Maintaining UPS/car batteries

[speedster_101]

firstly you need to use a 105AH battery on your UPS (shehzore battery) if its the Homage 1000.

to your next point - stick a multimeter into the direct wapda line and check voltage. Also check voltage of all three phases (if applicable) at your main power distribution box.

285 volts is too high. Get Wapda to fix it out quickly and as soon as possible, I usually made home in KESC, PTCL or SSGC office if something stupid like this is going on - Get everything including tests on paper - as they are lazy idiots and when they come to check your home system - stand vigilant, Ive had KESC bugger up my main 100A industrial circuit breaker in my home. They also were musing/complaining at the industrial grade thick core power trunk coming from the electricity pole to my house compared to the cheap, thin garbage of power cables they usually install.

Brother I think that 105 AH battery would be small for 600 Watt UPS. The backup time would be less. Because normally 90-105 AH batteries are connected with 300 Watt UPS.
The place where I am living, here MES is responsible for all the electrical work. And they are equally bad as WAPDA. Getting work done from them requires a lot of stamina, patience and time.

[talhawaleed]

Does it really matters, that its 105 AH battery or 150 AH battery.

You can also install 200 AH battery which will give you a more backup time.

Only thing which you need to care for is the charging rate.

[Xulfiqar]

the homage 1000 unit can supply a max of 10 Amps of charging current - which is insufficient for a 145 to 150 AH battery to charge.

[talhawaleed]

For 145 AH battery the correct charging rate is 145/10= 14.5 Amperes. So we technically cannot exceed the charging rate beyond 14.5 Amperes for these batteries but can still charge these batteries with 10 Amperes.

It will be slow charging and slow charging is good for batteries as it prolongs the life of a battery. It will take longer time to charge the batteries but I don’t see a technical problem with that.

If UPS has a limitation then that does not stops us from playing around with batteries. Like if we install 200 AH battery then correct charging rate would be 20 Amperes. What if we charge the same battery with 10 Amperes, the only thing which will happen is that it would take double the time to charge the battery but you are not losing any extra energy. Slow charging antis the sulphation which builds on the plates.

What we cannot do is use 70 AH-80 AH battery as the charging rate would exceed the 7 to 8 Amperes which is what we want to avoid with this specific UPS.

[Xulfiqar]

Consistent trickle charging requires a great great amount of time - and with loadshedding being so regular the given charge period is not sufficient to resurrect a weak battery.

I have checked it a number of times with a carbon pile load tester

[talhawaleed]

Yes you are right that you need to look into many things before making a Choice. If you live in a region where load shedding is more often and more number of times and you have to be prepared for next load shedding then obviously you would like to charge your batteries as quickly as possible so that you are prepared for next load shedding.

If charging rate is slow such that batteries are not fully charged before you have next load shedding and then next this would also damage the batteries in longer run. As you batteries will remain in a discharged state for longer time which would also kill them very quickly.

Choice has to be made depending upon number of different factors such as

1) UPS capabilities
2) Batteries attached
3) Capacity of Batteries attached
4) Correct charging rate for batteries
5) Number of times load shedding takes place in a particular Region
6) Load attached to this UPS

[xzap042]

can you comment on where we can buy distilled water? I cant seem to find any reliable sources.

[dms664]

the homage 1000 unit can supply a max of 10 Amps of charging current - which is insufficient for a 145 to 150 AH battery to charge.

sir by installing batteries in parallel u can add as much batteries as u want, each one ll get the standard current UPS is supplying to one battery

[xzap042]

sir by installing batteries in parallel u can add as much batteries as u want, each one ll get the standard current UPS is supplying to one battery

nope, by installing in parallel the total current requirement is multiplied so if UPS cannot supply that much, then installing each additional battery will reduce the charging current per battery even further.. and if the current drops lower than output of battery it wont be charged at all.

[dms664]

nope, by installing in parallel the total current requirement is multiplied so if UPS cannot supply that much, then installing each additional battery will reduce the charging current per battery even further.. and if the current drops lower than output of battery it wont be charged at all.

^
Source?

[xzap042]

^
Source?

electronics. its simple. in series voltage adds up and current is same while in parallel current adds up while voltage is same that's why you can connect many 12V batteries in parallel to increase the load or backup time. in the same way you'll need more current to charge the assembly in same time.

[a_n_memon88]

Last week i bought two new batteries for my ups. They are ags 132. There is normally 3-4 hrs loadshedding in my home. When the light goes at 10-11am the ups does not fully charge in 5 or 6 six hrs. I usually restart the system to completely charge batteries..The batteries completely charge then. When the light goes at 2-3am the batteries completely charge before 6 am i.e when my parents wake up. The load is same on both times i.e 3 fans one tube light. My voltmeter also stopped working so I bought a new one yesterday and noted some readings today. After running ups for 1hr with same load the batteries showed voltage of 24.2 v. then they were set to charge. From 11am to 3pm they could only show voltage of 27.2 volts. My charging cut off is set at 28.1 v set by myself. Another interesting thing during night the voltage of wapda in my house is 227 volts while in day time its before noon 221 volts and after noon 215 volts. I think that my ups kit has malfunctioned what do you say. Tomorrow i will bring technician for inspection. My voltmeter cannot calculate amperes so i dont know about charging amperes because the meter with DC amperemeter was worth 2500rs and the one i bought is for 800rs. So please comment if you can help me

[talhawaleed]

First of all, with 132 AH battery the correct charging rate should be 13 Amperes. Make sure that UPS is charging the batteries with this maximum allowed limit otherwise if batteries remains in discharged state for longer duration then they will finish soon. secondly Voltage across WAPDA line varies between 220 V to 240 Volts so as long as UPS is still charging the batteries then there is nothing to feel worried about. Since two batteries are connected in series so current being delivered to one will remain same for another.

Remaining

1) Voltage across terminals is 24.4 Volts even after one hour of load shedding. GREAT
2) Don’t restart the system, just check the voltage across terminals and if it is below 28.1 Volts then restarting the system won’t help. It may temporally disconnect the charging but wont guarantee that batteries have been fully charged.
3) Use Voltmeter to test the voltage across UPS line( During Load shedding) as this Voltage will be more once system will be fully charged and will decrease over period of time.

If Voltage across terminals is 24.4 Volts even after 1 hour of load shedding then trust me it will easily take the load for additional 1.5 hours.

[talhawaleed]

@@ xzap042

Nobody will provide you with pure distilled water, they may claim that it is distilled but it can be boiled as well.

It is a very easy procedure to produce distilled water so you don’t have to rely on any one for this. Please have a look at the You tube link posted earlier as that will provide you a fairly good idea that how easy it is to produce distilled water.

In Worst case scenario,

boil the water and let it boil for some time.

Allow the water to cool down

Deposits will settle down at bottom of the container

Separate the clean water from those deposits and use it in batteries.

At least you won’t be wasting money to buy the (Not trusted) colored water from Market.

[a_n_memon88]

At 3 pm I disconnected the UPS and at 6pm I calculated the voltage. Both batteries gave 12.75 volts and when I connected the UPS to power line it again started charging. That was really surprising. If the batteries give 12.75 volts there is no need to charge them. Also when charging UPS gave voltage upto 27.7 volts and then it started decreasin 27.6-27.5 and I immediately set the cut off point at 27.5 volts to stop charging the batteries. I think that my kit has some problem. Tomorrow I am going to visit technician what do you say

[cisco1]

Two things destroy battery or shortens the battery life.
1.Hi speed Charging
2. Cold
In case of UPS we cannot avoid Hi speed Charging while in case of Car we can avoid it.
The Cold destroy the battery life because the gravity of H2SO4(Sulphuric Acid) decrease. If you have UPS you can easily test this problem in Winter/summer Season.

[talhawaleed]

At 3 pm I disconnected the UPS and at 6pm I calculated the voltage. Both batteries gave 12.75 volts and when I connected the UPS to power line it again started charging. That was really surprising. If the batteries give 12.75 volts there is no need to charge them. Also when charging UPS gave voltage upto 27.7 volts and then it started decreasin 27.6-27.5 and I immediately set the cut off point at 27.5 volts to stop charging the batteries. I think that my kit has some problem. Tomorrow I am going to visit technician what do you say

I don’t know why are you so worried. You need to verify that correct charging rate and then please don’t disturb the Cutoff Voltage from 28.1 Volts. Otherwise batteries will not be in fully charged state when next load shedding will arrive and over period of time gravity of these batteries will go down.

You are talking about electronic here which have been designed by human beings. They are doing what they have been told to do. Observe things for a week before taking any decision.

Once you have purchased the UPS then accept the fact that your electricity bills are going to be higher. You are making a tradeoff between availability of electricity during load shedding and extra bill. You cannot run away from it but can keep it minimize with good settings.

Think in this way that during load shedding you are getting the electricity at higher cost because of installing a UPS system.

[raoshahzad]

I am Using 1000va Homage UPS and Homage sealed gel VRLA 140 amp battery. I have some strange problem with the battery its backup time was around 8hr on one fan and one light seven months ago but for the last one month i use TV on UPS during load shedding and my backup time has reduced to only 1.5 hrs. So i request you all to advise me that what gone wrong with my batteries ??? How can i increase its backup.

[a_n_memon88]

Well went today for UPS checkup and got the problem fixed. The culprit was AC voltage. I got installed a stablizer kit and now the input of UPS will remain fix at 246 volts. Also adjusted UPS charging current to 13A, my kit provides this current there is no minimun or maximum charging current only single charging amperes and they have been set to 13A. The output frequency is 53 Hz and output voltage is 240 V. Today there was power outage and just before the power came the batteries showed 24.3 Volts and the UPS charged in 70 minutes. The voltage from WAPDA kept fluctuating before kit installation thats why UPS could not properly charge.

[talhawaleed]

I am Using 1000va Homage UPS and Homage sealed gel VRLA 140 amp battery. I have some strange problem with the battery its backup time was around 8hr on one fan and one light seven months ago but for the last one month i use TV on UPS during load shedding and my backup time has reduced to only 1.5 hrs. So i request you all to advise me that what gone wrong with my batteries ??? How can i increase its backup.

I can’t comment on dry batteries because I have never dealt with them. Basic rule behind these batteries is same.
1) Try to find out the correct charging rate of these batteries,
2) Don’t keep the batteries in discharged state for longer duration.
3) Cutoff Voltage during charging should be setup properly
4) You need to look into the output Voltage of UPS line once UPS is about to shutdown
5) You need to look into output Voltage of UPS line once UPS is fully charged and you enter into loadshedding.
6) 4 and 5 are very important as that can blow your TV.
All these factors can kill your batteries very quickly