Agreed. In particular I've tried to use EcoFlow for this task and none have ever survived a year in service. Some got an initial repair, but all failed again just out of warranty and ended up discarded.
-Dorn On Tue, Apr 8, 2025 at 7:57 AM Mel Beckman via NANOG <[email protected]> wrote: > ic, > > Alas, although some of these units advertise this capability, they don’t > reliably operate this way. I’ve tried several brands as solar-charged UPSes > at remote radio antenna sites, and all eventually failed within just a > couple months of the batteries didn’t make it through a long gray spell. > > In my experience, they may initially work as a UPS for a few power outage > cycles, but then suddenly fail permanently with burned components. Some > vendors actually say operating as a UPS — drawing power while charging — > voids the warranty, despite appearing to work. > > For mission-critical operations, it’s best to use a name-brand > self-contained UPS designed for the purpose. In a small space you won’t get > more than an hour or two of runtime, but that’s the physics we’re stuck > with at this time. > > -mel via cell > > > On Apr 8, 2025, at 5:30 AM, ic via NANOG <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > >> On 6 Apr 2025, at 20:55, Mike Hammett via NANOG <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> I'm trying to find something that keeps my customer's network gear > online for a meaningful amount of time. The challenge is that an ONT, > firewall, switch, AP, and some IP phones doesn't add up to be very much > load. Most normal UPSes get terribly inefficient at lower load ratings. Add > up all of the network devices a customer may have and we rarely break 50 > watts of load. Normal, small UPSes are lucky to break 50% efficiency at > those loads whereas they may be 95% efficient at say 100 or 200 watts. Get > a bigger unit with a bigger battery and now you're even less efficient. Get > a big enough unit to have extendable batteries and now you're spending > thousands of dollars for such a small request. > >> > >> I've gone asking, but haven't really gotten anywhere. The best > technical solution was from some electronics parts nerds that was basically > to build my own small rectifier and battery system. Great. I can achieve > high efficiencies with small loads, letting me have say 4 or 8 hours of > battery. However, I've got a science project, not something I can deploy at > a customer. > >> > >> I'm hoping one of you has the magic bullet in what product a service > provider should use in this scenario. > >> > >> Oh, and of course, being able to centrally manage them from my own iron > would be great too. :-) > > > > For places which are not proper IT cabinets, I’d go with something like > https://us.ecoflow.com/ - most (if not all) support charging while output > is on, and you get the extra benefit of being able to add a solar panel if > you want to. > > > > Not sure about the efficiency though. > > > > BR, ic > > > > _______________________________________________ > > NANOG mailing list > > > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/HSXYBNXQYRSDQXQSXEOAEC2VJQRISP2E/ > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/TLTIGR224VSY73UCGVION526TWS564WG/ _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/JYNYJEERJ5PUCOXXQZU7ALRGMHFYXN2X/
