Heads up for UPS users. Last weekend, I purchased a used 500 watt Tripp-lite SMART1000LCD uninterruptable power supply (UPS); the prior owner had helpfully replaced the worn-out 12V/7AH sealed lead acid battery.
Sadly, the replacement battery was "standard", not a High Rate battery, which is needed to provide the 40+ amps a 500 watt load uses. Fortunately, I discovered this while testing before deployment, and rescued the standard-rate battery (SLA) before it boiled off too much electrolyte. The *PROPER* battery for a >200W UPS is a "HIGH RATE" SLA battery. I purchased an Interstate Batteries HSL1079 from their nearby retail store for $49, although Amazon sells them for $40 and sometimes $35. Batteries Plus Bulbs sells a high rate Duracell Ultra Battery (SLAHR12-9FR) for $50. Farther from home, your mileage (ahem) may vary. The standard SLA battery won't be wasted - I probably can power a PC Engines APU and an Ooma internet telephone interface (almost) directly from it, no upconversion to 120VAC and 12V-output wallwarts needed. "almost" meaning a capacitor and regulator, Just In Case. I hope that high rate lithium LiFePO4 batteries and UPS systems will be available when these SLA batteries wear out. Coming up behind them, the next generation will be sodium air batteries - which sound an awful lot like the small bombs we made in the high school chemistry lab. I hope that sodium air UPS units will be terrorist and teenager proof ... which is probably the same hopeless wish. My next "UPS step" will be finding a Debian UPS management package that talks to the USB port on the SMART1000LCD . Before that, migrating my workstation machine from Ubuntu 20.04 to Debian 11 Bullseye. Keith L. -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
