TC Projects: Lead-Acid Battery Backup

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Sometimes life throws curveballs. But rather than just get hit in the face, why not do something about them? This video is a mishmash of a project, some insight on Lead-Acid Battery technology, inverters, and applications. A bit different you might say from TC’s normal stuff, but what’s life without a little variety?
*There are definitely different ways to charge lead-acid batteries, with different strategies optimized for different results. However, for general 12V applications, a large battery and a slow-ish charger for a car battery will be an A-OK combo.
Here’s a link to the battery monitor--a really neat thing, I should say:
www.amazon.com...
As far as batteries and inverters, go with whatever you like. But definitely don’t use a car battery. At a minimum, look for a marine deep cycle, and if you can get your hands on a pair of golf cart batteries or a 12v true deep cycle from brands like Trojan, do that.
For inverters, I would recommend a pure sine inverter for most applications, but unless you plan on running some heavy stuff from a large battery bank, what’s shown in the video is way way way way way overkill.
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/ technologyconnections
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[@CarsSimplified]

In this video you did a better job at explaining batteries than all of my old auto parts store job's brain washing videos combined.

[@goreobsessed2308]

trust me most auto guys dont know shit about electrical power

[@FusionDeveloper]

Yeah, now I know how 12 volt batteries work and how they are recycled.

[@sMASHsound]

dude, i thought i knew about batteries. now i understand WHY the batteries function as they do.

[@tekneiq]

@@goreobsessed2308 In my experience, most auto guys don't know shit about much in general, unfortunately.

[@Dave-in-MD]

@@tekneiq True but our customers know less. "I don't know what I drive or what the problem is but I need the correct part and it better be cheap." "Do you have a 4 cyl or V6?" "It has 2 pipes in the back, that a V6 right?", or "I have a V4". "Do you have a EX, LX, DX, SE, or EX-L?", "there aint not letters on the back, I have the regular one.", "Do you have 2WD, 4WD, or AWD", "I have 2WD", brings back part because I sold them the "wrong part", turns out they have 4WD but leave it in 2WD so that is what they told me. I could go on with these all day, but you get the idea.

[@lucadivine3862]

"Their construction is quite basic" More like acidic?

[@0Raik]

A-cid what you did there.

[@joecarnes9174]

Waa waaaaa waaaan

[@beedslolkuntus2070]

lol

[@g00gleminus96]

It's all fun and games until someone gets an exploding acid battery in the eye.

[@oscar_charlie]

You just won the internet :-))

[@fvrrljr]

photovoltaic/solar thermal technician here: BRAVO 👍 i love deep cycle lead acid batteries. yes i install lithium phosphate. but this is what i always tell people they can set up for emergencies. that inverter can also be hooked up to the car with a full tank of gas and can approx 72 hours before tank goes empty. instead of charging from outlet get a used 350W solar panel and get the power for free. just cause of this video i am slapping that subscribe button 💥👍👍👍

[@nallebrean]

And I conclude I can hook it up to my EV too. Using 12v outlet or the 12 v battery

[@klmklmklm2581]

Hey. Can you explain to me how it can e hooked up to the car please! It would be super helpful

[@alexmaranda830]

@@klmklmklm2581 connect the inverter directly to the car battery terminals. Red wire goes to red terminal, black goes to black.

[@MrFrance97]

I connected an inverter to my Hybrid's starter battery and its pretty awesome. Everytime I depleated the starter battery the Running battery would charge it. If the running battery gets depleated then the engine goes on and charges the running battery. Perfect for off the grid living

[@felenov]

Imagine how the UPS will feel when it finds out it has been fooled.

[@MARTINNDOMONDO]

And how will it react afterwards 😂😂😂

[@psi9343]

Technology Connections was a prank channel all along.

[@fernandopcg]

*beeps provocatively*

[@Aranimda]

Hook two UPS units in a circle.

[@s.i.m.c.a]

@@Aranimda Free energy is here ! Electroboom ....

[@jonnporter6081]

Great video. One suggestion, anytime you're messing with lead acid batteries, use safety glasses. The most dangerous hydrogen buildup can be inside the battery. Those grids inside the batter can have an errant wire that can short the battery internally when the wire wears through the separator. I've worked at a lead smelter, an automotive repair shop, and a major battery manufacturer. I've seen the top blow off more than a few batteries. When charging a battery, heed the following: Make sure the battery charger is turned off when you first hook it up. Keep your face away from the top of the battery. Use safety glasses (how much do you value your sight?).

[@helmutkrahn9337]

Glad to know you're able to make a living making these videos. They truly are articulate, erudite and stylish productions. I also enjoy your particular sense of humour.

[@arnosquellati44]

This is one of the best videos I've seen. Good image, good lighting, good backdrop, good knowledge, good speaking, clean environment, no overwhelming music, and an interesting subject. You also answered some of my questions on this subject that no other video could answer. Good job.

[@denverdanoreno]

What did the blind man tell the musician when ask how to find Radio City Music Hall? Practice, practice, practice, this young man certainly did practice.

[@randomjunk1977]

Watching this in 2021 is a little weirder taking about your Mom's WAP.

[@parnavad1794]

It is puzzling to see how stupid this solution is. Here in India we have cheap pure sine wave ups. You can connect lead acid batteries to it. You can connect the batteries in parallel for more capacity. The SINE-WAVE inverter costs about 5000-6000 Rupees or about 80 USD and 150Ah lead acid batteries cost about 13500 Rupees or 180 USD. This set up powers your devices like a UPS(Uninterrupted Power Supply ) and automatically recharges the battery when the power is restored. Maybe these devices are not readily available in the US that's why this kind of setup is needed. Because our country has frequent power cuts(2-3 time a week), this device is quite common here.

[@HylanderSB]

I think it’s hilarious that a stupid “personal air conditioner” ad plays before this channel’s videos after he very thoroughly trashed them for the ripoff junk that they are!

[@REXXSEVEN]

Lmao

[@musicmugger666]

That's google for you, the greed machine

[@orangejjay]

@@musicmugger666 To be fair, it's Alec who tells Google what ads he wants to get paid for on his channel and videos. So, moreso his "greed" and our willingness to watch. KZbin Vanced and Blokada will block these, however.

[@ahreuwu]

@@orangejjay what? youtubers don't have control over what ads google plays before their videos, at most they can control how many they allow (if nobody claims the monetisation) and where.

[@surrealdynamics4077]

Just like how Christian ads play before certain atheism related channels. I remember I used to watch one of those channels that expose questionable religions and cults, and an ad for a Bible app used to play almost exclusively to all viewers lmao

[@ryanbartlett672]

Well done! Clearly articulated. Having video as you speak really helps - a lot of you tubers have minimal video cut and just talk. Thqnks.

[@redpheonix1000]

7:27 I love how the numbers are the exact same font and size as when they are displayed when you click on "identify monitors" within Windows. Nice attention to detail!

[@Delibro]

As this channel so often does. I like this too :))

[@ahreuwu]

@Hell's favorite NPC #69OU812 . exe eh it's okay, as long as it still works lol

[@markm0000]

@Hell's favorite Salty Masshole what I learned after so much time wire managing workstations is all that matters is that none of the wires get kicked or pulled. It’s fine I wouldn’t do much except maybe a couple Velcro wraps to keep the big stuff bundled together.

[@zfine1450]

@@markm0000 It is also recommended that data and power cables be kept apart from each other as varying EMFs in power cables are known to corrupt data.

[@thorsten5052]

Oh you are so true. I realized it somehow. Nice detail.

[@willgilliam9053]

I remember a year ago when you posted this video. How has this setup handled the last 364 days of service, care to do a follow-up on it?

[@omegarugal9283]

yeah, an update wil be nice

[@stephenpowstinger733]

No answer.

[@sakumisan]

These setups work great. Telecom industries use a similar setup, albeit -48v. Use AGM battery types.

[@Gribbo9999]

In the developing world we use these set ups to keep a whole office in operation with several computers , USB chargers and even fans running all day on a couple of largish deep cycle batteeies . Used to be marginal on the old cathode ray tube monitors but flat screens save the day. Auto switching from mains/trickle charge to battery on power failure helps keep the switch seamless.

[@Playingwith3D]

I have had an identical setup for well over 4-5 years now, cycled at least 20 times when the power went out and the batteries are still perfectly fine. But I keep on top of maintenance.

[@realstressedoutavocado]

Man, you earned a sub by giving the timestamp where to skip to, I watched it all but very few content creators actually care to do that. Good work!

[@boorene6535]

Riight

[@thatonebigdude271]

Where were you when I was in middle school? I and probably millions of others could've used such easy to understand yet deep explanations of basic principles.

[@goopah]

No doubt. Stuff I struggled to understand in school has become crystal-clear watching this dude's channel. Partly because he makes it interesting, and uses great diagrams and photos. Brilliant communicator as well.

[@nthgth]

Also the humor

[@MillBrookRailroad]

Thanks for posting this. I work at a radio station and needed to power remote broadcast equipment more than 300 feet from the nearest outlet for a series of high school soccer games. We tried extension cords but the voltage drop was too much for the equipment. I had watched this video months ago and I just happened to have a pair of 12V group 24 deep cycle marine batteries that I wasn't using, so I bought a 12V 2kW inverter and wired the batteries up in parallel. Problem solved! Now we have a nice clean power source for the many places we broadcast from that don't have electricity. The only drawback is that it's heavy.

[@freeman-1776]

I just want to thank you for such a well done video. I followed the advise you gave here because I'm a Foreign English Teacher living in Vietnam. The power here often goes out in the summer and winter due to high power demands. It is usually back up in an hour or two. I bought a battery and a 2000W inverter. When the power goes out I can still run 2 laptops and 2 50 inch TV's for about 3 hours. They use 240VAC here so I think that helps. My inverter is rated 12DC in and 240W out. My battery back up is still working fine. Last summer I used it about 5 times and it worked like a charm. recently I purchased a EcoFlow Delta Max Solar Generator. This thing has a 2000W per hour rating. I can run my whole house on this thing. It will boil water, run an electric cooker, run a fridge, and many other things. I also mounted a 300w solar panel. I did this for longer outages. But the car battery system you show here is now a secondary or back up to the EcoFlow. I'm already planning to build a power system for a van that I will build in the future. That way my van becomes a mobile power station that I can hook up anywhere to anything. It's going to be epic. Again, thank you for the inspiration to get off my a$$ and get things done. Cheers!

[@____________________________.x]

Ah, the good old "we don't need a fuse as the wires will melt first", so beloved of Chinese electronics

[@docferringer]

I mean, they're not wrong. And what is a fuse but a wire of a certain thickness? ;)

[@sunstar2310]

That's fucking hilarious yo, but yeah lol

[@johnwang9914]

The irony is he could've just attached the meter to the lug on the other side of the fuse he had in the primary circuit. Of course the whole setup is unnecessary, the battery could've just been connected in parallel to the small 12v battery inside the UPS or even just replace it, the UPS already has an inverter and a charger plus the appropriate fuses and control circuitry. This might mean drilling a hole in the UPS housing but would've been a far simpler solution.

[@palmerdb1]

Botfly infection in a cat

[@Littlestrawberryfox]

@@johnwang9914 this most times will not work as the actual output of the battery will differ from the built in battery and the ups is set to very specific expectations of what type and output the battery installed uses and it will revise to work if the battery dies not output what it is programmed to recognize, hence why it does not work off the generator because the ups considered it too dirty and is unable to clean it up enough because it's inverter is not strong enough so it just blocks it out and as he said the last time they tried it, it fried the USP. The built in inverter is not designed to handle batteries of that size and amperage, so it also would not it recharge properly as the charger would not be able to charge a deep cycle battery as it's output is far too low birth in voltage and amps and has a very high chance of just frying all the electronics in the ups. Not to mention the ups is being a backup and protection of all the electronics connected to it so tampering to it would good the warrently so if it malfunctioned it could very quickly fry three electronics connected to it or start a fire switching batteries is NOT a safe idea in anyway shape or form.

[@xandercraw]

For everyone suggesting that he attach a massive battery to the UPS ... it was supplied by his mums workplace and i bet he doesn’t want to muck about with it.

[@TechnologyConnections]

And, the inverter inside this UPS was only designed to give a few minutes of backup. It has no cooling whatsoever, and honestly it's not a great inverter (as evidenced by its buzzing noise when running). It would not be happy running for 8 hours straight, I imagine.

[@auto_ego]

Also that line of APC UPSs is a pain in the butt to work on; the cables inside are really short and only tiny Chinese fingers can get in there to unplug them.

[@cheater00]

@@TechnologyConnections i have been thinking of getting a similar setup for a few years now. one thing i wonder about: why not use dc-dc converters and power the things directly that way? you might see a difference of 15-30% in power consumption.

[@shimes424]

Also, I'm pretty sure those are modified sine wave inverters. My APC UPS is a modified SW. They state in the manuals that they are designed to be enough time to save your work and shut down. This also saves your power supplies, as they typically operate warmer under load when plugged into a modified SW. I've seen a great vijeo on the difference between modified and pure; can't remember which channel. Explained it well. Pretty much everything runs hotter, motors, power supplies, ect. Only thing modified is good for IMO is incandescent light bulbs and simple fans. Speaking of which, I wonder if a large fan would clean up the sine wave?

[@volvo09]

@@shimes424 you are right, only their high end (is it xl or something like that) series are pure sine. So this is a perfectly adequate emergency backup setup... They aren't trying to go solar with it.

[@Barracuda48082]

I bought a 1000 cca die hard deep cycle flooded lead acid battery for my camper trailer, that with both 12vdc lamps on, my 2way radio, in receive mode I had a 5.7 amp draw. So I switched the one overhead bulb to LED and resulted in 4.5 amps. With radio transmitting in medium power, the amp draw jumped to 9 amps but this was only a few seconds each time when required. The tag on the battery stated at 5 amps continuous, the battery should last (new) at least 21 hours and since its highest draw is used mostly at night my calculation results at 39 hours of use before reaching critical discharge. It worked wunderbar. !! I just connected trailer hitch power plug and ran vehicle for about an hour til battery stayed at 12.7vdc. The battery was located under dinette bench, slightly cooler than the living space. Outside varied from daytime 35 *f to the windy night -57*f chills ! (Northern Michigan).

[@Pause0]

Thanks a lot for going through the specifics of batteries and what the units mean. I work at a store that sells similar batteries and although the materials are there they are much less accessible and understandable as you make the topics on your channel. I really appreciate the practical skill you teach!

[@rfwillett2424]

I have spent a good part of my life reading manuals, CNC machine tools, computers and peripherals, PBX telephone systems, etc, mostly they are crap. Reading japanese technical manuals in the eighties was a skill set in itself. I think the only company that wrote consistently good manuels was nineties Microsoft.

[@therealdemen247]

"Look at that! Society coming together to solve a problem and nobody's complaining about it." This is way to topical of a joke for a 2 and a half year old video.

[@donkey7921]

Just wait for Karen to post a conspiracy theory on the lead acid batteries!

[@igorgrodzki]

Also the wfh joke

[@Chance57]

This joke has been topical at nearly every point in history and probably prehistory. People can be dumb.

[@BobWidlefish]

You could say it’s society coming together to solve a problem ... or you could say that incentives matter. It turns out that when materials are relatively scarce companies go out of their way to recycle them, whether it’s car batteries or aluminum cans (for business reasons, not ideological or emotional ones). There have been examples of recycling you wouldn’t have dreamed of, but are a real thing, like some poor Asian people cleaning and recycling condoms (yuck!). Yes that’s real. Incentives matter.

[@Jaymac720]

I once watched a video on how lead-acid batteries are recycled. The comment section was filled the the brim with people complaining about how unsafe that is and how bad for the environment that must be, all those “fumes” escaping into the atmosphere. I’m no expert and have done very little research, but I’m 99% positive that recycling the lead, sulfuric acid, plastic, etc is significantly better for the environment than throwing the batteries into a landfill and mining new lead and sulfur and creating new plastic. Humanity depresses me so much

[@panosalex6242]

You deserve the best support because , 1 you fully analyse something , 2 you are respectfull guy and 3 you have a good humor . I know you have .

[@ctjk1982]

mommy raised a great man with a good head on his shoulder.

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

Mommy AND Daddy...

[@s.i.m.c.a]

well, the more proffered setup, especially for householders are to have generator with auto-start and big inverter at house in, which is good in any case . Why? coz fnkg refrigerator and food inside will say thanks to you... In hist setup, mom need manually use clamps to plug-in power supply and be always aware of not being shocked (hopefully there are no animals)

[@zefir813]

@@s.i.m.c.a You can safely hold both terminals with bare hands. A 24 volts aren't enough to shock you (maybe if you managed to hold both terminals with your tongue, but thats.... rather impossible), the only real risk if the battery was to short-circuit and couse a fire

[@audiobrew]

Stayed for the explanation - finally understand car batteries

[@ARLGD]

Wow, this Home Backup video is great! It's so important to have a reliable power source when you're camping or spending quality time with the family. The Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series seems like a perfect fit with its massive capacity, fast recharging, and waterproof technology. Thanks for sharing this recommendation!

[@ARLGD]

Thank you for your comment! I completely agree with you about the importance of having a reliable power source when camping or spending quality time with family. The Segway Portable PowerStation Cube Series sounds like a fantastic option with its massive capacity, fast recharging, and waterproof technology. It's definitely worth considering for anyone in need of a reliable home backup power solution. Thanks for sharing your recommendation!

[@thelatinist5024]

During a recent 5-day power outage, I implemented a system like this to power my CPAP machine. I calculate that it can run my CPAP without humidifier for 7-10 days.

[@danknots6441]

Easy off?

[@Ritefita]

what is crap machine?

[@Bacteriophagebs]

That's exactly what I thought of watching this video. Then I realized that I already did that by hooking my CPAP up to an older-model lead-acid UPS.

[@KairuHakubi]

shit i'm really gonna need one of those if i get to move back where the power goes out a few times in winter guaranteed. stupid aboveground powerlines. stupid plate tectonics.

[@spootymaniacs]

@@Ritefita a cpap machine is a machine made for people who have sleep apnea, it works by keeping the airway open with a steady stream of air, allowing the person to breathe more easily. if you mean crap machine, thats just your digestive system

[@aaahmmmh5094]

I'm curious how well this setup has served now that it's had ten months to be put to the test

[@petraoleum5816]

I'm curious to know how well this setup has served now that *gestures generally*

[@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697]

I run my house offgrid and for his mum to run 58 watts for 8 hrs safety staying above 50% depletion of battery he would have to get at least 4 more of thoes batteries wired in parallel

[@pfideonow]

@@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697 what batteries would you recommend specifically? And what would the charge scenario for parallel? Would you charge the batteries individually or would you charge them together in parallel?

[@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697]

@@pfideonow i would get 4 31class deepcycle with a victron mppt and actually wire the 4 batterys in series parallel 24 volt if i had a 24 volt inverter but lets say 12 volt with victron 30/100 take it off grid permanently and never worry about it, that way you can always double or quadruple the batree bank n the futcher and take the refrigerator and afew more tvs offline permanently . 12v sucks i know! For better performance instead of 4 12v lets do 2 24v ! But yeah to take a tv and fridge off line permanently you need min of 8 preferably 10 batteries 31class true deep cycle wired m parrell 12v with victron 30/100 blue controller with 4 170 wat pannels 12v wired in series bringing the max incoming v upwards of 75 85 volts under the 100max v for the controller 😀👍 or 2 300 watt 24 v idk the numbers but wire the pannels in series gets incoming volts up there ! Very good for low light. Work out the numbers! You wont hit absorbsion on low light days but bats will get charge mabey take 1 aplience off just keep a eye on the 12.3 if you're bank number hits that without load cut everything off. Even in low light days on end that setup will run fridge 24/7

[@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697]

@@pfideonow caharge all together ❤ with victron mppt! Go to battrys and bulbs, or rurule king to get true deep cycle some farm stores u can get cheap ask for discount batree bank is big investment dont missmatch also you dont need domgel for the victron controler you can adjust manually i have mine 1 number up from the setting it comes with i think its set on 3. Juices up bats 14.7 v for 1 hr through absorbition

[@ramavijaya148]

one of the best viedeos about the batteries ever seen.also mention- your can allow the acid the slightly boil for a few mins , do it for few times in 1 year. this way the lead sulphate gets back., prolongs the life of battery.

[@korishan]

Just recently came across this one (3yrs later) and still found this interesting. I didn't know about the sponginess of the plates. That makes sense with how "car" grade lead acids will die in short order when fully cycled a few times. I recently took a server grade UPS (altho it is old and it not a rack mount unit; SU2200 for those interested) and I hooked up 8x 6V batteries to it. They are old as well, but because they are Golf Cart batteries (well, they were used in forklifts) they are "designed" for heavy use and constant high load applications "and" to last a long time. They aren't perfect, but they can keep my servers and work computer + 2x monitors online for at least 30 mins, and that's about 1500watts of load. A modified UPS makes for a great backup. Yank out the factory battery, add an extension to the wires, and connect to any 12V battery. Just don't run it for a hours on end unless it's rated for 2x your actual load. Otherwise, you'll overburden the electronics and actually melt components (don't ask how I know 😜)

[@adavesAK]

My favorite part of this setup is converting AC to DC to charge the battery, then inverting DC to AC to provide wall power from the battery, then converting AC back to DC for the electronic devices.

[@dlarge6502]

That's how it works these days, everything runs off AC and few things have DC input

[@rabbitdrink]

could probably install a 12vdc ati power supply in his moms pcs, and wire it straight up to the 12v battery or to a 12v wall adapter. only problem is making the power supply uninterrupted.

[@andrewk8636]

There is one more cycle in there because the ups also has a battery. I think he could've bypassed the inverter by just having the car battery connected to the battery in the ups

[@superjeffstanton]

@@andrewk8636 CAN SOMEONE CONFIRM THIS PLEASE😁

[@vedicaudio]

@@andrewk8636 Yes, you could possibly just wire the larger 12 volt battery in parallel to the smaller battery in the UPS. This would allow the UPS to run the equipment for much longer durations. But if the UPS does not have the option to silence the beeping that could get kind of annoying and it might overheat. Alternatively you could just have the inverter turned on 24/7, and run the whole setup off the inverter constantly, and just take the UPS completely out of the setup. The battery and inverter combination is essentially a UPS by itself.

[@jimdude4464]

Is anyone else here for the smarmy yet confident commentary I love this channel

[@justinrussell878]

A little suggestion for anyone else considering this. This is definitely a viable option for a backup power source. A much simpler way of achieving this functionality would be to take an old computer UPS (a lot of them have pure sine wave inverters built in) and extend the internal battery cables outside the casing and connect them to an external battery bank. A lot of times you can get used UPS's for dirt cheap because they have bad batteries. Plus the UPS will handle keeping the batteries charged, and automatically switch over to the inverter when the power goes out. Some higher end UPSs even have a connection for an external battery bank already in place.

[@DigitalianFX-GT]

Honest question here, and I think it's related to what you're saying. I was wondering why he had to get an inverter, when he could have just connected the Marine battery in parallel to the UPS battery? I honestly don't know if I'm missing something.. Thanks.

[@kubanishku]

A comment tho, not all the UPS have pure sine wave inverters, many cheap (sub $100) do not (at least from when I last looked) most cheap ones are simulated sine wave.

[@DigitalianFX-GT]

Disregard my previous question, I believe I know why now..

[@minotaurbison]

I literally was just typing a comment to say this when I found yours... that's what I did... mine had a large enough bay that I was able to find a battering that could sustain 500w for an hour and that's what I put in it.

[@impulsesystems]

Great idea. You may need to kill/remove the infernal beeper that many UPS have.

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

Protip for folks who love overkill: Yes, you can run a boatload of batteries in parallel with this kind of setup. Pretty useful for critical silicon (alarm control panels and the like), in case some insane blizzard tears through and it takes a while to switch over to a generator. Though if you break the floor with 20 boat batteries for one desktop, well, everyone needs a hobby.

[@JeanPierreWhite]

Now we find ourselves in a post covid, work from home world. This video is very useful. I plan to use a "slightly" larger battery. The 24 kW battery in an old LEAF until my grand daughter gets her permit. After which I will need another battery or three. Thx for all the info and tips.

[@909sickle]

“Another fun feature of lead-acid battery chemistry” That may be the only time in human history that phrase will ever be spoken

[@youtubehandlesareridiculous]

r/brandnewsentence

[@nthgth]

Haha. Maybe, but they are really cool and super useful

[@MrJoegotbored]

I have ALWAYS wanted to know why car batteries die so easily after the lights are left on but are fine for years just starting the car, even in cold weather. Great video, as always.

[@watchinstuff5726]

It's because regular car batteries don't like being discharged less than 80%. Even "deep-cycle" ones only are supposed to go down to 50%. Going down to 0% basically plus all the surface lead into the electrolyte. When it reforms, it doesn't do it perfectly, causing both lead dust at the bottom (that can build up higher than the gap down there and short the plates) and can cause whisker like shorts between plates. But mostly it causes lead sulfate crystals to form which reduce the original capacity. There are lots of devices and concoctions that try to reverse that, but nothing really to get them back to new. When the starter is used, it only discharges to say 95% and the recharges back to 100 as the car runs on the alternator. More crystals form in the cold, which is why a lot of batteries go dead in the winter, especially when left low for a couple days.

[@draculakickyourass]

I have a Renault Megane from 2005 and it have a interesting feature that i noticed other car makers didn't bothered to set even on newer cars. When i lock the car,the lights go off too,also go off if i don't lock the car after 10 minutes, if the engine is not started. I may guess this was made to avoid the battery to be discharged if someone forgets the lights on.

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

@@watchinstuff5726 And then there are batteries that are simply shit. The batteries from Bosch are of this last kind. Had several. Each and every one of them I never really cycled, as the lights in my car are under key lock and when I shut the engine they go out too, but it suffice a pair of mild winters to have the need to change the damn thing. Compare them to batteries from Fiamm. The last I had lasted me six years of intense cold winters on the same diesel car the Bosch shit themselves on for much less.

[@User-w7ckl]

​@@watchinstuff5726 Yes, correct. But also because regular car batteries are starter batteries, with very slim cells intended for large current draw capacity but not for long times, in contrast with the thick plates of a deep cycle or marine battery

[@ElectricBillAlbright]

I made my off grid type power system by running all my electronics including TV, DVD, Computer, etc. off of a power inverter full time. I used a generator during certain times of the day or night. The battery bank was 8 Trojan 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in a series/parallel configuration to give me 12 volts with a good capacity run time. During the times generator was running there is a fairly large current battery charger that recharges the bank of batteries. With this set-up there is never a loss of power or even a glitch. No switching sources or manual transfer switching. Even automatic transfer switches cause a split second power loss. Because they electro-mechanically move contacts from one power source to another by the use of a relay. I found this set-up best, for living in an RV as I do. The system I speak of above was what I had set-up for my motorhome several years ago. I now have a larger newer RV. A 37 foot 5th wheel trailer with 4 slide out rooms. Its bigger and has more amenities than some of my friends apartments! Washer/dryer combo in bedroom closet with all the hookups like in a regular home. Central vacuum system, simulated fireplace wich is also an electric heater. It has forced air heating for the regular heating powered by propane. Built-in 5500 watt generator that also runs on propane. What I'm planning on doing is using solar power and inverter generators as my two primary power sources being theres no utility power where I am living. I will do the same setup for non interrupted power. I'm hoping I will be able to run one RV aircondtioner during the day by solar power suppling enough battery current above whats being pulled. The RV has two air conditioners so on really hot days I can run generators to run both or one. I need to figure out my battery bank setup and true sine inverter wattage. Might use two inverter and separate the AC from other loads. Also plan to try out wind generators also. Great video especially about the categories of batteries. I didn't think about marine batteries as being a bit of both deep cycle and starting battery. I just assumed they were a deep cycle battery with the name marine for the boating industry. 👍

[@RalphDratman]

That is an excellent practical engineering presentation. Thank you!

[@auto_ego]

Hopefully one day I can turn watching educational KZbin content from a weird hobby into a full time job.

[@freshrot420]

Watch things -> build the things -> sell the things!

[@CoffinSupply]

This proves number of subscribers doesn't justify quality of channel. This man deserves to be in top 10 channels of KZbin

[@ethanpoole3443]

Just to nitpick lead acid technology a bit - as an amateur radio operator it is a well researched and practiced topic for myself. There are two major families of lead-acid battery: Flooded and Sealed (SLA). Since we are discussing Flooded lead acid batteries in this video, there are three major subtypes within the Flooded family: SLI (Starter), Hybrid/Dual Purpose (this includes “marine deep cycle”), and the true Deep Cycle batteries (this group typically consists of traction batteries like Golf Cart, Forklift, etc.). It is important for people to understand that despite the name of “marine deep cycle” such batteries are not true deep cycles and their absolute safe discharge limit is only 50%, or 12.0VDC under load, (but still far “deeper” than the 10-15% limit of SLI) whereas the true deep cycle batteries may be safely discharged by up to 80%, or about 11.55VDC under load, many hundreds of times. The greatest bang for the buck in true deep cycle batteries can be found in the ubiquitous 6V and 8V Golf Cart batteries and they will hold up to many deep discharge cycles and are about as inexpensive per amp-hour and service life as one can get and are available almost anywhere (a typical 6V battery will have anywhere from 180-240 amp-hours capacity and a pair wired in series will give you 12V at that 180-240 amp-hour rating) and at around 65 lbs (~30kg) each they can be moved fairly easily (but do buy a set of lift straps to give you a proper handle by which to carry them). You can fairly reliably differentiate between true deep cycle batteries and the hybrid/dual-purpose (e.g. “marine deep cycle”) batteries by the presence or absence of a cranking amps specification as it is extremely uncommon for true deep cycle batteries to list a CCA or MCA cranking amps specification on their label whereas hybrid/dual-purpose and SLI batteries will always list cranking amps. Since the battery used in this example is a hybrid/dual-purpose battery with a safe discharge limit of 50% the load should be disconnected when the battery voltage UNDER LOAD falls below 12.0VDC as that is the 50% threshold for a 12V nominal lead acid battery under load - but be aware that most inverters do not automatically shutoff until the voltage drops to 10.5VDC, which corresponds to 100% discharged and will destroy such batteries very quickly. The other major family is the Sealed Lead Acid family, which includes AGM and Gel Cell batteries, of which the AGM battery is generally more desirable for backup uses where high amp draws may be present and AGM batteries do not require specialized chargers to the same extent as Gel Cells do (most any modern multi-stage charger or fixed 13.8VDC float charger that can charge a flooded cell can be used to charge an AGM battery - but do avoid older/cheap unregulated chargers as they are not suitable for any sort of sealed lead acid battery). Gel Cell batteries do require specialized charging parameters and thus need specialized chargers and are not as capable of arraign high amperage loads in discharge. Sealed lead acid batteries also afford the benefit of releasing no explosive gasses during normal use parameters which is often advantageous for indoor use or confined spaces nor do they require regular servicing to keep their electrolyte level safely above the plates. If using/charging a flooded lead acid battery indoors it should be charged in a large open room, preferably using a smart charger that either shuts off upon complete charging or while steps the float voltage down to around 13.2VDC once the battery is full. This greatly reduces the production of explosive gasses and reduces electrolyte water loss. If the battery is being charged indoors, install Water Miser vent caps on the battery vents to help recapture water droplets that would otherwise be lost due to aerosolization (due to the bubbling of hydrogen and oxygen during charging) - not only will this largely eliminate the acrid smell during charging (especially if fast charging) but it also greatly reduces the aerosolized sulfuric acid that can wreck havoc on nearby electronics. And most importantly when using flooded batteries, especially indoors, check electrolyte levels regularly and top up with distilled or deionized water as needed - nothing ruins one’s day quite like an exploded battery dispersing it’s sulfuric acid electrolyte around the room due to a spark forming or plates buckling because the electrolyte level fell below the level of the plates. Also, it’s best to top up batteries after a complete charge since the electrolyte level can vary a bit during charging as the bubbles displace the electrolyte. Hopefully some folks will find the above useful as I have an entire presentation on the topic of converting an amateur radio station entirely over to 12V (not just the transceivers, which is trivial, but also the PC, monitors, and lighting (no AC inverters used, though several well filtered DC-DC converters are used to create odd voltages like the 19VDC required by the pair of 27” IPS LCD monitors; the NUC-style PC, on the other hand, was chosen specifically for its ability to run directly off ~12VDC). 73 de KW4EK

[@ethanpoole3443]

A few other additions... Though very lightly addressed anyone seriously interested in how to determine the effective amp-hour capacity of a given lead-acid battery under a given level of load will want to brush up on the Peukert Effect as the affect of load versus relative accessible capacity is a nonlinear function. Also, something to be aware of with the vast majority of the battery capacity “fuel” gauges available on eBay, Amazon, etc., is that most do not report a proper percentage in terms of real battery capacity rather they use a simple linear function, mapping 10.5-12.6VDC to 0-100% in a linear manner. This might not seem like a big deal until you realize lead acid battery capacity versus voltage is also highly nonlinear. For example from a fully charged state of 12.6VDC to 12.0VDC (0.6V down from full) represents 50% of the battery’s capacity, yet most such gauges will report 75-80% at that point. By the time the voltage has dropped another 0.4VDC to 11.6VDC you have used up 80% of the battery’s actual capacity but the gauge will still indicate around 55% (yet, at this point even true deep cycle batteries are already at their 80% discharge limit). The problem stems from the fact that the upper 1.0VDC (12.6-1.6VDC) represents 80% of a lead acid battery’s capacity yet the bottom 1.1VDC (11.6-10.5VDC) represents the final 20% of the battery’s capacity. So with most of these gauges you will actually want to discontinue use at the 75-80%, or 12.0VDC under load, threshold for hybrid/dual-purpose type batteries (having a safe discharge limit if 50%) or at the 50%, or 11.6VDC, threshold under load if using true deep cycle batteries (having a safe discharge limit of up to 80%) if you wish to preserve battery service life and not destroy the battery prematurely.

[@TailsFurse]

I found your info easy to read and very informative! I own a set of 12v marine deep cycle batteries in my solar power system. Not the best as your comment states, but cheap and easy to come by! I have had the voltage drop to 11.9 a few times under load, bit they usually hover in 12.4 or 12.6 right in the morning before the sun comes up. Then it's back to full again. My controllers are cheap, and hold the voltage at 14.4 whole it's sunny. They are not mppt. The batteries are in a ventilated garage. And the charge amps never go above 9 to 10 and across the two 60 amp hour batteries. The panels are a mix, totalling in about 190 watts. Little system, but had been fun playing with it! I love radio! Been thinking about taking the test someday and getting on the air. In the meantime I just have my baofeng toy, and listen in from time to time. We have 3 repeaters in the area. I also listen to CB here. There is a local group that gets on everyday and just talks about whatever. Real proper though, none of that channel 6 mumbo jumbo. Cool stuff. Anywho, have a good Tuesday or Wednesday! Thanks again for the read!

[@Blox117]

or save up some money and get li ion batteries

[@curlyrooster118]

tis on order...100 18650's and holders to start 5,000 mAh batteries

[@YeOldeKamikaze]

Wow so much info! Thanks! My father has been servicing car batteries for as long as I can remember and it's awesome to see much of what he learned empirically (and eventually passed on to me) being explained in a much more scientific way.

[@chrisbritton8326]

Thank you for the video. It's the second time I watched it in full. I acquired 6 ups with dead batteries for free. I plan on converting then to lithium with a built in lithium battery charger. Adding a volt meter/fuel gauge to the unit will let me know a head of time the state of health or soc before the annoy bepping from the ups low battery level. I would like to add how I like it when you explain or over explain the topic of discussion in your video. You do it in a way that doesn't feel like you are dumbing it down. Great job.

[@AlexandreLollini]

A dirt cheap 12V solar panel of 80 or 100w provides the exact voltage to charge the lead acid. I have a similar setup to yours with a used truck battery (24V 110AH) and use two panels in series. It is up 6 years now. Some devices are using DC from the system 24/7 and the inverter serves only when power is out. It never happened that the inverter reach its low voltage cut. All things are second or more hand. The panels were on a van for 7 years before I got them. The truck battery is unable to start a truck, but works well here. There is no label on the battery so I can only see what is engraved in plastic. When you under use a battery it can last way longer.

[@raymorgan4657]

Nice video. Inverters with built in automatic transfer switches and battery chargers are now readily available. Using one of those with your marine battery, or better yet a LIFEPO4 battery would basically be a large UPS. You could just eliminate the small UPS and never have to do any switching at all. Love your videos by the way. We learned a lot from the dishwasher videos and no longer use the pods. It's been an improvement and cheaper to boot, so thanks!

[@draken68]

I am an autoelectrician. I just learned so much about automotive batteries and everything you said makes sense.

[@bruceallen6016]

I imagine this information can be transferred directly to a camper, substituting a solar panel for the slow charger. Thumb up.

[@brianwood7480]

Exactly what I was contemplating when I clicked on here. Now all I need are the panels & a deep-cycle battery (because I killed my brand new truck battery by discharging it one time too many). 😲

[@cjlowe1650]

Live and learn

[@Steve_K2]

I have some experience with generators and battery backup, and liked this video (as usual). Good that you showed us how to find a ground at the outlet ("but check to make sure it's good," as you said, but I bet a lot of people won't know how. Not hard; simple testers with LED lights or a multimeter, but....). Also liked that little device that showed percentage of charge in the battery. (Except I wouldn't have connected it as a bare wire, but I confess to being anal about loose connections. Have seen them being the source of a problem so many times.) Only other thing I'd do is buy an inexpensive but robust power strip. Plug it in, leave it up on the desk. Then your poor mother won't have to crawl under the desk to plug and unplug the equipment when power goes out and comes back. She'll just flip the switch on the strip. (You want to make this as user friendly as possible.) But a good explanation, and I bet a lot of folks find it a model for their similar situation.

[@BeastlyKings]

Steve K I don't understand your idea about the power strip, can you please elaborate further? I would like to understand

[@Steve_K2]

Sure. What I'm saying is that instead of plugging the UPS into the wall outlet, plug it into a power strip. The power strip must have an On/Off switch and be placed somewhere on the desk, as behind a monitor. (Go to about 14:20 of the video.) The power strip doesn't have to be expensive or include any protection devices. It's just a simple way of controlling electricity to the UPS. (One could easily build a small box that included a switch and an outlet and have a "power strip," but the switch and outlet would cost almost as much as the simple power strip we could buy at any thrift store.) Another advantage to using a power strip mounted where it's easily reached is when there's lightning nearby. At those times, UPS or no UPS, it's best to unplug electrical equipment from the outlet. So simply turn off the UPS, then unplug it from the power strip (which is readily accessible up on the table or desk). The power strip can stay plugged into the outlet. If it gets destroyed, so what, a few bucks for a new one. After the storm passes, plug the UPS back in, power it on, and we're back in business. Hope that helps.

[@user-ut9ln4vd5m]

You're still not fully fleshing out your power strip idea - if the power strip's still plugged in I'm not seeing how you can fully isolate the battery / inverter power from the grid and have the UPS connected at the same time (power companies really hate it when they think the power's out but you're supplying AC, you could even get in big trouble doing that & hurt/kill someone). Sounds like you're missing some DPDT switches to decide what powers the UPS and what's isolated. And then the ground is still connected (as it should be) but that could cause trouble in case of lightning, and the modem/network cables too

[@user-ut9ln4vd5m]

fdfoxter a transfer switch would be ideal but expensive, some of them are just DT switches (to isolate the main ac from the emergency ac) plus fuses anyway. OTOH, diy electrician work isn't always that safe, and not worth the cost savings if it voids your home insurance and there's an accident ;-)

[@russellhltn1396]

@Steve, this isn't a turn on/turn off situation, but a "transfer" thing. I can't think of any way you can do that safely with a power strip. You need a DPDT switch (and it needs to be "break before make").

[@gwchant]

This might be the most informative video I’ve ever seen on KZbin. Thank you.

[@1996BRECHT]

Huh, using a small UPS as a kind of "transfer switch" is actually really useful, glad I watched the whole video :D

[@tomstdenis]

I do something similar in my home office. I have a 24V 2kW inverter that feeds from solar/AGM batteries. My office is all plugged into a UPS which can either plug into the grid or my inverter with a moments effort. Handy on sunny days where I can run my 100-300W load off the sun "for free" :-)

[@ZeldagigafanMatthew]

A UPS that small is really only useful for laptops and monitors. Power hungry desktops will need a much much larger battery.

[@recklessroges]

Next to automate the throwing of the transfer switch.

[@TrippedCoasty]

@@recklessroges There are charger/inverters designed for RV's and boats that do exactly this. While you're plugged into shore power it both charges the batteries and supplies the shore power directly to outlets. As soon as you unplug, it automatically switches to battery power. I'm pretty sure it's instant.

[@okaro6595]

@@ZeldagigafanMatthew The point of an UPS is not to work with its power. The idea is that you can shut down nicely. With a laptop one really needs no UPS unless one has external hard disks.

[@MarkWarbington]

Excellent video except, in my experience, we always lose our Internet connection when the power goes out. The cable company (Comcast in this case) also relies on the same power grid. If the power is out for us, it's also out for Comcast. Did I miss something? Is her Internet connection wireless?

[@TechnologyConnections]

In this case, it's a little complicated. The ISP is using traditional twisted pair phone lines and DSL. They have rarely ever lost phone service, as the phone company has to provide generous backup power for that. I can't say for sure if they maintain the DSL connection during outages, but I would be surprised if they don't. Further complicating things is that the development they are in is fed by multiple incoming branches, so often times they will lose power while their nearby neighbors do not. When this happens, the phone company's equipment probably still has power anyway.

[@iroll]

It's very location dependent. Both my dad's house (on a ranch, very rural) and my office (big building in a big city) have network access during power failures. Dad's house is served by a buried fiber with redundant power on a different circuit than the electric mains. My office internet will actually work until the UPS on the network switch runs out of juice.

[@ryan0io]

Exactly. I also have DSL internet, and a 1200va (24v) ups hooked up to 2 external deep cycle batteries. Modem / router / switch is on a different ups. I have the alarm silenced on my desktop ups. I was playing an online game with the lights out once night and lost power. Only way I knew something was up was my laptop beside me turned on it's screen because it went to battery from ac power. Other than that, no interruption at all. 2 hours later power came back and everything was fine. I also get about 8 hours on my ups setup. (the ups seems to deal with extended battery runtime ok. I've done 4-5h battery tests to verify. It turns on it's internal fan, but is otherwise fine. I also run about 150w idle, and ~700w under gaming load)

[@olik136]

our phone line also is dead when there is no power- it used to have its own power but that is gone since fast internet and voip is a thing (so basically before isdn)- mobile internet (lte) would most likely still work- but that also depends on where the cell tower is located- but all in all I have to say that we only ever had one single unplanned outage in my whole life

[@seraphina985]

+Technology Connections Yeah older ADSL tends to be more robust there as the DSLAM is generally all the way back at the exchange which likely has full generator backup. Newer VDSL etc not so much as the DSLAM is out in a cabinet in a nearby street and those draw enough power that they need a separate mains connection the voltage on the phone line was never designed for equipment anywhere near that power hungry.

[@jaythatguyyouknow5135]

First a little FYI for anyone wanting to try this. Instead of paying the core charge for a new battery, go to a junk years and ask to buy one of the many junk batteries they have. Typically they will either give you one for $10-$20. I’m a diesel mechanic and I have over 20 years experience working on anything with wheels. Even so one like myself got some new knowledge about batteries from the first 7 minutes of this video. When I go to teach my kids about how batteries work they will be watching this video.

[@mydlenski]

I still don't understand why we invert DC to AC in order to power devices which convert it all back to DC anyway

[@TechnologyConnections]

Because it's a lot simpler than configuring individuals DC power supplies for each item to be powered. Some need 5 volts. Some need 9 volts. And some things (like the monitors) have no DC input. It does seem silly, but one slightly inefficient supply that works with everything is much simpler than a bunch of individual DC supplies.

[@trains1000]

Transmission of DC over long distance is very impractical.

[@Peter_S_]

Buss1000; see Pacific DC Intertie en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_DC_Intertie

[@MikeVanDalen1996]

Try running (europe) 230v dc over your home power network and put it under load XD everything would melt or burn/smoke

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

Because those are devices with a power supply designed to be powered from Mains power, though some things can run directly off battery power if the batteries output is close to what the device needs. They do also make 12 volt (Pico) power supplies for computers but they tend to be pretty weak (180-250 watt range) so they wouldn't be able to power a beefy computer setup

[@mplsfarmer]

As a science teacher and a chemist I am impressed with the clarity of this presentation. Excellent video photos to support the audio!! It was really, really enjoyable to watch. I subscribed awhile ago and have watched other videos from this channel; all of them have been of high production quality as well.

[@africanhistory]

I bet no one in the comments can trash this guy, he knows his stuff

[@maxinac]

You're kind to offer the fast forward time but I'm here to learn things while I do mindless stuff at work! 😁

[@tomcanfield705]

One plus would be to include automatic switching to the backup system. This would cover things if the 20 minute UPS time was exceeded. Also why not keep the maintenance charger connected continuously? Excellent video in all.

[@freeheeler09]

Kudos to you for taking care of your mom!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

The beauty of this setup, other than its simplicity, is that you could add additional 12v deep cycle batteries in parallel to this one to give you even more longevity.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

@@MM-di5nu ...and run your electronics for a very limited amount of time (those batteries are very small, especially the ones that come in the discount Walmart UPSes). Several parallel-mounted deep cycle batteries could run her system for literally days on end.

[@cw4karlschulte661]

As long as u beef up charger

[@sebastiandiaz6297]

@@JustWasted3HoursHere I know this has 3 months old, but shouldn't those addicional batteries be connected in series to improve the current instead of voltage? The inverter only works with a 12V input, so adding 24 or even more Voltage should do the opposite thing of giving more energy to devices.

[@igvc1876]

@@sebastiandiaz6297 parallel is what combines current. series combines voltage, which is a big no-no for a 12v inverter

[@Crushonius]

16:40 just here to remind you that WE NEED THAT VIDEO PPPPPPPPPlease

[@Gerrit-yo9ts]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this! I also appreciated the detour into the different lead acid battery design.

[@user-yb1cm4fd6h]

Man, this channel is getting better and better ! 👍🏻

[@Peter_S_]

I was really quite impressed by this episode. It's so unassuming for the depth of detail it contains. It's remarkable in that respect.

[@goopah]

@@Peter_S_ Yes, so much detail in such a short video, and yet is easy to follow and understand.

[@sanguinesomnambulist]

Battery backups are great but have you considered a radioisotope thermoelectric generator? You don't know the meaning of uninterruptable power until you've experienced 30 years of unstoppable wattage and a mild case of radiation poisoning! Seriously though this channel is amazing and it would be cool if you did a video on alternative methods of off-grid power, i.e. consumer-accessible wind and solar.

[@chico305SIGMA]

Good look getting your hands on the radioactive elements needed for such battery.

[@DerTodSoldat]

Dude, you are one of the very few channels I've recommended to others, I appreciate how you deliver education

[@denverdanoreno]

Broheim didn't miss a beat he must have practiced real hard on his delivery. Well done, straightforward production thank you.

[@frequentlycynical642]

What a good son. When I lost power for four days after a blizzard in CO, I kept my computer (and sanity) operating from my Jeep and a simple, cheap 300? watt inverter. Every few hours I ran the engine for awhile, then shut it off. Fortunately, my simple gas wall heater needed no electricity as the thermostat ran via a thermocouple in the pilot light. After experiencing the (patooey!) Texas Snowpocolypse in 2021, I'm prepared for the next one. (I never lost power, but I was one of the lucky very few.) My goal was to keep a refrigerator, a freezer, and my computer going. It is motors, not electronics, that have trouble with the old square wave inverters. I bought a 2400/4800 watt pure sine wave inverter on eBay, and the necessary heavy wires, and connectors to hook to my car's battery. You can't run a serious load via little C clamps and skinny wires. My 17 gallon fuel tank should be able to run this for days. Bring it on.

[@G33K177]

I'd love to see a video about off grind electric setups, it might be out of your range but you explain these things so clearly I'm sure you'd help a lot of people

[@LA-TEEZI]

Great video! As a helpful tip to everyone, could save yourself lots of time and cost. Just open up that UPS, disconnect the leads going to that small internal 12v Lead Acid battery, run leads to deep cycle battery you bought (or even better 12v Lithium Battery) Bam! You got lots of extra run time on that same UPS that likely already is a Pure Sine wave inverter. Even charges that Deep cycle battery when Power isn’t out in the house since it’s designed to keep a slow float charge on the original lead acid battery inside.

[@hjc4604]

It would also automatically switch from wall power to battery power instead of having to do it manually.

[@bobbygetsbanned6049]

Yup, much better solution. His battery will also be partially dead when he goes to use it since he doesn't have a float charger on it. The huge inverter is also very inefficient compared to a small inverter that could easily power the whole setup.

[@GyroGearlooseHelis]

I was about to say exactly the same thing... he recreated a UPS with a manual transfer switch and plugged that into a UPS?!? UPS already IS a charger/battery/inverter/transfer switch. I've augmented my UPS exactly as we describe and it works perfectly. One SMALL caveat is that SOME small cheap UPSes are actually MODIFIED sine wave (aka "not sine at all since it's a square wave") so know what you have if you care.

[@ncdave4life]

The problem is that many small UPSs are fanless, and the only way they prevent overheating while discharging is by limiting (runtime × power drain). So even if there's plenty of extra battery capacity, the darn thing will still shut off in a half hour or so. A better mod would be to add a small fan along with the bigger battery. I speculate that some better UPS designs might use a temperature sensor to prevent overheating, so for those UPSs a fan might solve the problem. But I don't know which UPSs work that way, and I don't know how to find out.

[@ncdave4life]

BTW, if anyone working for APC, TrippLite, Leibert, or another UPS manufacturer happens to read this, or someone else who knows how these work, I'd be grateful for better information. Specifically, which makes & models use thermostats, and which use timers? Better yet, who makes an affordable, small-capacity UPS that uses CATL, BYD or similar "million mile" LiFePO4 (LFP) batteries, that can be counted on to never, ever fail?

[@rthorofthehillppl]

You could totally be on PBS. The song you play at the end of videos reminds me of old 90s PBS shows even. Keep up the awesome work with these great videos. I love them!

[@acevehe]

I just discovered this channel and I'm loving it. Your explanations are perfectly detailed and understandable. Thanks!

[@zorgatron8998]

I made a super-ups once sort of like this. Biggest ass marine deep cycle battery from Walmart, and I got a UPS from work that was being thrown away because its batteries died. It was some kind of 750va tripp-lite. I ran the battery leads out of the UPS and into the battery. I connected a supplemental automatic charger to the battery. I also added additional cooling to the UPS. Nod to the knowledge of the Peukert effect in your video!

[@artsmith103]

I'm looking at this approach to make backup power for a propane fireplace. How did it work for you? I realize the UPS charger is undersized for battery recharging but better than nothing. If the battery is 1st fully charged, the UPS float charge should be plenty between major power losses. Too bad he didn't discuss how Peukert's law would help him and he could have touched on recommended charging rate relative to battery chemistry and C. Some limitations with his 6amp charger vs 100ah battery.

[@WhatDadIsUpTo]

I homestead in Texas and my power-failure work-around is an air battery. I manufacture compressed air using solar PV and VAWTs, storing the air in several large used propane tanks. When the mains power goes down, my whole-house generator keeps vital circuits live until power is restored.

[@kakurerud7516]

WARNING inverts are not often wired like a normal electrical socket and the ground is just floating. make sure you test for voltage between neutral and ground (and casing ground.) there should be none.

[@foufou33g]

I'm no electrician ... but what would be the point of grounding such equipment? (I genuinely want to know). AFAICT it is completely isolated from the grid (or is it not?)

[@Scott_From_Maine]

The reason is the same as any other ground wire: if there is a power leak it will go through the ground wire instead of through you.

[@foufou33g]

if it is isolated (so no earth reference) as long as you touch just on lead (a live case for ex) you should get electrocuted (isolation transformers were used for just that purpose) or so it goes ... I'm no electrician but all I read an seems to point that way ...

[@tekvax01]

YUP! gotta watch that! floating grounds on a switchmode supply will source approximately 60 to 90 volts leakage to ground, which is more than enough to give you a nice shock!

[@umageddon]

dan b had this happen at my camp. Couldnt figure out why the trailers were registering 60v to ground on any metal part. Then when i was moving around the 12v system , a ground wire from a 120v circuit touched the real ground and magic smoke blew from the inverter. Toast. Only cheaper inverters use floating neutral and should only be used to power things directly - not through the trailers main plug. Unfortunately you have to spend a few bucks to get a decent bonded neutral unit.

[@antoniach4190]

Can anyone please explain me by any logical facts this... I have one ups apc 800va 12v 9ah, very basic one. I have a second battery which is IDENTICAL, if I use one battery, lasts 55min using 50 watts, each separately. But I joined the two batterys creatin a parallel connection and now the UPS is been running 3 hours and counting! Same 50 watts load ( a mini pc and a monitor) this is insaneeeeee, doesn't suppose to run at least 2hours?

[@1makerstudios]

Now I'm not sure on this, but I believe that, because hooking them up in parallel would end up drawing from both evenly for the same amount of demand, you end up discharging each more slowly, and as he explained in the video, these types of batteries last longer with a slower discharge, which may explain the much longer than expected times.

[@Roatmeal]

Normally you’d be right. But remember what he said about Lead-Acid batteries lasting longer with lighter loads? Say you are drawing 100W on 1 battery, that may be a capacity of 1kWh. But say you paralleled a second battery, since you are only drawing 500Wh from each, their independent capacity could be something like 1.4kWh… or 2.8kWh combined. I don’t know that maths or the relationship between draw and capacity so it could very well double your capacity.

[@marcjj4438]

It is because the time a battery last vs the load on it is not a linear relation, you have to check the datasheet of the manufacturer so you can see the curve of discharge and get an idea about the time it will last.

[@t0biascze644]

he said it in the video, the batteries have higher capacity when they are discharging slower. with 1 battery it is discharging at 50watt rate, but with 2 batteries, its splitted between the two and each battery is only 25 watts

[@MickeyMishra]

TRY this with a CAR Battery. a $50 dollar walmart battery will work great.

[@ron9748]

Great video! I stumbled across it and stayed to watch. Lots of great info!

[@jasonbrown467]

excellent video as usual, i would to add one bit of info that i didnt catch here, deep cycle batteries have something called "dod" or "depth of discharge". i was experimenting with this the summer of 2020 and i learned ignoring this approach will significantly hurt its ability to charge fully up. for example: when i drained a 100ah battery down to 10.5 volts every day a few times a day, and then fully charge it back up i lost a little bit of amp hours. my guess is that at first i had 105ah, then the second cycle i got 103, then 102, then 101.5, then 99, then 98, etc etc, by the time i stopped doing this to my battery, it had reached a point where i was only getting about 84ah out of this brand new battery and it only took me a few cycles every day for about 2 weeks to see that much of a loss. for the record i think i was draining at a rate of about 500watts for maybe about 5 hours, which would be 2500wh, or 2.5kwh. anyways, most deep cycle batteries have a "dod" rating and at best its 50%. so if you have a 100ah battery, you should only drain 50ah out of it. so in the case of this video your battery might last exactly 8 hours or a tad more, but your battery will be nearly 100% drained. you should double your batteries. simply getting two of them and wiring them for a parallel 12v circuit, this will double your ah from 75 to 150 then you can safely discharge to 75ah on the two batteries. btw i did hear you about the low wattage draw may allow for you to extend the run time, just my two cents almost 2 years late

[@Geniusinventor]

Can you help your mom with some cable management please. It looks like tree roots!

[@mikeysgametime8914]

U know what I enjoyed this , thanks for your time, I don't need this set up we loose power maybe 1 or 2 times a year but, given how sensibly u did it, I might have to do the same

[@Dreddy72]

if the charge indicator was made by apple, one of the bits directly powering the backlight would probably be the most effective fuse

[@akramabdulrhaman2348]

this is how we store power in gaza :D

[@TheLunaLockhart]

I know this comment's like a year old at this point, but from a random American: I'm so sorry about Israel. It's not like it's MY fault, but they really run around with our alliance as a shield, and they really shouldn't be allowed to. Havin' to store energy in Lead-Acid Batteries is absolutely ridiculous, though clever in a pinch o.o;

[@ananthropomorphictalkinggo6641]

@@TheLunaLockhart we should have cut our alliance with them decades ago. Ever hear of the USS Liberty? www.chicagotribune.com/chi-liberty_tuesoct02-story.html

[@TheLunaLockhart]

@@ananthropomorphictalkinggo6641 I had not, and thank you for the story. that's horrifying and my audience would probably love to hear about it

[@ffwast]

@@TheLunaLockhart that's only one of a very long list

[@TheLunaLockhart]

@@ffwast Yeah, there's almost no end to the imperial brutality

[@00SNIVY00]

Reminds me, just this past winter I replaced the original battery in my 2010 Kia. Either it was the original or if had been replaced by the dealer, but the previous owner said they never replaced it. When taken care of, car batteries can truck along for a good while!

[@godzil42]

The best though would be to try to find a way to power everything directly from DC, which as for most item listed should be fairly, the power loss would be way more minimal. It this setup as far as o can say only the monitor would be problematic as they are surely directly connected to main.

[@macro820]

Please hook a scope up to the pure sine converter and generator

[@misterhat5823]

I'm willing to bet it's not "clean as a whistle."

[@bitrot42]

“Pure” is a relative term here. Sometimes it just means “not a square wave”. If they don’t give any sort of distortion/ noise spec, it probably doesn’t mean all that much. If you do hook up a scope, be sure the inverter is NOT grounded at the time. Otherwise as Dave @ EEvblog says, you can “blow the ass end out of your scope.”

[@RDEnduro]

AVE hooked one up to scope yesterday check it out. Didnt make use of it though lije thus just tested it.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

"Pure", or "true" sinewave inverters, are terms used to different them from "modified" sinewave inverters. "Modified" sinewave inverters basically output squarewaves. Not quite, but for all practical purposes. @@bitrot42 - Back as a young tech, many years ago, when all scopes still used electrostatically deflected CRTs, and things like DSOs and portable scopes didn't exist, I did EXACTLY THAT ! Scared the crap out of me ! Scope probe didn't fair to well either. The scope, itself was fine, since the excess current flowed thru the grounded chassis. Now, when measuring line power, I use a portable (battery powered) scope (which by the nature of its technology is also a DSO [Digital Storage Oscilloscope]).

[@robertkat]

I have a 2000 watt isolation transformer. Solves a lot of problems.

[@vishva8kumara]

I did this with an automatic changeover to lamp, fans and home-office circuits in home at the distribution box. We have two power outages every day. I'm using 35Ah AGM battery and not discharging below 12V. Also I added a little bit extra water to bring it down like 30Ah. I put in like 600Wh and can get around 400Wh enough for 4 hours for all that plus a box fan and lamps.

[@teslapower220]

Supercapacitors + deep cycle battery would now be a good choice for cars...

[@Pip2andahalf]

Favorite battery brand plug: I *love* my Odyssey AGM deep cycle. They're expensive but have a massive reserve and are deep cycle. Plenty of CCA. Plus, sealed, so no off gassing!!

[@Chris_at_Home]

I’ve had some 105AH AGMs for 20 years at an off grid place. I’ve done some load testing and they are at close to 90% of original rating. They run an old Trace 4048 Inverter. Most places I worked in telecommunications we used wet cells. I worked at one place and we had 2v cells that were 1675AH.

[@avejst]

great walkthrough of the problems of power outage 👍 thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

[@thatbillguy5211]

In case you are doing it to your own equipment and are 100% certain you know what you are doing, it's very much more efficient to forgo the inverter and power everything from 12 volts directly, without their included power supplies, by simply adding a sufficient fuse in series. It can boost your run time by several orders of magnitude, but if your equipment is leased like in this case, Alec's solution is best.

[@cocobobo5962]

@thatbillguy5211 ELI5 please. What would this setup use? (Edit:add @thatbillguy5211)

[@cool110]

@@cocobobo5962 Most electronics with a round power connector are 12V (laptops being the main exception), so you can just get a cable with that connector at one end and battery clamps on the other. For USB powered device a small buck converter can drop it to 5V. Another thing of note is that most switched mode power supplies can also take a DC input with the required voltage being multiplied by the √2 (e.g. 325V DC instead of 230V AC), although running DC at those voltages in a DIY project gets a bit more risky.

[@DigiDuncan]

You know, I've watched a ton of your videos, and am just now stumbling on this one. I'd love to see more TC Projects in the future! Your explanation and presentation style make topics like this a treat.

[@johnspence8141]

Dude, best video I've seen on this issue...by far.

[@nucflashevent]

2:35 Skip my a$$, you're getting pearls here for free, the least folks can do is listen to the man's story! 😎🤣

[@soulcalibrII]

I recently added a battery backup to my security system. With a small 12V 7AHr lead acid battery I can power my 8 cameras + DVR + router + ethernet switch for about 1.5hrs. As I needed to mount the backup in a safe (to prevent theft) using a larger battery like the one in this video was not an option. I also didn't need an inverter as all components I chose will use 12VDC or lower natively, which saves a bit of power to not have to go DC->AC->DC. For a work station though, creating such a setup for your mother must be a godsend for her. If you find out why the electricity in the home is so spotty, that might make for a good video if something with the power company or the home's wiring can be determined. :)

[@System0Error0Message]

I just looked into making similar batteries to this and having experimented around there are a few useful things you could've mentioned. Charging a lead acid battery is done at a higher voltage. At full charge, 14.4V is supplied (even car alternators supply this), but the battery will still be at 12.6V. This isn't overcharging as no current flows in, but the extra voltage keeps the battery charged instead of self discharging. Unlike other battery types, lead acids prefer to remain at full charge which is also important in reducing the amount of hydrogen gas. If you were to see the water level of wet lead acid batteries, they do decrease during discharge and increase during charge, this is why it is suggested to charge the battery before you refill them for wet types. The lead acid battery is actually 2.1V per cell, *6 gives you 12.6V, and the reason for this limit is 1) the distance between lead and lead dioxide on the charts, and 2) the limit voltage of the electrolyte due to being water based. This is why charge indicators for lead acid don't work properly on charging as the indicator doesn't know whether it is being charged. Car batteries today tend to last for 2 years if you're lucky due to how much the quality has dropped, to get more than 5 years you'd need low drain when the car is off and to pulse the battery yearly. Pulsing the battery with 24V helps to reverse the sulphation that would not desulphate during charge (dont DIY this, get a charger for this). If you check 8-bit guy he modified his UPS to last very long, as you can directly power 12V devices from the battery since the inverter consumes power itself on idle and in conversion. Good video but the biggest flaw you have is the manual switch required, and powering your UPS from the battery. Instead if the UPS uses a 12V lead acid, you can just connect it in parallel and it will be charged as well. Generators don't need an inverter in the traditional sense as their quality power depends on how constant they can maintain an RPM. A good generator has a battery buffer so when load is low they can turn off rather than provide incorrect power as generators can provide pure sine waves but to get the frequency right they must spin at an exact RPM whereas the voltage depends on the quality and state of the alternator. It could be your generator's alternator may be going bad or the engine is pretty bad at maintaining a constant RPM.

[@paulyh4531]

Thought he was gonna buy 7 thousand batteries and make a powerwall lol 😉

[@Dinkydonky7]

kzbin.info This guy does just that

[@QuantumRift]

Yea, 7 thousand "D" cells would be awesome.

[@NoorquackerInd]

Technology Connections himself comes here and makes a video about like:"Actually, that would be a terrible idea. After calculating the nominal and maximum current ratings for common battery types such as AA, C, and D cell batteries, it would require much more in order to sustain this load for a long period of time. On top of that, the cost per unit of energy storage would be far greater than with even a high-quality deep cycle lead acid battery."

[@xureality]

powerwalls use the same 18650 batteries as in the tesla (for obvious reasons), using the more common AA,C,D sizes would be even worse (Li-ion vs Ni-MH). Tesla only got away with it because they have batteries custom made for them, for people who can't do that a shed full of lead acid batteries is a better (read: cheaper and easier to maintain) option

[@officer_baitlyn]

id somewhat stay away from jehu his maths doesnt always check out and his safety practices are also questionable HBpowerwall is a bit more what id suggest for anyone interested in doing something along those lines btw all this stuff is a mess to do right since there are few lithium ion solar charge controllers make sure you have a good setup in mind before spending money on cells and solar panels

[@gavinkemp7920]

lead acid batteries are still some of the best rechargeable batteries. their main draw back is weight.

[@AmmarAbotouk]

True this is why I don't think we are going to use in the feature efficiency is important

[@gavinkemp7920]

I think people also worry about pollution. the only issue is people worry more about pollution that kills less because it sounds more deadly and has had plenty of movies done about as opposed to actual killers.

[@mwbgaming28]

Lead acid benefits > better overcharge tolerance > better abuse tolerance > better shock tolerance > better electrical impulse tolerance > better heat tolerance > less likely to catch fire randomly > can be recharged without special circuits > easier to recycle > better at being 12V batteries > cheaper technology > better for stationary usage in hot environments Li-ion/Li-poly benefits > higher energy density > better overdischarge tolerance > higher power delivery capacity (depending on technologies compared) > more charge cycles > smaller and lighter > better at being 24V+ batteries > newer technology > better cold tolerance > better vibration tolerance > better for vehicles and caravans

[@MautreXvids]

@@mwbgaming28 and another benefit with litium batteries, they can be mounted in any position. I installed three 100amph litium batteries standing on its short side instead of the 140amph led battery that was originally there, therefore you get 300amph that last way longer and way more cycles that the led

[@mwbgaming28]

@@MautreXvids I already mentioned higher energy density and more cycles AGM, VRLA, GEL, SLA type lead acid batteries can be used and charged in any orientation just like lithium

[@extrememiami]

Tips from an electrician: Get a LiFePo battery (lithium Iron) Get at least 100Ah Yes they are more but they last 10 years instead of 1-2 with lead acid. A cheap but good 100ah battery costs $350-$450. Wieze, Amperetime, and Chins and hands down the 3 best of the cheapo batteries. SOK and Battle Born are the best of the expensive ones. Gowise is a great inverter. Upgrade the cables that come with inverters. The cables included are only meant for 100-200 watts regardless the size inverter you purchased. Add a fuse if your inverter doesn't have one built in. Use the same inverter with a battery charger to charge your battery from your running car. Do not connect a lithoum battery directly to your car or it will burn out your alternator. Lithoim batteries can draw 100-150amps charging directly which is too much for a normal alternator.

[@slinnky]

This is one of my favourite channels ever.

[@fred21679]

...if this guy was the same age back in the 80's this show would have came on right after kid bitz!

[@ZImpresive]

Why not Just scavenging some uranium from an old Mine shaft, some control rods from the North Koreans, an bucket of water, seal it, cut a hole on top and put a 12v Turbine. Bam! You got clean energy backup that could out last your local power plant... as long as you keep changing the water.

[@b43xoit]

[snicker]

[@BaronVonQuiply]

Hi, I'm having trouble purifying the uranium. I've been swinging it over my head for over an hour but the isotopes aren't separating.

[@heydannypark]

Are you using the 238, or the molten salt thorium? Have you considered forced gas or deep-time perpendicular inertia? Did you plug it in?

[@coffeestainedwreck]

As a bonus, it would work as an excellent space heater.

[@DvD2221960]

And use the warm cooling water for showers, coffee etc.

[@philmccracken2012]

I know this videos for years old, but I have to mention your mom's cable management. Hopefully you brought some Velcro and zip ties over as well to clean up all those cables and wires dangling every which way. I love your videos! My first and favorite video of yours was the powdered dish washing detergent! I've switched to powder after seeing the video.

[@PhonyBread]

I used to work in a warehouse where we used electric forklifts that used massive lead-acid batteries. Those things were frankly kind of scary. They were easily capable of many thousands of Amps of output in a short scenario (they powered both the drive and the hydraulic pumps), and even under normal charging conditions, hydrogen build-up was a serious concern (they were placed in a special ventilated, explosion-resistant area while charging every night. The chargers themselves pushed somewhere in the range of 300A if I remember correctly. These batteries also got cycled to around 15% every day, or almost completely discharged on a busy day. The interesting thing about them is that they had to be 'watered' every month or so. Each cell had a removable cap on the top and a fill line, and you would fill to the fill line with DISTILLED water only. My understanding is that the electrolyte would dry up over time and turn into a powder which needed to be re-hydrated.

[@wb5mct]

Electric fork lifts (and golf carts too, for that matter) use water because they are deliberately overcharged, turning the water into hydrogen and oxygen. They do this to balance the cells so that some don't get undercharged and damaged. The electrolyte in lead acid batteries is a solution of sulfuric acid in water, and any "powder" present is from the plates of the battery.

[@PhonyBread]

Interesting... I do remember them using water faster when the chargers were in their 'fast charge' mode (presumably very aggressive voltages / potentially overcharging). How does the hydrogen/oxygen from the water help balance the cells? Or do you mean balancing a change within each cell itself? Interesting stuff!

[@wb5mct]

The hydrogen/oxygen is a byproduct of the balancing operation. When a "balancing charge" is performed on a battery, the normal voltage regulation is bypassed and the battery is charged to a higher voltage than normal. As a cell becomes fully charged, it can't accept any more current and will begin to "gas" (produce hydrogen/oxygen). This has no effect on the fully charged cell (other than using up water), but it DOES allow the cell to keep conducting current so that other cells can continue to charge. On golf cart chargers and fork lift chargers, the actual mechanism is that the voltage across the battery is monitored and when it reaches "fully charged" voltage a timer is started. The timer lets the charger continue to run for a pre-set amount of time to allow balancing to occur before shutting off. This means that the battery is always overcharged for a period of time, which "uses up" water, which has to be replaced.

[@PhonyBread]

@@wb5mctAh, I understand. This explains why some cells would end up using more water than others, because the cells that were at a lower voltage before balancing would use less water, while the higher voltage cells use up more water 'waiting' for the lower voltage cells to reach their level. For those reading, a 'balancing' charge is a special charge performed on a mainteance schedule, usually 'once every X charges', that ensures that the voltage of each individual cell in the battery are as closely matched as possible, as an unbalanced battery of cells will survive fewer charge/discharge cycles, and will likely have a shorter life. Thank you for your insight, Harvey!

[@wb5mct]

@@PhonyBread you've got it!

[@shed.projects5150]

Also the disadvantages with a generator is the noise aspect, and the fact that you need to feed it with fuel. Great vid by the way. Paul UK.

[@SamCarleton]

Thank you, great video. I always wondered what the technical difference was between a starter battery and deep cycle. I am working on building an electrical system for my RV and was wondering real world numbers for 8 hours of work, so your info on that topic is also deeply appreciated! There is one thing you did not mention that I might touch on... Inverters have a zero-load power, the amount of energy it takes just to operate without a load. It seems the larger the inverter, the larger the zero-load. For example, Victron Energy's Phoenix Inverter 250VA (only 175w) has a zero load power of 4.2 watts while the Phoenix Inverter 3000 VA (2400 watt) is 20 watts. What I am getting at is that another way you *might* be able to extend the run time is to use an inverter with a smaller max output. Personally I have installed Victron Energy's Phoenix Inverter 800 (560watt) inverter for this very reason. Food for thought ;)