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Monday, April 9, 2012

UPS with dead batteries reborn as a whole-house power backup - FrankenUPS - Imgur

Good Step by Step with Pics...

Don

FrankenUPS

I took an off the shelf APC rack mount UPS and modified it for direct wiring into the "critical" subpanel in my house. Critical being all electronics and some lighting. Here's the UPS page: http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SU3000R3BX120

FrankenUPS

Top view.

FrankenUPS

Here is a picture of the rear of the SmartUPS

FrankenUPS

Note the 4 duplex receptacles on the right. Their days are numbered. The SmartUPS needs to be stripped down for this project since the battery compartment is no longer needed, so we'll start with the management card. The card is easily removed, and the slot it plugs into just snaps out of the case. There is also a ribbon cable that'll need to be unplugged from the main board of the SmartUPS. Put this aside until later.

FrankenUPS

The next thing to do is to remove the 4 duplex receptacles mentioned earlier and their mounting plate. They are connected to the main board via the yellow 4 position(hot) and a 3 position plug(neutral).

FrankenUPS

Here's a view of the rear of the SmartUPS with the management card & receptacles removed

FrankenUPS

I then marked the connectors and slid the old, dead batteries out of the case, so they can be thrown into Lake Hopatcong per EPA and DEP regulations at a later time

FrankenUPS

Note: Capacitors hold a charge for a while. I forgot about this, and blasted one of the cable ends after I removed it from the battery connector. Don't do this. :) It can damage the SmartUPS

Read More and see all Pics...
http://imgur.com/a/FJ3X9