I’m tired of buying a new 12 V battery every 1-2 years. I have about 4 small (rated ~ 300 W [not VA]) UPSes with 7 Ah, 12 V, maintenance free batteries.
I’m thinking about replacing them with one, powerful unit. But the more powerful the unit, the more it costs - non-linear.
Do you have experience with some DIY solutions? Like 12V DC to 230V AC inverter, battery charger, some UPS controller (simple relay?)?
Or maybe you have some other idea that is cheap(ish)?
It’s 12V so I guess you can Frankenstein something with a car battery. But honestly this sounds more like a LTT video than something I would trust not to burn my house down.
You’d want to use a deep cycle (sometimes labeled “marine”) battery, not a car battery. Car batteries can put out a shit ton of power for a very short time but their total capacity is pretty low.
Also you still want AGM, Gel or something else sealed like that. You don’t want a Flooded Lead Acid battery charging/being trickle charged inside your house.
Op could also swap to LiFePO4
I have a few cyber power 1000W/1500 VA units. They go on sale for under $150 now and then. Best price/power ratio I’ve found. The battery in one has lasted at least 6 years, other is going strong for at least 2. They’re big enough to power my 8 bay NAS for a couple hours. I don’t recommend DYI for a UPS, too unreliable.
Not only is a DIY UPS unreliable, but it could be potentially dangerous unless you are an electrician, an electrical engineer, or somebody that has extensive knowledge of both the engineering side and safety side. How many CyberPower units do you have? It’s impressive that you have enough UPS power to run a NAS for that long.
I have 3 - but I get that runtime out of one of them. Depends on load, but idle the nas doesn’t draw too much.
Where did you purchase? Camelcamelcamel shows those sub-$150 price drops on that capacity might be a couple years old, too. :-)
Others have given the direct answer of “no”. Cheap is relative, so here are some options that assume a higher value of “cheap”.
DIY solar panels and DIY flywheel generator.
Professional solar panels on your dwelling and professional whole house battery storage. (Fix the issue by fixing a larger issue.)
Buy an electric car that can power the equipment. A Ford Lightning (there are other choices) in the garage, that never moves, will solve the issue of swapping batteries. Check junkyards for a used one.
Move closer to a power plant, while also ensuring a minimum power line distance.
Move closer to something with a very high up time requirement. (A hospital may have generators, but they may also have a requirement for their power to stay up nearly always.)
Use AWS or co-hosting to make power not your issue.
Are you really suggesting someone buy a used Ford Lightning to use as an alternative to a DIY UPS and never drive? The DIY UPS sounds 100x more practical.
I doubt there is a much better solution, the huge rack mounted UPS are just tons of 12v batteries wired together. I would question why your batteries are dieing so frequently, I expect to get 5+ years out of mine with light use.
