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Winter power cuts and broadband

It does not charge the batteries at all. It's not a charger unfortunately. I use a regular charger for that. And yeah, you can keep the charger connected while it's discharging ;)

and yep, it is pure sinewave. My cheap oscilloscope says it's cleaner than grid power :ROFLMAO:
ah so the socket is just a straight through and the inverter picks up when it detects an outage? Is there a noticeable switch over time?

Forgive me, I tend to dismiss any info on devices, if it appears to come from China! Been bitten too many times with fake claims on technical specifications!
 
ah so the socket is just a straight through and the inverter picks up when it detects an outage? Is there a noticeable switch over time?

Forgive me, I tend to dismiss any info on devices, if it appears to come from China! Been bitten too many times with fake claims on technical specifications!
yes that's right. It has a transfer switch inside electronics don't turn off because it opens/closes in 50 milliseconds so yeah computers / routers don't turn off when the grid dies. And when it swaps back to grid, unnoticeable unless you happen to be sitting next to it and you hear it click.
 
If load shedding/power cuts do come to pass it will be a good test of the relatively new FTTP based infrastructure.
In my area the mobile networks seem to drop out after about 5-10 minutes into a powercut .
I'm also in a so called copper stop sell area, so any prolonged powercut will be a real test to see how people can contact emergency services, or even friends/family for help if the mobile networks are down and they have been upgraded to digital voice/voip service - and thats not the vulnerable

So powercuts, plus no mobile service just how well will FTTP/Voip work when people need to call for help?
 
Of course, if you ever get bored one day. You could, I don't know. Build your own powerwall out of solar and some 18650s :cool: ?

w6n5E0X.jpg
 
According to press reports the government is seriously considering the possibility of power cuts in winter - What a load of rubbish - it won't happen to cut the power off!

Media press can shut up!
 
There are legitimate ways to arrange this, first is an isolation switch between incoming feed and the consumer unit, I have one of these so I can run off a generator. Then you need either an inverter than has an off grid setting
You can also get a hybrid inverter with a second AC output, which is always-on even if the grid connection is down. Connect this to a second consumer unit, and you can drive one 16A socket circuit and one 6A lighting circuit from it.

In some ways this is better than continuously powering the whole house, because in the event of an outage you don't have to run around like a headless chicken turning everything off to preserve the battery run time.

Aside: for general-purpose portable power there are some nice hand-held power banks with AC output available (e.g. Jackery Explorer). And if it's only router and ONT power you're interested in, a 12V DC UPS without inverter may be all you need.
 
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According to press reports the government is seriously considering the possibility of power cuts in winter - What a load of rubbish - it won't happen to cut the power off!

Media press can shut up!
Clearly you are too young to remember the last time we had rolling powercuts in the winter of discontent. The available margin of power production to consumption is low, a couple of years ago it was stated to be around 5%. You may find this of interest
 
This is just to literally keep my and my family online. It powers a virgin media router, a PoE switch that runs my CCTV cameras, two wireless access points and my laptop. I can run on that battery shown for about 4 hours with all of that. Of course I can just bolt on another one if I need more (and I will be doing that pretty soon - already ordered the extra batts)

I had also thought about buying another one for the fridge/freezer because we have a lot of power issues here regardless of present market conditions. They also make a 3000W one.
Can you recommend any resources for people willing to build something similar, but which are close to clueless where electricity is concerned?
 
If you're planning to buy a battery power station, such as one from Jackery or ALLPOWERS etc., then I suspect now may be the best time to do so. If recent reports are followed in a month or two by more warnings, then I'm sure the demand and price will shoot up.
 
You can build yourself a UPS really cheap to be honest. I use a renogy UPS inverter. It plugs into batteries and the mains and swaps to batteries in the event the mains dies. Waaaaaay cheaper than the likes of Powerwalls and Jackery/ecoflow

mqiheyS.jpg
I've got something similar to use but with a 100Ah battery and a 2000 watt inverter plus have the option to switch over and then feed the output into the house. Whilst it can't run any heavy loads, it's more than enough for lighting (all LED) and running the central heating pump/fridge freezer and TV or computers. Once power is back the battery can be charged up again ready for the next blackout.

Lithium phosphate batteries are expensive but safe (no out gassing and they don't catch fire like lithium ion), can be deep cycled without much issue thousands of times, and hold their charge when not being used, they also don't weigh as much.

I don't see gas being turned off, simply because of the dangers it poses when gas is then turned back on, so they will ask industry to stop using gas and power cuts will mean residential gas consumption is also reduced due to boilers not being able to work without power.

I agree though, there is a generation of people that are going to be completely lost without their gadgets and Wi-Fi. Maybe they will look up from their smart phones and see what they've been missing.
 
I agree though, there is a generation of people that are going to be completely lost without their gadgets and Wi-Fi. Maybe they will look up from their smart phones and see what they've been missing.
Depends what’s prioritised in terms of load shedding, but large ‘non-critical’ loads will be requested nicely / asked (read hefty penalties) to step down their demand first to create a buffer if we’re too close capacity wise.

Emergency / unscheduled / unannounced load shedding would be far more problematic and the consequences more unpredictable - especially supply chains for distribution for things like food and groceries. But I don’t think most folks think or even understand the full consequences if the grid becomes unstable - it’s pretty bad and whole grid recovery from full system blackout can be very, very problematic indeed.

More worried about the consequences of that than my kids not being able to game for a few hours.
 
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Can you recommend any resources for people willing to build something similar, but which are close to clueless where electricity is concerned?
To search for local qualified electricians who can sign it off for Part P build regs


But not all will be up to speed on Solar installations so you will need to ask.

To get a scheme then possibly


but will still need a sign off by lecky guy.
 
Can you recommend any resources for people willing to build something similar, but which are close to clueless where electricity is concerned?
you could try secondlifestorage. But if you want I can help you build one / pick parts. Just PM me.
 
Emergency / unscheduled / unannounced load shedding would be far more problematic and the consequences more unpredictable - especially supply chains for distribution for things like food and groceries. But I don’t think most folks think or even understand the full consequences if the grid becomes unstable - it’s pretty bad and whole grid recovery from full system blackout can be very, very problematic indeed.

More worried about the consequences of that than my kids not being able to game for a few hours.
It was bad enough in the last office I worked in if a breaker tripped or the one time we had a power cut. As soon as the breaker was switched back on, (or the power came back on), then the breaker would immediately trip again due to the sudden extra power draw of every bit of kit starting up at the same time. So we had to go around switching everything off first. On a wide scale or national black out, getting the grid back on again would be a big task, and something never yet tried.
 
More and more scaremongering. This winter won't be power cut. Trust me!

At present, I think there's a higher probability of gas rationing than deliberate electricity cuts (although a lot of electric comes from gas generators), but with major operators saying the chance of the latter is "not unlikely" - given some very credible problems in the UK and Europe right now - then it is at least reasonable to be concerned.

Likewise, there was no shortage of people in December 2019 and January 2020 saying all the talk about a threat from COVID-19 was scaremongering. So as much as I'd like to trust a relatively anonymous internet poster's thoughts on the subject :cool:, a part of me will also keep an eye on what the energy operators and relevant government departments are saying - while lending greater credibility to any identifiable experts in the field.

But I hope you're right, and I think that goes for everybody else too.
 
This is just to literally keep my and my family online. It powers a virgin media router, a PoE switch that runs my CCTV cameras, two wireless access points and my laptop. I can run on that battery shown for about 4 hours with all of that. Of course I can just bolt on another one if I need more (and I will be doing that pretty soon - already ordered the extra batts)

I had also thought about buying another one for the fridge/freezer because we have a lot of power issues here regardless of present market conditions. They also make a 3000W one.
Just watched a youtube video. The Renogy 3000W seems to have 25A output only so it can't drive a portable air con (rated 1050W), another brand shown in video doesn't have such issue and can output 68A.

 
Just watched a youtube video. The Renogy 3000W seems to have 25A output only so it can't drive a portable air con (rated 1050W), another brand shown in video doesn't have such issue and can output 68A.

In the UK @ 240 volt then 3000 watts is the equivalent of about 12.5 amps output, but on 120 volt systems it would be approx 25 amps. At 12 volt input, the input current at 3000 watts would be in excess of 250 amps so you need very thick cables and a very big battery or 3 x 100 amp hour batteries in parallel, as typically a 100 amp hour battery is rated for a maxium of 100 amps which it can supply for 1 hour.

This issue is how much surge current the inverter can provide and is the 12 volt supply stable. When something like the aircon is turned on, it draws a lot of juice for a split second whilst the compressor is starting up. The Renogy 3000 watt inverter is rated for 6000 watts of surge power, so should be enough. It could be a number of issues, voltage drop on the input triggering a low voltage disconnect due to wires not being thick enough on the 12 volt side, to just some odd incompatibility.
 
Just watched a youtube video. The Renogy 3000W seems to have 25A output only so it can't drive a portable air con (rated 1050W), another brand shown in video doesn't have such issue and can output 68A.

Odd. he shows it running a 2200W kettle but It wouldn't run his 1100W AC for some reason? (I'm guessing it spiked/surges but the kettle doesn't). There are people on amazon saying they've run 3000W kettles on it etc. But yeah good to know, I only have the 1000W one and it will run everything I tried on it that was < 1000W.

25A at 12V would be 250, did you mean 250A ?

Edit: Interesting comment on the video on YT:

"

Tony Yu
6 months ago
So, unfortunately your model doesn’t contain the high output terminals that are found in western ones. Looks like a limitation in the design of the unit you have and also the specification of the “3000W continuous” is more of a marketing note obviously under very specific circumstances.

"

I did wonder with him being in AUS ? if he has a different spec one to UK/EU.

and another comment:

Solution is get a renogy 3000 watt with the high output a/c terminal block like mine has and run 10/2 wire that can support the 25 amp output to a breaker box and run individual breakers to 20 amp outlets. This will allow you to run a full 20 amps on any one circuit and a full 25 amps over the entire system at the same time. That is how I had to set mine up in order to run my a/c in my off grid tiny house.
 
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