Batteries are Cheap, Backup power is expensive

@oberoniaomnia  - That’s another thing.  The lead-acid batteries used in the common UPS does not have the lifespan of modern  LiFePO4.  

According to Gemini, I can get 5 to 15 years of service vs. 3 to 5 years with lead-acid. 

Generally, APC is still selling designs it came up with it seems 20 years ago while battery technology has really moved forward.  The one good thing is that in the US at least the lead recycling rate is high and environmental contamination low for lead acid. 

@joeycastillo For the sake of simplicity and cost I think in case of a long term outage I’ll manually enable the inverter.  

I just tried the inverter I already have and it’s a lot noisier than I expected, even at idle.  For now, I think I’ll go with leaving a smart charger on the batteries to keep them topped off and if we ever have a real outage I’ll hook up the inverter as needed. 

Perhaps a future me who is wealthy and can do all the other home upgrades he needs will provide an inverter upgrade. 

@joeycastillo  - I lived in California a long time.  The power may not go out but it's not always right... :D 

That's kind of what I'm talking about, but in my case I'm going to leave  the inverter in 24/7.  Inverter is sized at 500W, and I'll use 50W.  Batteries will stay on a charger 24/7.  No transfer times.  At most in an emergency when my Ecoflow isn't working or doing other duties It may draw 110W.  I'm starting off cheap.  I had a 500W inverter for the car/emergencies already. It was $70 or something.  I'm going to try it out for now and see how it goes.  If I win the lottery or something I'll consider something significantly larger. 

By my calculations, with 2x 100Ah batteries I should get about 40 hours of run time for Internet alone.  

Hey @phildebrandt - Make sure you compare usable power.  LiFePO4 batteries can be used for almost 100% of their amp hours (Ah) while lead acid 50%. 

If you have the room, I can see lead acid beating out LiFePO4 for $/usable watt hours. 

@billpete  - Yeah the economics keep changing.  Costs of power generation have dropped  a great deal recently, making selling power a bad idea, but now with climate change and AI's demand for power it may make home power generation more worthwhile. 

@billpete 

Oh, me too! 

We have at least 2 significant power events / month here and that’s in good weather!  By that I mean the power goes out long enough to reset the microwave clock.  

We’re also subject to yearly events of fiber cables being cut which take out almost all our cell and Internet providers at the same time.  I just can’t have enough back up systems! 

Solar power comes in various flavors.  Depends how they are used.  Some use them as strictly back up power, to charge batteries until things go out, and others use the Solar power continuously during the day, no lag.  

Erik 

@larsman  - All snide comments aside, many audiophiles care about battery back up systems for one reason or another.  Either in case of a power outage or as a way of getting cleaner and more stable power than they can get from the power lines. 

Whether that’s to run a turntable, streamer or SACD player power still matters.   There’s currently an active thread about buzzing while on audio power so clearly the topic is relevant to many here. 

The main reason for starting this thread was to point out just how incredibly expensive a UPS was for some of this.  Of course, it's not as expensiave as an F-150 truck, but still,  I was not aware until very recently how much better your average battery generator was or a DIY solution.  I think the DIY solution I'm doing is like 10x cheaper per minute of runtime than the average UPS.  

"no internet, no music"? I feel sorry for you guys.

@fatdaddy2 OK, boomer. 

Actually, the warmer it gets, the less efficient solar panels are. Optimal temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. After that, they lose efficiency. If that's what you're talking about!

True, but the more decentralized our power delivery systems are the more resilient they are.   Having a lot of little power stations, including home units, is less likely to collapse during strain than having a few giant one's.  Less fossil fuel and nuclear reliance, plus more jobs.  

Still, I can't say solar is as cheap as I'd like it to be.  I keep hoping to see a massive jump in efficiency.  While batteries are hugely better than they were 10 years ago the solar cells are not. 

@rsa777 That is a pretty sweet setup honestly. 

@fatdaddy2 No Internet, no music.  This site has hundreds of discussions about networking and AC wiring.

@billpete  - Sorry I missed your post earlier.   Personally, an outdoor generator like a Generac or Kohler is out of my budget for now... but, assuming it was not they still have a 10-20 second transfer delay.  I would still need a very small UPS for my networking gear and PCs to ensure uninterrupted usage, such as being on a video call. 

You are on the right track though, having out outdoor generator would greatly diminish the size of UPS or battery back up I need indoors.  At that point, practically any UPS would be big enough to handle my data closet. 

@jwei You bring up a good point.  In 2021 the Great Texas Freeze prompted a run on Ford F-150 trucks for just such a reason.  It seems they feature from 2kW to 7.2kW inverters depending on the model.  Dealers were encouraged to loan them out, I’m sure generating a lot of goodwill.  

Few things wrong with this though.  First, I have a Toyota SUV with a wimpy 120W outlet.  About enough to run a laptop charger.  I did price out putting a 2 kW inverter along with the necessary upgraded inverter, wiring and extra battery needed.  About $1,500 installed I think.  Not a bad option, but about $1,000 more than I want to spend right now.

As for a UPS... too short of a run time  and too long of a charge time.  The EcoFlow battery generators however have terrific charging speeds on 120V.  Anywhere from 1,200 W to 1,800 W of power draw allowing them to recharge fully from 1 to 2 hours.  

In my home what MUST run is about 100W.  I’m not including the fridge or an electric blanket.   At that rate with just my Delta 2 + Battery I’d be out in a day, so pulling them out to the car, or running an extension cord and charging them every day would not be entirely unreasonable. 

I think my final solution is going to be 2 x LiFePO4 batteries with a 500W inverter and battery charger.  Final cost is around $500 for 2 kWh.  This will be in addition to the 2kWh capacity I have in the Ecoflow units.  Of course, if power is out longer than that I’m screwed, and none of this will save my refrigerated food or keep my AC running.  I think I’ll be able to manage a pot of coffee in the morning though. 

PS - My bad.  The Renogy unit I quoted above does NOT include a charger.  I’m rethinking that.  It seems they did have an inverter/charger but not sure if it’s discontinued. 

Unfortunately fossil fuel power is not a great option.  The data closet is furthest away from the outdoors.   I am absolutely in love with the idea of propane powered generators though, the ability to store propane for years is appealing, so long as you can store it away from the main building, which I cannot.   Same of course for gasoline.  I have no separate shed/garage in which storage of those would be safe.   

So overall the solution for me has to fit in the bedroom closet.  

Also would love, in a perfect world where I can afford to buy an ugly ass stainless steel truck an outdoor generator.  The yearly maintenance costs alone are more than my budget. :)  Also, no access to natural gas.  This is an electric only neighborhood.