UPS on household lighting
Please tell me if this is a crazy idea.
I've got a good sized UPS that I'm not using. So I'm toying with routing the power lines that go to my living room lights into a closet in the living room. I would put the line to an outlet and then find a male plug that I could put in the same box. Then power goes into the UPS and out to the lights.
Is this dumb?
Originally Posted By c0t0d0s0:
Please tell me if this is a crazy idea.
I've got a good sized UPS that I'm not using. So I'm toying with routing the power lines that go to my living room lights into a closet in the living room. I would put the line to an outlet and then find a male plug that I could put in the same box. Then power goes into the UPS and out to the lights.
Is this dumb?
Yep. It'll work fine though. I recommend 12v LED lighting through a marine battery instead though.
ETA: it occurs to me that you'd probably violate code by doing this.
If it is a "modified sine" (square) wave, some ballasts do funny things. try before you get permanent.
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft:
If it is a "modified sine" (square) wave, some ballasts do funny things. try before you get permanent.
Good thing to check. Thanks
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft:
If it is a "modified sine" (square) wave, some ballasts do funny things. try before you get permanent.
I did a test yesterday and the UPS ran the fluorescent lights without any problems at all. Now to go permanent.
Thanks for the pointers.
Originally Posted By c0t0d0s0:
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft:
If it is a "modified sine" (square) wave, some ballasts do funny things. try before you get permanent.
I did a test yesterday and the UPS ran the fluorescent lights without any problems at all. Now to go permanent.
Thanks for the pointers.
"UPS ran the fluorescent lights without any problems at all" does not mean they will work together long term.
If the UPS has a non-sinusoidal output it WILL create extra heat in the ballast.
How much heat and how the ballast tolerates the heat is not going to be clear form a short operating period.
Lights rated for use on a dimmer should have a better chance of surviving.
Originally Posted By brickeyee:
Originally Posted By c0t0d0s0:
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft:
If it is a "modified sine" (square) wave, some ballasts do funny things. try before you get permanent.
I did a test yesterday and the UPS ran the fluorescent lights without any problems at all. Now to go permanent.
Thanks for the pointers.
"UPS ran the fluorescent lights without any problems at all" does not mean they will work together long term.
If the UPS has a non-sinusoidal output it WILL create extra heat in the ballast.
How much heat and how the ballast tolerates the heat is not going to be clear form a short operating period.
Lights rated for use on a dimmer should have a better chance of surviving.
Hmmm.....I did not know that.
But, my plan (now) is that my kitchen has two lights. One is a four tube fluorescent and the other is a hanging pendant. I swapped the light in the pendant to a 10watt LED and that will be our primary light during a power outage leaving the fluorescent for when I need a lot of light.
"I swapped the light in the pendant to a 10watt LED"
LED lights have power supplies that may not work well long term on a sloppy UPS output.
Originally Posted By brickeyee:
"I swapped the light in the pendant to a 10watt LED"
LED lights have power supplies that may not work well long term on a sloppy UPS output.
Damn it
What model ups is it?
i would bet the USP will power any of your lights just fine. i use a cheap 400w B&D inverter powered off a marine batt for my back up lights and even the cheap inverter runs my CFL's just fine with no added heat noted. remember, the USP was designed to run "sensitive" electronics in the first place so why would one "assume" it would damage anything with a power supply such as LED's or the ballast for a florescent light? my next project is to build a couple of LED light boxes that run off 18650's i have robbed out of old laptop batteries.
Originally Posted By Foxxz:
What model ups is it?
Good quality APC SmartUPS. I installed it yesterday and it is running without any problems at all. Estimates about 150 minutes on the UPS with just the LED light. Drops to 45 minutes with the fluorescent light.
