully utilize the bigger battery?
Just make sure the load lies within the specification of the USC. Better if you keep the load about 20% below the spec.
I bought a surplus APS, and it has a connector on the back for an external battery. So what does APC recommend for externals? Why does it overheat?
@@MAustinP Sorry for the late reply, but the PowerVerter does have an automatic version that auto-switches from the Mains should they fail. I know, because mine does that, just like an APC UPS. I have the 1200W model and it's attached to a 100AH deep cycle AGM battery.
Please see TrippLite P/N: APS1250
Thanks for the great content 👍
You're Welcome Sergio. Glad it helped.
May have been mentioned by someone else earlier, but two major items to keep in mind when increasing the runtime of ANY UPS unit...
ITEM 1 - "FLOAT CHARGE" CAN BE WAY TOO HIGH FOR DIFFERENT BATTERIES
The "float charge" voltage ("standby" voltage the UPS keeps on the battery(ies) at all times when they are not being discharged or charged (just sitting there in standby)) can vary by a significant amount depending on the battery type used. The vital information here is that the float charge for one type of recharageable battery (e.g. an arbitrary typical SLA battery) can be a LOT different than the float charge for a different type of rechargeable battery (e.g. a marine-type Deep Cycle battery). It can even vary from one type or model of SLA battery to another type or model depending on manufacturing.
From what I've observed, many models of UPS units typically provide a float charge voltage that is too high...even for the originally supplied batteries. What this can mean is that the batteries may not last as long (edit to add: 'as they should last') because the float charge being too high will, over time degrade the batteries faster than if the float charge was set at the right voltage for the batteries being used. Example, instead of supplying a specified float charge of 13.5V to 13.8V for a given SLA battery, the UPS may be supplying a float charge of 14.5 to 14.8V. I have measured such high float charge levels on various UPS units.
A suspicious person might conclude that UPS manufacturers intentionally use fractionally higher float charge values to cause early life battery failures in order to increase their replacement battery sales.
*_A float charge higher than the specified value for a given battery WILL take months to years off the battery life of that battery, depending on just how high the float charge voltage is above the level specified for the batteries_*
I recommend batteryuniversity.com for more information on "float charge" and how it can damage batteries to cause significantly earlier battery failure.
(edit to add: 'I have no personal or financial interest in anything associated with batteryuniversity.com' )
ITEM 2 - UPS OVERHEATING DUE TO LONGER RUNTIMES
Some UPS units are designed in a way that they are LIMITED in how long they provide backup power due to overheating issues. If they run too long (e.g. users replace original batteries with MUCH higher Ah capacity batteries) then an UPS can overheat and possibly cause catastrophic damage to itself and/or attached devices due to uncontrolled output voltages caused by damaged control circuitry.
When I've added higher capacity Ah batteries for longer runtime, I always make sure that the UPS unit will not overheat due to the longer runtime. This may be a simple matter of not keeping the UPS in a closed storage area, or adding more ventilation to the storage area, or even adding more ventilation to the UPS case. I have also installed a fan in two units (one CyberPower and one APC) as they started reaching dangerously high sustained temperatures when they ran for longer than about 20 minutes. (edit to add: 'Running at sustained high temperatures is not good for ANY electronic equipment and at the least can cause early equipment failure. In particular, very high sustained temperatures (even higher internal ambient temps) can cause electrolytic capacitors to vent and cause failures with unpredictable results.')
*_One should not always assume the UPS's self-protection for overheating will always work and provide a controlled shutdown, or that a given UPS even has such protection built into it_*
Still going strong after 18 months. The UPS charging circuit brought the batteries all the way up after several days, and since the batteries are so large, it's as if the batteries are on a trickle charger, like they would be anyway. The minute counter on the display is still meaningless, because the UPS has no idea how big the batteries are, but it is somewhat useful for judging relative charge. The minutes just tick down at a much slower pace. I haven't needed to use them for more than about an hour or so since I installed them, and the internal charger on the UPS worked just fine. Now I plan to use my large auto charger if I run them down a lot so as not to strain the UPS charger circuit. So far so good... Stay tuned.
So bro didn't it give any problem after the installment and can i use car batteries
@@driftkings2740 Hey, yes, you can use car batteries. There is a comment down there that says as much. However, car batteries' thinner plates are not to be discharged very deeply. (Only about 10%) so size your batteries accordingly. Also, most car batteries do not specify a capacity, because they don't have to. All they care about is cranking amps. So, there's no way to know what you'll be able to achieve with them. Thanks for watching!
@@MikesInventions do you have concerns of off gassing? There's a deal on amazon right now on interstate deep cycle batteries but the concern is the off gassing.
@@quacktony Probably just want to run a longer cable and not install this sort of unit in the living room. Otherwise, looks like a bad-ass blueprint. Anyone else trying to game on green energy? Found an older Dell server that uses around 100watts under load, going to pair it with an external gpu and then an array of batteries and panels, and maybe just maybe, some way to capture wasted heat. If I ever build a house, I swear I'm rigging my waste heat to pex and setting up heated floors at the very least.
@@userhandle3378 I wonder if there would be a way to use a TEC to recover heat back to energy? Doubt it would be worth it, but I thought it was an interesting idea.
Terrific video! I’ve been wanting to do this too. Perfect garage/shed project. Cute kid :)
I Love this video. Make more of these in different enviroments please. i promise i will watch them all :)
Great idea, as I have an APC UPS Pro 1300 as well and the batteries are shot too, and I also have a used 12Volt LifePo4 battery too, this is excellent, thanks for sharing your knowledge man, much appreciated.
Float and voltage difference will kill your Lifepo4s. Good luck. This guy should have warned about lead acid (which is what most cheap UPSs use) and AGM voltage difference. Try to charge AGM with Lead Acid voltages and the cell will swell and short... Put a BMS on the Lifepo4s and you might have them survive. (Cut off high and low). Problem is, low cut off will lock the BMS in most cases and you need to manually charge the battery above the low cutoff
Lithium batteries use different charging methods than lead acid and they don't like to be trickle charged. Unless you have very specific knowledge about this I think you need to stick to lead acid batteries or as XiaorRulez mentioned maybe do your own battery management. I was an electrical engineer when lithium ion batteries came out and they were withdrawn from the market because they were catching on fire in Japanese cordless phones. Over the years lithium batteries have continued to catch on fire. They even caused an airplane crash. Personally I wouldn't mess with any kind of lithium battery for this purpose.
cool, thanks for the tips!
Thanks for the video, I liked your idea and now plan to execute on my BR1000G. Its internal battery are dead. Will the current from APC be sufficient for charging high capacity batteries? Any limitations to consider while choosing the battery size?
UPS will charge battery, just potentially at a slower rate I would think (assuming constant current charging)
You have to plug in the Data communication cable to the system and install the software and calibrate the battery and change the status as new battery it will give more backup hours
About "installing software to calibrate the battery and change the status as new battery it will give more backup hours", I just picked up a sine wave, APC BR1000MS to use with my 100 ah battery but it shuts off at the estimated runtime of the small batteries it would normally have. this is a bummer. my older model would run as long as the battery . can this new model be dumbed down to run for the amp hours I have? otherwise I just wasted $100 on this used thing that only runs for minutes. so bummed. I hope you can point me in a good direction to make this happen.
I just wanted to mention, that if you take apart the battery pack, it is two batteries connected by a card. You can remove the card and it is much easier to access the leads on the card. They are also marked as positive and negative. The card can only be inserted in the correct way. I plan to try this on my my network rack in the basement.
How did you deal with the battery constantly beeping after the power is disconnected from the UPS?
well how did you install the 10 amp inline fuse?????
I did this on my tv and internet as well. I put a 12v 12ah battery on mine. Will run the tv and internet for well over 6 hours. It’s great and has been running for many years now.
Umm. 12V 12Ah means 144 watts for one hour or not more than 24 watts for 6 hours, not taking power losses into account. I seriously doubt your TV draws only about 18W. I think you are wildly exaggerating there.
But what about the charging function of the UPS now or has some bigger lumps to charge? Does it just take longer?
Im wondering if it would work with thes new lifepo car batterys, that have build in bms ect,.
I know this is an old video, but you can calibrate the ups to those batteries. I found that out with two apc units I have. Just have to unplug let it run on it's normal load untill it is dead and re-charge. My one 1000Va was only telling me 7 minutes after I upgraded it's batteries, but now it shows 45 minutes which is still less but closer to real time. Enough time for me to get out the generator. Just something for you to try to get a better remaining time display.
oh yes, enough time to bring out the dino juice'ator
Excellent video. Subbed.
Where's exactly did you install the 10amp fuse?
I would assume you could run this set up with the battery bank connected to a solar array, basically just converting the ubs to an inverter with lots of outlets?
so the UPS will "learn" the new capacity of the larger battery on its own? or do you need to do a few charge/discharge cycles?
can you permanently leve the batteries hoock't up? like there were part of the ups?
Nice work ,I have a very small MANHATTAN Battery backup do you thing your ideia will work with this one.its only a 5amp
how much time the batt last until they go off?
Mere ups ka out put 3 se 4 impire hai kya me ups k sath 12v 10 ampire charger b laga sakta ho! 1 sath ???? Bettery ko fast charging k lea
Great video, great helper! Question, can you replace those lead acid batteries with the same value lithium iron phosphate batteries???
The UPS was designed for lead acid batteries. I would NOT use batteries of a different chemistry (like lithium iron phosphate). Each chemistry has a characteristic voltage and applying a charging voltage that is wrong for the batteries that you install is dangerous. Nope.
There are 2 issues.
If you attach a larger battery, when it needs charging, the internal resistance of the battery is low and will draw a lot of current.
The charger circuit of the UPS would overheat.
The other issue is that lithium ion batteries needs a specific circuit to charge them properly. I think, also, that they should not be overcharged.
With lead acid batteries, overcharging just causes electrolysis of the water (emission of hydrogen + oxygen).
Awesome & Thanks :)
Hello from Oklahoma-----Several years back, I did what you did by running two UPSs off of one car battery. Both UPSs operated on 12 volts so I got by with 1 battery. What I found out, and, what you are going to find out, is that the battery charging circuit in the UPS is not strong enough to keep a much larger battery charged. A trickle charger needs to be attached to the battery to maintain a charged up state so that when the power goes out, you will have a long run time. Yes, it will work for a while until the batteries go dead, which they will. In your case, with two 12 volt batteries, you need to put a charger on each one about once a week to maintain a charged up status. You can charge each one separately without removing the connector wire between your 2 batteries or removing any of the other battery wires.
Good post. I've measured the battery charging output on a UPS XS1300 at 300mA. So Large batteries obviously will take a long time to recharge if discharged even several Ah. Adding an external 1Amp charger would be a very good idea. It's what I did about 10 years ago with mine. Be aware that the extra runtime and charging time will push the capacitors on the board fairly hard and so you might need to check and or change them every year or two.
Can this also work on 12v 7ah UPS ?
How is the fuse incorporated
two questions: the first is about running your electronics off a modified sine Wave inverter and second, have you increased the cooling or current carrying capacity ie swap out the MOSFETs etc? These units have a pretty short duty cycle unless the board can be populated with transistors to add capacity. many of these units all have the same circuit boards, just increased capacity with changes to the output stage.
how are you dealing with the hydrogen gas from the charging of the batteries
can you make a list and keen details of what materials did you use..(cause im not a techy person)
i want to build this to backup my PC. ^_^ thanks!
If you are going to do this please install a full time vent system to the exterior. Maybe even move the batteries to a vented box outside and run your wires in. Gases from an unsealed lead acid battery are explosive, especially when overcharging. Like you stated, the UPS has no idea what type/size of batteries you connected. “So far, so good” are famous last words.
Open to the open house, is it a concern? I see hydrogen gas is flammable from 4-72% (an additional half volume of oxygen is also produced) at a rate of 27 cubic inches per AH. I wonder if human "off-gassing" of methane after consuming sauerkraut or beans has similar explosive concerns.
Well the ups won't overcharge it at all. As the charger in the ups has values lower that the battery's so no overcharging is going to happen
Really? Never possible at all? You would stake a family’s life on that? As if errors in software driven hardware could never occur.
@@RemmikRotus I would yes put a venting system for the battery's as they will get a bit hot and because they are unsealed but again the charger literally has values LOWER than the battery's and no software is going to make that charger just overclock itself 80% that's not how it works
Yes, my thoughts exactly. Large batteries need venting and placing them remotely, in a well vented, sheltered spot would be ideal.
Hello. I have the same apc as you and when I doubled the size of my battery amp hours, my apc will still shut off with the same amount if time used as before my upgrade. How did you trick your apc to stay on longer than it was programed to be on from the factory with a specific amount of load? Very frustrated because I didn't get any benefits of doubling my batterys
If you're not using the shutdown software, the UPS will shut off based on battery voltage. This means you don't have to trick the UPS if you change the battery capacity. The bigger the battery, the longer it will take for the battery voltage to get down to the shut-off level, therefore you automatically get longer runtime.
The only exception is that some APCs will automatically shut off if the load is too low for them to detect, but the manual shows you how to disable that feature.
How did you overcome problem with full charging higher capacity batteries? It needs 10% charging power from total capacity
Be careful of using flooded lead acid batteries due to off gassing.
I suspect one can also use AGM batteries too instead of lead acid right ?
Do they have to be lead acid ?
@@tonymontana897 no AGM works but are twice the price of flood lead acid bats.
@@tonymontana897 AGM is lead acid, it's just that the acid is absorbed into a mat instead of flooding the lead plates.
@@charleshorseman55 is it safe to put the UPS sideways like in the video with AGM batteries?
@@AmongUs-mb4qx sideways, but not upside down. Not ideal, but should work.
Great work, however I have doubts on that ups to charge the batteries. It may take ages, have you tasted that yet? Anything above 20A battery will take longer.
I had doubts too. It's not meant to charge stuff this big. I didn't use the UPS charger to charge them initially or after I used them during a storm overnight. I used the car battery charger for that. Thanks for watching!
Tq. Klau pkai batery long hours only apc hanya sepuluh jam tv boleh dihidupkan, kipas dan lampu. I try apc 1000w. My house no electricity supply i need lamp, fan and television. And small else.
The issue I see with this is that if the power goes out usually the node that supplies internet to your home goes out too since most of them aren't on battery backups. I have a 6 kilowatt Eaton 9PX 6K at home with 2 EBM's on it. There are 75 12 volt 5 Ah batteries in that sucker which can run my normal load of 1200 watts for about 4.5 hours. The issue is that our node isn't backed up at the ISP level so if the power goes out the internet goes with it regardless of what I can do in the home.
tether your smartphone data or use as hotspot
The RS 1000 and 1500 models have an expansion port to add an external 24v battery pack, no drilling, no mod necessary. For safety, I'd only use SLA batteries.
very good idea. My APC NS1250 battery needs to be changed. The cable connector has 3 slots. I wanted to use a 24V marine battery. Is it possible ?
im trying to find how much VA my UPS need but i cant find a good calculation. lets say my PC is using 200watt on 230volt and 1.26A. how long would a 1000VA UPS last?
when power goes out, can the APC heat sinks keep up if several devices draw power for an extended period? my understanding is they're solid heat sinks that don't radiate heat, so once they get hot they can catch fire if enough further time elapses
This is a good idea. I'll do this when the original batteries crap out.
nice idea sir❤️❤️👍
why did you put 24v if the initial battery replaced was 12v?
i forgot what you did, but for anyone interested or if you don't already know- marine deep cycles operate slightly differently than normal 12V lead acids or gels. should be 13.4V When fully charged if not damaged inside too much. or maybe 13.2/13.3 is perfect health usually. Having a health tester is a godsend. really let's you know what's going on under the hood so to speak.
But hope your setup is working ok! It must have some intelligent charging going on. So that's good. Any old ups would not be recommended for just any marine battery. Although they may work, they might be damaged or unreliable or just not perform as well as they could. Just saying from experience lol. plus always make sure it's a True deep cycle. They are between a starting and deep cycle, lots of people don't realize but some aren't fully deep cycle. Great video boss xD
I measured my UPS batteries. Each is 13.24 V. There are 2 of them and they are connected in series.
Are UPS batteries deep cycle batteries?
Looks like a great idea thanks
Thumbs up for Alex !
Excellent Video Mike. I know nothing about UPS devices but I had to purchase one recently for back up power on a home CCTV system.
It was a good used one, apparently, but I have yet to get my head around how it functions etc.
I suspect the batteries will need replacing as the old owner reckons he's had it for around 4 years or so, so that would tell me that the battery life cycle is almost due.
It's an APC C1500 model, the one with the LCD display.
Not sure what Ah sized batteries it contains, but I'd love to upgrade them if possible. Hopefully I can find the same physical sized batteries but with a higher output.
I'll have to do more research on this.
Thanks for the video. It's opened my mind about battery expansion.
*GET THE OLD BATT.. OUT !! **#FAST** ..*
*JUST BEFORE THEY ARE ..."DEAD" THEY CAN "WILL" GO REAL **#BAD** ...*
*GET "HOT" ... AND MELT **#INSIDE** YOUR **#UPS** ......*
*JUST SO YOU KNOW ....... OK MISTER*
What I want to do is get the lead out and go with 12V 10Ah lithium phosphate with F2 connectors, any thoughts?
What about AGM batteries?
My question can I add solar control to charge batteries
Did you ever test the runtime?
Thanks for making this video, i was wondering why I was buying 5mins of backup power for $210....now i can run my gaming PC for two days..... Hooray!!!
how much VA's i need in one UPS for one PC ( power supply 700w) + one monitor ?
It will have a plug to connect extra battery right? Why he opened it and put some wires ?
I'd be more interested in running a forced air gas furnace for a couple days to keep the house warm during a power bkackout.
Would there be any output capacity differences between the wet cell batteries vs. the SLA battery types??
These will not even come close to running a furnace, get a real back up system = to a Tesla wall etc.
@@mac11380 a gas furnace? Yeah they will.
Mike, What about overheating I need to rub amini computer and a satellite receiver. Probably 8 hours at a time.
I have 2kva at 1500watts Ups ,can i use 2x 12v,26ah battery,is it safe? Is it going to be enough to charger 2 or more batteries
The big problem I've run into is voltage drop along the feeder lines from the battery to the UPS DC input, and also within the internal wiring supplying the inverter. I'm running an APC Smart-UPS 750 and under high load (250+ watts) the DC voltage across the inverter input (on the board itself) can be as much as 0.6V less than that measured at the battery terminals. It causes the UPS to think the battery is about to die even though it's not even close. I replaced the external feeders with 10awg and this reduced the voltage drop to about 0.3V, and my next step is to replace the internal wiring with 10awg as well as eliminate as many of the spade connectors as possible as they are all sources of higher resistance and therefore voltage drop.
I'd expect the 16awg extension cord you're using to suffer quite a lot of voltage drop; what, if any, issues have you had with that in your case?
edit: Be advised, when you calculate the number of amps using I = P / V , the number you get is the *average current* drawn, averaged over time. In reality, the current drawn from the battery is not a constant current, it is a pulsating current consisting of periods of current draw, and periods where little current is drawn. Thus, I = P / V tells you 25A, the average current over time is 25A, but because the current is pulsating, the pulses will actually be well in excess of 25A, and as a result, voltage drop will be higher than you would expect if you simply used V = I / R without further consideration.
To illustrate, consider a constant 2A through a resistance of 1 ohm. By P = I^2 * R, the power dissipation is 4 watts. Now consider a pulsating current with periods of 4A (on) and 0A (off) at a 50% duty cycle. The current averaged over time is 2A. By P = I^2 * R we see that power dissipation is 16 watts while the power is on. At a 50% duty cycle, power dissipation is 8 watts, twice as much as a constant current of 2A, even though the average current over time is still 2A. Your UPS draws a current that pulsates in time with the switching transistors, it does *not* draw a steady, constant current and this definitely does impact performance (voltage drop and power loss as heat higher than expected, battery life shorter than expected).
Finally, as to heat issues, I run my APC Smart-UPS 750 on the 7.5AH internal battery paralleled with a pair of marine batteries (in series) of 115AH. Properly managed (turn off unnecessary lights, etc.) the unit will run for 18 to 24 hours. The transformer does get warm (temperature exceeds 80°C) without additional cooling. I put a 3-inch computer fan onto one of the case vents and as far as I can tell, even at high load the transformer temperature (external, measured on the iron core) never exceeds 40°C, generally doesn't exceed 30°C. That is quite acceptable and in my opinion active air cooling is highly effective at removing waste heat and keeping temperatures in check.
Ideally, to minimize these issues, all of the wiring in the low voltage circuit should be replaced with 10 awg, and all blade/spade quick connects or other plugs should be removed and/or replaced with soldered connections, including soldering directly to the transformer's connection tabs. On my UPS the low voltage circuit contains exactly nine (9) connection points, each of which is a point of higher resistance and therefore voltage loss. Eliminating just two of these and replacing just the external feeders with 10 awg cut voltage drop by half and resulted in longer runtime and lower waste heat load. I will be replacing the rest of the wiring with 10awg this weekend. Easy to do and no reason not to.
Hey thanks much for this comment. I had originally used a y-adapter off the primary (2) batteries in my Back-UPS Pro 1000S, with 16 awg feeder lines to external batteries. After reading your comment, I'm going to upgrade those external connections to 10awg. The problem I see now is that the UPS doesn't yet recognize the new capacity, and shuts down based on time. Another comment here mentions performing self-tests and "brain dead" factory resets to get it to recognize the new capacity.
@annestywest7488
I bought a Cyberpower cp1500pfclcda 1500va 1000w sine wave battery back-up system it has 2 9AH batteries 24v so I added 2 100AH sealed lead acid batteries 24v but it can't see that I added more AH to it and at 207w it only runs 44 minutes then shuts off but the batteries are still at 24.5v when it cuts off. Can I hack the system to change the settings? Should I just buy a power inverter to run my things on?
I removed the internal battery and extended wires to fix a 12v 80 amp truck battery to my APS UPS. I find that there is no difference in the lasting time of the UPS when the power is not on! Do I connect an external charger to the big external battery?
What you did can be very dangerous depending on the UPS model. Some UPSes do not isolate their circuitry from mains. Always check for this per UPS before attaching an external battery.
How long it last when it fully charge and on pure battery mode no grid charging batteries ? Have you tried deep cycle batteries they hold the charge longer ?
At work in the factory we use many electric fork trucks.
When all of them are charging , it leaves the Sulphur and hydrogen rotten egg smell in the air.
Consider how bad it would be in a small space like a basement.
Ventilation of batteries is very important.
Not only do they outgas while charging they also do it while discharging.
I put mine outside with a means of heating them when temps drop below freezing.
I charge mine 2 ways.
I have a dedicated 24VDC plug in charger and also a 1200 watt solar panel array with a battery charge controller.
If batteries still get low due to no power grid AND no sunshine for days , I also use a 4Kw generator to top them off if need be.
hello mike. great video but i have one slight problem. I have the same unit and have it set up the same way. I need something to last a long time to keep my coal stove running. I'm gone 10 hours a day and if the power goes out, the stove is out. so I wanted to see how long it would last on battery power. when i unplugged it from the wall it went to battery power. The time meter was at 55 minutes. after about an hour the meter went to 0 and the unit shut off. Had a volt meter on the battery;s and still showed 25.4 volts. put my battery charger on the battery's. it took only 5 minutes to bring the battery's back up to full charged. Turned unit back on and the meter said 0. So I put the original battery's back in the unit and let it charge. the next day I did the same routine to see how long it would last. It lasted about an hour, the battery meter counter went to 0 and the unit shut off.. I took the battery's out of the unit and tested with volt meter. Both battery's still were charged at 24 volts. My question is ,,,,, is that meter some kind of memory timer that will only let the unit operate for a certain amount of time and is there any way to reset it or shut it off.. Give it a try and see if this happens to yours. Any help would be a great help. Thanks Ed.
you should add a mppt solar charger to keep the battery charged and it will help for a long downtime assist. if you try this you need to know the max charge and the base charge and use the max voltage for the battery balancing and the 13.6 for flout charge if you don't do this the ups will not like it
I did this mod on what I can tell exactly the same UPS. One word of wisdom to share- do not put much load on it without also doing a fan mod. Mine overheated after around an hour, shut off and never worked again. I did not place more load on it than it was rated for, but I think the assumption by their engineers is that the duty cycle will be limited due to the limited duration of the included batteries.
hi Mike, thanks for sharing. Q: where to you put the 10amp inline fuse?
it should be between the battery POS and where it would connect to UPS
How well would this work with say a super bank from xspower ?
i did this in 1995 in the Virgin Islands. two car batteries. . ran tv and stereo for weeks. got from offices old UPS systems whose batteries did not hold enough charge,.. new car batteries did it all. actually older boat batteries.
I’m trying to charge an APC backup Battery with my inverters and they won’t charge the APC back up; any advice? The inverter converts the 12volt to 120volts to charge the battery but it won’t accept that power for some reason
So the basic idea is putting an additional battery in parallel to the original (UPS), right ?
Hey! Well, to keep the capacities balanced, the original batteries are replaced with the larger ones.
Yup, go good project to work on. But if possible, try to find an inverter that runs off of 48 volts as they run more efficiently and this is one I would like to use to run my gas furnace on. My problem is trying to find true deep cycle batteries that I dont have to take out a mortgage on.
Buy used one, wherever they usually sell used batteries wherever they sell batteries especially at an independent shops
you will need a server UPS that runs on 48v
Hey i found this in the used market. APC Smart-UPS SC 1000VA and thinking of adding 2 of these (also used market but new i box) Fiamm 10-års blybatteri (lead-acid) 12FGL42
EAN 5710927030145 12v 42Ah total cost 200 usd this would in theory if your hack works for this setup be stronger then anything new i can buy. Would the combination work. it has 4 x 6v batteries in series by default as far as i can tell.
I like your replacement battery idea. However, I think the battery wire gauge could stand to be a bit heavier if you plan on operating with close to a full load. Make sure you have an operating fan in your UPS as some models will only run for a short time before overheating.
So can we make some forever battery's...using that same set up but running the battery through a quincer instead of a doubler while funneling back into it self with an outlet to power lets say a fridge think about it...it should go smoothly and before any power outages you could help alot of people if you build a simple blue print to follow....just a thought
Thanks for the video,
I was wondering, how safe is it to run a UPS for much longer than they are designed for?
Don't they get very, very hot eventually as they are no fans?
Hey! I don't know. I've never had an issue with it so far. I'll let you know if it explodes or goes POOF!
It's a little more than that. I don't know if a UPS can start a house fire, working beyond its rated time.. I also wrestled with the same problem. They DO have marine and other inverters that are meant to run continuously. If you had a relay that could switch from the UPS to the continuous inverter you might have something there. But again we have a problem with the relay AND the continuous inverter. Is the continuous inverter UL approved for homes?? And if you make your own relay circuit, you would have to get it UL approved. I don't know if house fire insurance would accept these things as a cause of fire. ..Maybe I'm paranoid. But insurance companies as a whole are getting real slick about insuring things.
You could easily just put some fans in it.
Cut away part of the battery compartment, since you aren't using it anyway, and install some PC case fans. Maybe cut some slots on the other side so it has a place to expel air.
My APC UPS that looks a lot like the one in the video has a built-in cooling fan that runs continuously when on battery power. It annoys me because I only run a modem and a couple of routers off of it and the fan is probably using more power than they are! But, I think it will keep its cool when running these off of larger batteries. I just need convince myself that it's ok to charge the bigger batteries. It sounds like it is.
I've been running a similar setup in an off-grid application for over 2 years with no issues so far. My UPS is rated for 450W nominal, and it's typically pulling around 30-100W. It's been running almost 24-7 for most of that time.
I have a solar charge controller and AC battery charger which keep it topped off, so it doesn't rely much on the internal charging circuit.
The experiment went well enough that I set up a 2nd UPS the same way in another spot about 6 months ago.
Do this apc ups have a pure sine wave? 🤔
Depends on model.
I had the very same Idea but also maybe pre charge the battery with solar panels first
Hello. Very good video. I have been thinking to do the same for my ups long time ago. The issue here is; 1) When the ups will be in battery mode, its inverter will starts to overheat. How much depends on the load that will be at the output. 2) If it works for a long time, or many hours then the mosfets is most likely to break down. The manufacturer has calculated a specific time based on the output load and the autonomy of the battery. If you go through this then it is most likely to burn the ups as well. In my opinion, if someone makes such a modification like this, to increase the amperage of the battery by almost twice and not more. For example, if it is 9Ah to go to 18, etc. This will make the inverter less likely to burn out.Again a very nice project, greetings from beautiful Greece!
One rule of thumb to avoid this issue. Always use less then half the rated load. I keep mine around 25 to 40 percent off rated wattage. Because you are correct. If you have a 1500Va rated at 900watts, and you try to fully load that at 900 watts and add batteries, yes it will fail and very quickly. But if you are staying down around 200 watts, it should, in theory handle the load just fine for an extended period.
@@bluetonight17 totally agree.
Hi Mike, i'm gonna do the same thing with my old apc ups, the only point is the battery dimension and weight, unfortunatelly the only way to go is to use car batteries so i decided to use two of 100Ah so i should get enough power to keep my NAS up and running, i'm also thinking to add a solar panel to charge the batteries, so it will become a double UPS-Powebank project, great video!
Will this unit be able to charge two 100AH batteries?
@@ramborums You should calculate the current value for charging. Low current means more time for charging and that's not good if the power consumption is higher than the charging power...I'm thinking to change my project and build a big powerstation, i will powerup the pc with powerstation and at the same time i will keep the battery charged. In other words i will feed my NAS power supply with batteries, like a notebook, so i will avoid also power loss from the wall.
@@diegogavani5679 my point is if the batteries draw higher current than what the charger is designed for, would that not blow the charger?
@@ramborums it depends by the load! ;)
@@ramborums I'm guessing it should be fine. Canadian Tire sells small solar panels for delivering 12 V, for charging car batteries. They say it delivers 40 W, which means it can deliver 3.33 A with enough light falling on the photocells.
would like to see a thermal image of the ups past 50 mins, those have no fan to cool the transformer inside
is that internal charger have enough capacity for those big batteries
probably not. likely too slow for added AH and the charger would possibly overheat. Im thinking of doing this to run my chest freezer but I was thinking i should wire in a 10-15 amp charger as not to overload the UPS internal charger. ive got a pass thru inverter in the basement tha,t even when its not inverting, but simply passing thru, the fan comes on once in awhile. plus its only 12v but its a true sine.
@@toobglued Hi, most of these UPS's utilize a slow trickle charger with a 500 to 600ma output to keep the batteries topped off, and would take a day or two to recharge the stock batteries after use. Those Duracell deep cells would probably take a month to fully recharge with the internal trickle charger after use. Adding a proper battery charger would help prolong the life of the batteries.
Huawei, Santak, APC, Eaton, Delta series UPS products are available from stock.
You had me at off thebfridge
not all UPSs will work, some have a hard set run time limit before they will shut down regardless of how big your battery capacity is. (over heating protection as they don't have adequate cooling for heatsinks)
out of interes what brand and model is your UPS unit?
have a bank under my house consisting of 8 batteries, shoudl give a good run time ;)
oh, also, deep cycle are a must standard car batteries are not designed to be drained and not be damaged.
I did the same thing with a smaller APC UPS unit, using several emergency lighting batteries. It was working great capacity-wise, but I guess I was trying to pull too much out of the unit at once because it failed recently when the power went out, so I'll need a larger UPS to handle the load, likely going to buy the same unit you have there. I recommend the emergency light batteries because they are small, easy to connect to, cheap, and are designed for almost exactly this purpose. They are about $35 each, and I've just been buying one every time I go to the hardware store, now I have around 8 hooked up together.
I tried to do this but my ups got an error of f06, please help