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ryanm
Senior Member

Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 202

Posted: 12:09pm 05 Mar 2016

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Hi All,

I'm on a rural property in QLD with a SWER line. We have intermittent power interruptions from a few seconds every few weeks to a few hours or days during the storm season. I was thinking about putting in a Giant Power IPS to act as a UPS system for the entire house with a standby generator.

http://www.giantpower.com.au/giant-power-48v-4000w-integrated-power-system

I was wondering if anyone has any good or bad experiences with this brand or particular product. My main concern is that it is so cheap compared to it's functionality.

Also since the batteries will never be discharged to any significant depth as the generator will kick in, I see no point in going with more expensive deep cycle batteries when normal 'cranking' batteries will be cheaper?

VK6MRG

Guru

Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 347

Posted: 07:25pm 06 Mar 2016

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Hi Ryan,
Have a look at my setup here http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8263&PN=1

Don't bother with normal car batteries, you will kill them very quickly. The 125 Ah batteries I have are way too small and if I could do over I'd get the 280Ah as a minimum. You'll also need more solar panels. I have just purchased another 3 300 watt panels to add to the 6 300 watt panels that I got with the system.
Ask around the grid connected solar installers and see if you can get second hand panels cheap .
Also you maybe better off asking Glenn if he can move this thread over to the solar section of the forum as there are a lot of people who maybe able to shed some light on what you're looking for.

And to answer your question, I would highly recommend the Giant Power IPS system. Mine is set up as a ups in my home until I get some time to install it in my shed on my hobby block later this year.

Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission!

............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............

ryanm
Senior Member

Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 202

Posted: 07:56pm 06 Mar 2016

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Thanks for the reply.

I think there's been some miscommunication, I never mentioned any solar panels in my post. The house is grid powered and I'm going to use the GP IPS as a failsafe for when the grid drops out. The batteries only need to power the house for a few minutes. After that a 7.5KW standby generator will kick in and start charging the batteries again.

Solar panels would be nice in the future to reduce the bill, but I'm just looking for reliable power as a first step.

VK6MRG

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Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 347

Posted: 07:21pm 07 Mar 2016

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OK, Sorry about the mix up.
But I would still recommend the Giant Power IPS to use as a UPS.
But like I said above, I would invest in decent fit for purpose deep cycle batteries up front and save the disappointment that you will have using car/truck batteries.

Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission!

............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............

ryanm
Senior Member

Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 202

Posted: 07:25pm 07 Mar 2016

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Do you have any experience with the <10ms changeover time? Is that safe for desktop computers and other household electronics? Will flouro lights stay on or will they go out and have to start again?

VK6MRG

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Joined: 08/06/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 347

Posted: 10:29pm 08 Mar 2016

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Hi ryanm,
I have never seen a flicker from my flouro's and my PC's have never had a problem when change over occurs. The IPS is in an enclosure which I have next to my deck/workbench, so I can hear it change over but I don't see anything to suggest it has do so.

Regards,
Matthew

Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission!

............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............

yahoo2

Guru

Joined: 05/04/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 1166

Posted: 04:28pm 09 Mar 2016

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the victron quattro has some nice features you might be interested in, plus a nice heavy torroid transformer.

there are two ac inputs and two ac outputs and a quite reasonable inbuilt charger.

I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...

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