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Backup inverter

Featured Replies

CyberPower - if you can still get.

APC also an option.

Axpert ... seriously, no joke, a very good UPS.

24 minutes ago, Buzz Solar said:

Axpert really? That's good to know. I see them for sale on sustainable.co.za, but a little expensive. Anyone else sell them?

Yes, really. 🙂

We don't buy from Sustainable ... they are a wee bit expensive. 

IT companies sell them a lot. 

13 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

We don't buy from Sustainable ... they are a wee bit expensive. 

I may have changed my mind on that. You see, someone explained to me that they deliver. So a proper comparison has to factor in delivery for the other guys. But yeah, they are usually around 20% more than the rest of the guys.

Must say, first time i ever heard someone call an Axpert expensive... 🙂

It's a decent UPS. Much better quality than most of the other Chinese stuff we get.

42 minutes ago, plonkster said:

It's a decent UPS. Much better quality than most of the other Chinese stuff we get.

Funny how we, the Blue team, are the ones who are the first on the scene to promote Axperts as a good UPS ... and we don't even own one. 🙂 

43 minutes ago, plonkster said:

So a proper comparison has to factor in delivery for the other guys.

Jip, I keep that in mind as most place we tend to frequent, incl deliveries.

1 minute ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Funny how we, the Blue team, are the ones who are the first on the scene to promote Axperts as a good UPS ... and we don't even own one. 🙂 

For me it is real simple. Just be fair. It's not the crappiest thing in the world, but it is also far from the best thing you can buy. It's the best house in a bad neighbourhood, in real-estate jargon. It's a Mahindra Bollero in bakkie terminology. It's a Ryobi in power tools terminology. It will get the job done for as long as it lasts. If you don't use it much, it will last a long time. As a UPS, it won't work as hard as a 24/7 solar setup.

When I go to church on Sunday, I'll take the OTHER bakkie though!

My elderly mother wants me to make her a back-up system for power outages. I was thinking of a 6kw lithium battery (oversized I know) with an inverter / charger. No solar. It only needs to power her tv, decoder, desktop pc and a few 10w led lights. Does these Axpert inverters have a build in battery charger, or must I buy an additional battery charger. I was thinking of a 3kva unit. Also what model should I be looking at. I will also look at more expensive inverter / chargers, if you can refer me to a model / make. Obviously it needs to work when the municipal feed is down.

33 minutes ago, Cor said:

Does these Axpert inverters have a build in battery charger,

Yes. And a solar charger, but you can just ignore that and configure it for only utility charging.

The manufacturer of the Axperts is Voltronic Power, and they also make pure UPSs, perhaps with a small battery built in. They might be more convenient and cheaper, if you can source them. Perhaps check Ebay or similar. Ebay seller maximum_solar has MPPSolar products, which are genuine Voltronic Power products with their name on it.

I have no experience with UPS products, so I don't know the quality compared to Axperts.

Edited by Coulomb
Small battery built in

2 hours ago, Cor said:

I was thinking of a 6kw lithium battery (oversized I know) with an inverter / charger. No solar. It only needs to power her tv, decoder, desktop pc and a few 10w led lights.

If I was you, start with a smaller lithium battery, and see it work first. You can always add a 2nd one later.

It is of no use spending the monies only to find years later it was all wasted i.e. battery was never really "used" to it's full potential.

Lithiums allow you that awesome feature to add more batteries as any time you want.

 

1 hour ago, Coulomb said:

... , perhaps with a small battery built in.

On UPS'es, the ones with the small batteries, are ideally for for 5-15min run-times to switch things off in that time. 

Yes you can add battery packs sometimes but that can become quite expensive and still not have the expected run-time of 4-8 hours.

Very basic bare bones rule of thumb on UPS'es: Unless the UPS has a large charger, 20amps or bigger, they are really designed for long run times.

  • Author
9 hours ago, Cor said:

My elderly mother wants me to make her a back-up system for power outages. I was thinking of a 6kw lithium battery (oversized I know) with an inverter / charger. No solar. It only needs to power her tv, decoder, desktop pc and a few 10w led lights. Does these Axpert inverters have a build in battery charger, or must I buy an additional battery charger. I was thinking of a 3kva unit. Also what model should I be looking at. I will also look at more expensive inverter / chargers, if you can refer me to a model / make. Obviously it needs to work when the municipal feed is down.

It really depends on how many hours you expect to need the battery power - 5 hours? 1 hour? How big is the tv and is it energy efficient? Your PC desktop has a motor in it so will require more power than you would think - would be cheaper to buy a new laptop than to buy power for the desktop.

 

For lithium, it depends on type. If it's li-ion, stay away - way too volatile. If it's lithium Ferrous, (LiFePO) it really depends on brand, and the good ones will last 20 years. You can get really good NMC batteries (same chemistry as Tesla) for a decent price, and they will last 30 years. 

 

3kva is probably too big a size of an inverter. You will save a lot of money if you get a smaller one. For what you are doing (no fridge or fan?), it seems that you don't have a lot of appliances with surge (appliances with motors, when plugged in can surge 2-3 times their operating wattage) so you need an inverter capable of handling that. But you're probably operating around 1kw per hour, so 1.5 -2kva inverter will do.

 

I found the cheapest brand for UPS grid charging (no solar) to serve as a backup, with both inverter and charging combo, with great value is Magnum - made in USA. You can also buy Outback UPS but is twice the cost as Outback.

  • Author
On 2019/05/21 at 1:30 AM, Coulomb said:

Yes. And a solar charger, but you can just ignore that and configure it for only utility charging.

The manufacturer of the Axperts is Voltronic Power, and they also make pure UPSs, perhaps with a small battery built in. They might be more convenient and cheaper, if you can source them. Perhaps check Ebay or similar. Ebay seller maximum_solar has MPPSolar products, which are genuine Voltronic Power products with their name on it.

I have no experience with UPS products, so I don't know the quality compared to Axperts.

Where are Axpert/ Voltronic Power made?

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Peoples Republic of China is the home of Voltronic Power Corp......

And also in No. 406, Xinhu 1st Road, Neihu District, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

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