Battery Backup For Laptop When Power Outage?

paulyjustin · 28 Jun 2019

Hi there. Okay but isn't car battery or power generator not going to work for me in my situation then? I mentioned that i'm in a studio apartment... not like a house where i have a backyard etc. So because of that, none of these things would work for me then right?

If i can't keep it in my studio apartment, then i assume none of this would work?

So isn't my only options are UPS or more power companions? Because that is what it seems to be the case from what ppl are saying. So for the UPS, any one have advice on which one to get? I want to get 1 UPS right now and test it out to see how many hours i get out of it. With the dell power companion, gives me about 2h30m. Of course if i get 2 more of those, that would give me another 5 hours. But how much would a 1350V/810W UPS give me? I assume no matter what in terms of price, the power companion would always give me more right? The UPS would cost me around $200 USD because where im located, electronics are much more expensive than in the US.

CountMike · 28 Jun 2019

Have a spare car battery and place to put it ? That and a Power inverter should be able to run a laptop and some peripherals for days.
Power inverter - Wikipedia
3000 Watt Power Inverter Reviews >> Invertpro

lx07 · 28 Jun 2019

You asked this question last October. Did you do anything yet or just chat about it for 9 months?

Perhaps if you rephrased your question to something that is answerable you might do better but the answer is no. Backing up your laptop in case of random powercuts with lots of powerbanks is just stupid.

You can't and even if you worked out how it would be a pointlessly expensive way to do it.

Buy a petrol generator and a few spare cans of fuel.

Berton · 28 Jun 2019

In light of what I read in this thread I'd get a deep-cycle battery such as used in boats and RVs plus a trickle charger for it then connect a 12Volt to 120Volt inverter/converter to it. I'd store it in a utility or seldom used room and get a little fancier by adding a timing mechanism between the commercial power and the trickle charger and run a few hours every day. Most Notebooks need about 45W, 65W or 90W power to charge the battery within them. But while shopping check all the warnings/cautions on them. Full charging can produce a gas during the process.

paulyjustin · 28 Jun 2019

If i buy a car battery, where can i store it? I'm in a studio apartment. I thought this can't be done already.

lx, how is having multiple powerbanks stupid? Someone in another forum said he has like 2 of the dell ones and love it... i think he has the same one as me and says it 2 of these would last 5 hours for me. For him, i guess its much longer since his dell is probably not a quad core. Well the last time i posted, I did buy a dell power companion that has 18000mah and is 65W. It cost me around 125 dollars or so from dell's site. This gives me 2h30m of backup. So to me that is decent. Well i thought if i buy 2 more of these, it would cost 250 dollars... thus then i would have 2h30 x 3 powerbanks = 7h30m of backup. Then i have my laptop battery which is around 1h15m so i have a bit more than 8h30m of backup. So im confused why you say this is ridiculous?

Well buying 3 of them for $375 is definitely a lot of money but if it gives me this much backup power, that is pretty good. I already have 1 that i bought. Also remember i mentioned i play online poker... so if my power goes out and i have no power backup, im going to be down a few hundred dollars each time assuming i cannot connect to any poker source. This cost me money. Imagine where in a tournament you have lot of chips and there are only x amount of players left where 1st place is like 3000 dollars. Then you want have no power so you going to lose no matter what. Its even worst compared to someone who works an online teaching job or something like that where if they can't connect, they don't get paid. For me, i would lose my buyins at the tables. Imagine you buyin to something online for a few hundred dollars, then no power. You lose all you buyins.

I guess i can use an example this. Say you play chess tournaments online for real money and play a bunch of chess tournaments at once. I dont know much about chess and if you can even play online with money but imagine you play lot of them where each tournament cost you $30 and you playing like 5 of them. Then you run out of power while you are playing in all of them. You automatically lose your $150 because you going to run out of time. But the point is not only that, let say some chess tournaments you are playing are lot of players and say there are over 500 players or more where 1st place is in the thousands or more. Well if you run out of power, well you are going to basically forfeit. And all you chips at the table is taken from you. I don't want to explain it in terms of poker as most ppl probably don't understand it .

Petrol generator and fuel... can i keep this in my studio apartment or not? And use it when necessary?

Well in my building, we do have this room on the 1st floor where lot of things are stored there. Its like a storage room so to speak. Imagine brooms and paint and a ton of things like that. Would it be possible to put a power generator or inverter there? The thing is i could ask the person in charge if i could keep something there... i think there is a good chance they would allow it because i been in this building for a while already and then ask for the key such as i could go open it and take that equipment out when necessary.

Thoughts on that? But that room, it gets accessed almost everyday because when there is cleaning done, the maid goes there to take things out. Also when there is paint job or anything like that, they go and get things from there.

Megahertz · 28 Jun 2019

A UPS has three main parts :
- A rectifier to convert the AC into DC
- A battery to store energy
- A Inverter to convert the DC into AC

Fist step: You need to find out what you want to power with the UPS.
For example, you want to power a Laptop (50W) and a monitor (80W) so your UPS should be at least around 250W, that is a small UPS.

Second step: For how long you need the UPS. For example, if you want it to last 8 hours, you will need at least 250W x 8h = 2000Wh.
If the battery on the UPS is 12V, you need to attach a 2000/12 = 160Ah (two large car batteries).
Once discharged it can take days to recharge as the built in rectifier is designed for a low capacity battery.

CountMike · 29 Jun 2019

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Try3 · 29 Jun 2019

Pauly,

I've been keeping out of this because I know nothing about UPS. I do, however, have ~~two~~ significant observations -
1 If you use a petrol generator in your flat your neighbours will kill you if the exhaust fumes you'll be breathing in have not already done the job for them.
2 A "wet cell" battery that has ventilation holes such as many car batteries can generate fumes so you would have to buy suitable ventilation equipment for your personal protection and for the protection of your ceiling & walls & everything else in your apartment. Deleted - not a valid observation

I saw earlier discussions about getting an entirely solid state solution [a conventional UPS designed for indoor use containing a solid state battery that is charged by the mains AC power and that then powers your electrical supply]. It does seem to me that this is better than getting additional powerbanks because a UPS can enable you to keep using your external monitor[s] as well as the laptop whereas the powerbank will just enable you to use the laptop.

You will have a cost-benefit comparison to do.
- In order to compare them, you will need to find out the total capacity in Whrs {Watt hours} of the UPS/powerbank battery concerned plus the capacity of your internal battery and the power consumption of your computer & your monitor[s] in Watts.
- You cannot use any battery capacity that is specified in Ahrs [Amphrs, Ah] or mAHrs without also knowing what current [Amps] it outputs and that can vary depending on which output connection is in use so it can be difficult to decide if insufficient data is provided.
- Your equipment will last on battery for the number of hours calculated by total capacity [WHrs] divided by the total power consumption [W].
- Your laptop's power consumption is probably specified in your manual or on a label on its bottom. If not then assume it is as big as the power passed on by your existing AC power adapter [which will be an overestimate].
- Your monitor's / monitors' power comsumption will also be on a label and in its manual.

Denis

jimbo45 · 29 Jun 2019

Hi there

these things are perfectly safe for keeping in flats /apartments/condos etc--those "emergency" car starter things with things like built in lights etc -- they are perfectly sealed and can be stored anywhere safely -- they charge up on a standard 12V AC power adapter (included) and will power a laptop for much longer than you would need it for --1800mAh so hours for your laptop

I've used this a lot in Winter -- where I am in Winter starting cars out in the cold isn't always an easy process !!!!

Battery Backup For Laptop When Power Outage?-batt.png

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TACKLIFE-St...88500013&psc=1

Cheers
jimbo

Try3 · 29 Jun 2019

And jimbo has helpfully provided an excellent example -
1 This 'battery' can be charged and used indoors according to the info in the Amazon product page.
2 This 'battery' is not necessarily designed for the job you envisage - study the specs & the questions & the user reviews and you'll see comments about it only being designed for high load, short duration outputs. I'm only going by the Amazon product page. @jimbo45 will know better as he has the manual for it.
3 The power capacity is specified as 18000mAh but there are multiple outputs so you do not know at which output voltage/current this rating applies**. Only by knowing the output voltage or output current at which this rating was calculated can the figure become meaningful.
4 As far as I can see from the Amazon product page, this item does not provide the output voltage your computer needs. Mine needs 19.5V*** and yours needs whatever its specs say it needs [but I believe it is the same]. So this item is an interesting item for discussion but not a solution to your needs.

** If you recall, this was the same misleading 18000mAh specification that our Dell powerbanks used but, as it turned out, this figure applied to the 5V USB output not the 19.5V output to the computer so, for our purposes, it was misleading.
- Our powerbanks hold 65Wh and it is that figure that can be used to assess the duration for which it can power a computer.
- I no longer believe that that computer magazine review we saw actually conducted the tests that they claimed or they would not have said they could play videos for 13 hours [or whatever that figure was].
- My computer battery holds 56Wh so the ~~18000mAh~~ 65Wh powerbank can fully charge the battery once with a little bit left over as we have both since discovered. The fact that my battery is 3500mAh is irrelevant without also considering its voltage output.

{*** For the benefit of others reading this thread, the Dell powerbank supplies 19.5V and connects to the AC power input socket on the computer. It both powers the computer & charges its integral battery.}

Denis