Using an APC Smart UPS as Inverter in Solar Setup

[@DIYOneForAll]

It's my pleasure sharing my projects with you. Please subscribe for more videos like this. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@coolarrow9127]

I know its an old post and some UPS have been blown up by now, here's a few answers, you cant connect your battery in series if its 12v. series increases voltage and parallel increases amperage, if you increase amps though you will have to add some sort of cooling, your ups wasn't designed to run longer than the time it would take to safely shut your equipment down. If you have a modified sine wave its even more important. also, there are different kinds of full sine wave ups so make sure you research what you have. line interactive, standby and online. The best and most expensive in online, all electricity is filtered before it gets to your equipment. The others only turn on when there is a disturbance in the force(electricity) so there is a chance of your equipment still being damages.

[@Dylan2996oct]

Nice I love it! Lots of information I needed. I recently came across an APC and didn't know how to corporate it into my solar setup. I now have my battery bank (90AH 24V) hooked up to it and also have the APC plugged into the wall with a timer. Since I DONT have a very large battery bank and only 230W panel I can't run everything I want all the day long. So I run mostly on battery power during the day and then at night (10pm) the timer switches on. I then use the cheap night time energy well the APC trickle charges the batteries until 8am, which then I will go back to battery power and my solar panel starts producing power and charges the batteries as well. Thanks!

[@DIYOneForAll]

Wonderful. Have fun.

[@winnipegnick]

So just to clarify, during the day the UPS acts as an OFF grid unit and at 10 PM, it charges on grid using the normal power cord. That's a pretty cool idea. I was thinking of having my UPS in the shed charging via the solar panel and occasionally I can run an extension cord to the UPS to top it up if I drained it (if I need to). Thanks

[@DIYOneForAll]

Nick Rigas Having the grid power back-up is a great idea. My shed is exclusively off-grid at the moment. Thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers

[@TheRainHarvester]

But that cheap night time energy is negated by wear on your battery. It's expensive again. How is your system holding up? Any issues?

[@micw8422]

Thanks for the informative video. Interesting how you custom set up the circuit breaker?

[@spydergs07]

I was wondering about using APC batteries as a solar power. I have 12x 12v 9AH batteries. I'm about to make a huge battery bank with my solar panel. Nice video!

[@DIYOneForAll]

Thank you.

[@dilan_dkl7794]

Hi there, my question is sort of off topic sorry about that. I'm trying to use, my old 600watt ups as an inverter using Li ion 18650 batteries (3s 16p). I use a bms to protect the batteries. My problem is that since the ups is designed to use deep cycle batteries it turns off at 11.4v while my bms cuts off at 9v. I can't use the full potential of the batteries. Any suggestions? What do I have to change in the ups to trick the ups and run till the bms cuts power to the ups?

[@TheRainHarvester]

Is your system still working 7 years later? Great video!

[@RickRose]

You and I are thinking along similar lines, it seems! I've also put a Renogy kit in my backyard shed. I have not yet purchased a pure sine-wave inverter for my setup. Something you said that is completely opposite to my previous thinking is that a modified sine-wave inverter is "perfect for computers" while damaging to a/c motors. I thought the opposite would be true, that electronic equipment would be more sensitive to the waveform. I'm going to be very cautious until such time as I get a pure sine-wave inverter. I have a very poorly-lit video on my channel showing my project--the problem has more to do with my operation of the camera than the available light. I'll try to update soon.

[@DIYOneForAll]

Rich,Thanks for the comment and visit. I just watched your video and you have a nice setup there. Can't wait to see more videos on your system!

[@leebrian]

+Rick Rose The computer actually converts the AC power to DC so there's a power supply in between the motherboard and the inverter. The fan on the other hand, takes the AC power directly to a motor. That's probably why his fan probably overheated and broke.

[@RickRose]

Brian Lee Thanks for the explanation--makes perfect sense.

[@toirtr]

Hi. Very interesting video. I am from Ukraine. With numerous electricity outages having solar shed is 'bare-minimum'/ I have APC Smart UPS 1000 for my experiments... + 2 old solar Panels. Just few questions: 1/ Do you have external AC connected to the APC ? or you have fully "Stand-alone" setup? meaning that APC is operating always on battery mode 2/ On the video you have parallel wires from Batteries to charger and to the APC. Can we use standard connector for External Batteries for this? APC Smart UPS 1000 has build-in External Battery connector (for additional 24 V bank) I want to configure setup with minimum changes...

[@swilliams140]

I was just wondering this about my old UPS's.

[@DIYOneForAll]

Yep, You can give them a new lease on life by using them in an application like this.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Do they say pure or modified? I have several apc !

[@mashedpotatoes5323]

I'm currently working on making a small 12volt apc cs 500 into a portable solar generator, I plan on making a 20-40volt solar panel out of a ton of free solar lawn lights which would power a DC to DC converter to bring it down to 12.6v and then that would go to a 3s bms which would plug into the batteries. I'll also eventually put in some 5v and 12v DC outputs for other devices. Would this solar system work?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Go for it. Sounds interesting👍

[@TheRainHarvester]

Did you get it working? How many solar lights? You need a lot of area.

[@Abolish_The_S-N-T_NOW]

Good video very informative thank you

[@QUADBOYification]

Looks pretty simple to me. What i wonder about is the electronics of the APC UPS Unit. If it is not connected to the mains (240v), obviously you are not, Does the inverter work by switching it on without mains connected? My APC Back-UPS 300 does not do that. I do know mine has no by-pass (Cancel alarm) switch like yours but there are pins on the mainboard for it to be attached. Do you know (for sure) if my little APC 300 also has a Pure Sinewave inverter (160W max)?

[@DIYOneForAll]

It's not a pure sine wave. It has a stepped approximation to a sinewave, which is not very clean.

[@Oracleplane]

Hi bro, can you help? I have a 4500w HP UPS. I thinking of using it with solar panel to power pump on a farm. where do I start from?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Oracleplane I would start with a list of items that you plan to run off the inverter. How many watts/amps each device will draw? How many hours will they run? The key is to match your battery bank and solar panels ratio to ensure that everything is properly sized.

[@g.lumapas7434]

Oracleplane try "altestore.com" load calculator and off-grid calculator to give you an idea on how much amp hour of battery you need, for your water pump.

[@leonardoandresvillegas7430]

Please, can u share a schematic showing how you connected the external battery? Or just you connected it in parallel to the external batteries?

[@DIYOneForAll]

The APC UPS is connected in series with my two 12 volts batteries, providing a total of 24 volts, as it's a 24 volt APC UPS. I will do a video soon showing the wiring in more detail. Thanks for watching.

[@DIYOneForAll]

Anthony Hope Leonardo Villegas kzbin.info/www/bejne/sICwfXSiobhnfbM

[@arielmarin6968]

Hi berry good video. you forgat to mention that the inverter can also be a charger..for claudy days

[@bastianinostroza1150]

How you avoid an UPS from shutting down by itself. I mean, remaining battery is indicated by battery use time and no by voltage. So even when is plenty of battery remaining. Both UPS shut down (smart UPS 1500 and Back UPS RS 1500) because of this.

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

connect it to a computer using serial or usb cable and download the ups program to change the settings

[@bastianinostroza1150]

@@chriskwakernaat2328 that's what I did, calibrating and extending the working cycle, but it'll shut down anyways

[@TheRainHarvester]

@@bastianinostroza1150 Did you solve the problem?

[@borzvon]

Thanks Anthony for sharing. I use same setup smart ups 1500 = 2 solar panels

[@DIYOneForAll]

It's good to hear that you have a similar setup :) Very nice. Thanks for watching and commenting :)

[@DIYOneForAll]

Do you have any pictures of your setup?

[@borzvon]

yes I have picture of extended battery and ups together and solar pannel wiring. But solar pannels (i got 2 x 150 watts) are not outside yet bucause of windows replacement project. I use balcony for my solar project

[@DIYOneForAll]

Bor Zvon Sounds like fun.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Any issues since 7 years ago? Still running?

[@HarryoGaming]

Hi DIY OneForAll. My Smart-UPS is falling in percentage when there is load on it. It can go down to 0% with 26 volt on the batteries, when the percentage goes too low it will shut down even when there is a voltage on 26v and the batteries is full.

[@gopawi]

Can you clear out your explanation a little. A little confused why are you using an off grid type charge controller system and another separate smart UPS system? I am really interested in your video. Also maybe can you post video by just using the smart UPS system. This video is very informative, it can really help others.

[@marksmith3556]

I have apc 1250 smart ups with external big battery bank trojan t 105 8 of them 2 set of 4 batters of them in series then parallel equal 24 volts 450 ah @20 hours the charger of the unit is 1.5 amp on pg&e power. I also have 165 watt solar panel when I use it I unplug the ups pg&e power so solar and pg&e combine together I'm afraid to. Also keep in mine if ups is off when you unplug the pg&e power the unit need pg&e power to power the ups. Pleaee help me with can you combined solar charger and pg&e power so two different chargers? Also what happened to equalize the batteries using the solar charger trojan battery tech sheet need to do it every 30 days doing 30 volts that mite damage the ups charger?

[@paulmacheso9953]

YOU WILL DAMAGE THE UPS

[@cricketol]

Have you had issues with the float charge with your ups being charged by your ups I did the same thing but over float charge the ups

[@DIYOneForAll]

cricketol I have never had any issues with it. I use it just to charge the batteries. I unplug the ups from grid power when charging from solar.

[@cricketol]

DIY OneForAll when the power is out we use solar to keep the battery going if the powers out for a long time p.s. we use it for back up lighting and cell phone charging only on those days. Have you thought about using it in this way?

[@DIYOneForAll]

cricketol Yes, I am setup to charge cell phones and meet basic lighting needs should there be a power failure.

[@paulmacheso9953]

How was the connection from the solar regulator to the battery bank? can the two chargers one from the ups charging system and the other one from the battery not overload the batteries. So two chargers one from the UPS system and the other from the solar panel through the charge controller not harm the batteries? I wanted to know thank you?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Paul, Good question, I am actually only using the solar charge controller to charge the batteries, not the internal UPS battery charger. The wall plug for the UPS is not plugged into the grid, so no charging that way.

[@paulmacheso9953]

+DIY OneForAll what if we can plugin both systems and plug the UPS the mains and use the solar panel past through the charge controller can if have effect of my deep cycle marine batteries? after the battery is fully charged the solar charge controller will stop and the UPS will also stop?

[@DIYOneForAll]

+Paul Macheso Technically, it could work but I would not recommend charging from the grid and the solar panels charge controller at the same time. Also, the built-in charger UPS is a not rated for very large batteries. With the built-in charger, you may find that your batteries will take forever to charge or won't charge properly at all. In addition, if you use the grid charger and solar charger at the same time, there is really no way to keep both chargers synchronized. In my case, I am using the solar charger to charge my batteries exclusively. I would not want you to ruin your expensive batteries.

[@paulmacheso9953]

+DIY OneForAll yes but charging the battery stops based on the voltage and the battery for the UPS has just 7.2 ah mostly just for the person to save and shut down the computer ...but even if it takes long the battery its still charged fully after i measure with a multimeter but when we dont have power it drains quickly the 42 ah 12 deep marine battery like for 15 minutes using 2 100 watt bulbs 2 induction axial fans 33 watts and a temperature controller.. they were amounting to approx 300 watts for my homemade incubator for poultry and i used a 500 watt ups so i wanted to sustain it during blackouts we are facing in malawi my country am a physics student at the university of malawi

[@DIYOneForAll]

+Paul Macheso It's always great to have backup power in the event of power outages. Technically yes, the chargers should know when the batteries are charged, but you find that one charger goes into float mode before the other. Two chargers can be used simultaneously but it's best if they are identical and synchronized.

[@JASp72oductions]

Hello, I am planning to build a similar system in order to power a small motor for an underwater treadmill for hydrotherapy. Now if I am correct, the system you have built will automatically switch to power grid power if the batteries do not provide enough charge. Is that how your system works?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Jeremy Nezaria This is an off-grid system with no interaction with the grid

[@benjamensamuel1926]

Hello, please how did you confirmed the UPS as pure sine wave.

[@DIYOneForAll]

This particular model is pure sine by design.

[@benjamensamuel1926]

OK. Am so thinking not to fry my ceiling fan and other and I don't know how to get that particular model in Nigeria, it seems to me it is an old model APC UPS. I just need help on how to confirm in case I get another model for the same work.

[@DIYOneForAll]

Whichever you get, look at the manufacturer specs. With the older APC units, the "smart" ones are the pure sine versions. You may also run it through a scope and observe the wave.

[@benjamensamuel1926]

DIY OneForAll, though I don't have scope to use but your information is very helpful, I appreciate.

[@leviahamefula3994]

samuel benjamen easy way to knw... Connect a regular standing fan and run it. If it hums or buzzes then its modified sine wave.

[@chilskater]

i have Smart UPS 750..so the fan connected to the UPS? U put power extension to UPS to power up other electrical appliances?So Car Cigarette light connect to + and - on the UPS circuit board?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Winston, Yes - I went from the AC out of the UPS to power other appliances. The cigarette lighter is for the plug that goes to the battery. I used the cigarette lighter for easy disconnect, but you will need a sizable enough fuse in it - depending on your application.

[@billycorganjamesiha]

my APC UPS BACKUPS 1100 only runs at 15mins then it automatically turn itself off. When I turned it on it again runs the same 15 mins as accurately as it was 15 mins. My battery has not drained because I am using parallel batteries brand new that could run 6 hours straight. Is there a way I can remove the automatic 15mins shut-off?

[@DIYOneForAll]

You might be able to change the shutdown time using the APC software and the cable that connects from the APC unit to the computer. The older ones use a serial cable or RJ45 to USB cable which can be used to control the settings on the APC UPS using a computer.

[@billycorganjamesiha]

+DIY OneForAll Thanks for responding. I know this APC Model is new and I am wondering I did not find any connectors or cables to a PC and of course it did not come with any software upon unboxing. It is indeed impossible to shut it down through a computer. Is there a hard way to just pull something off so that that 15 mins shutdown is disabled just like removing that noisy speaker and still the UPS performs well?

[@DIYOneForAll]

+Bruno Brawn Modifying the circuit board requires technical knowledge and a solid understanding of electronics. See if you can find a schematic of the circuitry and spend sometime studying it before attempting any modifications.

[@ambynblog8925]

How watch tv it is posible? And electricfan

[@DIYOneForAll]

Yes, it is.

[@crapcbm]

hey do someone know how to increase the charging amps on a APC 1400XL? (19" 3H rack mount version) I have 2 x 200Ah AGMs now on it, and it takes a loooong time to charge them...

[@DIYOneForAll]

I would suggest an external charging system.

[@DIYOneForAll]

[@Drxxx]

can you connect 2 ups in parallel?

[@KuntalGhosh]

Unless they have the feature to sync output u can not connect them together.. ! Two of them will fight each other & all the transistors will pop!

[@DanrazRevilo]

Nice

[@DanrazRevilo]

How much does this setup cost?

[@DIYOneForAll]

About $300 at the time

[@isahgumel1962]

guys help me out on how to convert my old APC smart UPS 3000 into an inverter using 24 or 12 volts car batteries

[@DIYOneForAll]

It appears that your inverter requires 48 volts to operate. If you decide to use 24 volt batteries, you will need two of them wired in series to make 48 volts. If you go with 12 volt batteries, you will need four of them wired in series to make 48 volts. Once you have decided on the battery configuration, you can just connect the negative and position terminals to the plug where you would normally connect the battery module for the inverter. If you plan on using solar to charge your battery with solar, I would recommend at least an mppt solar change controller and two 24 volt solar panels, wired in series to match your battery bank. I hope this helps. Cheers

[@LLCoolPass]

But is it sinewave?

[@DIYOneForAll]

Yes

[@mrbigshoworelse]

Could you pull this off with a car alternator? I have a Briggs single cylinder, I was thinking about running a car alternator but I'm not quite sure how to hook it all up.

[@DIYOneForAll]

Uncle Yar You would need to use a 12 volt inverter but it can work. The one here is a 24 volt inverter. Hook it up to the battery terminals. The only thing to watch is the rotational speed of the alternator. You will need a constant RPM to obtain the desired output. I have an alternator in my garage for a future experiment of this nature.

[@mrbigshoworelse]

Thanks for the quick reply, I'm fairly new to this sort of thing so I was worried it would just bypass the battery and go straight into the inverter or something like that.

[@numatechprototypes222]

and you might not want to have your lead acids in a Styrofoam cooler the acid doesn't react to well if it get in a high concentration it could cause a exothermic reaction and possibly start a fire

[@DIYOneForAll]

The cooler had vent holes at time this video was recorded.

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

it might have been a modified sine inverter instead of a true sine. a modified sine killed a fan here too

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

and it killed the inverter .( good quality , a victron) blew the transistors.

[@numatechprototypes222]

what are you talking about I use my fan I need for my sleep apnea all night every night for the past two years on a cheap modified sine wave inverter so lower my power bill

[@DIYOneForAll]

Consider yourself lucky but it's not recommended for that application.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Possibly medical equipment compensates for bad input.

[@خالدخالد-ز8س7ز]

مفيش شرح بلعربي

[@immrnoidall]

these controls don't control much at all. whatever comes in from panels, was the same being feed to battery or load..can someone please donate a good used mppt ? i just had heart valves surgery ,so getting back in the money will be months.

[@DIYOneForAll]

immrnoidall Sorry to hear about your surgery but am glad to hear that you are recovering well. I know that you would have donated an mppt charge controller to me if you did not have surgery, so I appreciate your asking on my behalf. Cheers