Yes you can leave them in an apartment. They are designed to be contained inside sealed vehicles that sit outside in the sun all day in oven-like temperatures. Like I said, as long as you don't over-discharge the cells or over-charge them, they are probably some of the most robust lithium cells you can get.
-
@Maleko48
I saw the link with what you posted. So i would need how many of these? 1 or 2? Do you know how many hours one would last for? So basically i can put it in apartment, then when i need to use it, i use it like that right? Does the power wear out if you don't touch it for a while?
Okay so i would need to buy this. But what other things would i need? I do not have a car or vehicle. I also don't have any tools... yes i have no tools.
Do you know if there are places whether computer shops or wherever that could do this for you? I know this is DIY but i cannot do any of these as this is way beyond my skill level.
Also im curious but something else. What else could you connect to it and what can you not connect to it?
Could you connect say a lamp to it? Just curious. -
Okay so i just tried testing my cyberpower 1500va to see how long it takes and last if my laptop has a low battery. Since i posted that i bought the UPS, i have not even used it besides testing it 1 time only on my other laptop to try it but didn't do any real test.
So i did not have it plugged to the wall outlet as i haven't used it. First thing i noticed was when i connected my laptop ac charger to it when my laptop was like 10%.... my laptop battery gets max 1h10m. I noticed there was a double beeping sound. It keep doing that over and over again when it was charging my laptop. It basically made 2 beeping sounds like every 15 seconds. There is a mute button on the ups and i clicked it... did not work. So i then unplugged my ac laptop charger from the UPS. Then i connected the ac laptop charger to the UPS. Thus that is what ppl say to do even if you don't use the UPS. Like just have your laptop connected to it at all times... even though I thought that was foolish since i haven't needed it.
But right now, there is no beeping sound at all. So right now... im charging my laptop through the UPS right? But if i don't need to charge it through the UPS as i have no power outage, aren't i using the battery life of the UPS though? Thus thats why i always have my laptop ac charger connected to a surge protector that is connected to outlet to charge itr.
The thing that makes no sense is why is it keep beeping? I checked cyperpower site and they say beeping is to let you know the UPS is on battery power. Well... yea that is when i would be using it. Because if not, i wouldn't have it connected to it all the time as im not using a desktop or connecting tvs to it.
But this ups should not be beeping right? Because if there is power outage, well the UPS connected to the wall outlet means no power will come to it. And when i connect my laptop to it, it should not beep right? Its beeping every 15 seconds 2 times. -
I bought this UPS about 3 months ago. I never used it once for my laptop fully as there has been no power outage.
I did not have it plugged into the wall out for almost 2.5 or 3 months. I just did not leave it plugged in before i didn't think you had to do that.
I just noticed my battery was at 62% or so when i checked the settings. So if you don't have the UPS connected to the outlet at all times, it drains the battery? I just read a few articles now that if you don't keep the UPS charged, that the lifespan of a UPS can be only 1.5 months to 2 years? I had no idea of this. I thought the more you use it or have it plugged in.. the more faster it wears out.
So does this mean i should always have it plugged to the wall outlet if i have nothing connected to it? And most importantly, do i need the UPS turned on as well? I ask this because im not going to be in my apartment for a while so I don't want to cause any more damage to it. I haven't had it plugged into outlet for over 2.5 months already. So if you leave it unplugged for more than 3 months or longer, it can stop working? This is something i had no idea of.
Can someone tell me what i need to do here with my UPS to prevent further damage if i didn't do enough battery? -
tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...
@Drew1, you're using the UPS wrong.
Plug it in and leave it plugged into the AC. Plug your notebook into it to charge that system up too (can't hurt).
The UPS' batteries will not deteriorate unless there is a power outage and a load is placed on them (repeated many, many times, of course). Even when they do, simply replace the cells for 1/20th of the cost of the USP in 5+ years time.
The UPS is made to filter the power given to devices plugged into it, doing that doesn't deplete the battery...
Plug in the UPS to the AC power, turn it on, plug in your external monitor, notebook's power adaptor, etc. and anything else you want it to 'protect'.
When the power goes out, it will be there fully charged up to allow you to either shut down your equipment safely or, use it until the internal batteries are depleted; if that is what your use case requires.
Having a UPS (unplugged from AC) and simply using it to power equipment when you have no power is not the way this is meant to be used. -
Felix_Argyle Notebook Consultant
Yes, UPS is meant to be always connected to AC power, or it will drain its batteries even if it is off. And it is not meant to be as a source of power to power laptop or PC for a long time, it is meant to allow graceful shutdown to PC or laptop in case of long blackout or to let them run if the blackout is very short (a few minutes or so).
If you need a source of power to run your laptop for several hours when power is not available - use a Lithium battery-powered power source, it will have higher battery capacity, will be more efficient (most UPS units are not very efficient and waste significant amount of power as heat when using battery) and will be more lightweight if you will need to move it around. There is a company which makes such power sources: https://www.goalzero.com/
Even with such power source, it MUST be always connected to AC power if you want a 100% of battery power, or the batteries will start to drain even if it is off.tilleroftheearth likes this. -
Hi thanks for response. Well i did not have it plugged in to wall outlet for almost 3 months. What i did was when i first got it, i charged it about 8 hours as in the instruction. Then i unplugged it from wall outlet. My thoughts were hey if i don't need it, why not just leave it unplugged? I thought besides that, well i heard there are higher electricity costs though that isn't a big issue for me. But my thoughts were... hey i can use it like a dell power companion powerbank. Basically just have it there and connect to it when power outage. Thats how i use the dell power companion.
But with the UPS, i recalled connecting it to my laptop to do a small test. I didn't tested just for maybe 25 minutes or so but not my main laptop but on like my lightweight laptop. But after that, i haven't used it in months.
And just recently, i connected it to wall outlet and notice it was at 62% battery. Then after charging it to 100% after like 2 hours, i notice moment i unplugged it, it did that 2 beep every 30 seconds. I did read that is normal to let you know the ups is on battery power. But im pretty certain when i plugged it into my lightweight laptop months ago... it made no beeping sound... and im pretty sure i unconnected UPS from outlet... not 100% sure on this.
Well what i did was connect my ups to wall outlet now Im not in my apartment and wont be for a while. So is it possible the battery could get back to normal or because it was not connected for months, the battery is no good? My main concern is when i had it charged for a bit over 2 hours, the moment i unplugged the UPS, besides the 2 beeping over and over, the battery drained to 96, 95 etc to 93%... and kept going at a rapid rate. So its either... battery is gone bad... or maybe its because i did not give it the full 8 hour plus of charging it? What i did remember was when i first got the UPS, i charged it while it was not powered on.
I could do a test on the cyberpower 1500va to see how much of the battery is drained right? Similar to like a battery test of my laptop? Okay so if it did went bad... the replacement batteries for this does not cost that much? You say it cost 1/20th of the UPS price and that sounds very cheap... but from checking online... it seems like a replacement battery for this UPS is 30 dollars or more? Is that fair to say? I'm not sure how you got 1/20th of UPS cost as this UPS is around 150-180 dollras... that would mean the batter would cost less than 10 dollars...which i don't think its possible?
But i have to buy it off like amazon mexico or similar because im not in the US when i use this product. Electronics are much more expensive but if it doesn't cost more than 60 dollars, thats fine for me. I don't want to spend another 225 dollars or more for another one. Also is it easy to install the battery? Im not tech savy at all.
Also i thought of something else. If you buy these replacement batteries... say you bought 2 of them. If you don't charge them within a week or more, wouldn't they lose its charge? But that won't make sense since well its in stock until its sold? Or is there something in the packaging which protects against that?
I checked out goal zero site. But all those products... you cannot keep it inside the apartment right and use it inside?Last edited by a moderator: Sep 29, 2019 -
-
Felix_Argyle Notebook Consultant
And yes, you can keep them inside apartment, they are just large batteries with inverter, just like UPS units. -
I just looked through most products on the goal zero site. So basically one those products that say portable power station is allowed to be kept inside apartment and used inside apartment right?
Like these? Also they certainly have enough power for a laptop like xps 15 9550?
You can only get these in the US?
https://www.goalzero.com/shop/power-stations/goal-zero-yeti-150-portable-power-station/
https://www.goalzero.com/shop/power-stations/goal-zero-yeti-400-portable-power-station/ -
Felix_Argyle Notebook Consultant
If they don't ship to your country you can always buy similar stations on Aliexpress.
Backup Laptop Power for Power Outages
Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Drew1, Apr 24, 2019.