Building a 500va battery PSU

hillbear

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I live in an area with very poor quality mains supply. What I would like to do is run my PC-based audio server off-mains. I calculate I need a total of 500va or so to power the PC,amps and occasionally CD player. Has anybody out there done this - I know the result will be physically large and bulky, but I can set it up in my garage and run a feed into the house.
An on-line UPS solution would seem a good idea, with batteries constantly charging off mains with all my kit running off battery power only. Is this feasible - too costly - too much hassle ??? Expert advice welcome
 
By poor, do you mean intermittent, or merely variable?
 
An on-line UPS solution would seem a good idea, with batteries constantly charging off mains with all my kit running off battery power only. Is this feasible - too costly - too much hassle ??? Expert advice welcome


Probably your best bet unless you are prepared to pay for a dedicated feed in which case it definitely be all 3. But hey.. nothing good comes free nowadays


I'm no expert on this but i think the ups idea might be the best way to go. As you say, it can be situated in the garage ( conditions depending) and fed in to the house. It would also smooth out the supply as well as protection from surges

Are the pc, amp, etc in the same room or dotted around the house? as this may contribute to the expense if more than one feed is required.

APC make some decent UPS's , but also found the following

600 000 6435 AEG Protect A. Uninterruptible Power Supply (500 VA)

Power Supplies And Uninterruptible Power Supply - Cole-Parmer Catalog

APC BACK-UPS HS 500VA 120V

Hopefully, someone who's actually done this (bound to be a few) will post their thoughts.
 
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Most UPS supplies for PC use rely on inverters,and make an appalling amount of electrical noise,so I wouldn't consider one without a lot of distance and filtering.

The other solution is a regenerative supply such as one of the PS Audio devices,but these are very costly.
 
I work for a UPS manufacturer, and IMO building your own would not be feasible. Easier, cheaper to to buy one.

Unfortunately we don't sell directly to end users but I can recommend a very good reseller for you if you choose to look in to this further.... let me know.
 
Let's go back to how your power lines are 'poor quality'?

If you mean the power in the region shuts down too often, then a UPS is probably the smart choice.

However, if you simply mean there is a lot of noise on the power lines, then filters and surge suppressors are the better choice.

If you mean that the power line voltage is not constant, and tends to rise and fall with local demand, weather, and time of day, then what you need is a regulated AC power source. These use ferro-resonant transformers which maintain a constant output voltage with as much as a ±20% fluctuation in the input voltage.

Without really understanding the problem, it is hard to know what the right solution is.

Also, what is the age and condition of the house? It is possible that poor, loose, and corroded connections within the house and the main electrical box are causing your problems, and those won't be solved by a 'box' of any stripe.

Just curious.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Let's go back to how your power lines are 'poor quality'?

If you mean the power in the region shuts down too often, then a UPS is probably the smart choice.

However, if you simply mean there is a lot of noise on the power lines, then filters and surge suppressors are the better choice.

If you mean that the power line voltage is not constant, and tends to rise and fall with local demand, weather, and time of day, then what you need is a regulated AC power source. These use ferro-resonant transformers which maintain a constant output voltage with as much as a ±20% fluctuation in the input voltage.

Without really understanding the problem, it is hard to know what the right solution is.

Also, what is the age and condition of the house? It is possible that poor, loose, and corroded connections within the house and the main electrical box are causing your problems, and those won't be solved by a 'box' of any stripe.

Just curious.

Steve/bluewizard

whilst what your saying is correct, a UPS will combat all of those problems.
The only thing to consider would the the UPS topology - offline, line interactive or online.

To advise correctly it would be good if we knew the exact problems you're experiencing.

You may be ok with an offline unit, but if you told us you were experiencing brownouts then you would need at least a line-interactive unit, do to these models having a voltage regulator built in.

let me know if you need any more info
 

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