WIP Operation : Big UPS/solar backbone.

[enaberif]

You know what the strange thing is.. Company I work for builds these types of UPS systems :P

[BrainEater]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

It's possible to do with the right inverters, it also depends on what you can feed them too. I imagine you're going to have to feed them 3 phase voltage/current if you plan on "plugging them in" ....

Ack sorry no.



Solar panels produce DC.UPS' use DC batteries.A charges B.

As far as conversion to AC goes , 3-phase is not required.....as long as the DC converter(inverter) produces single phase (sinewave) AC you are golden.....The crossover switchgear is prolly 500 $.

Now I *might* not be able to use the ups' as charge controllers , thats cool......but they can provide conversion.If these ups' can handle 15 mins , they *should* do 24/7........But I can build a real inverter from scratch so no big whooop.

This will be a cool experiment !

[Shadowmeph]

what do you need to build an inverter. man all of these projects really make me wish I lived in a house

[BrainEater]

hehe

Power inverter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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So here's the stack... :



The top one is a 3000 VA / 120v unit , that'll power all my rigs.
The bottom two are 220 v units , 4+ kW worth , those will be hooked into the house.

[Arinoth]

Yes, the batteries do use DC, however if you're using the entire UPS system, the UPS system's INPUT is AC, hence you needing to convert it.

The only way around this would be by-passing the UPS, creating your own recharging circuit, which would regret you to regulate the voltage or current depending on the battery, and feeding directly to the batteries.

[BrainEater]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Yes, the batteries do use DC, however if you're using the entire UPS system, the UPS system's INPUT is AC, hence you needing to convert it.

The only way around this would be by-passing the UPS, creating your own recharging circuit, which would regret you to regulate the voltage or current depending on the battery, and feeding directly to the batteries.

See I thought that too...

You just unplug the ups bud.It's a converter then.



edit :

It's whether the ups' can handle that duty cycle.

[Arinoth]

Ah gotcha,

Personally I'd try to skip the UPSes themselves, and just use the batteries. That way you have the straight DC to DC, though you may need to bump up or bump down the voltage depending on what your solar panels output, monitor the amount of current that's trickling in so you don't overheat your batteries by "quick charging it constantly", power inverting it when you want to deliver it back out to AC, and something to monitor/control all this. Unless you have a charging circuit (which the ups has inside of it, or say battery chargers do), you could overcharge your batteries, damaging or possibly making them explode.

Like I've said, I've done this on small scale (except for outputting to AC), so that's why I'm trying to weigh in from my own knowledge/experience with it.

[BrainEater]

Yea the ups' are a big 'iffy' thang , you are right.I'm just trying to capitalize on the really nice ac-dc-ac converters I have.....Might not work at all....

But I should get 'house' UPS outta the deal.

As I said before , This will be fun.



ps...im werking on a diagram.

[Arinoth]

Well I look forward to your train of thoughts on paper and will try to give whatever warnings or thumbs up I can.

[BrainEater]

Hehe...

I've relocated enough lines for 2x 2 phase 60 A + 1x 30A single phase connections and / or a sub-panel.......

I'll be running a custom made cable of my own design.....I'm getting parts together already.

So step 1 is underway.It means a complete cut path through 2 rooms of drywall to run , but thats cool....I'll prolly just do a remote sub-panel and be done with it....



edit :

This is part of an upcoming gallery.....my new proper workshop........Here's a teaser ;



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edit 2 : bleh...can't get a decent pic up sorry , I need my ftp back.