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12v lead acid batteries as PC power source

 
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happytechie



Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Posts: 408
Location: Surrey (at the mo.)
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 06 10:49 am    Post subject: 12v lead acid batteries as PC power source Reply with quote
    

an interesting article here explaining how you can power your (desktop) PC from lead acid batteries:

https://www.dansdata.com/upsupgrade.htm

It's aimed at using the battery as a UPS solution but of course of you can recahrge your batteries from a photo voltaic cell or a wind generator you're doing good green things and saving cash....

Paul

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 06 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

An excellent idea paul, we have some off grid people here, might be especially handy for them.

Jonnyboy



Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 06 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I was shown a free standing cart from a company called parity for a work requirement last week.

It uses a gel lead acid battery which gives approx 7 hours for a standard pc. Mind you it needs some complicated power management stuff to avoid the memory effect.

dougal



Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent
PostPosted: Wed Jun 28, 06 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thanks for posting that Paul, but there are a few considerations that folk should bear in mind.

In the UK, an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), is less needed than in much of the USA and, I'd guess, Australia (source of the link), where the mains electricity might not be quite so reliable.

Although the author notes that computer psu's may not be too bothered about the waveform that comes off a UPS's inverter, I believe that screens are much more fussy.

Rather than go from 12v DC up to 240v AC with an expensive inverter and then use the computer psu to produce 5v and 12v DC, etc, its a very much better idea to start in a different place entirely, and bypass much of this expensive and inefficient conversion.

Use a laptop. (Sorts out any screen bothers).
Using a laptop that gives many hours of runtime from a normal size laptop battery means using a laptop that uses relatively little electrical power.
And its usually very easy (and cheap) to get a car charger (working from a cigarette lighter socket - or direct {fused} from a battery charged by renewables) to moderate between the car's 12v and whatever the laptop requires.


And then there's the normal reminder that car batteries, though cheap are designed, optimised, for a very different application. Their job is to deliver a massive current for a brief period, for engine starting. They are easily damaged by being drained (discharged, flattened) too far. Different, (less mass produced, and more heavily built and so more expensive) batteries called "deep discharge" lead/acid batteries are purpose built for usable charge/discharge capacity. They are as different as weightlifters and marathon runners.
Old car batteries are useful, but they aren't by any means first choice for their performance in this sort of application.

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