I have seen that style of solar heater before. Unfortunately, my garage doors face south, taking up the entire south wall, so there is NO available wall space facing the right direction for that type of solar heater.
Today, I stopped out at the big box hardware store for some miscellaneous parts.
One issue with just running the UPS straight into one of the electric outlets is that the circuit breaker no longer has power running through it. If too much current is pulled on that circuit, only the UPS itself prevents too high of an amperage pull.
Also, there is no cut-off switch, just the mechanical action of plugging or unplugging the double-ender extension cord.
To solve BOTH problems, I purchased a 20 breaker appropriate for my circuit breaker panel. Power from the UPS runs INTO the breaker box through the new circuit breaker. The breaker itself is now a master ON/OFF switch for the connection to the UPS.
Also, the breaker will trip if too many amps are being pulled. Additionally, power can now go to MORE THAN ONE CIRCUIT. When I had the UPS plugged directly into one of the electric outlets, it would only feed power to other items on that circuit. With power now going directly to the breaker box, I can route power to all (both) circuits in the garage.
(Technically, I can route power to EVERY OTHER circuit in the garage. In standard American wiring, TWO HOT wires of 120V each come into the breaker box. Each of the two hots feeds every other breaker. Since I only have ONE 120V hot lead from the UPS, I can only feed power to every other breaker. Since both the existing circuit breakers in the garage were right next to each other, one circuit was on "one leg", and the other circuit on the "other leg". To correct this, I simply moved the once breaker up one position, so that both circuits were on the same leg - the one the UPS is connected to.)
I was trying to figure the best way to run power TO the breaker box from the UPS. I decided to mount a dedicated outlet specifically for the UPS to use and an "inlet" to feed the breaker box. I wanted one that wouldn't be confused with a standard outlet. I already happened to have around a 30-amp 240V twist-lock plug and outlet. It has three prongs and rotates to lock in place. I mounted the outlet in a box nailed to the stud next to the breaker box.
On the back of the UPS, there are several standard 15-amp outlets, but there are also two 20-amp outlets. Those can accept the plugs where one of the two blades are turned. I purchased one of those 20-amp plugs and several feet of very heavy 3-conductor cable. I then assembled the 20-amp turned blade male plug and the 30-amp twist-lock male plug onto the heavy cord to make a dedicated "connect the UPS to the breaker" cord that would be able to handle full current and not be mistaken for anything else.
So now, all I have to do is connect the cord from the UPS to the breaker box, turn the MAIN breaker off, turn the 20-amp UPS input breaker ON, and everything in my garage is on battery power.
Seems to work well so far.
My only concerns are:
Battery monitoring - I need some sort of volt/amp meter.
Stand-by loss - how much power am I losing if the UPS is on but no powering anything? (I have a power garage door opener, and no man door, so I need electricity to be able to get in or out of the garage)
I would also like to experiment with running power back from the detached garage to the house. When I looked at my house main breaker box, I noticed that the only 240V circuit I had was for the central air conditioning. My stove, dryer, water heater, furnace, etc, are all natural gas, so none of those require 240V connections.
SOOOOOOO......... I think that I could run my house off the UPS for short periods of time (blackouts, etc.) The only problem would be the "every other circuit" issue again.
I would simply have to turn off the household main breaker to the grid and leave on the breaker from the house to the garage.
Hmmmm. Here comes a stupid question.... Could I simply run two plugs out from the UPS, one for each leg on the breaker? It wouldn't provide any more amperage, but would get the power out to all the breakers. Since I really don't have any 240V in the house, it shouldn't be an issues, right?
Today
Other popular topics in this forum...
I move at the speed of awesome.
